Travelzoo is discovering that change is hard as the database marketer – famous for its Top 20 deals email newsletter – moves to diversify its product offering and income stream The company’s second quarter profit has been hit by work on its new booking engine, down 28% year-on-year to US$5.2m – despite revenue increasing 5% to US$41.3m. “Sales force expansion and traffic acquisition costs” were also cited as factors.
CEO Chris Loughlin commented: “Audience engagement reached record levels and we made good progress in social media and mobile. “Our earnings were impacted by our investments into a hotel booking platform, aimed at simplifying our user experience on web and mobile. “We plan to introduce the platform later this year.”