Online accommodation provider Ubid4rooms has doubled its booking window from 14 to 28 days and allow the corporate and groups market to make offers on multiple rooms.
UbidRooms is determined to stamp out hotel vacancies
The move will assist advance planning for the growing number of travellers chasing bargain deals and companies scaling back their business trips and meeting plans.
“With more than 100,000 hotel rooms around Australia now empty every night, properties are ultra keen to put bums in beds via the controlled discounts we facilitate, while travellers are now seeking bargains more aggressively,” said Ubid4rooms founder, Gary Berman.
“The tourism industry is hurting and is seeking innovative new ways to build business and that’s where we can help.”
The number of Australian and New Zealand properties featured on the site has grown to more than 500 — a seven-fold increase since the novel bidding system was launched in November 2007.
Berman said an anticipated 1000 properties would be open to the bidding system by the end of 2009 and he was also planning to add cruises and car hire to the bidding stock to help jittery travel operators move inventory.