New Flash Sale Site for Travel: Orbitz Insider Steals

Only a matter of time before all the OTA's get into the travel flash sale game. They have emails of millions of customers, why not put them to use?

Insider Steals from Orbitz is the latest in travel sales, you need to register your email address in a normal Orbitz account to sign up. Exclusive? No. Good deals? Probably. Leading the market? Not at all.

I think the Expedia / Groupon combo Groupon Getaways has more potential for success.

CheapTickets.com has also launched weekly (not daily) members-only flash sales called very creatively: “Members Only Prices.” So original.

Who's next?

Travelocity? Hotels.com? Lastminute.com? My money's on Travelocity.

Keeping score? Here's a complete list of Travel Flash Sale Sites.

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Modular Social Features - The Time Has Come

How many websites are built with social functionality from the ground up? I have an answer (of course): very few.

I'm not talking about "friends" and "social networks" - things that only Facebook really needs to do at this point, but social features - the things we're starting to take for granted on the market-leading sites across all verticals, like Amazon, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Huffington Post. User-generated content (notes / blogs, etc), ratings, reviews, content sharing, top ten lists, photo galleries, recommendations, etc. are all social features.

When the CEO says 'we need some of that social stuff on our website', what do most web teams (that aren't Amazon) do? Spend a lot of time and money building the same functions that everyone else has, of course. There's very little innovation because just replicating this functionality is hard enough, and there is very little ability to "bolt on" this functionality for 2 reasons:

1. Social is built around users, and every website has their own interpretation of a visitor, user, login, and account.
   
2. Social needs to be built into the fabric of the site. It needs to bring life to a one-way conversion. It's not suitable, appropriate or successful when a company builds a social area that's completely separated from the site content, so seamless integration is a must.

"Social" to me means focusing on people instead of pages. Expecting that everyone is the same just isn't good enough anymore - people are different and websites should recognize them as such.

Some sites already do a great job at this, including a past customer that rhymes with Bluffington Host. Understanding the behavior of their logged in users and rewarding them and incentivizing them is key to their success. Analyzing deep behavioral data is a different challenge, but getting the mechanisms on the site to push people in the right direction is the first step, and is too hard to do today. I'd call this advanced functionality, and it's a key strategic advantage for this publisher. Unless you have really smart people on your product team thinking about this strategically, it's not going to happen. The reality is people working on most 'normal' websites, including ecommerce sites, just aren't those people.

Basic social functionality, however, doesn't need to be the re-creation of the wheel each and every time. There's a science to social, paradigms to be followed for the best results, and the modules / widgets / functions can be very similar from site to site. It all depends on how they're "built in", and that's why just about every website that "adds social" has to do it internally as part of their proprietary code. If this part were easy, more people could devote time and resources to the deep data analysis and the advanced part of social.

I think the time has come for a modular system to solve this problem. Most websites that are making money or driving leads today are not clean - they're messy, with years of code behind them. Starting from scratch or re-architecting is not an option, so integrating functionality that's actually designed for spaghetti code is required.

A framework that developers can work directly with that uses object-oriented concepts and enables developers to take pre-designed but configurable and skinnable modules and plug them into their site is the next step in the evolution of social as part of everyday life. Such a framework would create the required database tables, and integrate directly with proprietary user data, transaction data, and visit/event data through a robust and open API. The calls within the code must would be able to display statuses and activities and actions of each visitor, and be modular so they can be accessed across heterogeneous sites, different coding languages, and different levels of formatting and styling.

Integrating social functionality is increasingly important - if you don't have social functionality yet, you're already behind (and, just to clarify, this does NOT mean displaying a 'Follow Us on Twitter' button).Building it efficiently, quickly or cost effectively is hard while you're trying to keep your current site working and re-writing isn't an option. Making it easy is what I'm thinking about now.

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Complete List of Flash Sale / Private-Sale Sites for Travel

Last Update:  March 19, 2012

More flash sale sites focused on travel & hotels every day

How easy is it to start a flash sales site or private sale site focused on travel? Pretty easy, apparently. Let's see how many of these flash sale travel sites are still around in two years as:

1. Consumers get burned out on too many daily deal emails in their inbox
2. The economy improves and the lowest deals with their accompanying restrictions aren't sought after quite as much
3. Hotels and travel suppliers find that dealing with some of these companies just isn't good business.

What's the difference between Flash Sale and Private Sale you ask? A 'private sale' means membership is exclusive - you to be member to get access to see the deals. Membership can be exclusive where you need to get an invitation from the site or from a friend, or it can be open where anyone can join by filling in a form.

A flash sale is a limited-time sale with limited inventory that can get sold out. But access to see the sale isn't necessarily restricted - some sites are open, some are members-only. Private sale sites are generally flash sale sites, but not the reverse.

This is a definitive list of flash sale and private-sale travel sites, and the list is continuously appended as I find more (I'll add a date next to new additions). I might even write more about each as time permits. The list is split between travel-only sites and sites that also sell goods and products as their primary business.

