Business Intelligence Report: Expedia.com Smart Search Implementation

This report analyzes Expedia.com's business intelligence challenges, particularly those related to seasonal fluctuations in the travel industry. The core of the report proposes the implementation of a "Smart Search" button, leveraging a drill-down query feature to enhance user experience on the website. This feature aims to streamline the customer's search process by allowing them to build queries and save them automatically, moving from general to specific information with ease. The report details how this smart search function can improve customer satisfaction, provide deeper insights into data, and lighten the reporting load on the server. The report includes diagrams, data design, and event logs, demonstrating how the system will track user behavior and offer personalized suggestions based on past searches. The output design of the smart search is also discussed, considering various customer search approaches. The overall goal is to provide a more efficient and user-friendly experience, ultimately improving Expedia.com's competitiveness in the online travel industry.

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Introduction
Every venture in the business environment experiences changes in the market demand
depending on the season. With seasonality, varying market demand conditions are normal;
businesses will undergo boom periods at some point or another. During such periods, there are
various approaches which can be incorporated to keep the business going depending on the type
of business. Establishing the necessary strategies to coup with such situations is the core to
ensuring that such seasons won’t leave the business at points where recovering to its normal
becomes a hard nut to crack. Some businesses choose to lower prices for their products.
However, the approach has severally proved to be ineffective marketing mentality and rarely
creates room to increase neither demand nor business revenue. By being cheaper, a business may
end up not lending enough products to offset the income lost out of the lowered rates. So instead
of lowering the rates during the low seasons, adding more value to what has been there would
make the consumers more appreciating. This is the key to increasing business revenue while
retaining or keeping its rates competitive (Butler, 2011, p.5).
Just like any other business, Expedia.com, a leading travel booking website which is
owned by Expedia Inc. has been faced with the issues associated with low seasons. Considering
that the website basically deals with hotel reservations, booking airline tickets, renting vacation
cars at different holiday sites, cruises and holiday packages; it is beyond any reasonable doubt
that the business has to face fluctuations as far as customer flow is concerned (Lundtorp, Rassing
& Wanhill, 2015, p.49). This is because the industry largely operates on seasonal bases, whether
it is winter or summer. Navigating through the Expedia.com website has been reported by the
customers to have been one of the challenging experiences they have had in the past few years.
Since it is not the only website under Expedia Inc. which has been associated with the challenge,

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improving on the sector would place the business in a better position of the industry. To cater for
this functionality, incorporating Smart Search button in the website will make it easy for the
customers to realize what they want in a matter of a button click (Barsky & Miron, 2013, p.503).
Smart Search button
Executive summary
Basically, a Smart Search button in this scenario will act as query engine to add new
search forms in the Expedia.com website from which customers will be in a position of building
their queries and have them saved automatically. To realize the functionality, I will make use of
a drill-down query which has recently proved to be a very powerful feature in business
intelligence through its capability of enabling the user to see both data and information in a more
detailed form without much struggle (Godefroid, 2017, p.47). Drill down query takes the user
recursively from general to a more specific view of data just at a click of a mouse. It is referred
to as “drill down” because of its feature of allowing the user to dig deeper into specific layers of
information he or she requires. In my Expedia.com example, the drill-down query will enable the
user move from country to when looking for a suitable holiday destination to specific details of
the locations where the site is located and the services offered around the area such as
accommodation (Ricci et al, 2016, p.76).
Diagrammatic representation of how smart search button will work

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Considering that satisfaction is all what customers strive for, this approach will make it
easy for the customers to get what they want without difficulties. For instance, just with a click
of a button on the country where a person wants to spend a holiday vacation, all the holiday sites
based on such countries will be displayed together with what makes them famous. Assuming that
a customer wants to pay a visit to Canada, on clicking the country name, different vacation sites
will be displayed from where the customer can select the category of his or her choice. These

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sites will include Mountains, Rivers, Game parks, River Falls, Museums, and Oceans etc.
(Govrin, et al, 2013, p.197)
From the list, the customer will be in a position to make a choice on the sector which he
or she feels much interested in. The choice at which a customer settles at depending on his or her
interests will prompt a display of all the types of such sites within the country which he or she
initially selected as well as the distinct feature of such a site. Using the above example of
Canada, assuming that the customer selects Game parks as his or her choice, Game parks in
Canada with a brief description of what makes them stand out will be displayed e.g. Banff
(Glacial lakes & mountain recreation), Jasper (Wildlife & glaciers), Yoho (Towering falls &
Emerald lake), Waterton (Rocky mountain & canyon) etc. this will be displayed in an
alphabetical order for purposes of customers intending specifically to arrive at a site which they
know by names to quickly do so. The system will keep the track record of all the steps each user
follows on real time bases so that any other user especially making a search to similar country of
destination will be receiving pop up suggestions based on the past records of users who have
visited the site before and made similar or close searches (Go et al, 2017, p.1708).
Usefulness of drill-down Query
Customers will be in a position of gaining instant knowledge based on different depths of
the data. The customers will have deeper insights of the information by allowing them to see
different figures while analyzing what he or she requires (Chu, 2013, p.802). For example, in
mere seconds, drill-down query will answer questions like: different categories of holiday
destinations within a country, which are the specific sites under each category? What each site is
famous for? And within each site, what favorable services are offered? On the website point of

