Travel booking website
Hotwire
is a travel website that offers airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and vacation packages. It operates by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices. The company is headquartered in
San Francisco, CA
, Hotwire, Inc. is an operating company of the
Expedia Group
, which also operates the website ClassicVacations,
Expedia
,
Hotels.com
,
Orbitz
,
Travelocity
and Egencia.
[1]
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Hotwire was launched in 2000, by Karl Peterson, Eric Grosse, Gregg Brockway, and Spencer Rascoff. Initial funding came by founding partner
Texas Pacific Group
(TPG), a leading private equity firm that Karl Peterson used to work for, that invested an initial $75 million into Hotwire.
[3]
Hotwire first offered tickets from six major airlines, that also invested into Hotwire's launch:
American
,
Northwest
(now
Delta
),
Continental
(now
United
),
America West
(now American), United, and
US Airways
(now American).
[4]
[5]
Prior to its formal launch, Hotwire was codenamed Purple Demon.
[6]
In September 2003,
IAC/InterActiveCorp
, which had acquired
Expedia
in 2001, announced its acquisition of Hotwire.com for $663 million.
[7]
In 2004, an internet research firm estimated that through cross-advertising between Hotwire and Expedia, IAC was able to reach a total of an additional 1.5 million unique visitors to both websites monthly.
[8]
Hotwire first launched with
opaque
airline tickets. The company started selling opaque hotels and rental cars a few months later.
[
citation needed
]
Package offerings started in 2003. In 2004, Hotwire began to offer select retail travel products. In June 2007, Hotwire removed all airfare booking fees.
[
citation needed
]
Company affairs
[
edit
]
Leadership
[
edit
]
Henrik Kjellberg, 2014
Karl Peterson, one of Hotwire's four founding members, served as Hotwire's first CEO. In 2006, Hotwire was overseen by Founder and CFO (2004-2006) Eric Grosse. In January 2009, Eric Grosse became President of Expedia Worldwide and Clem Bason took over as President of the Hotwire Group.
[9]
[10]
In 2013 Clem left the company and Henrik Kjellberg became President of hotwire.com, after joining from Expedia Affiliate Network, also as President.
Hotwire operates with one General Manager and six Vice Presidents on its management team. Hotwire began with 4 employees, and then grew to 80 within months. Currently, Hotwire has over 300 employees.
Customer and revenue structure
[
edit
]
As of 2019, the company reported more than 9.5 million unique visitors and 91 million pageviews per month, with a main audience (60%) aged 25-54 years old and 52% of visitors being male.
[11]
In 2019, Hotwire's expected revenue was US$ 35 million.
[12]
As a subsidiary brand of the
Expedia Group
, revenues for Hotwire have not been independently published.
[13]
Products
[
edit
]
Hotwire's products are based on online traffic and feature the main categories airline travel, car rental services, hotel reservation and vacation packages.
[14]
Operations
[
edit
]
When hotel rooms, airline seats, or rental cars go unsold, they are filled by travel companies through companies like Hotwire. Hotwire does not identify the participating companies until after the purchaser has paid so as not to directly compete with regular retail sales of the travel partners. This sales model is known as an "opaque". According to the Hotwire website, they deal with brand-name travel companies exclusively. This strategy allows Hotwire partners to clear out their supply and sell inventory that would otherwise go unsold. Hotwire reveals the prices and the travel dates of all their products upfront and does not sell via a "bidding" or "auction" model. Hotwire also offers a set of open travel APIs that can be used in travel applications.
Awards
[
edit
]
In 2007,
J.D. Power and Associates
Independent Travel Web Site Satisfaction StudySM recognized Hotwire for ranking "Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Independent Travel Web Sites" for the second year in a row.
[15]
In 2014, the company received Travel Weekly's Silver Magellan Award for their mobile app.
[16]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rosenbloom, Stephanie (2015-02-25).
"Booking Flights and Hotels: Online Agents or Direct?"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-02-21
.
- ^
"Washington Post: The frugal traveler's essential list of budget travel hacks"
.
- ^
"Hotwire Launch to Provide Yet Another Way to Offload Cheap Inventory"
.
World Airline News
. September 8, 2000. Archived from
the original
on 2006-03-13.
- ^
Wade, Betsy
(2000-11-12).
"TRAVEL ADVISORY; New Web Site Offers Discounts on 6 Airlines"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-02-19
.
- ^
Schaal, Dennis (2016).
"The Definitive oral history of online travel"
.
Skift
. Retrieved
15 June
2016
.
- ^
"Can purple demon avoid Orbitz errors?"
.
Elliott.org
. July 5, 2000. Archived from
the original
on June 24, 2018
. Retrieved
March 11,
2008
.
- ^
Julia Angwin
; Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.
"InterActiveCorp to Buy Hotwire, As Online-Travel Push Continues"
.
WSJ
. Retrieved
2019-02-19
.
- ^
Tedeschi, Bob (2004-07-05).
"E-Commerce Report; InterActiveCorp is finding ways to cross-promote its properties and increase its customer base"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-02-19
.
- ^
"Clem Bason press release"
. Archived from
the original
on 2009-03-01.
- ^
"Management team"
.
Hotwire
. Archived from
the original
on July 5, 2009.
- ^
"Hotwire: Expedia Media Solutions"
.
advertising.expedia.com
. Retrieved
2019-02-19
.
- ^
"Hotwire Competitors, Revenue and Employees - Owler Company Profile"
.
Owler
. Retrieved
2019-08-30
.
- ^
"Expedia Group Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results"
.
- ^
"Hotwire Travel Products Rules and Restrictions"
.
Hotwire.com
. Retrieved
2019-08-30
.
- ^
"J.D. Power and Associates Ranks Hotwire.cc Top Travel Site for Second Consecutive Year"
.
MSN Money
. Retrieved
2008-01-23
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"Travel Weekly Magellan Awards"
.
Travel Weekly Magellan Awards
. Retrieved
2019-08-13
.
External links
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]
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