I am sure some hoteliers might be upset with this below.
I am sure some hoteliers might be upset with this below.
]]>Ok. So TripAdvisor Media Network is back to "acquisition mode". They’ve recently acquired Virtual Tourist, a worldwide travel community where you can find travel tips and all sort of user generated content. Virtual Tourist has been founded in 1999 by J.R. Johnson and Tilman Reissfelder. From the same owners, they’ve also snapped OneTime, another comparison travel search engine.
Now, the press release doesn’t say why and how much TripAdvisor has paid for these 2 companies. I assume the main reason is for traffic. In 2008, traffic is king…Profits Money is not anymore.
With all the recent acquisitions, TripAdvisor media network claims to drive around 32 million monthly visitors per month. Can you imagine how much advertising space you would sell with this traffic?
Based on traffic, here’s my estimated valuation of the company.
In January 08, * TechCrunch UK spread the rumour that WAYN was valued at $200m for 6 million monthly visitors per month and 11 million registered members. Vator gave their insight after the acquisition of Bebo by AOL.
So VirtualTourist could have been bought for around $17M if you also take registered members (see the average cost per user between VT, WAYN and Bebo).
Interestingly enough, Virtual Tourist drives more unique users per month per registered member than WAYN. It means the website is a useful source of information for travel and that you don’t need to be necessarily registered to view information. What does that mean for the valuation?
Maybe the valuation is too low and that Virtual Tourist owners negotiated the price with TripAdvisor executives based on their 5 millions unique users per month. In that case, it would make the valuation much higher…
]]>Here’s a partial answer from the study:
"Respondents said
their main concerns were privacy, time and just not seeing the point.
Although each of these barriers can be addressed, marketers might also
consider that social networks are just not yet the best way to reach
boomers."
Wrong, wrong, wrong..
The reason is simple, adults over 40 are too busy using dating sites like Match.com or Meetic.com. Bebo, Facebook are not the ideal place to date people. Is this correct ?
]]>The great thing about blogs is that you never seem to find an exhaustive list of good blogs around the hotel industry. I have recently discovered this fantastic site YoungHotelier.com with plenty of videos and funny posts that can help the young generation to discover and maybe work for the hospitality industry.
The company has been founded by Erin O’Neill and Jitendra Jain (more info here)
The site has been running since October 2007 and I don’t know how I could have missed this blog after all this time. Great content, vibrant, fresh…all ingredients that I like when I read blogs. Well done Erin and Jitendra.
Watch this first introduction video.
]]>
The hotel economy brands like EasyHotel, Travelodge or Premier Inn currently see some fantastic growth in revenue and RevPar because of lower corporate travel budgets due to the credit crunch happening in the UK.
]]>The concept of GuestInvest is
for investors to have the opportunity to buy a luxury hotel
room, staying there free of charge for up to 52 nights a year and
receiving a rental income from its use during the rest of the time.
Trivu Kabatok, Tacloban City
This is a guest post from HotelsCombined.com - one of Hotel Blogs sponsors - don’t forget to visit their site.
Last Minute Model Facing
Extinction? After the Acquisition of Travel.com.au, Wotif.com to go 365 Days.
- Research by HotelsCombined.com
It
has become evident in recent times that there has been a shift away from the
last minute model with sites such as Wotif.com to go 365 days. Moreover,
according to a recent study by HotelsCombined.com these last minute
distribution sites including Wotif.com, NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au are
no longer offering the best available rates.
Much
hype was created in the hotel industry with the launch of Wotif.com in March
2000 when it offered a 14 day booking window. Before this time hotels relied on
global distribution systems (GDS) to assist in selling their hotel rooms with
dynamic pricing not yet coming into existence. Wotif.com gave hotels what they
needed offering a simple system to effectively yield manage their distressed
inventory. Wotif.com capitalized on this for several years then in October 2005
they extended to 28 day booking window. At present, according to an ASX
announcement published on May 8, 2008 it is confirmed that a 365 day model is
coming. It is interesting to note that Wotif.com is in reality one of the few
remaining last minute websites entirely using the last minute model with
NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au previously making the move to a 365 day
model.
Clearly
we can see that there is a movement away from the last minute model, so the
question needs to be asked if these sites are no longer distressed inventory
sites, are they just another distribution channel? HotelsCombined.com has taken
this question to see if there are any points of difference that these last
minute sites have against other third party intermediaries.
After
taking a sample of twenty-five hotels within five major Australian capital
cities the results indicate that Wotif.com, NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au
are just another distribution channel with non last minute providers on
HotelsCombined.com offering better available rates.
