A Day In The Life

Oliver Stringer

Oliver Stringer

Posted 01 October 2017

New York Program

March 2010 Intake


Oliver, a graduate of The University of Liverpool, UK, is the Senior Destination Manager at Expedia, Inc, currently based in London. He manages a team of 8 account managers, and together they manage the relationships with partners that supply Expedia with fun products such as Broadway show tickets, Louvre Museum tours, and scuba diving in Mexico etc…

My Alarm Goes off… usually around 6:30 AM. If I'm up to it (or due to the pressure of an upcoming race), I'll drag myself out for a quick run before heading into the office.

I'm Responsible For... managing a team of 8 account managers - 5 in London and 3 in New York. We’re part of the Expedia Local Expert team, which is the activities, experiences, tours, shows and events division of the business. My team manages the relationships with the partners that supply Expedia with these fun products - that means partnerships with a huge range of providers, from Broadway show tickets, to Louvre Museum tours, scuba-diving trips in Mexico, to Segway tours in Chicago.

I Got The Job... shortly after my New York internship ended. I'd always wanted to work in the travel industry, but was keen to work for a large international company with opportunities to develop business acumen and leadership skills. Expedia seemed to offer the best of both worlds, and it hasn’t disappointed!

My Typical Day… There's no such thing as a typical day. I know that's extremely cliché, but really it’s true. I travel a fair bit for work, but if I'm office-based, I normally start at around 8:30, and check in with my team so I know what they're working on for the day. My morning is usually spent working with the London team until the New York team comes on board in the early afternoon. We're responsible for day-to-day account management, as well as acquisition of new products. As we're growing the division so rapidly, the team works very closely with a targeted acquisition plan, so I'll work with them to ensure they're getting the right products in the right destinations using data such as flight arrivals or hotel room stays to support their plans.

The Culture Of My Workplace... is work hard, play hard. Expedia has won Glassdoor's Best Place to Work in the UK two years in a row, and it's easy to see why. The office in Angel is a great place to work. It's anything but dull, with all the meeting rooms heavily themed on travel destinations. There are also arcade rooms, ping pong tables, and even a Formula 1 racing simulator if all the work gets a bit much. I especially love how international the environment is. On my team of 8, I'm the only native English speaker!

My Most Memorable Work Moment…would probably be during some of the travel events and tradeshows I attend each year. It's a close tie between being allowed to enter the Sistine Chapel in Rome after hours without a single other person there, or when I headed to Disney's Magic Kingdom park in Orlando, when it was closed to the public so us travel industry professionals could act like kids and get on all the rides without any queues.

The Most Challenging Part of My Job… is being on such an international team. Although it's also one of the best things, it can be challenging having my manager based in Sydney, our head office in Seattle, and half my team in New York. To juggle all of that means there's often a lot of early morning or late evening calls.

The Best Part of My Job… is the industry itself. It's true that travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer, and I love being a part of that. Getting to travel with the job is a big perk, and my job has taken me to many far-flung places. Where I can, I try to combine the business trip with a few days off to take advantage of being somewhere new.

After Work… depending on my motivation levels, I can either be found grabbing a pint in one of the many drinking holes of Angel, attending one of the daily runs with my running club, or just catching up on some Netflix shows.

Plan B: If I wasn't doing this, I would... still be in travel in some capacity. I did dream of being an airline pilot as a child, so maybe I'd be jetting around the world from a different part of the plane…