Bookings website to forgo commissions
by James Durston on Oct 27, 2009A new website will be the market’s first commission-free booking hub, according to its founder. By linking visitors directly to hotels’ own websites, Jay Prakash. R, CEO at www.cheersbye.com, claims travellers will have access to a hotel’s own rates in real time, thereby saving money compared to those who book through other collator sites.
“Currently these sites like Expedia, Travelocity and MakeMyTrip pick up inventories and mark up the price by up to 25%, so their customers do not have access to the best available rates. My site links directly to the hotel’s own site and so is a one-stop shop for accessing the best rates in your chosen destination,” Prakash told HotelierIndia.com.
The site will provide alphabetical listings in five categories in many towns and cities across India, with a focus on tier-2 and tier-3 towns. The five categories are: Hotels & Resorts; Restaurants & Pubs; Apartments & Homestays; Meetings & Events Halls; Shopping & Entertainment.
Listed companies will be able to pay a price to become a ‘recommended’ property and appear at the top of the list. But only three recommendations will be available per category and “the recommended properties needs to have some class and a marvellous website,” said Prakash.
Prakash also intends to charge for listings in the Meetings & Events and Shopping & Entertainment categories. “Meetings & Events will be my USP. No one else has a listing for this high growth segment, and I’ll choose hotels that have at least five halls, and great websites so that it still looks good on my site.”
He also thinks the Apartments & Homestays category will be popular. “Many serviced apartments and homestays have marvellous websites but they don’t have the money to market them. They don’t appear in even the top ten pages of a Google search. They now have this opportunity.”
The project goes completely live on November 1 with more than 5,000 Hotels & Resorts, 2,000 Serviced Apartments & Homestays, 9,000 Restaurants & Pubs, 3,000 Banquet Halls and 7,000 Shopping & Entertainment properties listed.
Cheersbye
