BANGKOK, 25 October 2018: Bidroom, a European-based hotel booking site has announced an expansion of its board of directors with veteran hoteliers now investing in the company.
Experienced hoteliers and investors Bas Tolmeijer, Francesco Monaco and John Stoffers joined the board last month.
Bidroom was launched in 2014 offering travel consumers an opportunity grab room bargains through a simple online bidding process.
Established in the Netherlands and quickly expanding across Europe, the business model shifted in 2016 from bids to the standard OTA room sale proposition, but without charging hotel partners a commission.
Commenting on the new board members founders of Bidroom, Michael Ros and Casper Knieriem, said in the announcement that “by bringing in professionals, we can further shape our mission to shake up the OTA market and make it fairer.”
Tolmeijer, Monaco and Stoffers were co-founders of Apollo Hotels, which was successfully sold to the listed Fattal Hotels earlier this year.
In the new board, Bas Tolmeijer will fulfil the role of chief executive officer of Bidroom.
The five-member board comprises of Michael Ros, as chief operating officer (COO) responsible for operations, Casper Knieriem (chief development officer) with international development as his portfolio, John Stoffers as chief financial officer (CFO), Francesco Monaco, as chief commercial officer (CCO) responsible for the commercial strategy, and Bas Tolmeijer as CEO.
Claiming it saves hotels up to 25% in OTA commissions and pitching to consumers best available rates, from 5 to 25% cheaper than other booking systems, Bidroom’s revenue is mainly generated by membership fees.
Hotels register their property with Bidroom for the price of a one-time activation fee (€149 for B&B’s and apartments; €299 for 3-4-5-star hotels) to gain access to the system with direct bookings at 0% commission.
Travellers join Bidroom buying an annual subscription at €59 to book hotels that are around 5 to 25% lower than what competing OTAs offer. Consumers can free trial the service for one month before opting in with a Visa credit card debit.
For now the big sales push is in Europe where Bidroom has teamed up with Visa in a three-year partnership that started with a six-month campaign to offer trial membership to card holders.
The system offers rate bargains in hotels worldwide and specifically identifies in its promotions hotels in Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.
It claims to have more than 120,000 hotels in 128 countries and through its latest Visa Inc partnership established last May there is an ongoing membership drive to reach out to Visa cardholders in Europe.