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view, reporting load will be kept light and therefore enhancing reporting performance. Since it
only presents one layer of data at a time, this feature lightens the load on the server when it
comes to query time and highly enhance the reporting performance simultaneously offering
abundant value to the end-user (jern, 2017, p.9).
Design of Data and/ or Event Log
Considering the fact that customers from same countries or sharing some common
features usually exhibit some relational behaviors, this system will be keeping track of different
browsing activities which different users’ exhibit. For instance, some users will search country
names instead of the specific sites which they would wish to visit whereas others will use the
names of such sites specifically. Other users may approach the scenario from the basis where
they can wish to search on affordable services in different holiday destinations. The system will
be in a position to cater for any of such through keeping a real time browsing activities of
different customers who have visited the site before (Howard & Li, 2017, p.249).
Case ID Activity Timestamp
SS1 Selection of the country 12.03.2018 07:05
SS1 Selection of destination site 12.03.2018 08:05
SS1 Selection of specific site 12.03.2018 08:40
SS1 Invoice booking 12.03.2018 09:05

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SS1 payment 12.03.2018 09:15
The first step towards achieving this goal will be keeping track of customer’s country of
origin. If a new customer enters a country of origin matching with another in the past customer
browsing activities, the system automatically will suggest all the sectors which were visited by
different customers who interacted with the system from the same country before.
This simply means if there have been visits into the site by customers from United Arabs
Emirates for instance, all the sites they visited when they had an encounter with the site will be
displayed to a new customer or a return customer from the same country. This makes it easy for
them to arrive at the required results of their search.
The second option which is be catered for by the drill down query will be the country of
selection. Details on the destination countries will also be remembered automatically by the
system so that any customer who approaches the search option on the website from this point of
view may find it conducive. This is in consideration to the fact that the system records all the
destination sites in a country regardless of their level. This could be quite tiresome to navigate
through all before realizing what a user targets. Through this approach, past records of the
customers who have navigated on the site in search of a holiday destination will be displayed as
a pop up so that incase a new or return customer finds any suitable may quickly get results

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without necessarily having to go through the whole process of searching (Prescott & Miller,
2012, p.34).
For any customer who approaches the search option through the affordability of the
services around the destination areas, the search will display all the sites which match his or her
budget together with their locations in different countries. This is important as it will enable the
customer to even make a choice on the country considering that the budget may be similar but in
different countries.
The fourth approach under this category caters for the customers who may have heard of
a favorable holiday destination but not very sure of the country where site exist. On searching the
name of the destination, the name will be retrieved from the database of the Expedia.com
website together with its associative information like the country it is found, what it is famous
for as well as the services around the site such as accommodation and recreational facilities.
The fifth category will cater for customers who are not only aware of the destination
country of a certain holiday site but also the spellings for the site. This will be fully catered for
since he or she will just need to have a clue of the spellings. On searching, the system will
display all the holiday destination sites which appear close to what has been searched. This
reduces the struggle by customers on trying to go through the holiday destinations from one
country to the other.
Design of the Output of “Smart Search”
The output of smart search will definitely differ from one customer to another. This is in
consideration to the fact that different customers are likely to approach the search from different

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points of perception. The first approach would be for the customers who are not aware of any
holiday destination in a certain country but wishes to spend the holiday in such a country.
Additionally, they may be wishing to make comparisons on the destinations available in such
countries. Their approach would therefore build from scratch. On searching the country of their
choice, destination categories under such countries will be displayed categorically for them to
make a choice on which they prefer (Anandarajan et al, 2012, p.87).
For instance, for the case of Canada which had been outlined earlier in this paper; the
categories which will be expected will be Mountains, Rivers, Game parks, River Falls,
Museums, and Oceans etc. Customers will always have different preferences naturally so this
allows a customer to make his or her choice depending on what he or she is interested on. One
customer will quickly choose Mountains, another one Rivers while others may prefer Game
parks especially if from European countries and visiting Africa countries. This diversion is
normal any way depending on where the customer is from.
Just under the case scenario of Canada, a customer who choses Game parks as his or her
category of interest will have all the Game parks which are based on Canada displayed in an
alphabetical order for the purposes of those who might know the names of where they wish to
visit. The Game parks will also be displayed with some additional description of what makes
them stand out. This is because different game parks have different sceneries which make them
unique from others. So for the case of Canada the customer will expect some Game parks like
Banff (Glacial lakes & mountain recreation), Jasper (Wildlife & glaciers), Yoho (Towering falls
& Emerald lake), Waterton (Rocky mountain & canyon) all with some additional description of
what the customer will be expecting on his or her visits. This is very important because it will
further enable a customer make some distinct evaluation on the destination to choose based on

