Articles tagged “best day”

If you work for an online travel agency and suggested it open brick-and-mortar stores to bring customers online, you would get very quizzical looks, at the least. Let's see if it works in Argentina and Brazil for Despegar/Decolar.

You probably won't see many credit card machines at Despegar's stores or booths in Argentina. But you will see travelers with cash.

Latin American economies frequently seem to be in shambles, but there are positive developments on the inflation front as far as Despegar is concerned.

Like Traveloka in Indonesia, Argentina's Despegar is making strides in financial services. Amsterdam-based Booking.com is busy building a payments platform, and Grab Taxi in Southeast Asia has a lending and insurance arm. Megatrend, yes.

Despegar is playing the hand it's been dealt during the depths of the coronavirus crisis, and that means it will cut costs, ensure liquidity, and be on the prowl for opportunistic acquisitions to take market share.

Despegar, Latin America's largest online travel company, will pay much, much less than its original $136 million proposed price to buy Mexican travel agency Best Day. Expect similar tough haggling over deal terms by travel companies across the globe.

Despegar had offered to pay a premium for Mexico's Best Day in January, but today the two companies are strapped for cash due to the pandemic's destruction of travel bookings. This acquisition may be one of several deals across the sector imperiled by coronavirus.

At a stroke, Despegar will boost its annual revenue by about 25 percent. Acquiring Best Day Travel Group, one of the largest travel agencies in Mexico, will also solidify its set of products, including in the promising business-to-business segment.