Tag: Australia

Highly profitable Stayz.com.au finally reveals financials

Stayz.com.au has revealed its financials for the first time. Australia’s most popular holiday house site made a profit of A$13 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation on revenue of  A$23.1 million in the 2012 financial year. This makes it Australia’s #2 accommodation booking site behind Wotif.com and gives Stayz a whopping gross margin of 56.3%, […]

Global marketing refresh for HotelsCombined

Meet Max, the somewhat cynical, not so cuddly bear that meta-search company HotelsCombined has chosen to unify its site branding and also help consumers through the booking process. Max now appears on all HotelsCombined owned properties, including several newish market-specific sites – DetectaHotel.com (Latin America), Biyi.cn (China) and RoomGuru.com (Russia). It’s another step in the evolution of HotelsCombined, which is now […]

Coronavirus hits Australian hotel performance

Australian hotels have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and related bans on Chinese travellers. STR data shows Melbourne and Brisbane were the only two major Australian markets to report  year on year RevPAR growth between 24 Jan and 9 Feb, 2020, a two week stretch encompassing Chinese New Year. All other markets were […]

Brendan Murphy believes Australia’s international borders will stay closed for 2021

Australia’s highest profile medical professional, Dr Brendan Murphy, pictured, says he doubts that Australia’s international borders will reopen this year. Dr Murphy acknowledged ABC News Breakfast yesterday it was a “big question” and that “I think that the answer is probably no. “I think that we’ll go most of this year with still substantial border restrictions, even […]

Will Deague, CEO Art Series Hotel Group

William Hunter Deague is the Chief Executive Officer of Asian Pacific Group (APG), the parent company of Australia’s hottest hotel group – Art Series Hotel Group. Educated at Melbourne Grammar, Will holds a Domestic Builders Licence (unlimited) and a private fixed wing and helicopter licence. Joining APBC in 1996, Will worked on a range of […]

Sue Badyari, Chief Executive Officer, World Expeditions

Sue Badyari, is CEO of the World Expeditions Travel Group, operator of small group adventure tours all over the world.  World Expeditions is Australia’s longest established adventure travel company and offers more than 500 stand-alone itineraries, escorted by expert leaders and meticulously designed for those travellers who want to take the ‘paths less travelled’.   Under […]

AFTA left hanging after Prime Minister promises

Australian Federation of Travel Agents CEO Darren Rudd appears to have awkwardly misjudged the political climate by prematurely announcing a funding package that has yet to eventuate following a conversation with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Rudd, pictured, who had asked the Federal Government for $250 million emergency funding over 18 months for travel agents, wholesalers […]

Booking fees, questions, lawyers and Webjet

Flight booking fees – now eliminated at Zuji and Expedia – appear to be a sensitive topic at Webjet, which charges up to $49.90 in fees to process international airline bookings ($29.95 processing fee, $19.95 price guarantee), and $29.90 for domestic airfares ($19.95 processing fee, $9.95 price guarantee). Lawyer Paul Zawa from Minter Ellison got in touch with TravelTrends.biz on behalf […]