Intuitive poised to launch first consumer website using Facebook React tech

Travel technology developer Intuitive will launch a first consumer website for one of its clients having switched to using the open source React technology maintained by Facebook. Scotland-based luxury operator If Only will be the first of Intuitive’s websites to use the technology when it goes live this Christmas. From now on all of Intuitive’s … Continue reading Intuitive poised to launch first consumer website using Facebook React tech

Travel technology developer Intuitive will launch a first consumer website for one of its clients having switched to using the open source React technology maintained by Facebook.

Scotland-based luxury operator If Only will be the first of Intuitive’s websites to use the technology when it goes live this Christmas.

From now on all of Intuitive’s front-end sites will be built on React which, Andy Keeley, Intuitive’s commercial director told Travolution at this week’s Abta Travel Convention in Abu Dhabi.

“This is a total group-up reworking of how we do websites. They will be faster and more responsive,” Keeley said.

“The underlying technology will be very fast and load speed will be better and more responsive.”

Keeley said sites built on React will gives its customer more control by allowing in-page editing of the sites by staff logged on with administrator rights.

He said Intuitive recognised a need to keep pace with the latest developments in web design and has “recaptured its zest for innovation” having brought founder Paul Nixon back to work on product.

Nixon, a technology expert and developer, had been diverted into more corporate activities following the private equity-backed management buyout in 2012.

“It’s refreshing to have his involvement solely back in the product side,” Keeley said. “We have gone back to our roots to an extent and that’s really working well.”

Intuitive, which lost Low Cost Travel Group, its former owner, as a client in July when the OTA and trade supplier went out of businesses, now has 36 clients using its iVector software.

Lowcost had agreed a licencing deal for the software to take development in-house and would have ceased being a client by the end of this year had it remained in business.

Keeley said Intuitive was in a strong position to cope with the loss of Lowcost this year during which it has added some significant new clients.

These include flash sale site Secret Escapes, If Only and two start-ups that will be live by the end of the year; Perfect Stay, a pan-European private flash sale site, and Niquesa, a London-based luxury lifestyle business.

Keeley said Intuitive has been working on its core contracting and buying technology to make it quicker as the complexity of suppliers increases.

“Some of the most exciting things we are doing are to do with the underlying speed of our search.

“If you can make it 30% more quick and more efficient, using less servers that’s the most valuable thing we can do.

“Because the back end has become more complex we have rewritten a lot of the search technology.”