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When flash sales aren’t enough: Living Social gets hotel rooms from Priceline
DigitalGoing where others haven’t feared to tread, LivingSocial has quietly added hotels from Priceline to the flash-sales site’s travel section, Escapes. Site visitors now will be able to choose whether they want to book an flash sale, such as four nights at the Old Bahama Bay Resort, West End, Bahamas, for $599 plus a bunch of [...]
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LivingSocial raises $110 million and it’s a downer for daily deals
DigitalLivingSocial Inc. was worth about $1.5 billion in a recent financing round, less than a quarter its value as recently as 14 months ago, evidence of dwindling demand for the daily coupons that make up most of its sales. Investors put $110 million into the company and received 7.5 percent of its equity, Chief Executive [...]
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Washington, D.C. gets a little raunchy in Valentine’s Day tourism ad campaign
DestinationsPresident Obama has been credited with making Washington, D.C. cool again. It’s also been the most popular place to move for the seventh year in a row with a relatively strong economy, open jobs, and growing number of yuppies hanging out on the mall. Now the city’s tourism bureau, Destination DC, is ready to embrace its [...]
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LivingSocial cuts 10% of workforce but claims travel business “is doing great”
DigitalDaily deals company LivingSocial cut 400 jobs, mostly in the U.S., but claims its travel business, Escapes, “is doing great.” The layoffs amount to around 10% of the workforce. “Escapes is doing great, and there’s no change in strategy and focus related to it,” said spokesperson Andrew Weinstein, following the layoff news. “Doug Miller [senior [...]
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Starbucks turns to LivingSocial for daily deals experiment
DigitalStarbucks Corp, the world’s largest coffee chain, is offering consumers a deal this week through daily-deal company LivingSocial, a vote of confidence in Groupon Inc’s main rival. LivingSocial, part owned by Amazon.com Inc, will offer a $10 Starbucks gift card for $5 on Wednesday. Customers have six months to claim the card, which can be [...]
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LivingSocial likely to give up on Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates
DigitalLivingSocial, the online business that offers deals and discounts on a range of commercial products, is looking to exit the Middle East market, according to a report Sunday in Abu Dhabi daily newspaper The National. In an email to employees, Eric Eichmann, the company’s president of international operations, explained that because LivingSocial was unable to [...]
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Hotels and travel providers weigh the benefits of daily deal sites
DigitalBy definition, a group buying site or deal site is one that offers highly discounted deals by attracting a minimum purchase threshold. Last year, we saw a flurry of excitement over these types of sites, but this interest appears to have waned in recent months along with a decline in consumer confidence levels.
