Cameron Phillips Named Booking.com’s first Chief Booking Officer
Cameron Phillips, a 23-year-old recent graduate of UCLA and a young filmmaker on a quest to explore the world, has just won the opportunity to do what every college graduate wishes they could do – drop everything and travel. After winning a Booking.com competition, Phillips was named Booking.com’s first Chief Booking Officer (CBO) and was awarded $50,000 to live this quest.
The contest was launched in celebration of Booking.com’s ‘Book the U.S.’ List, to search for Booking.com’s first ever CBO. What better way to show Americans you don’t need to travel far from home to experience all different types of accommodations and travel? Competition for the title included several rounds, with thousands of contest entries whittled down to the top 50 and then the final top 10 submitting a 2-minute video about why they deserved the title of Chief Booking Officer and what travel meant to them.
From the top 10, Phillips was chosen – a young, recent college graduate wanting to follow his heart and travel the world, but also knowing he needed to start his career. With his new title as Booking.com’s CBO, Phillips can do both. Starting Monday, July 16th, Phillips will begin his three-part journey across the country at The Villa Casa Casuarina in Miami, Florida. From there, he will work his way up through the Midwest, down the West coast and along the East coast, sharing his traveling tips and tricks, video blogging, eating all the local cuisine and exploring the hidden gems in each city and town.
“At Booking.com our mission is to empower people to experience the world and find accommodations that fit every lifestyle, from massive chateaus to vintage trailers,” said Pepijn Rijvers, Chief Marketing Officer of Booking.com. “What better way to experience Booking.com’s unique properties than through our ‘Book the U.S.’ List and our Chief Booking Officer, who can give real time reviews that echo the over 157 million verified guest reviews already posted on Booking.com. We are excited to follow Cameron along on his journey and to watch him experience the most unique properties across the U.S.”
“I took my mom to the Grand Canyon for the first time and seeing that sense of wonder in her eyes, seeing this incredible thing she had never even experienced or could fathom before, that’s when I really realized that I love being able to share these experiences with people and to open people’s eyes to the beauty of this world,” said Cameron Phillips, Booking.com’s first CBO. “Experiencing a new adventure, a new challenge, a new reward and a new life lesson each day is what makes me, me. I firmly believe travel is one of the most important things you can do in your life and I can never thank Booking.com enough for giving me this opportunity.”
The popularity of alternative accommodations has risen over the past few years, with more and more travelers looking for unique places to stay, like homes, apartments, houseboats and even igloos. Just last year, Booking.com research found that 30% of travelers said they want to stay in an apartment, aparthotel or condo in 2018, further evidence that consumer demand for alternative accommodation beyond the hotel remains strong. Of Booking.com’s 28 million total reported listings, more than five million include instantly bookable reported listings in homes, apartments and other unique places to stay, making the brand the global leader in providing consumers access to more accommodations than any other digital travel platform.
Launched on March 7, 2018, Booking.com’s ‘Book the U.S.’ List was curated by experts at Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay. From a luxury tent in Utah to a castle in Kentucky, the ‘Book the U.S.’ List features the most unique properties across the United States, that go far beyond your traditional hotel.
