Since earlier this year, Groupon Getaways has no longer been co-branding its vacation packages with Expedia Inc, using Expedia to source its flash deals, or cross-promoting on Expedia or Hotwire.
That velvet divorce ended a marketing and distribution partnership started in 2011, during the end of the flash deals hype.
Industry chatter about so-called private sale clubs--where consumers have to sign up for access to discounts--quieted down.
There's speculation that the recovering economy in North America tamped down demand for discount travel, though maybe it was just poor execution.
While the former category star TripAdvisor's Jetsetter struggles, Groupon's Getaways vertical continues to see growth in flash sales.
Over the last year (Q4’13-Q3’14) Groupon has generated more than $908 million in gross travel billings--nearly 13% of all of Groupon’s total gross billings during the same time period.
Groupon's Q3 2014 gross travel billings were up 69%, year-over-year (Q4 2014 compared to Q3 2013)--making travel the company's fastest growing category.
Hotel is one of the most popular search terms on Groupon.com and on the Groupon mobile app. The company now lets users search for any hotel on any day via the Getaways search box.
Solving the inspiration part of the funnel
Simon Goodall, general manager of travel at Groupon for the past three years, told Tnooz:
"We think about the customer space very differently than our competitors do. We're focused on leisure travelers, many of whom are flexible about the specifics of their vacation and are looking for inspiration.
Our customers wake up in the morning and discover things they hadn't planned to buy.
Our data shows 80% of the people who buy a Getaway with us were not planning on going to that destination before they heard about it from us.
Our internal research benchmarks find the average for online travel agencies is only 15%. We do inspiration effectively. Others don't.
Our customers are wealthier, too, on average. We do a good business in four-star resorts. That's hardly a trip being primarily driven by ticket size. That's a decision about value.
For suppliers, our appeal is that we're driving incremental demand.
The issue is converting customers to your place instead of your competitors' without having to sacrifice much revenue to stimulate demand. We can do that, thanks to the time-sensitivity of our deals and how our deals avoid metasearch commoditization.
We're shifting share of customers' discretionary spending budgets from other items, like nicer TVs or nicer couches, into a nicer vacation or an extra vacation.
We're inspiring them to come to your resort instead of an alternative. Our scale of push marketing is greater than any OTA's, and our customers are already primed to buy."
New travel app
Earlier this month, Groupon debuted a standalone travel app called Getaways, which provides travelers with access to more than 25,000 travel deals where they can get a deal worldwide.
Today it's featured in the Apple App store.
A spokesperson says the company built an app exclusively for travel deals to appeal to how some users shops:
"All the of the top travel apps on the market focus exclusively on travel. Most smartphone users have a specific folder on their phone with all of the apps they use for travel––and we want to be there....
In addition, by launching a standalone experience, we can add new features much quicker and build a more dedicated and focused experience just for travelers....
The app has more flexible search options such as the ability to browse our deals by theme (beach, romantic, etc.). You can also pick an area of a map by zooming in and out to see Getaways hotel availability for a 30-mile radius.
With the Getaways app, people don't need specific travel dates. This is important for our hotel partners because it means we're bring them more incremental bookings.
The travel experience in the main Groupon app does not change."
