Blind booking

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blind booking , in English " blind booking ", is the name for a special form of booking for flights and hotels that is offered by some internet booking portals. Various air travel companies and / or hotels offer flights and / or rooms anonymously, which the customer can book online for a reduced price. Both sides expect an advantage from this: the flights and / or hotels want to improve the aircraft and / or room occupancy via blind booking and the guests hope for a lower price.

While in the United States a significant proportion of all flights and hotel rooms are booked through blind booking, there are only a few providers in Germany. The most well-known German provider in the area of ​​holiday airlines is currently Eurowings and in the area of ​​hotel bookings, for example. B. FTI Group with headquarters in Munich mainly for Turkey or Surprice Hotels, a wholly owned subsidiary of HRS , with branches in Berlin and Karlsruhe.

history

The blind booking business model has been around for a number of years. The US travel portal Expedia first featured Blind Booking in 2001. Even today, hotel rooms are offered worldwide via blind booking under the name Hotwire. In addition to Hotwire , GetGoing and Priceline are major providers in the United States. Hipaway started in Germany. However, the Berlin company had to discontinue its offer shortly after it was founded. Surprice Hotels is currently the largest provider of blind booking hotel bookings in Germany.

concept

The blind booking business model is characterized by the fact that the customer only finds out the specific name of the destination and / or the hotel after booking the bus, flight and / or hotel. In order to enable the customer to make a selection, many providers categorize the available flights in terms of different categories, such as B. Shopping , snow & ski , party or culture , hotels with regard to various features, such as price, category, customer ratings, destination, location in the destination or facilities.

However, the travel destination or the name and address of the booked hotel remain unknown to the customer until the booking has been completed.

Blind booking also offers advantages for providers. Aircraft and hotels only very rarely achieve good occupancy at normal prices. Usually there are always a few places or rooms free. In order to improve the space and / or room utilization, flights and / or hotel rooms can be offered anonymously via blind booking portals. In order to make this more attractive for the customer, the airline and / or the hotel gives a discount. This can make up to 60 percent of the normal price.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blind Booking: Spontaneous surprise vacation (t-online.de of January 27, 2014, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  2. ↑ Save on hotel rooms with blind booking (auto-reise-welt.de, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  3. ↑ Germanwings: Now also "Blind Booking" from Düsseldorf (airportzentrale.de from February 28, 2014, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  4. ↑ Blind booking: the main thing is that the sun is shining (tagesspiegel.de of March 24, 2013, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  5. ↑ HRS starts blind booking portal Surprice (ahgz.de from October 7, 2013, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  6. ↑ Blind Booking - save super with Surprice Hotels and experience more (tu-dresden.de from January 7, 2014, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  7. ↑ Blind booking - the new trend? (city-tourist.de, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  8. ↑ New trend on the hotel market: Blind Booking (expat-news.com of February 27, 2014, accessed on March 12, 2014)
  9. ↑ Expedia Gets in On The Blind Booking Game with 'Unpublished Rates' (hotelchatter.com, August 3, 2010, accessed March 12, 2014)
  10. ↑ Taking Some Mystery Out of Blind Booking (nytimes.com, March 28, 2013, accessed March 12, 2014)
  11. ↑ Hipaway goes offline
  12. ↑ New bargain hotel portal is launched
  13. ↑ Blind Booking - The Journey into the Unknown (Urlaubshighlights.de of January 22, 2013, accessed on March 12, 2014)