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There are many hotel search engines out there already, and I don't really understand why new search engines would pick up meaningful market share. The priceline

There are many hotel search engines out there already, and I don't really understand why new search engines would pick up meaningful market share. The priceline and expedia web properties (Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Travelocity, trivago, etc.) have pretty decent customer loyalty, a lot of app downloads, and highly optimized customer acquisition and conversion.

skinnymuch 9y ago
Couldn't you have said the same thing about Agoda, Kayak, and Momondo? All of the other Priceline and Expedia/TripAdvisor properties are from before the 2001 bubble. Most in the mid to late 90s. The three newer companies I mentioned all came in the mid 00s. And the latter two acquired for good money. Hipmunk came around this decade. But no clue on how good the acquisition is. Trip.com and HotelTonight are the last two properties I know off the top of my head and they were also founded this decade. Both seem to be doing decently. I guess maybe you're right and now there isn't room anymore. But if things could come out 5 to 7 years ago, we could see some more pop up.
- xadhominemx 9y ago
  The difference is vs the '00's is the big sites have 1) scale (= operating leverage and the best deals with hotel chains and better SEO), 2) years' of data and testing (which leads to higher conversion and an ability to pay more for inorganic traffic than newcomers), and 3) organic traffic (which subsidizes inorganic traffic). HotelTonight fills a niche but I think the market they play in is pretty small.
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    But yeah I mean, wasn't that all true, albeit to a lesser extent, by 2005-2006, when the 3 mid-00 companies were fully launching? I agree, HotelTonight fills a specific niche and maybe that's what we'll see more of. A few sites filling niches. Trip.com itself also has to do some more superficial than substantial features to try to differentiate itself. And maybe Hipmunk was always more hype than actually being big with it being a YC company and by a reddit co-founder.
    - xadhominemx 9y ago
      Expedia is ~5x larger that it was in the mid-aughts and Priceline is ~10x larger and each has the benefit of a decade's worth of data. So if the barriers were not insurmountable then, I think they are now.

skinnymuch 9y ago

Couldn't you have said the same thing about Agoda, Kayak, and Momondo? All of the other Priceline and Expedia/TripAdvisor properties are from before the 2001 bubble. Most in the mid to late 90s. The three newer companies I mentioned all came in the mid 00s. And the latter two acquired for good money. Hipmunk came around this decade. But no clue on how good the acquisition is. Trip.com and HotelTonight are the last two properties I know off the top of my head and they were also founded this decade. Both seem to be doing decently. I guess maybe you're right and now there isn't room anymore. But if things could come out 5 to 7 years ago, we could see some more pop up.

xadhominemx 9y ago
The difference is vs the '00's is the big sites have 1) scale (= operating leverage and the best deals with hotel chains and better SEO), 2) years' of data and testing (which leads to higher conversion and an ability to pay more for inorganic traffic than newcomers), and 3) organic traffic (which subsidizes inorganic traffic). HotelTonight fills a niche but I think the market they play in is pretty small.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  But yeah I mean, wasn't that all true, albeit to a lesser extent, by 2005-2006, when the 3 mid-00 companies were fully launching? I agree, HotelTonight fills a specific niche and maybe that's what we'll see more of. A few sites filling niches. Trip.com itself also has to do some more superficial than substantial features to try to differentiate itself. And maybe Hipmunk was always more hype than actually being big with it being a YC company and by a reddit co-founder.
  - xadhominemx 9y ago
    Expedia is ~5x larger that it was in the mid-aughts and Priceline is ~10x larger and each has the benefit of a decade's worth of data. So if the barriers were not insurmountable then, I think they are now.