PrivateDeal’s smart booking platform supported by FIT

In the booking process, a traveller, whose challenge is to find the best price, is often faced with the difficult choice of selecting his online booking platform: room prices vary significantly depending on the date and on the chosen platform. On the other hand, more than 30% of room bookings are made through online travel agencies (i.e. Booking.com or Expedia), which charge hotels with important fees. Therefore, hotels have a strong interest in maximizing the ratio of direct bookings with their clients, whilst still being restrained by the price parity that prevents them from offering lower prices on their website than the ones from the online travel agencies. This is where PrivateDeal comes in, by proposing a platform on the hotel website allowing clients to book a hotel and a room and to negotiate the price directly with the online system. The transaction is private, the final negotiated price is only known by the client and the hotelier.

An encouraging start… 

Founded in 2017 by Lucien Mauguin and Isabelle Jan, PrivateDeal now markets its instant intelligent negotiation solution, that was developed in partnership with the Ecole hôtelière of Lausanne. “I am glad that we can support PrivateDeal thanks to the programme FIT Digital by EHL. Their project brings a concrete solution to hoteliers to regain control over their client relations and to maximise room occupancy”, recounts Winnaretta Zina SINGER, Head of EHL’s Innovation Pole. “In less than a year, this is the fourth promising entrepreneurial initiative for hospitality or food based at the Innovation Village that is accelerated thanks to such financial support”. In addition, in 2019, PrivateDeal received the Prix Première from HotellerieSuisse and conducted a seed round to accelerate its commercial expansion.

…and a promising path ahead 

In 2020, the company will be filing a patent and leading an Innosuisse research project to conceive a second version of its platform. It is to facilitate this development that PrivateDeal has received the support of the FIT. “The loan FIT Digital Growth by EHL will allow us to extend our team to expand our market, conduct digital marketing campaigns to strengthen our international presence and participate in the World Travel Market, one of the biggest travel events worldwide”, explains Isabelle Jan, co-founder and associate executive director of PrivateDeal. The start-up also plans on conducting a new round of fundraising in 2021.

(Press release / ES)