Hotels.com

Last updated

Hotels.com, L.P.
FormerlyHotel Reservations Network
Company type Subsidiary
IndustryHotel booking service
Founded1991;33 years ago (1991) in Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Founder David Litman
Robert Diener
Headquarters
Dallas, Texas
,
U.S.
Key people
Adam Jay (president)
Parent Expedia Group
Website hotels.com

Hotels.com,L.P. [1] is an American website for booking hotel rooms online and by telephone. The company has 85 websites in 34 languages, and lists over 325,000 hotels in approximately 19,000 locations. Its inventory includes hotels and B&Bs, and some condos and other types of commercial lodging. Hotels.com was established in 1991 as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN). In 2001, it became part of Expedia, Inc. and in 2002, changed its name to Hotels.com. The company is operated by Hotels.com LP, a limited partnership subsidiary located in Dallas, Texas, in the United States.

Contents

History

Old logo of Hotels.com used from 2002 to 2008 Hotelscom logo (2002-2008).png
Old logo of Hotels.com used from 2002 to 2008
Hotels.com RusLine CRJ100 logojet at Pulkovo Airport (2017) Rusline (Hotels.com livery), VP-BVK, Bombardier CRJ-100ER (35756857182).jpg
Hotels.com RusLine CRJ100 logojet at Pulkovo Airport (2017)

Hotels.com was established in 1991 by David Litman and Robert Diener as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN), providing hotel booking via a toll-free phone number in the United States. [2] In 2001, the company was acquired by USA Networks Inc (USAI) which also acquired a controlling interest in Expedia, the online travel booking company.

After buying the domain name for approximately US$11 million, [3] HRN changed its name in 2002 to Hotels.com and launched the offline brand 1-800-2-Hotels as well as allowing hotel bookings on line. There followed a period of rapid international expansion with 29 sites added over the next two years. In 2003, USAI was renamed InterActiveCorp (IAC). In 2005 IAC separated its travel business under the name Expedia Inc. Hotels.com then became an operating company of Expedia Inc. [4]

International growth since 2002 has included web sites for North, Central and South America, Europe, Australia, Japan, China and the Pacific Rim, the Middle East and South Africa. Web sites for Indonesia and Vietnam launched in 2011. Customers in all countries can book online or by phoning one of the multilingual call centres. Calls are both toll-free and paid, depending on the country of booking. [4]

In 2011, the site launched an iPad application and updated its mobile phone product on iPhone and Android. [5]

On December 1, 2016, Hotels.com took over Venere.com (another Expedia owned company).

U.S. disability rights infringement

In May 2007, Hotels.com was subject to a class action complaint (Smith v. Hotels.com L.P., California Superior Court, Alameda County, Case No. RG07327029) brought against them for “ongoing discrimination against persons with mobility disabilities who desire to, but cannot, use Hotels.com’s worldwide reservation network to make reservations for hotel rooms”. [6] The company denied the accusation and opposed the action, but was found guilty on one count of infringing California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, and on one count in violation of Unfair Competition Law. It was agreed that the company would provide suitable accessibility information about hotels sold on its website. [7]

Privacy concerns

In February 2019, TechCrunch reported that the Hotels.com mobile app in the iOS App Store was using session-replay functionality from Israeli firm Glassbox, to record users' activities and send the data to Expedia servers without users' informed consent, compromising users' privacy and contravening the rules of the iOS App Store. [8] [9]

Loyalty program

The first loyalty program for Hotels.com was called "Hotels.com Rewards" (formerly "Welcome Rewards") and rolled out across multiple countries from 2008 to 2011. [10] On July 6, 2023, Hotels.com replaced Hotels.com Rewards with One Key. The new program decreased rewards by 80 percent, including bookings paid in advance under the terms of the prior program. The website Frequent Miler criticzed these changes as an unusually large devaluation of the program not comparable to any other loyalty program change in the hospitality industry for a company not undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. [11]

Hotel Price Index

Starting in 2004, the site has published a twice-yearly review of international hotel room price trends called the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index. It is based on the prices paid per room by its customers using a weighted average based on the number of rooms sold in each of the markets in which it operates. [12] Information includes notable price changes and comparisons between destinations, hotel types, and other price-related analyses for the previous six months. [13] The Hotel Price Index is published both digitally and in print, and is aimed at journalists, the media, and hoteliers as part of its public relations.