Top Travel Private Sale / Flash Sale Websites (dedicated to travel)

1. Vacationist - private sale site focused on luxury hotels - both domestic and international - that has exclusive membership and isn't open to the general public. Vacationist is a joint venture between Travel+Leisure and Luxury Link and is by far my favorite.
2. TravelZoo - the original flash sale, these guys have been sending lists of 'curated' deals (paid for by vendors) out since the 90's. They don't have exclusive offers, but rather connect consumers directly to suppliers.
3. Jetsetter - flash sale site focused on upscale travel, owned by the Gilt Groupe
4. SniqueAway - part of the TripAdvisior / Expedia group, this flash site offers more local, drivable US destinations.
5. Voyage Privé - division of the largest travel private sale company in Europe, based in France. Now growing their membership in the US. Now partnered with Ideeli.
6. TripAlertz - members-only travel site where prices go down as bookings go up. "Groupon for Travel"
7. Tablet Hotels - some nice upscale and trendy properties, but prices aren't super discounted. More hip than substantial.
8. Overstock Vacations - with text big enough for a senior to read without glasses, Overstock's vacations and prices are visible to the public.
9. Off&Away - Private Sales, launched July 2010. Discounts of up to 50%. Fewer sales each week (3-5), thin descriptions of the hotel - very focused on booking. Calendar looks like Vacationist. (updated 7/10/2011)
10. Itinerie - a specialized site that offers savings on customizable luxury vacations in South America. Good looking site, complete tour packages - not just hotels.
11. Travesse - another 'me too' private travel site with "luxury" hotels and holidays focused on UK residents.
12. Trazzler - a website trying to be a bit more hip and social, they provide info as well as deals. Membership required only to book.
13. Trippo - exclusive getaways, half the price. With a hippo as a mascot, doesn't look too upscale, but hasn't quite launched yet. UPDATE 3/12/2012 - looks like this company is no longer.  It ends before it begins.
14. Yuupon - seem to be positioning themselves like the Walmart of flash travel. Downscale accommodations in all areas of the US. Anyone can see prices, anyone can book. I'm sure this will do well, but I'll never use it. Just like Walmart.
15. Trippr - it was coming from Tippr, but haven't seen anything yet. Tippr requires a minimum number of buyers in a local market to 'unlock' a deal.
16. HotelTonight - not quite a flash sale, but a way to book highly discounted last minute travel on your mobile. You need to download their app. Perfect for road warriors without admins, or people stranded in airports.
17. InsiderTrips - Out of Business. This site is now for sale - whatever traffic they have goes to the best offer. (update: June 23, 2011).
18. HotelYo - my favorite name so far, yo. No, not really. They say discounts of up to 80% on 4- and 5-star hotels, for UK and Italian customers.
19. SecretEscapes - discounts of up to 70% off each week, focused on UK customers.
20. Vamoose.in - travel for people on the Indian sub-continent. Prices public and in rupees.
21. Spire - NEW! (June 23, 2011) Travel flash sale site, run by the people behind Perfect Escapes and Travel Intelligence. According to them: guaranteed lowest prices with a minimum of 30% off prices found than anywhere else. Also allow cancellations for up to 72 hours after a trip is booked, minus a $29 fee.
22. Orbitz Insider Steals NEW! (June 27, 20011) is the latest in travel sales, you need to register your email address in a normal Orbitz account to sign up.
23. CheapTickets.com Members Only Prices launched weekly (not daily) members-only flash sales. Not separate from normal registration.
24. Travelocity Dashing Deals NEW!  (August 29, 2011). Discounted hotel rooms shown on the Travelocity website. Big differentiator: not a voucher, but actually like a travel flash sale.
25. e-booking.com NEW! (November 22, 2011) A Swiss private sale travel company stating savings of "up to 40% off" and no notable features, we're guessing this site won't last very long.
26. Andrew Harper Private Sale.  NEW! (January 9, 2012) Members-only discounts on luxury hotels, an add on to the company's members-only luxury travel auctions.
27. ThailandFastDeals.com NEW (March 1, 2012) started by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, this site offers hotels as well as flights and tour packages through Thailand’s travel partners. It also makes all pricing visible without registration, so it’s not a members-only site, just a clearinghouse for deals.  The first destination-focused private or flash sale site I've seen.
28. TravelTipping NEW( March 2, 2012) has a simple email-only registration, so it’s vaguely private (and they don't seem to send too many emails).  Prices “up to 75% off” hotels, resorts, villas, tours and cruises - this is not a room-night-only service but sells multi-day vacations.

Top Flash Sale Sites (with a travel component / brand)

1. Living Social Escapes - moderately priced, upscale hotels, part of the growing Living Social kingdom.
2. Groupon Getaways - Groupon announced a partnership with Expedia, we're waiting for this one to launch in July. It could be big, most likely it will continue to fuel the revenue growth in ponzi-scheme-like style for the daily deal 8,000 ton monster.
3. HauteLook Getaways - acquired Bonvoyou then was acquired by Nordstrom. Not sure if travel is key for Nordstrom, we'll see what happens.
4. Ideeli Travel - created a new division with partner Voyage Privé, launched today: "Up to 100 of the most-wanted domestic and international destinations each month, all at ideeli members-only pricing of 30% to 75% off" (Updated: June 21, 2011)
5. exclusively.in - for residents of India, offers both travel and consumer products (and saris).
6. Bloomspot Travel - more local deals, with some decent upscale hotels
7. Rue La La - partnered with the Virtuouso luxury travel agency to provide travel deals next to their designer fashion products.
8. Facebook Travel Deals - no, not quite yet, but it's just a matter of time until they add travel as a category to their new Deals section.  (Update, 3/12) - still no travel.
9. Mamapedia - a site focused on, you guessed it, Moms! Hotel deals are part of the everyday mix of goods.
10. FamilyFinds - another Mom focused site, with lots of local deals & some actually great travel deals designed for families.
11. Zozi - local deal site focused on activities, not products, with a travel section. One of the only sites with a money-back guarantee. Most others are no-refund deals.
12. Vaniti - not yet launched, but coming in "2012". I'll keep an eye out.

Your site not listed here? Let me know.

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