About Dana Dunne
Dana Dunne, CEO of eDreams ODIGEO, has described the company's shift from a transaction-based travel business to a subscription model, which he said was launched in 2017 under the name Prime. In a 2024 presentation, Dunne stated that the majority of the company's revenues now come from subscribers, which he characterized as providing a more stable and predictable revenue stream for investors. He noted that the company's Prime subscription penetration in European households was in the "low single digits," which he contrasted with other subscription programs that typically reach 20 to 60% of households, and described this as a growth opportunity.
Dunne has also emphasized the company's investment in technology, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, which he said has been a focus for over a decade. He cited metrics such as one billion monthly searches and 120,000 peak searches per second as examples of the company's scale. In earlier appearances, Dunne discussed the company's expansion from flight-only bookings to offering additional travel services, and he described a company culture that encourages testing and allows for failure, stating that ideas are tested and data is used to make decisions rather than relying on executive opinions.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Dana Dunne's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Dana Dunne0:09
eDreams has changed substantially, especially in how we offer services. Traditionally, travel was a transaction - you want to go from A to B, and any travel company helps you with that transaction. Now we offer subscriptions in the travel sector; we are the first company to do so. We still allow the transaction philosophy, but we also offer subscriptions and stay with customers throughout their entire journey, from the initial idea to returning home. That makes us unique. For example, we offer services no one else does: we handle baggage check-in via our app, we text you which baggage carousel your luggage is on when you arrive, we provide real-time flight updates if the gate changes, our app can scan your luggage to see if it fits in the cabin, and we send the mobile boarding pass automatically. So it's not a transaction, it's assistance throughout the trip. We continue developing services that no one else offers, or if they do, they don't focus on the full journey. Consumer lives are increasingly on their mobile phones. Many companies say 'let's process it slowly', but our philosophy is the opposite: if something will mark the future, embrace that trend, hurry up and be the best. Today, 40% of our bookings are made through mobile; we are leaders in Europe and our app is considered the best in this sector. We have one of the largest and most sophisticated machine learning and AI teams in Europe; we invested heavily even before people started talking about ML or AI. That's why we are so big now. We use many aspects to serve customers: for example, when we show search results from Barcelona to Madrid or Shanghai, depending on the device (mobile or laptop), our machine analyzes customer behavior and presents results in a different, better order. The machine tries to understand your behavior patterns, whether traveling with family or as a couple, and if it sees you prefer resort hotels, it shows more of those results. All done with machine learning, no human intervention. The machine studies you and your behavior to give you what you want, so you don't have to search through a sea of pages. Ultimately, the machine tries to understand all that to give you a tailored experience. That's why we invest so much in ML.
