Category: Insights

Agoda goes rogue on pricing

Agoda, the original Asian OTA, has gone rogue on pricing. Multiple hoteliers say Agoda regularly sells unauthorized static wholesale rates through the site, undercutting them on price without any regard for contracts. Other times the feeling is Agoda takes a contracted rate and shaves its margin to push the price below competitor and hotel pricing. Agoda’s […]

Yury Shar, Director and Co-Founder, HotelsCombined

After immigrating to Australia from Russia at age 17, Yury developed a passion for computers and strategy games. This passion drew him to the University of Technology Sydney, where he studied Computer Science and met fellow HotelsCombined co-founder, Brendon McQueen. Before co-founding HotelsCombined in 2005, Yury spent five years working at HotelClub where he was […]

Wotif commissions to rise by 25% as Expedia rolls out new contract to hoteliers

Expedia is attempting to move all Wotif.com contracted properties onto a single company-wide contract and is raising site commission for larger producers from 12% to 15% – an increase of 25% – four months after buying the Australian OTA. “We are in discussions with them at the moment and there are a number of matters […]

Turu.com.au moves to booking engine and commissions

Holiday park site Turu.com.au has revamped its revenue model and will introduce a booking engine in the next few weeks, taking commission on each transaction. The move to a booking engine has come earlier than anticipated in the brief history of the site, launched in late July. General Manager Robert Gallagher said the roll out has been […]

Hotels driving many TripAdvisor reviews

TripAdvisor has started revealing the source of reviews for properties that use its guest followup tools – an initiative that reveals hotels can in many cases drive most of the comments. For example, a survey of the first 40 current reviews in several Sydney hotels show that most resulted from management pro-activity. At 57 Hotel, 75% […]

New owner for The Ghan and Indian Pacific

Allegro Funds has bought Great Southern Rail, the loss-making owner and operator of  The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland trains and products, for just £2.5m from Serco, a troubled UK company selling non-core assets. Allegro, an active investor that looks for turnaround opportunities, has said it will keep the present management team. Serco said it sold […]

Lenoir takes the plunge, passes the CEO baton at Rezdy

Founder Simon Lenoir has made the big decision to step away from his day to day management responsibilities at Rezdy, handing the CEO reins to Chris Atkin, previously Chief Operating Officer. Lenoir, originally a software developer who has been working massive hours since starting the business in 2011, says he first thought of stepping back around […]

Chinese company wins approval for Club Med purchase

French travel icon, Club Med, will be likely Chinese-owned by February 9 after regulators approved the takeover bid by Fosun International, which has offered €24.60 per share for the resort operator, valuing it at around €939 million. Fosun has been in a bidding war with Italian businessman Andrea Bonomi for Club Med since May, 2013, the […]

Welcome To Accor’s New Business Model

AccorHotels has announced it’s embarking on a new strategy that will see the global hotelier sell the rooms of independent hotels (for a commission of course) and also provide them with technology services, much like a modern Online Travel Agent. The big difference of course is that Accor also owns or operates 3700 properties in […]

Former Rydges on Swanston to rebrand as Crowne Plaza

The former Rydges on Swanston, the incubator for 90% of Victoria’s deadly second COVID wave, will be refurbished and rebranded as Crowne Plaza Melbourne Carlton. New owner Ross Pelligra bought the property for $35 million in September, and says: “We plan to lift the game and give this property a full refurb and a fresh […]