dajo

Dingadeal.com lets groups get hotel deals. Groups (> 8 people) enter their accommodation requirements, and let hotels bid for their custom. Hotels are notified and have 24 hours to reply via the website with their best offer.

The group views & chooses the best hotel deal. They can accept the offer on the website, at which point the hotel is notified & supplied with the group's contact details. The hotel contacts the group to finalize the arrangements.

Our revenue model is commission-based. We don't accept payments on the site, so we invoice the hotel for a certain % after the group has stayed. Two main problems we're facing:

1. Invoicing hotels after the group has stayed. Due to the nature of group bookings, requirements can change between when they book on the site and when they stay in the hotel. For example, the number of people in the group can fluctuate. We rely on the group for feedback on how many ended up staying, what was the final price etc. It's messy to work out the commission we should charge the hotel.

2. Conversions rates on the site are extremely low. Conversion rates for a big online group booking competitor are around the 1% mark. That gives you an idea of where we're at. It's easy for the group to look at all the offers and then continue with their booking offline. There is no major incentive to complete the booking via our website. We do offer features such as group invoicing, but group organisers are rarely getting that far in the booking process.

So, based on those two issues, we're looking for alternative means of generating revenue. Some things in our favour:

- We generate a decent amount of targeted traffic via our blog, so we can get the right people to our site

- Group bookings is a lucrative area for hotels, so they do tend to make offers, even when the conversion rates are so low

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks.