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Endacott and Cheevers back new comparison site
Sunday, 08 Sep, 2009
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On Holiday Group CEO Steve Endacott and former Teletext Holidays boss Matt Cheevers are to assist in the launch of a new holiday comparison website.
They have joined the board of new hotel comparison service Hotelly.com to help develop a complementary online service.
Hotelly.com is also in talks with a number of white label partners, including major price comparison engines in car insurance and other financial services.
The company is planning an extensive online advertising campaign, supported off line by outdoor media and targeted satellite TV advertising, in the new year.
Hotelly.com has aggregated 277,000 videos, maps, copy, pictures and 10 million user reviews in one place.
Users are offered five agents to book with in order of their customer service scores as defined by Hotelly.com customers.
The key service issues measured are whether customers were offered the price they saw on the site and average wait times for answering the phone.
The claims to be the first where agents compete on service and customers police the pricing to automatically relegate any agents trying to cheat the system.
The company is using phone based fulfillment.
Hotelly.com has aggregated 10 million user reviews from the internet in order to create an average score for hotels. Customers are then presented with the cheapest holiday option as well as the best user rated holiday. They can then navigate between these to find the best rated holiday within their price range.
Unlike competitors such as Teletext and Icelolly, which allow agents to load offers into a database, Hotelly.com claims to take control of the dynamic packaging process combining low cost, charter and scheduled airlines with major UK bed banks.
A margin is then agreed with a panel of advertisers after reviewing the margins required to be competitive with major online travel agents.
Commercial director Vishal Jain said: “We have watched many of our international competitors struggle to get traction in the UK market as they failed to understand the local market nuances and technology requirements.
“By bringing in such heavyweight industry figures, we are utilising their years of relevant experience and contacts in the sector, which we believe will fast-track Hotelly.com’s development in the UK.”
Endacott said: “The travel agent community is crying out for cost-effective lead generation and I think the Hotelly.com team have created a leading-edge site, combining user generated content with price comparison.”
Cheevers added: “My experience as m-d of Teletext holidays is obviously very relevant to the sector and, working with Hotelly.com, is very complementary to the work I am doing with many online travel agents in terms of reviewing their sites and distribution strategies.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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