Partner Article

This direct hotel booking platform is poised for Asian expansion after closing its Series B round

London-headquartered Triptease is gearing up for its Far Eastern expansion after closing the direct hotel booking platform closed its $9m Series B funding round.

The round was led by new investor BGF Ventures alongside existing investors Notion Capital and Episode 1 Ventures and will help to unlock global growth for rapidly expanding tech firm, with plans afoot to open a new office in Singapore and double headcount at its New York outpost.

Working directly with hoteliers, Triptease helps to claw back the massive commissions venues are paying to online travel agencies, which in some cases can be 20% or more, through its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.

Integrating with the hotel’s current website and booking platform, the system helps operators increase their online conversion rates by tracking millions of consumer booking journeys spread across thousands of hotel websites, with claims that it is boosting conversion rates by up to 20% for clients.

Outlining the company’s vision, Triptease Founder Charlie Osmond, said: “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”

Owing to its partnerships with over 17,000 hotels, Triptease says the size of its dataset dwarfs that of its rivals and helps to bring insight from millions of customer journey’s to smaller venues who may only get visitors in the low thousands.

Now the business is looking to scale abroad with its presence in the US market soon to be complemented by a tilt into the Asian market from its new Singapore base, a move which BGF Ventures’ Rory Stirling believes makes its an ideal time to invest in the company.

He commented: “We are very excited to be joining Triptease as a new investor at a time when the company is showing great growth in the markets where it has established a presence.

“Now it’s time to expand the software to Asian hotels, to make this a truly global product. With consolidation amongst online travel agencies, hotels are increasingly looking for options to help them mobilise people to their own websites and Triptease is the best in its sector.”

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