3 ms·
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
by 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 agoBut 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 agoExpedia 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.