Dot.com succeeds by adding hotel listings
Priceline’s success was attributed mainly to its move from airline tickets to hotel offerings, particularly in Europe, suggested Bloomberg Businessweek.
Their unlikely comeback from some questionable judgments owes largely to Jeffery H. Boyd, a lawyer who joined Priceline as general counsel from Oxford Health Plans in 2000, the site says.
When he took over the company, following the disaster of 9-11, he realized it had to play down its reliance on plane tickets.
“Priceline’s notoriously circuitous take-it-or-leave-it terms—think Miami to San Diego via a six-hour layover in Milwaukee—would be an even harder sell if people weren’t flying,” said Bloomberg.
Boyd raced to rebuild the brand around hotels and expand into Europe.
The decisions “to focus on hotels and ultimately to take that focus internationally are the steps that really created the value that our shareholders have realized over the last several years,” said Boyd.
Previously, the company founded in 1997 had unsuccessful forays into name-your-own-price groceries and gasoline.
The company’s ads featuring actor William Shatner of TV and movie “Star Trek” fame also helped the company’s efforts.
“Beam yourself to 2010, however, and Priceline is in clover,” Bloomberg said.
Its stock has jumped 27 times from a low in 2005 and Shatner says today more people recognize him as a Priceline spokesman than recall his work as Captain Kirk on TV.
By David Wilkening
David
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