TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring US-based Luxury Hotelist, a new search and booking service for discount upmarket hotels.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
Luxury Hotelist is a consumer website that offers an extensive collection of four & five star hotels (over 36,000) in 2,000 cities worldwide. However, the emphasis is on quality not quantity.
Cal Simmons, Founder and CEO of LuxuryHotelist.com, is one of the most trusted, recognized and successful travel experts in North America. Cal founded Cal Simmons Travel in 1976, which he grew into one of the top travel agencies in the country.
Cal is a frequent speaker at travel industry events and has served on the advisory boards of several airlines, hotel companies and a rental car agency.
In 2002 he was appointed chairman of the VA Tourism Corporation by the Governor of Virginia. That same year, Cal published his first online travel guide, The Informed Traveler, which now reaches over 80,000 subscribers.
Continuing his success in the online travel field, he launched Five Star Alliance (FSA), an online travel agency for luxury hotels, in 2004, which he eventually sold to Questex Media.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Luxury Hotelist is self-funded.
What problem are you trying to solve?
The luxury hotel space is still underserved. Consumers are interested in recommendations at the world’s best hotel and we are offering that -- all at great prices.
Describe the business, core products and services?
LuxuryHotelist.com is an online travel site that offers consumers an extensive collection of the best hotels around the globe.
The site preferentially displays what they call "partner hotels" at the top of search results. These partners are featured throughout the site and aggressively promoted through the accompanying social media campaigns.
Mentions across channels such as, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., will create brand awareness and support for promotions our partners are running.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
By embracing social media we hope to drive young, unaffiliated consumers who are looking for recommendations to book with us.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Yes. We had a number of industry folks and consumers test the site and we have developed a model based on our founder's 30+ years of experience in the industry.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Luxury Hotelist is an online travel agency, so it’s really all about driving traffic and earning commissions through conversions.
Through an aggressive social media and adwords campaign, we eventually would like to drive over 500,000 to one million page views per month and convert as many of the visitors into bookings as possible.
In addition, we earn revenues from ads on the site as well as partner marketing fees from selected hotels who we promote through our social media campaigns.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- LuxuryHotelist.com has over 36,000 hotels to choose from.
- We feature over 2,000 cities on the site.
- You can be sure that you are getting great rates at the world’s best hotels.
- Over 30 years of travel agency experience – and contacts throughout the hotel industry.
- Site design and ease of navigation supported by an aggressive social media strategy.
- Unique features such as our monthly contest for consumers to win free stays at luxury hotels around the world.
Weakness:
- As a new brand it will take time to stand out.
- Will take time to optimize strong organic search results
Opportunities:
- We are embracing social media, which we hope will drive young unaffiliated consumers.
- The chance to be a recognized thought leader in recommending luxury hotels
Threats:
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?Luxury hotels are often hesitant about being affiliated with "discounts" or "deals – but we are not your typical discount site.
Our look and feel is luxury and we want to provide consumers recommendations on where to stay. We hope that great rates will drive consumers who do not normally book at luxury hotels.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
To be recognized as a thought leader in recommending luxury hotels.
This will be measured by organic search results, press coverage, subscribers to our newsletters and the size of the social media community we attract through platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And of course, the bookings we are generating.
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.