Dealbase.com is website that allows users to post travel deals to a growing database of hotel and package deals. I would compare it to a user generated TravelZoo. The site currently has about 9279 deals from destinations around North America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
The concept is certainly a good one. Basically a Craigslist of hotel deals, created and updated by the user community. The site does not require a login, which is a bonus, and the “Post Deal” process is very simple. To post a deal, you complete a very simple one page form. In fact, I completed the form myself and created a deal…
My only concern is that there is no moderation of the deals or a way to ensure the deals are legitimate. With reviews or ratings this tends not be a big issue, but deals are transactional and should probably treated a little differently.
The site is well designed and utilizes some nice ajax features including autocomplete fields when posting deals. The site uses large fonts and is easy to read.
Questions:
1. Is Dealbase planning on expanding into other deals, for example flights, activities, tours, car rentals, and cruises?
2. Are there any plans to allow properties or operators to post official deals? Will they monetize this?
3. Is Dealbase planning on making their data available through an API?
4. Can they import deals through a standard interface or API?
I'm Stephen Joyce. I'm an entrepreneur and I enjoy public speaking, writing, learning new things, sharing things I've learned with others, and hopefully making the World just a little better. This is my personal site and the views are my own.
I was pretty skeptical of the concept, but just surfed around the site a bit and found some great deals. This is a great play in a down market. There are a lot of great deals out there and travelers are more price-conscious than ever.
I’d agree that some amount of moderation will be necessary, as this site could get clogged with spam. I’m curious what their moderation strategy is going forward.
Do you have any idea what their revenue model is? There is always the default revenue source of contextual advertising, but I’m curious if they’ve got something interesting up their sleeve.
Also curious where their inventory is coming from right now. I doubt they have enough users to upload 9,000+ deals only a couple of weeks after launch.
Like you I’d also like to know whether there is an API in the works.
Cheers,
Tyson
It sounds like they might have something new that is being launched at the PhoCusWright Conference. Dealbase has been very hush hush about, which is a good thing. I suppose we’ll probably learn more, but I am definately going to ask them in person during the blogger press conference.
Thanks for the thoughtful evaluation, Stephen. I’m the Director of Product Operations here at DealBase and I wanted to address some of your thoughts:
* Deals are indeed moderated (by a team of human beings!) on a regular basis, and duplicate, fake, or malicious ones are deleted. (Your link above may no longer work by the time you read this.)
* Yes, we absolutely have plans to expand into other deal areas. Right now we’re hunkered down and focusing on hotel deals as the focal point of our launch at PhoCusWright.
* Yes, since anyone can post a deal, that includes properties and operators as well. We do have partnerships with various properties.
* Yes, plans for an API to help both with getting data in and sharing data out are also on the roadmap. I’m glad to read that you’re thinking some of the same things that we are!
*@Tyson – Our sources for deals come from hotels themselves (not just RSS feeds), email, print, and other online sources. A deal like this one at the Wynn (http://www.dealbase.com/Las-Vegas-Strip/Wynn-Las-Vegas-hotel-deals/Escape-Wynn-Winter-Weekdays-9222) isn’t even on their own site.
Stephen – we’ll be looking forward to your questions at PCW, when we launch. I’ll make sure that Sam Shank, our CEO, keeps an eye out for you.
Hi Liz. You’re right, the link doesn’t work anymore. Thanks for the answers, it’s always great to get direct feedback. I’m a huge advocate for open communications between platforms so your comment about an API is good because quite often APIs are treated as an afterthought rather than a priority development item. I look forward to meeting Sam at PCW.
You raise a great point about moderation of deals, Stephen. After the MGM Grand “deal” debacle that happened via smartervegas this summer, I’m really glad they’re planning to check out every deal that is contributed.
My issue with this site (and the reason I’m not quite as enthusiastic about it as you are) is that this is a business that is expecting users to do their work for them, contributing information to the site without compensation. At the end of the day (in a few years), they’ll probably sell this website for millions of dollars. My feeling is the least they can do is offer some type of compensation to contributors over and above the possibility that you might get a good hotel deal on their site.
It sounds like they might have something new that is being launched at the PhoCusWright Conference. Dealbase has been very hush hush about, which is a good thing. I suppose we'll probably learn more, but I am definately going to ask them in person during the blogger press conference.