Starting a hotel-booking or airline-booking website, anyone tried?
- Thread starter EvilPenguin
- Start date
Tough industry bro.
You won't be able to secure direct deals with the hotels. It's just too time intensive. You will be forced to monetize via a feed or affiliate relationships. The big branded sites can afford to outbid you to acquire new customers. You can't win.
Like someone else mentioned, build a niche site around an international destination and try out various monetization methods to get your feet wet. You can start ranking for things like "what to do in vancouver", "guided tours in vancouver", etc. That long tail traffic will convert if you recommend them hotels and other products.
You won't be able to secure direct deals with the hotels. It's just too time intensive. You will be forced to monetize via a feed or affiliate relationships. The big branded sites can afford to outbid you to acquire new customers. You can't win.
Like someone else mentioned, build a niche site around an international destination and try out various monetization methods to get your feet wet. You can start ranking for things like "what to do in vancouver", "guided tours in vancouver", etc. That long tail traffic will convert if you recommend them hotels and other products.
have you read my post above yours? I have no interest in setting up a travel agency and negotiating deals with hotels and airlines. I just want to be an affiliate like cheapflights.com, people use the search form on my site, and I bring them all the prices from the different sites (kayak, expedia, priceline, etc...)
lol that fucker
the other one that really impressed me is the guy that put up a picture of his cute rabbit on his website and said he would kill him and eat him if he didn't get $500k by december 31st of that year. I think he ended up with more $200k in donations.
Sounds great in theory, but how are you going to drive traffic?
The problem with comparison shopping for travel related purchases is that people are extremely brand loyal. They aren't willing to save a few bucks and buy through a site they don't know.
I personally only book shit through Expedia. Even if it's $30-$40 cheaper elsewhere I stick with Expedia since I know they are legit, and I've dealt with their customer support in the past.
Good luck through bro, haters gonna hate.
The competition on online booking of hotel or flight is increasing day by day. It is hard rank on Google first page i.e. less business. There is competition on price also.
I use travel aggrevator sites a lot, and keep learning about new sites that offer unique services.
For example, Fare Compare offers very detailed charts on when it's cheapest to fly to specific destinations. There are sites that offer fare alerts when airline tickets drop to the price you want to pay.
This idea is full of hurr-durr if he has no unique spin for his site.
For example, Fare Compare offers very detailed charts on when it's cheapest to fly to specific destinations. There are sites that offer fare alerts when airline tickets drop to the price you want to pay.
This idea is full of hurr-durr if he has no unique spin for his site.