New booking site claims to offer lower prices than competitors
Fledgling online travel agency Hotel Bonanza is aiming to steal business from industry giants such as Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb by charging accommodation providers less commission for every booking.
The company, which has just signed up its 10,000th hotel, is hoping properties will offer its customers cheaper rates as a result of its lower commission.
Hotel Bonanza is charging hotels a flat rate of 8% for bookings, which it says is much lower than Booking.com, which charges from 15% to 30%.
Recent hotel groups to have signed up to Bonanza include Edwardian Hotels London, Yotel, Corus & Laura Ashley Hotels, MGM Muthu Hotels, Crerar Hotels, A Curious Group of Hotels and The Edinburgh Collection.
The company was co-founded by Suzie Barber and Bhavin Swaly, who runs family hotels in London.
The pair said they set up Hotel Bonanza to offer hotels ‘a fairer, cheaper alternative to existing booking sites’.
Hotel Bonanza does not impose rate parity clauses, meaning accommodation providers are free to sell at whatever price they like. Barber said this should mean lower prices for consumers, although when TravelMole searched for the same hotels on both Booking.com and Hotel Bonanza, Booking.com was cheaper in two out of three occasions.
A company spokeswoman said: "At the moment unfortunately, the likes of Booking.com and Expedia.com will sometimes be cheaper because they have special offers enabled, which we are in the process of building and will be live within the next few weeks.
"The special offers include early bird discounts, last-minute discounts and four nights for the price of three, etc, but we will have exactly the same offers which, in addition to the discount that we offer and the discounts and incentives that the properties offer, will make us cheaper than the big players."
Customers must sign up to Hotel Bonanza to see its cheapest rates. After they make their first booking, they will be automatically signed up for a three-month trial of its Bonanza Club, at the end of which they will be charged a £10 per year fee if they want to continue their membership and receive 5% discounts on every booking.
In addition, properties are setting up extra discounts and incentives, such as complimentary drinks, spa treatments and discounted meals.
Barber said since the marketing launch in January, the site has been taking about 20 to 30 bookings a week. So far, it has about 8,000 Bonanza Club members. She said the company was focused on signing up more hotels and raising an additional £1 million of finance, on top of the £150,000 raised late last year from its accommodation providers.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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