In early December The Society attended the Luxury Travel Expo. The Society, along with partners in Aspen, Vail and Scottsdale, showcased several properties to luxury travel agents around the world. After spending several days with this group of agents it’s to no surprise that certain segments of consumers are turning to professional agents for assistance.

According to YPartnership’s president and CEO this will continue in 2009.

Peter Yesawich, president and CEO of Ypartnership, expects more consumers to turn to travel agents when planning their trips in 2009. Meanwhile, research conducted by Ypartnership states that the travel intentions of Americans remain strong as 71 percent of active travel households are planning at least one overnight trip during the next six months— the same amount as one year ago.

“Our most recent tracking surveys reveal there is still plenty of demand for travel services in the marketplace for those who are aggressive and clever enough to capture it,” says Yesawich.

Three out of 10 American travelers use the services of a travel agent on a regular basis, and, according to Yesawich, the percentage is growing as many travelers place a higher value on the time it takes to find the best options than the fee they pay an agent to do the work for them. Consumers also see agents as “in the know” and a potential source of otherwise unadvertised deals.

To read the entire article go here.

Most recently The Society launched a Travel Agent portal (http://travelagent.thesociety.com) designed exclusively for travel agents to view the finest vacation rentals and estate rentals that pay commissions. Yes, commissions. There are many home owners and property managers that realize travel agents are providing excellent services. In conjunction with the travel agent portal, The Society brought aboard Joseph Sobin, a practicing Travel Agent, to assist agents looking for rentals. Joseph has this to say:

“As a practicing Travel Agent, I am well aware of the value-added services a travel agent provides their client. While the “Internet” may be empowering for many, the reality is, when there is a “glitch” in your travel plans, who are you going to contact. Travel agents and their partner vendors including The Society provide their clients “peace of mind” and the assurance of a seamless travel experience. As travel agents, we have no control over security lines or the cost of a snack box. However, we offer our clients professional advice, options to make travel more enjoyable and in many cases, pricing that beats the Internet. Go ahead, spend hours planning your travels, or call a travel agent, a professional who will make your travel dreams reality.”

Glenn Haussman, the Editor in Chief for HotelInteractive.com recently published his trend watch for 2009. Glenn has over a decade of experience covering the Hotel and Hospitality industry. Here’s a quick summary of what he had to say:

• Getting Green -> Green is a strategy not a PR stunt and it’s the right way to save green (cash that is!). But don’t think consumers are going to come in masses for green (see the Value trend below).
• Social Media -> Consumers are going to “web 2.0″ for research (at least segments of consumers) and each segment demands a different strategy.
• Value Value Value -> Value is king. Not cheap but value.
• Diversity -> People, events, parties, etc … time to start thinking beyond the traditional holidays and events.
• Demanding Guests -> Guests are savvy so watch out. Internet, flat screens, game consoles are needed!

To read his entire article please click here.

I enjoyed reading Glenn’s take on 2009 and I tend to agree. I’m going to expand on the Social Media trend for a moment and highlight a few platforms that I think will take off for the luxury market.

1. ASmallWorld - ASW is the hub for peer-to-peer information exchange. If you want to know what to do in LA the 4th Thursday in March you should post something on a forum. I’d be willing to bet mucho $$$ that you would have information on hip clubs, dinner spots, and other cultural excursions in your inbox. But ASW is not for everyone. In fact, it’s only for the invited.
2. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is the professional social networking site. According to a Business Week article in 2007 LinkedIn has over 9M members and the average user is 39 and makes $139,000 a year and nearly half a million users are C-Level employees. That’s quite the target. You won’t find those demographics on Facebook or MySpace.
3. Facebook - How can I suggest Facebook? Easy. It’s growing. It’s not just college students and it’s not just musicians and artists. Not to mention it’s so easy that non-techies can create profiles, groups, and company pages. It really is the easy platform to create a group. You can even Ask Dave Taylor.

There are some other social media outlets and social networks that are worth viewing as well. I’m going to keep my eye out for Total Prestige, Cork’d, Spire, and Luxury Real Estate’s Luxury Lounge.

This December 17 and 18 leaders from Virtuoso, Signature Travel Network and Ensemble Travel Group will discuss how they believe the luxury sector will evolve in 2009.  There is no need to book tickets because this is a virtual summit hosted by Travel Weekly.  I’ve “attended” one in the past, or should I say I dropped in for a session and then had to leave. 

Best part, it’s free.  Just register at Travel Weekly or Click here to register today!

As expected there has been quite a bit of buzz around the vacation rental, travel and VC communities regarding the recent HomeAway funding. I pulled a SnapShot from Compete of 5 of the top sites that HomeAway operates so those unfamiliar can better understand the size of HomeAway.

Domain(s): homeaway.com, vrbo.com, vacationrentals.com, a1vacations.com, cyberrentals.com

Metric: Unique Visitors - Monthly

You can see below the top 5 sites bring in nearly 2M unique visitors per month (based on Compete’s estimates).

In a recent Wall Street Journal blog post, Heidi Moore dug into the funding situation a bit more:

“…(HomeAway.com) is kind of an eBay for vacation-home rentals, and it has done booming business amid the downturn as many owners of second homes look to rent out their country houses to get additional cash. The company sought additional cash to make acquisitions as the market values of competitors fell.

The company was no stranger to big capital-raises or acquisitions, pulling in $160 million in November 2006 and completing 10 acquisitions in the past three years. The company used some of that cash to expand globally– 30% of its revenue now comes from overseas, according to Technology Crossover Ventures partner Woody Marshall.

To keep that expansion going, HomeAway flirted with a public listing: in October 2007, the company and its bankers, Goldman Sachs Group and Credit Suisse Group, “did 95% of the work toward putting an IPO together,” but pulled back before officially filing it with the Securities and Exchange Commission…”

READ MORE: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/11/12/internet-company-raises-250-million-in-this-market/