Booking.com – Int'l Footprint 'Destroys' Wotif

23 November, 2008 by Martin Kelly

By Martin Kelly, Editor, Travel Trends

Booking.com –one of the world’s biggest online accommodation brands – has identified Australian hoteliers as a major sales target, setting up an office in Sydney and declaring that its international scope “destroys” Wotif.com.

“We’re building up supply in Australia and we think we have a compelling sales pitch to the hotels there,” said Jeffrey Boyd, CEO of Priceline, which owns Booking.com.

Boyd told delegates at the PhoCusWright conference: “We have a global calling card that destroys Wotif.com … we’ll certainly give that market a go.”

Later, Boyd professed respect for Wotif (“it’s a blue chip stock – think of that, an online agency that’s a blue chip stock”) but was confident of gaining traction among hoteliers Down Under.

Unlike other US online business, Boyd said Booking.com is going with a “straight commission model but can’t tell you the actual rates” however indicated they were above 10%.

The Booking.com website is getting tiny numbers from the Australian consumer market and Boyd says the company needs to build up local inventory before marketing the brand Down Under. Travel Trends: November 24, 2008

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