2bangkok.com reservation service

[jpatokal]

Just wanted to drop a public note of thanks for the hotel reservation service -- I've used it a couple of times now and I was particularly impressed last time, when I made a booking at 1 AM on the day of arrival. Verification came before 9 AM, I paid up by credit card online and I had the voucher an hour later... and checking into the hotel was no problem, even though I didn't have a printout of the voucher, just an SMS confirmation. My only grumble (of sorts) is that the rates for BKK aren't really competitive with the corporate rates our regular travel agent gets, so I can't channel that business to 2B...

That said, how much does 2Bangkok earn whenever somebody books a night? You probably can't give out the full details, but a percentage of the price, fixed fee, or how? Basically, if I can get a price of (say) 1100 at 2B but 1000 somewhere else, I would be willing to pay the 100 extra if it goes to 2B... but not otherwise!

Also, while listing prices with taxes, service and breakfast included is very user-friendly, the sad truth is that you're probably scaring away some customers. $95++ looks nicer than $107.25, although it's really $111.15...

[admin]

We get a small percentage from each sale--it varies by hotel. The hotel sales are the only money-making thing on the site... (Amazon makes such a tiny amount it is almost not worth putting on the site).

I don't think there is money for us in banner advertising--just a few thousand baht per month. It is more cost effective to use the space to advertise the hotel that returns much more.

When people ask if 2Bangkok.com makes a lot of money, I say "it's a website" meaning "websites don't make money"... However, if we could make a bit more money consistently, there is so much more we could do with the site--I would like to have a more consistent and comprehensive review of Thai newspapers and TV along with hiring a Thai reporter to attend newsconferences and get more first-hand reports (its amazing how often local reports get the facts wrong).

We have been interested running our own hotel reservation service directly, but don't really know how (if anyone has any tips, let us know).

BTW: It has been my observation that in the last year and a half, interest in the hotel booking has fallen off steadily (even while readership has increased dramatically). I think this is because as more hotels have their own websites (every tiny bungalow along Koh Samet have websites with online reservations), there is less need for hotel reservation portals.