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Private sale website looks to sign agent and operator partners
Secret Escapes is looking to sign up travel agent and operator partners who can offer discounted holidays to its 1 million members.
The website, which launched in February 2011, offers flash sales of luxury holidays and stays in upmarket hotels.
It has just secured a second round of funding from two venture capital companies and claims it is doubling its turnover every three months.
The company has just launched its first major TV advertising campaign in a bid to expand its membership to 3 million members by 2014.
Secret Escapes was set up by CEO Alex Saint (ex-Dealchecker) and managing director Tom Valentine (ex-ebay and Seatwave).
Valentine said the private sale company has succeeded where others had failed.
"There has been a long, cluttered graveyard in the UK of private sale companies that have failed," he said. "But we believe we have managed to get it right."
The company began by just selling four and five-star hotels but then recognised a demand for packages too.
It already works with selected operator partners, including Premier, Broadway, and Fleetway, and has just signed its first deal with Cosmos.
"We’re talking to others, but we’re a small team so we’re happy to take calls," said Valentine.
Outlining the criteria for potential partners, he said: "We don’t have our own ATOL so any tour operator or agent would need their own ATOL.
"We think there’s an awful lot of trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer in the deals market but we guarantee to our members that our deals are the cheapest you’ll find anywhere, so if somebody is willing to give a discount rate for a short period, that’s lower than anywhere else, we would talk to them.
"Our hotels are either quirky in some way or are four or five-star," he added.
Valentine said the benefit for agents and operators is that they can be more bullish on their own web prices and use Secret Escapes as a buffer to sell last-minute capacity at lower prices.
Longer term, the company is considering putting together its own dynamically-packaged holidays.
"We will probably investigate getting an ATOL this year but, of course, there are cost implications so we don’t know yet if we need to get one, or if we can work in partnership with agents."
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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