broker-public-portalI alluded to the industry combatting the portals with an Orbitz strategy in January of 2014, which turned out to be the case in February (2015) after Broker Public Portal was announced.

The industry is taking a Orbitz strategy. Great. Though travel and real estate are very different industries – it can be done, certainly Orbitz has proved that in the travel vertical.

But…how much funding/investment will Broker Public Portal need to have a chance?

Some relevant history on Orbitz:

Five airlines–United Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp., and, later, AMR Corp. (American Airlines)–teamed to create a new online travel service. (American became an equity partner in March 2000; total start-up funding was around $100 million.) Together, the five founding partners controlled 90 percent of seats on domestic commercial flights. Existing computer reservations systems such as SABRE did not present competing fares in an unbiased way, said company officials.

As an industry, are you willing to invest over $100 million into this project? If not, I’d prepare yourselves for a rough ride.