Booking.com has made major concessions to its controversial rate parity policy in Australia following negotiations with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission but will still not allow hoteliers to offer cheaper rates on their own websites. In an email this week, Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans advised Australian hoteliers that from September 1 the world’s largest […]
Tag: Travel website
Book with confidence at Wotif? No, it’s just ‘Puffery’ says Expedia
Lawyers are supposed to protect the reputations of their clients, not trash them. But it looks like someone forget to tell the highly-paid legal eagles representing Expedia in Australia, who’ve inadvertently done a hatchet job on the credibility of once-iconic Australian subsidiary Wotif.com. They did this by arguing that Wotif should not have to refund the […]
Back to the future for global hotel room rates
GLOBAL hotel room rates have slumped to their lowest levels in six years, according to latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index. Asia-Pacific is the only exception with prices 17% of ahead of 2004 but still way short of the 2008 peak. The past 12 months have been generally flat on a regional level with only Sydney, […]
Anton Stanish, Regional Director Australia and NZ, HomeAway
Anton is HomeAway’s Director for Australia and NZ, responsible for all of their businesses in the region, which include the Stayz, Bookabach, YesBookit and HomeAway brands. He led the Stayz team through the sale of the business by Fairfax Media to HomeAway in 2013, and is excited to now be part of the leading online vacation rental marketplace […]
Turochas Fuad, CEO and Co-Founder, Travelmob
Turochas “T” Fuad is the CEO and co-founder of travelmob – an online social stay marketplace that connects global travellers with hosts in Asia Pacific who have unique accommodations and experiences to offer. A seasoned entrepreneur, T’s background has spanned across various industries, which include enterprise software, mobile, and consumer Internet services T most recently […]
Special Report – short term rentals bounce back
It was like a car smash in which the driver and passengers were battered and bruised but managed to escape the wreck, hobbling away with a new resolve to make the most of every day – because you never know what will happen next. I’m referring to COVID, of course, which hit the Australian travel […]
Rezdy raises another $3m and there’s more on the way
Sydney company Rezdy has raised a further $3m to fuel growth in North America, opening a second US office in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company said: “This was an interim round to fund acceleration in the international growth of Rezdy ahead of a larger equity round later next year.” Grand Prix Capital, which first invested […]
Ray Stone, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia
Ray Stone commenced his career in hospitality in London. Ray’s career in hospitality, sales and marketing spans more than 35 years with Hilton, Westin, Shangri-La and Accor, where he held Director of Sales and Marketing and Vice President Corporate Marketing roles with Westin Hotels in the United States. Ray worked for Accor, for six years […]
Outdoorsy expands to Australia
Jeff Cavins is something of an anomoly – a person who runs a ‘sharing economy’ business, Outdoorsy, and promotes the fact that some people using his Recreational Vehicle and caravan marketplace are ‘power sellers’ he says can turn over millions of dollars a year through the site. “Just like Airbnb, we’ve seen the emergence of power […]
Most leading Australian accommodation websites are US owned
Most of Australia’s best-selling accommodation websites are owned by US corporations, according to research from SiteMinder. Online channel analyst Duncan Waterman said: “The rapid rise of international sites like Expedia, Booking.com and Agoda in the Australian market really stood out. Some of the local online players unfortunately haven’t capitalised effectively on their early entrance into the market.” The top 10 […]
Joel Fisher, Director of Display Advertising Sales, Asia Pacific, TripAdvisor
Joel Fisher is the Director of Display Advertising Sales for Tripadvisor in Asia Pacific. Based in Trip Advisor’s regional headquarters in Singapore, Joel is responsible for driving the growth of its display-based advertising business, leading the sales team across Asia Pacific, including India and Japan. Joel has 20 years of experience across sales, advertising and […]
Viator smashes it: big profit after years of losses
No pain no gain. That could be the mantra at tours and activities business Viator, which has staged an incredible turnaround over the past 12 months due primarily to the hard-headed vision of Dermot Halpin, who has shaken the company up and made it profitable – literally tens of million of dollars in the black – […]
OTAs increase market share at supplier’s expense
Online travel agents in the United States now have 39% of the digital travel market and continue taking market share from the suppliers whose products they sell, according to new research from Phocuswright. Phocuswright says the OTA online US travel market share will reach 41% by 2020, with US$81.4 million in online gross bookings. Hotels […]
Australia’s Hottest 100 Travel Websites
As references change online all across the world, Australia’s 100 travel websites ranking also witnessed a significant shift: Can we say Farewell to Webjet and Adios to Wotif? Not quite, just joking, but they are no longer top of the heap. Booking.com is now Australia’s biggest and fast-fastest growing online travel agent, leaving local rivals […]