Online travel CEOs talk tech, changes

— -- It's a turbulent but opportune time for online travel companies. With mobile technology developing quickly, and stiffening competition from niche start-ups and established players such as Google, they're innovating and adjusting on the go.

USA TODAY assembled five of the industry's top executives in Hollywood, Fla., this month for a discussion on the industry's latest developments: Jeffery Boyd, CEO of Priceline.com; Carl Sparks, CEO of Travelocity Global; Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide; Stephen Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor; and Barney Harford, CEO of Orbitz Worldwide.

The hour-long event was moderated by USA TODAY's Veronica Gould Stoddart and Roger Yu. The text has been edited for clarity and length.

USA TODAY:Some customers believe the user experience and technology at online travel agencies (OTAs) haven't changed much in recent years. Your response?

Boyd: I don't agree. All of us have spent hundreds of millions of dollars building faster, better user interfaces. Our Booking.com offers hotels in 90 countries and 50 languages and 170,000 hotels, a number (that) is up 60% year-over-year. A lot of that represents new geography. Mobile platforms (are) a massive positive change in user experience and functionality.

Durchslag: There is an opportunity for the travel industry to be more innovative, really embracing technology. We're looking at a (service in which) Expedia (is becoming) the Netflix of travel, to stream you perfect trips with highly relevant and personalized offers. I don't think the consumer really wants to go shop at six different sites.

Sparks: We see very different browsing and booking profiles (on mobile platforms). One of our key products is Travelocity Top Secret Hotels, where you don't know (the hotel) you're (buying). These last-minute deals to get away have been very successful, double-digit percentage (growth). On mobile, it (has grown) three times.

Harford: (In) the recommended hotels module we just launched, we (look at) people who shopped for a particular hotel but ended up at (another), finding other hotels that are similar. We want to recognize the attributes of each consumer. For example, our data show that consumers who purchase on a Mac vs. a PC typically book a room that's $20 more expensive. You can imagine the richness of that kind of information. We put over $145 million (into) a five-year re-platforming project — building a common platform (for) all of our brands. A couple of years ago, we might have launched the site four, five, six times a year. This year, we expect to do over 800 (changes on) the site.

Durchslag: We were stuck for quite a while on a technology platform. But all but three of all of (our) pages on the site will change by this time next year. Given the complexity of all the back-end systems, it's no small thing.

USA TODAY:Marriott and Starwood now run their customers' reviews and guarantee reviews are from their guests. How do you make sure your reviews are accurate and honest?