A Two-Minute Interview with The Mole
The Mole: Since Wotif extended the booking window to 90 days, what trends have you noticed among consumers?
Robbie Cooke: Booking lead time has increased overall since we extended to 90 days, however our bookings within the 28 day period has remained about the same with an average lead time of about 7 – 8 days and an average booking length of about 1.8 nights to bookings within this period.
Overall, with the extension of the booking window we expect this to grow outwards both for the lead time and length of stay, so far we are seeing the lead time extend to approximately 12 days and the average length of stay towards approximately 1.9 nights.
TM: How have hoteliers reacted to the 90-day roll-out?
RC: Our hotel supplier reacted very positively to the 90-day roll out. Within only a week of the extension we had over 80% of our suppliers offering deals outside of the 28 day period and some.
TM: Last financial year Wotif.com sold almost five million room nights. How is this year looking? And how is market share shaping up?
RC: As per our half-year results announced in February we have seen a 37 percent increase in the number of room nights sold across our network in the six months to December 2008.
This performance drove a profit of A$20.6 million for the Wotif Group and was underwritten by strong growth in all our markets with Asia being the standout with total transaction value increasing by more than 250 percent.
We calculate market share off a third party research report that hasn’t been released to the market yet. However, based on last reported figures Wotif.com held 41 percent of the online accommodation market within Australia for the calendar year 2007.
With new initiatives that we are implementing, we believe we are well positioned to capture more market share in both the Australian and Asian markets.
Ian Jarrett
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