Using data as a travel shortcut

Rob Katz’s strategies for using data to your advantage:

❚ Give data to a company you trust.

Sometimes, supplying information to a trusted company can pay handsome dividends. Katz’ favorite example is Waze (waze.com), a crowdsourcing app that shows traffic.

❚ Make sure it’s a two-way street.

“You have to make sure it’s a good relationship,” says Katz. Time savings is a big criterion, but by no means the only one.

❚ Look for a return.

Responsible and trustworthy travel companies return the data in a useful way. Vail recently introduced a system that shows lift lines in real time (time.epicmix.com) if you allow yourself to be tracked as well. “If Chair 5 has long lines, you can go to Chair 9,” he says.