Advertising

Ed Helms voiced the character "Smart" in Hotels.com advertisements. [14] In 2012, the character was changed from clay animation to CGI. [15] The company's advertising slogan was originally "Smart. So Smart" [16] before being changed to "Be Smart. Book Smart". [17]

In 2014, the site introduced the character "Captain Obvious" who is portrayed by actor Brandon Moynihan. Captain Obvious makes self-evident comments with the aim of communicating that Hotels.com is the obvious choice. [18] The campaign was devised by the ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky. [19] Moynihan said in an interview "Hotels.com has a great self awareness and they're not afraid to push the envelope with the crazy stuff I get to do as Captain Obvious". [20] Notable advertisements include one where he runs for president, [21] a La La Land inspired ad [22] and an ad where Captain Obvious meets his future self. [23] In 2018, Captain Obvious featured in Channel 4's ad blocking campaign. [24] In 2019, Captain Obvious appeared as a DJ in an episode of Four Weddings and a Funeral . [25]

Starting in the 2018-19 season, Hotels.com became the official global sponsor of UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup along with Expedia. [26]

In December 2020, Hotels.com signed a partnership with the National Basketball Association, and it was named as the Official Travel Partner of the NBA. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacation packages. Expedia.com was launched on October 22, 1996 by Microsoft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travel agency</span> Retailer that provides tourism-related services

A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destination. Travel agencies can provide outdoor recreation, arranging logistics for luggage and medical items delivery for travellers upon request, public transport timetables, car rentals, and bureau de change services. Travel agencies can also serve as general sales agents for airlines that do not have offices in a specific region. A travel agency's main function is to act as an agent, selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. They are also called Travel Advisors. They do not keep inventory in-hand unless they have pre-booked hotel rooms or cabins on a cruise ship for a group travel event such as a wedding, honeymoon, or other group event.

Sabre Corporation is a travel technology company based in Southlake, Texas. It is the largest global distribution systems provider for air bookings in North America. American Airlines founded the company in 1960, and it was spun off in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expedia Group</span> US online travel shopping company

Expedia Group, Inc. is an American travel technology company that owns and operates travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, Travelocity, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Ebookers, CheapTickets, CarRentals.com, Expedia Cruises, Wotif, and Trivago. Over 3 million lodging facilities and flights on over 500 airlines are bookable on the company's websites. It has 16,500 employees, and its headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation</span> Indian online ticketing, catering and tourism company

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is an Indian public sector undertaking that provides ticketing, catering, and tourism services for the state-owned Indian Railways. It was established in 1999 by the Government of India and operated under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways. In 2019, it was listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange with the Government holding a 67% ownership. As of December 2023, there are 66 million registered users with IRCTC with a daily average of 7.31 lakh tickets booked.

Tripadvisor, Inc. is an American company that operates online travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenTable</span> American internet company

OpenTable is an online restaurant-reservation service company founded by Sid Gorham, Eric Moe and Chuck Templeton on 2 July 1998 and is based in San Francisco, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agoda</span> Singaporean online travel agency

Agoda.com is an online travel agency catering primarily to consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Singapore and operations in Bangkok, Thailand. Agoda facilitates reservations for lodging, flights, ground transportation, and activities. It is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Booking.com</span> Dutch online travel agency

Booking.com is one of the largest online travel agencies. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, and is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. In 2022, the company's mobile app was the most downloaded mobile app in the travel agency category. As of December 31, 2022, Booking.com offered lodging reservation services for approximately 2.7 million properties, including 400,000 hotels, motels, and resorts and 2.3 million homes, apartments in over 220 countries and in over 40 languages. It also offers flights in 54 markets and tours and activities in more than 1,200 cities.

HomeAway was a vacation rental marketplace. It operated through 50 websites in 23 languages through which it offered rentals of cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns, and farmhouses.

Trivago N.V., marketed with lowercase styling as trivago, is a German technology company specializing in internet-related services and products in the hotel, lodging and metasearch fields. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf. The American online travel company Expedia Group owns a majority of the company's stock.

eDreams is an online travel agency based in Barcelona, Spain, that offers deals in regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance.

Blacklane GmbH is a German company based in Berlin which provides a chauffeur portal connecting people to professional chauffeurs via their mobile app, website and hotline. The company offers a prebooking service at a fixed rate and doesn't own its own fleet, but works with local chauffeur companies in each of its cities. Airport pickups include one hour of free waiting time, while all non-airport pickups include 15 minutes. Guests can also edit or cancel their bookings for free up to one hour before a one-way transfer.

