Private equity has returned to travel with news that Hellman and Friedmann has purchased Dublin-based Web Reservations International, the budget accommodation booking service better known for its consumer brand Hostelworld.
WRI is not disclosing the fee paid for the company by H&F but some reports in the Irish media suggest a figure in the region of round Euro 200 million has changed hands.
Deals of this size in travel and travel technology have been rare since the major PE-led takeovers of the GDSs.
Nevertheless, the $250 million pie secured by HomeAway in mid-2008 was in many minds a hugely significant deal as it indicated that those willing to take a punt on travel were still happy to do so - but perhaps only in areas where significant growth could be achieved.
Hostels and budget accommodation, therefore, is perhaps another similar sector to that of holiday rentals in that the big money is only being channelled into less developed areas of the industry.
The WRI numbers are impressive - generating around Euro 38 million revenues a year off of Euro 350 million worth of accommodation sales in 2008 across its sites, a portfolio which includes the URL of one of the web's biggest flops of all time, boo.com, now in the guise of a travel planning and content site.
So while the investment in WRI may bring joy to those eager to see a return to the heady days of the mid-2000s, a note of caution must be observed.
Some suggest that the purchase may trigger similar deals across the accommodation sector, not least because there are concerns about the growing power of the Priceline-Booking axis, especially in Europe.
But to think that travel is on the verge of a resurgence in terms of cash being thrown into it is foolhardy. PE and venture capital, like their cousins in the rest of the financial world, have had their fingers burnt in recent years.
The deals to be had will almost certainly only be in markets where an exit is worthwhile financially or where there is potential for consolidation in the same market.