Hotels.com targets young, tech-savvy travelers
By Lee Hyo-sik
Jason Kim
Hotels.com, one of the world’s leading lodging booking sites, is looking to attract more tech-savvy, young travelers here who make their own trip plans, the head of its Korean unit said Tuesday.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Jason Kim, representative director for Korea at Hotels.com, said Korea is a strategically-important and high-growth market for the U.S.-based company, which operates websites in 35 languages across 89 countries.
Kim said the company will invest more resources this year to expand its share in Korea’s rapidly-growing online hotel booking market.
“Korea is one of our top three markets in Asia,” the director said. “Our business in Korea has been expanding explosively since 2008 when we first launched a Korean-language site. Through our extensive global network, Korean travelers can book hotels and other types of lodgings abroad more conveniently and at cheaper prices.”
Hotels.com has formed a partnership with hundreds of thousands of hotels in over 200 countries. The company and its competitors normally receive 8 to 15 percent of the money that customers pay to its member hotels as commission.
“Given that the online lodging booking market is highly competitive, we know we have to do better than our competitors to remain in business,” Kim said. “Our app offers a more user-friendly environment and many real-time bargains. We also operate a call center in Korea for 16 hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., longer than those of our competitors.”
Hotels.com offers the 10+1 deal to its membership users so that if a customer who books lodging for 10 times will get a free room for the 11th time.
“We will also rely on television and other traditional medium to promote our brand as well as targeting people seeking travel information on social network services,” the director said. “In particular, we will make our app easier to use and provide exclusive deals to those making reservations through it.”