TLabs Showcase focus on startups featuring US and Singapore-based travel listings service Swiftrank.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
Swiftrank is positioned as the leading global online hotel networks. We are a network of 12,000 location-based travel sites with a truly global profile.
The company started in 2008, and we have since then built out a scalable site development platform and a superb collection of relevant travel domains – from short-tail sites like Lasvegashotels.com and Sydneyhotels.com, to mid- and long-tail terms with a focus on luxury, boutique, and other high-value hotel terms.
Our company is headquartered in Singapore, with offices in the US (Boulder, Colorado) and the UK. We are comprised of hospitality executives, product specialists, and technologists.
Leadership team bios.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Our company is self-funded by the founders.
What problem are you trying to solve?
We believe that location-based travel search is an important element of consumers’ online search and discovery process.
Our goal is to provide quality, relevant, and updated sites in key location markets to assist travelers in selecting from the finest hotels in those markets at the most competitive rates.
Describe the business, core products and services?
Our business involves the optimization and monetization of our network of sites. In terms of revenue model, we currently are working of three: first, all our sites include booking capability through a backend booking provider, and we garner revenue from consumed bookings.
Second, and most relevant at present, we are in the process of signing direct relationships with hoteliers, hotel brands, ownership groups and marketing agencies to drive direct visits and bookings to our hotel partners on our network of sites. These today are being designed on a cost-effective CPC basis.
Third, there may be an opportunity for a display advertising business on our sites, but this is, indeed, a tertiary priority at present.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Key customers at launch are hotels, ownership groups, management groups, brands, and the agencies that serve them. Our key users are consumers searching for hotels for their next trip by doing location research.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Our business began with investment from our founder, and it continues as self-funded in this regard. As we’ve launched our sites publicly in mid-2010, revenues have followed.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
This is above.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Strong set of sites and our technical ability to create good UI on those sites and to rapidly develop strong direct integrations with our potential partners to pull live hotel rates and availability.
Weaknesses:
- It’s inevitable at this stage – where traffic is growing materially monthly and revenues are following – to be sure which “deals” and partnerships will best optimize our users’ experience and our revenue per customer. This is an ongoing analytical process, and we’re learning by testing and carefully evaluating performance. These are exactly the problems we are supposed to have right now, but they always force lots of evaluation as we balance the numerous opportunities right in front of us.
Opportunities:
- International markets. Last month site users in 77 countries booked hotels in 46 countries across our network. That’s a staggering global distribution of customers with a high purchase intent, and this reach offers something truly incremental to hotels and hotel companies. We are challenged by working through the best way to leverage this in favor of our site users and our company’s partners.
Threats:
- Ensuring that we are able to provide an excellent user experience across a wide array of travel sites in a wide array of locations. We feel very good about our approach to doing this scalably, but this is of course one thing that keeps us on our toes.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?We won’t name names, and time will tell whether we have what it takes to execute on this model. This worry keeps us humble, hard-working and focused.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
- Revenue per site user
- User engagement and purchase confidence on our sites
- Interest on the part of our target customers to engage with us in important ways to increase their global footprint, reach, and performance.
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.