Will Room 77's deep pockets and strong hotel product get it a seat at the table?
Skift Take
Travel metasearch in the U.S. is already a crowded field with Kayak, Room 77, and Hipmunk vying for eyeballs, and recently TripAdvisor got into the game, too. Don't be surprised if there are mergers/consolidation over the next few years, although nothing appears imminent.
Drew Patterson, who recently became Room 77's first CEO, does a perceptible double take at the seeming absurdity of the question.
"How is Room 77 going to meet the challenge of being relatively late to the party?" he's asked.
After all, the first crop of travel metasearch sites, including FareChase, SideStep and Qixo, are now distant memories of a bygone Travel 1.0 era, and notable players such as Skyscanner and Kayak have each been refining their products and building traffic for about a decade already.
How, then, are travel startups such as Room 77, which only debuted its hotel-metasearch business about a year ago, and Hipmunk, founded in 2010, going to compete against the bigger and and more-established players?
It may be late, but it's still early
Patterson believes it's actually early rather than late.
"It's the very early innings of the shift to mobile," Patterson says, noting that a massive shift in consumer behavior is under way as travelers reach for their smartphones and tablets, often even when the desktop is within easy reach.
"Mobile is the catalyst," Patterson adds.
Patterson argues that travel search is a great fit for mobile as travelers won't need a plethora of apps, they may be on-the-go searching for a hotel, and can benefit from streamlined side-by-side comparisons "when there's no keyboard and screen real estate" is scant.
In some ways, as relatively new and funded travel startups, Room 77 ($43.8 million) and Hipmunk ($20.2 million) find themselves in similar situations. How are they going to break out of the pack in the battle for global traction, and site and mobile visitors?
"It all starts with the
