London – 6 April 2017 –
Triptease, a travel SaaS start-up that provides a platform to hotels seeking to increase direct bookings, has raised $9 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by new investor BGF Ventures, with participation from existing investors Notion Capital and Episode 1 Ventures.
Alongside further product development, Triptease will use the money raised to continue their rapid growth and international expansion into Asia by opening a new office in Singapore. The company will also double headcount in their current London and New York offices.
Triptease provides a data-driven software-platform to hotels looking to increase their online conversion rate in the face of intense competition from online travel agencies (OTAs).The drive for direct bookings is the single biggest priority of the hotel industry, with commissions paid to OTAs often reaching 20% or more.
The Triptease Direct Booking Platform integrates with a hotel’s current website and booking engine. Tracking millions of consumer booking journeys across thousands of hotel websites, Triptease brings conversion optimisation to each individual hotel website. The result is a smoother booking process and 20% more people booking direct on a hotel website.
Charlie Osmond, founder and Chief Tease at Triptease, explains the company’s mission: “We want to shift the world to direct bookings. A direct relationship with customers reduces a hotel’s spend on middleman commissions whilst allowing them to offer cutting-edge services like mobile check-in alongside ancillary upsells. Savvy consumers have also started to realise hotels prefer guests who book direct. Room upgrades and special incentives have become commonplace benefits for booking direct. There is nothing that a hotel can do today that has a bigger, more immediate impact on direct bookings than implementing the Triptease Direct Booking Platform.”
Triptease is working with over 17,000 hotels, including major groups and independent hoteliers across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. Annually, Triptease’s platform delivers over $1 billion worth of direct booking revenue to hotels, while the company’s own revenue has grown by 1000% over the last six quarters.
Triptease aims not only to provide the best product on the market, but also to lead the Direct Booking movement. These efforts are spearheaded by the company’s hugely successful Direct Booking Summits, as well as original research derived from data collected by the Platform. Charlie Osmond explains: “We have an important educational role to play in the market. We’re here to help hotels improve their digital savvy, and we will continue to wave the flag for direct bookings. We also need this money to keep up with the crazy demand for our Direct is Best socks.”