After a Slew of Geektalk, Luggage Was a Relief

After a long line of technical booking solutions and web analytics providers at the Phocuswright conference,I was glad to hear about a less technical travel topic…luggage.

Luggagetag.com allows the customer to design a luggage tag using nice looking photos, graphics, unique fonts and even family photos. Like the programs that allow you to design business cards on line, this systems lets you put text on the luggage tags with customized designs.

The CEO, Richard Warther, calls it a ‘cloud sourced’ automated site that allows people to move type around and create their tags on top of images. No humans need to be involved, all of the typing is done by the traveler on the website.

He’s pitching this to companies with online booking capabilities. Instead of using the airlines paper tags, they sell them for six for $13.95 and split the revenues. So for each luggage tag, the website publisher or tour operator makes $6 and the company makes $6. Plus they can brand the tags so they have a company logo as well as the customer’s name.

But their business isn’t just about luggage tags. Some time this year, RFID tags can be embedded into luggage tags, and by using a special USB key drive, a consumer can put into the computer when they are booking, which puts the destination info and even your cellphone number on the tag. For now, the airlines don’t want to spend the money on putting the tags into the labels they put on bags so this part isn’t moving ahead yet. His model is the EasyPass or Fastlane pass, used in vehicles.

So this company is offering two things: a simple way to create a durable nice looking luggage tag, and some day, to make that tag capable of finding your lost baggage. They’ve got a ways to go to get airlines on board, but it’s intriguing and I think the most interesting idea I heard so far today.