Last Minute Model Facing Extinction? After the Acquisition of Travel.com.au, Wotif.com to go 365 Days.
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Research by HotelsCombined.com
It has become evident in recent times that there has been a shift away from the last minute model with sites
such as Wotif.com to go 365 days. Moreover, according to a recent study by HotelsCombined.com these last
minute distribution sites including Wotif.com, NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au are no longer offering the
best available rates.
Much hype was created in the hotel industry with the launch of Wotif.com in March 2000 when it offered a 14
day booking window. Before this time hotels relied on global distribution systems (GDS) to assist in selling their
hotel rooms with dynamic pricing not yet coming into existence. Wotif.com gave hotels what they needed
offering a simple system to effectively yield manage their distressed inventory. Wotif.com capitalized on this for
several years then in October 2005 they extended to 28 day booking window. At present, according to an ASX
announcement published on May 8, 2008 it is confirmed that a 365 day model is coming. It is interesting to note
that Wotif.com is in reality one of the few remaining last minute websites entirely using the last minute model
with NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au previously making the move to a 365 day model.
Clearly we can see that there is a movement away from the last minute model, so the question needs to be
asked if these sites are no longer distressed inventory sites, are they just another distribution channel?
HotelsCombined.com has taken this question to see if there are any points of difference that these last minute
sites have against other third party intermediaries.
After taking a sample of twenty-five hotels within five major Australian capital cities the results indicate that
Wotif.com, NeedItNow.com and LastMinute.com.au are just another distribution channel with non last minute
providers on HotelsCombined.com offering better available rates.
About HotelsCombined.com
HotelsCombined.com is a hotel search engine containing the largest hotel database worldwide. Featuring hotels
in 20,000 destinations across 195 countries, with over 800,000 hotel deals from direct hotel listings and over 30
of the most visited travel websites including AsiaRooms.com, Booking.com, Cheaptickets.com, Expedia.com,
Hotel.info, HotelClub.com, Hotels.com, InterContinental.com, Obitz.com, Priceline.com, ReserveTravel.com,
Venere.com.
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