Trainline Europe is the European arm of Trainline, Europe's leading train and coach app. Through either its web interface or mobile apps, customers can purchase tickets for a variety of European rail operators. It also has loyalty cards or vouchers and with e-ticket support. In 2016, Captain Train was acquired by Trainline.

Chope is a real-time restaurant-reservation booking platform that connects diners with its partner restaurants. The name “Chope” was inspired by the term chope spoken colloquially in Singapore. Chope charges restaurants fixed and per-diner fees for the use of its table booking system.

Venere.com was a website focusing on online hotel reservations. Its listing included various types of accommodation. Venere.com started in the year 1994 as Venere Net Srl, an online travel agency based in Rome, Italy. In 2008, it was acquired by Expedia Group. The president of the company was Johan Svanstrom. The company offered scholarships for Business & Management and Tourism students in Europe and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scene+</span> Canadian loyalty program

Scene+ is a Canadian loyalty program established in 2007. It is owned by Scene LP, which is jointly owned by Galaxy Entertainment, a subsidiary of Cineplex Inc., Scotiabank, and Empire Company.

PT Trinusa Travelindo, operating as Traveloka is an Indonesian technology company focused on travel and ticketing. Operating a services website of the same name and based out of Jakarta, Indonesia, Traveloka is active in six countries, and in 2022 remained the largest online travel app in Southeast Asia. Founded in 2012 as a travel search engine, it now also offers services such as attraction tickets, activities, transportation rentals, and restaurant vouchers. It also provides financial services such as credit and insurance. Classified as a unicorn company and regarded as functionally similar to Expedia, in 2022 it was valued approximately at US$3 billion.

Hopper, Inc. is a travel booking app and online travel marketplace that sells flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term rentals. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts.

References

  1. ↑ "Hotels.com, L.P." OpenCorporates . June 14, 2001. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Cornell University". David S. Litman ’82 and Robert B. Diener ’82. Cornell Law School. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  3. ↑ "I bought Hotels.com name for $11m". BBC News. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Hotels.com Backgrounder". Hotels.com. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  5. ↑ Warman, Matt (December 15, 2011). "Hotels.com app review". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Class Action". Case Summary. Lawyers & Settlements. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Settlement Agreement". Court proceedings. Archived from the original on November 22, 2011. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ Whittaker, Zack (February 6, 2019). "Many popular iPhone apps secretly record your screen without asking". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ Clover, Juli. "Some Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Record Your Screen for Analytics Purposes". MacRumors. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Hotels.com Rewards". Hotels.com Rewards. Hotels.com. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
  11. ↑ Pepper, Stephen (April 26, 2023). "Huge Devaluation Of Hotels.com Rewards; New One Key Program Only Giving 2% Back". Frequent Miler. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Hotel Price Index: Review of Global Prices, first half 2011". Hotel Price Index. Hotels.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2011. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI) Highlights Rising Hotel Prices in Emerging Destinations for American Travelers". Press Release. Market Watch. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Ed Helms Hotel.com ads". Officetally. June 11, 2009. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Hotels.com Gets a Makeover". Mom Central. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Hotels.com (Maybe Not So) Smart". Brandaide. October 23, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Hotels.com close to booking agency for social media brief". Prweek. February 6, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  18. ↑ Goldstein, Ian (May 31, 2021). "Who Plays Captain Obvious In The Hotels.com Commercials?". Looper. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  19. ↑ Gianatasio, David (February 27, 2014). "Hotels.com Recruits Captain Obvious, but Is One Gag Enough for a Campaign?". AdFreak. Adweek.com. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  20. ↑ McEvoy, Sophie (June 4, 2021). "Why Hotels.com's Captain Obvious Looks So Familiar". The List. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Captain Obvious runs for president". Fox Business on YouTube. March 11, 2016. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  22. ↑ Stuart, Rebecca (May 13, 2017). "Ad of the Day: Hotels.com mascot Captain Obvious stars in La La Land-style musical". The Drum. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  23. ↑ Taylor, Heather (November 17, 2020). "Here's What Happens When Captain Obvious Meets Future Captain Obvious". Pop Icon. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  24. ↑ Tan, Emily (March 7, 2018). "Hotels.com's Captain Obvious to 'block' ads on All 4". Campaign . Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  25. ↑ "HOTELS.COM: A FREE HONEYMOON? THERE'S JUST ONE LITTLE CONDITION". The Stable. August 16, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  26. ↑ "Expedia Group To Become Official UEFA Champions League Sponsor". PR Newswire. August 15, 2018.
  27. ↑ Official Release. "Hotels.com® named Official Travel Partner of the NBA". NBA Communications. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.