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Predictions for Expedia: Quote:
For the short run, it would have been a good idea not to "hold", but to sell. The price of the Expedia stock went down to $ 6.05 on November 20 - just a few weeks after the prediction was made. Now, it´s back to $ 27, close to its all-time record of 2007. People who had Expedia stock quadrupled their assets since April - in 6 months! Hence, there would be enough cash around to buy HW. A takeover of a cool niche market monopolist would make the analysts ejaculate in their cubicles. Quote:
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Um, yes. To make matters worse, you know something about websites and the internet. That makes you the totally wrong person to run a dotcom business!
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If one of the large hotel booking engines buys Hostelworld it will have the best of both worlds - the top and "bottom" ends of the market, so to speak.
If you add in the fact that a majority shareholding of Lonely Planet may be put on the market by the current shareholders BBC Worldwide, someone could have a monopoly of the tourism market. This can only be bad news for hostel and hotel owners alike as the price of advertsing will rise and the booking engine could ask for higher commission from each booking as there would be very little opposition left. |
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In case hostelworld will be sold to a major player, this will definitely not a good news for hostels in generally.
I doubt that someone who wants to improve hw will be buying the company, but someone who wants to get more profit out of it. That is how it works.. If I would own one of those properties relying 90% on hw bookings, I would be very very worried about.. Let´s take priceline for example: What would they do after aquiring hw? Improving? They have a very successfull hotel booking site…booking.com (I used them sometimes and found it very handy and comfortable)….and it would be most likely, that they implement several features from there. First step: Make the booking visible for free for the customers: Just stop charging them 10 % commission and booking fee during the booking process! They will let them book for free, just keeping cc data in case of no-show, but send a bill to the hostel every month to the hostels starting with a 12 % commission charging the hostel. Next step: On hw you can scroll down all properties, on booking.com after a certain number of hotels you have to turn the page. Who wants to be on page number one and even on top??…uh, now you can bid for your position, just adjust your commission rate to 15 or even 20 %...no joke, that is how it works on booking.com… Final step: Combining the hotel site and the hostel into a meta search site where you put in what you are looking for and for what budget and you get the list of accomodation providers just in time, doesn´t matter if your business is hotel, b + b or hostel or whatever… It is just a scenario, anyone who has a more positive prediction? |
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BBC says they won't sell Lonely Planet (Though anything could happen )Quote:
A scenario like the one you mention could be the rapid decline of Hostelworld. There are other hostel booking engines out there, and they could use hostels' unhappiness with the situation to get more allocations. The only problem is that Hostelbookers, as a company, is not particularly hostel-friendly at the moment either (they sometimes call studio apartments and hotels "hostels" -- larger commission, at the expense of hostels). IMHO, the best things that a buyer of WRI could do are:
Last edited by Hostels; 27th October 2009 at 16:09. Reason: edit |
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![]() I don't know what "Boo" sounds like in other countries but, in the US, without any reference, it means "thumbs down" -- or it's what a ghost says. Or it's a game you play with babies called "peek-a-boo". I think, to eliminate any possible confusion with the name, it could be associated with the peek-a-boo game. When I hear "Boo.com" I think of the picture on these sites. It almost looks like two backpackers saying "boo", trying to surprise you with the trip you're looking for. I think that Boo.com is a good name, but could be consciously associated with something that is not "thumbs down". Looking for a great vacation? "boo!" [surprise] -- here's the trip you're looking for.If the name isn't associated with anything specific, it leaves it up to the visitor to possibly associate the name with these definitions. Quote:
What I meant is that hostel booking engines should clearly separate hostels and hotels. It's better for hostels, and it keeps travelers from getting confused. (WRI's two sets of customers: properties and travelers.) Last edited by Hostels; 29th October 2009 at 0:58. Reason: edit |
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More interesting reading:
http://www.travolution.co.uk/article...s-options.html Quote:
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Last edited by Hostels; 30th October 2009 at 16:51. Reason: edit |
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In the US booking sites are being taken to court by local and state governments for not paying taxes in the Jurisdiction they are providing a service to. These can be backdated. The EU is starting this as of 2010 and there is a chance that hostels have to pay taxes on the commissions the agents take if their agreement states that the hostel is responsible for those taxes.
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![]() Do you have any links about those topics? |
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A hostel with 100 beds using our software to integrate with Booking.com can expect to gain around $2,000 in increased bookings MINIMUM per month. www.hosteloffice.com Last edited by HostelOffice; 31st October 2009 at 10:19. Reason: www.hosteloffice.com |
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