Paradise Island, Bahamas – Hotels can up their occupancy in ‘needy’ periods through working with a travel deals site.
Ben Jennings said that his company, TravelZoo, sent out weekly emails to 15.5 milllion subscribers in North America. The newsletter and the website publish discounted deals for hotels, restaurants and excursions.
“We have 24 million leisure travellers worldwide and 40 per cent earn more than $100,000 a year, with 87 per cent having passports. Some 56 per cent purchased trips that were too good to pass up and 51 per cent have purchased upgrades,” he said.
Response, he said, has been good from the Caribbean, particularly in their Destination of the Week scheme, in which tourism boards pay for the accolade. The website works with the tourist board to highlight destinations through special branding, images and 15 travel deals.
“We aim to be a friend recommending a deal so it’s different from what you might hear from the PR or tourism board. That’s our special sauce,” he said. “The Caribbean is a big growth market for TravelZoo and presents a major opportunity.”
Speaking at a news conference at the Caribbean Travel Marketplace convention, Mr. Jennings said during the past 18 months the site had launched a local deals-based element, partly in response to deals sites such as Groupon or Living Social. He also said during the economic downturn, the site had both increased its subscriber base and profit margins.
This, he said, drew parallels with TravelZoo’s performance during the late 1990s’ dot.com bubble, during which the site survived and thrived.
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Why do these stories keep getting published? These sites EAT the profit margins of hotels, so of course they have increased their profit margins! These travel discount websites thrive because they not only take a huge cut from the hotel directly for every booking but they also make the hotel cut their prices (sales), to make the travel website look so good. These websites are cockroaches.