Taking our Tech for a Tour of the Town

Guestlogix has a history of doing market research the old-fashioned way - getting into the field (or air). To develop innovative travel technology, the team logged thousands of air miles to analyze the realities of travel from the perspective of airlines, staff, and passengers. One of the great reasons to work at Guestlogix is because we get to play with our own products. And because our Travel Personalization Platform connects travelers with awesome activities, the perks to our job get pretty awesome too. User experience is an essential priority in the design and functionality of our product. So much depends upon the ease with which travelers can navigate our app to search and make purchases. Our airline partners depend upon the suggestion engine to drive ancillary travel sales, so we need to ensure that everything operates smoothly.

Recently a couple members of the Guestlogix team got a chance to take our app out for a spin. Development Manager, Hank Goddard and Product Manager, Justin Lagtapon are working on the Travel Personalization Platform and in particular, the searching/booking capabilities. To make sure the system was functioning to the quality that our airline partners demand, the team decided to book an activity and then confirm that those activities were redeemable (because, you know - business).

And of course the process worked

The Guestlogix platform connects passengers and airlines to a global marketplace of travel products and services. Airlines can integrate their own a la carte services along with commission-based services. As well, Guestlogix also has its own supplier partners that provide an enormous breadth of global content. Navigating through the platform, they were presented with some potential tours nearest to them (Toronto). They were immediately interested in the Beer Makes History Better Tour  (because, you know - beer.)

“We’re fans of Toronto, history, and beer,” says Justin. “So it just seemed like a perfect fit.”

Once the tour was purchased, they received their verification email and the tour was added to their itinerary. So far so good. It was an unseasonably warm day in the city and perfect weather for wandering. Our team went in search of their tour guide (named Mike) and redeemed their tickets. Success number 2! Then they went on a historic stroll through the streets of Toronto, while sampling various ales and lagers. Full success achieved.

“It might seem like a simple thing,” says Hank. “Even though so much focus is placed upon the code and system architecture, it’s important to not lose sight of the user experience. That’s why we keep testing as much as possible.”

Travel personalization testing is next on our roadmap

Many insights were gained from the experience and the team brought back recommendations from their day out to enhance and tweak our platform. In the future, we plan to test the experience of our more robust digital concierge. Our AI-driven system actually develops a profile of each unique user to enable travel personalization and service. The more you use the platform to purchase things, or place items on a wishlist, the more relevant and useful the offers will become. Whether you’re looking for scuba diving or finding the perfect French bistro, the platform ‘learns’ the kind of activities, tours, entertainment, dining choices, etc. that you like and serves up helpful information wherever you’re traveling in the world.

Travel is in our DNA

At Guestlogix, we’re encouraged to test out our own products to better understand the user experience. Guestlogix has a number of great perks and company benefits. For example, a $1600 to spend on travel products and services that can be access through our internal gCrew app (basically a white-labeled version of the SDK). We can access discounted purchases on tons of experiences around the globe! This way, we can get the full travel personalization experience of a platform designed to customize offers based upon our personal preferences and tastes. Like I said, it’s a tough job.

In case you were wondering, we’re currently in hiring mode. Check out our careers page to see if your unique skill set is a fit for our growing dream team. Come and help us change the way the world shops for travel activities. And have some fun along the journey.