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Hotwire Boss targets wasted accommodation
Expedia company sells unused inventory in last 4 days
As everybody knows, travel and tourism inventory holds the most perishable items in existence.
Try to sell yesterday’s airline seat or hotel reservation and you’ll find out how impossible it is!
And sustainable tourism is, at its best, about the elimination of waste.
Currently focusing on hotel accommodation (flights etc will presumably come later) Hotwire sells into the last 4 days – very successfully in the US – last year 7.5million bed nights and, over all travel products $1.1billion.
In the current recession discounting is clearly big business.
Customers pay approximately half price on rack rates for mainly 4 star accommodation – Hotwire pays accommodation providers minimoney.
The client doesn’t know the name of the booked hotel until the credit card number is punched.
But at least hoteliers get something to cover the cost of room cleaning and heating plus the opportunity of getting guests through the doors to sell them something else.
Benefits for tourism providers? Higher occupancy, the opportunity to diminish seasonality and no-go dates.
Yesterday, Clem Bason the ex-GAP newly appointed President of Hotwire waxed lyrical about the opportunities to eliminate waste and introduce holidaymakers to empty out of season resorts.
In an exclusive interview with TravelMole Vision on Sustainable Tourism, Bason was very clear indeed about the benefits of Hotwire and likeminded sites to eliminate waste and expose new opportunities.
“In Mexico in off season the resort is 10% full – you get personal attention from everyone you meet”
And now Hotwire is coming to the UK: “In the current situation everybody needs to make the dollars count” said Bason.
Big opportunities on the horizon for Hotwire and Bason? Green hotels, even in Las Vegas, iPhone app and train travel.
So watch out for the new look hotel room rate-buster followed by a real resurgence in last minute train travel!
But they still haven’t figured a way to get to the LCC’s profitably!
Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite.
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