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what each will offer. After the customer makes the choice on the specific destination, he or she is
then presented with the support services based on the location of such a destination like
accommodation, infrastructure and recreational facilities. The budget of each service will also be
embedded on it as well as the description of the service (Michalewicz et al, 2016, p.37).
Diagrammatic representation

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For customers who approach the incidence by searching a certain destination site by its
name, the results which match the search will all be displayed with their matching descriptions
right from the countries where they are located to the finer details like the support services
offered around the place. For instance, a customer who directly searches for Jasper National part
in the system all the national parks with such a name under in the system database will be
displayed if they are more than one and each with its country as well as the other details of the
park. So, Canada in this scenario will appear as the host country while the description of the part
will be Wildlife & glaciers. Finer details like its specific location and the services around the
location together with their budget will also form part of the description.

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The third category deals with the customers who are neither aware of the country of
destination nor the specific name of the destination site. All they have is a clue of either the name
of the destination or what is offered there. In such a scenario, the system will scrutinize its
database to come up with all the matching or similar wordings as searched by the customer. It
displays all making it easier for the customer now to make a choice on what he specifically
wanted. The suggestions will also appear with full descriptions of the sites from the country of

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destination to the finer details of the destination. This will make it easier for the customers since
once they settle on what they meant there won’t be further searches as all will have been already
displayed (Prescott & Miller, 2012, p.54).
Business Intelligence Techniques to use in this scenario
Data Visualization
Storing data in the form of matrix of numbers although precise as it may appear in this
scenario, it will be time consuming for the system to interpret it. Since the system will most of

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the times be dealing with multiplicity dimensions of the data, data visualization technique will be
very important in this case. All what Expedia.com need to do is to organize its data and
information in form of charts which will enable the system to conveniently understand to
interpret it with ease, in that way application of this method becomes easy and convenient.
Data Mining
Through this technique, the system will be in a position to analyze data on the bases of
country of origin and destination to make suggestions to any new customers who visit system
and with same or similar behaviors. All what Expedia.com needs to do is to ensure that the
system clock cycle is set to maintain customer real time browsing activities. In that way
application of this method becomes easy and convenient.
On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP)
Just like Data visualization, OLAP is best known for providing visualization of
multidimensional information. OLAP display dimensions on edges (e.g. country, destinations
categories, destination sites etc.). The values will represent some measured facts (e.g. past
history). The customers will search through OLAP using drill-down query features. The drill-
down functionality will enable display of information with more details. Expedia.com needs to to
organize its data and information in form of charts which will enable the system to conveniently
understand how to interpret it easily. In that way application of this method becomes easy and
convenient.
Strengths and challenges of the proposed system

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Customers will be in a position of gaining instant knowledge based on different depths of
the data. The customers will have deeper insights of the information by allowing them to see
different figures while analyzing what he or she requires. For example, in mere seconds, drill-
down query will answer questions like: different categories of holiday destinations within a
country, which are the specific sites under each category? What each site is famous for? And
within each site, what favorable services are offered? On the website point of view, reporting
load will be kept light and therefore enhancing reporting performance. Since it only presents one
layer of data at a time, this feature lightens the load on the server when it comes to query time
and highly enhance the reporting performance simultaneously offering abundant value to the
end-user.
Some of the challenges likely to be faced in this system are;
Incorrectness
This is as a result of errors while executing the event log commands. In this scenario, the recalled
data may not necessarily be the real data and this definitely may result into customers making
wrong choices as well as wrong transactions.
Missing definitions (semantics)
As a result of some missing semantics in the course of processing data at different levels,
customers are likely to be fed with wrong information and which may lead to wrong choices as
well as wrong transactions.
Additionally, the proposed system places a lot of burden towards the system
administrator who will have to work tirelessly to ensure that all the functionalities of the system

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are working. The system performance test must be updated regularly in consideration to the fact
that the introduction of this button has really come up with a lot of additional functionalities
which were not taken care of during the design of the system.
Advantages to Expedia.com on advancing to External Cloud Computing services
Some of the benefits Expedia.com is likely to enjoy on making this wise decision of shifting the
storage of its servers to cloud computing services from their initial in house storage services are
Flexibility
Cloud-based services will be ideal for this business in consideration to the current environment
of fluctuating bandwidth demands. The only thing the company will need to do when it starts to
expand is to upgrade its cloud space, based on the provider’s remote servers. Consequently, if
Expedia.com needs to downgrade, the elasticity is the responsibility of the service provider. This
degree of agility will give Expedia.com a real advantage over its competitors
Disaster recovery
In any case the business is faced with a disaster, cloud computing offers a robust disaster
recovery method. Cloud will help it back to its normal activities without large forthright
investments and involving a third-party into the deal.
Security
Even under which kind of interferences, Cloud computing guarantees data security for the site.
This is because the information is kept in the cloud where it can also be accessed regardless of
any peril on the site machines and servers. Machines can even be remotely wiped off any data so
that it doesn’t land on an unauthorized people.

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