41–50 of 77 posts
Wait until they buy Homeaway next..
It's not out of the realm of possibilities, but Expedia and Orbitz are much closer competitors than either would be with Homeaway.
All these sites seem to use the exact same backend services, so it's difficult to care. About the only site I use regularly is hotels.com because they have a loyalty scheme (book 10 nights, get 1 free) - and even then I'm sure there's some catch I'm not aware of that makes them the same as everyone else.
I've always found that if I know and book ahead of time I can get a massive deal on hotels simply by calling the front desk. It's usually 10-30% cheaper than booking with any service online. I'm not sure why this is the case but if there's a service that can get me front desk rates, I'd be more than happy to switch.
(Maybe I should be staying at better places)
I interviewed at a travel company last year. It was interesting because they didn't do any of the backend booking stuff (for flights), but instead seemed to like to direct you to other sites to book and then take a referal cut if you buy. This was a weird business where the person buying the travel was the product (I didn't like it). Expedia is one of the direct bookers. I use them. The UI is not pretty but functiona…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Should clarify that "Priceline" is primarily Booking.com, not the amusing pricing opacity company out of CT (even if they did make the good decision to buy Booking.com years back).
Do you have a source that most of their traffic is from booking.com?
During the year ended December 31, 2013, our international
business (the substantial majority of which is generated by
Booking.com) represented approximately 85% of our gross bookings
(an operating and statistical metric referring to the total dollar
value, generally inclusive of all taxes and fees, of all travel
services purchased by our customers), and approximately 94% of our
consolidated operating income.
1. http://ir.pricelinegroup.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1075531-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the no lower prices thing is true, how come comparison engines like triage have such wildly varying prices? Are different bookers taking hits on their margins to drive business?
When a hotel signs a contract with an OTA (Online Travel Agency), it is (was) a common practice to include a 'price parity' clause, i.e. the hotelier cannot send different prices for the same offer to different websites, and the OTA agrees on not modifying the final price specified by the hotelier. But the reality is that: - Not all the hoteliers update all the rates simultaneously (through a channel manager, for exa…
I'd love to see a blog post on this, and would gladly send beer/coffee money your way to see it!
All these sites seem to use the exact same backend services, so it's difficult to care. About the only site I use regularly is hotels.com because they have a loyalty scheme (book 10 nights, get 1 free) - and even then I'm sure there's some catch I'm not aware of that makes them the same as everyone else.
The catch, in my anecdotal experience, is that third parties have terrible integration with the hotels. In some cases, they fax a reservation using a company credit card, to pay on your behalf. End result is some percent of the time, this gets messed up and you end up dealing with an annoyed person on check in that sometimes ends up having to get the agency on the line to sort it out. Same for flight bookings. I've n…
I know for a fact Hotel Tonight does this, as I've seen the fax from the front desk clerk with their corporate mastercard number (partly redacted) on it.
Wait until they buy Homeaway next..
I applied for a Job at Orbitz yesterday and today this news came. Orbitz ratings are pretty solid on Glassdoor and that makes them one of the best companies to work for in the Chicagoland area, hope it remains the same after the merger.
I applied for a Job at Orbitz yesterday and today this news came. Orbitz ratings are pretty solid on Glassdoor and that makes them one of the best companies to work for in the Chicagoland area, hope it remains the same after the merger.
In all cash deals like this, is there just a bank wire transfer that's made in the purchase amount from one company's account to the other's once everything has been approved and the deal has closed?
I can't answer your question directly, but I'm reminded of a story a friend once told. He was a new lawyer at a large firm. He was helping with a large deal and the bank couldn't get a hold of the lawyers listed above him. The bank called him and said "Is this $12.5 million transfer approved?" Do which he said yes, and 1 second later, 12 million dollars was moved from one account to another. So perhaps, with some aut…