Could Travelzoo scratch its booking site itch by making merger magic with Jetsetter?
Skift Take
A Travelzoo-Jetsetter merger could work if the price were right, but sites such as Perfect Escapes, Spire, and Travel Intelligence are carrying out a flash sale of their own businesses, and could be more of a bargain in Travelzoo's view.
With the twin revelations that hotel-site Jetsetter is up for sale while Travelzoo is negotiating to acquire an unidentified hotel-booking site, does a merger of the two make any sense?
There's an argument to be made that a Travelzoo acquisitiion of Jetsetter, owned by Gilt Groupe, would benefit all concerned, although there are other hotel-booking site candidates for Travelzoo to consider, including Perfect Escapes and its sister brands, which are currently the subject of an asset sale.
It's ironic that Travelzoo, which operated solely as a media business for more than a decade with its deal newsletters and didn't handle any transactions until it launched Local Deals in August 2010, now wants to transition even further into hotel transactions with the acquisition of a hotel-booking site. In revealing such a scenario, Travelzoo indicated that its somewhat-Groupon-like group-buying and voucher business was
