A site that offers deals, then promotes the deal and brand on a well-known television travel show and have trusted travel journalists talk about the deal, brand and destination – that’s what Australia’s Channel Nine new start-up, Getaway Lounge, is offering.
Helmed by Timothy Hughes, formerly of Orbitz and the name behind the BOOT blog, the site not only offers a new integrated media approach to travel buying but also, in Hughes’ words, “allows consumers discover places they haven’t heard of and helps properties to find new customers”.
I caught up with Hughes on Skype two weeks after he had started his new role as CEO of Getaway Lounge. Given this was a subsidiary of Australia’s Channel Nine and affiliated with its 19-year-old travel programme, Getaway, I was picturing him in a plush television studio office with swanky furniture.But Hughes, who’s spent the last seven years (on and off) with Orbitz and Hotel Club, told me he was in a separate office, “an incubator space and sharing desks with other start-ups”.
“We are definitely bootstrapping, broken furniture and old carpets.”After years of blogging at BOOT and writing about other start-ups, Hughes obviously felt it was time for him to put his mouth where his boot was.
“The Getaway brand was the deciding factor for me – the chance to work with a brand that has 20 years of history in travel in Australia, the chance to take that history and use it to create a new marketing vehicle for suppliers and discovery and inspiration service for customers.“I really enjoyed the corporate life but the challenge and buzz of start up world is more intense, more challenge, more exciting and more fun.”
His mission is to build Getaway Lounge into “the best place for Australians to come before they getaway; a place for customers to find unique travel deals and offers; and a place for suppliers to build brands, generate sales and acquire customers.” 
In his view, the next wave of online travel is answering open-ended questions for consumers who don’t know where to go. “The old world was about helping people answer the question; now it’s, I want to be inspired, where do I go next?”
So on the consumer side, Getaway will be more of an inspiration and discovery engine than a booking site and on the hoteliers’ side, it will drive consumers to book hotels directly rather than through an intermediary.
But don’t metasearch sites like Hotelscombined.com and Wego.com do that as well? “Yes, but who knew there was a space left. Metasearch drives traffic, not brand. OTAs drive transactions but they are not that good in driving traffic or brand. TripAdvisor has a role in brand but it’s not that good in customer acquisition.
“We will use our TV assets to drive brand, bookings are done at the hotel so there’s customer acquisition for the hotel and we facilitate the transaction – so we do a little bit of all three.”How it works is – Getaway Lounge will run deals for short time, it loads that unique deal, sends it out to its audience and promote the brand on TV, and its other offline and online media assets.
“We are measuring TV advertising on a performance basis, this has never been done before,” said Hughes. Getaway Lounge then splits the value of the booking with supplier.
Said Hughes, “Time and time again it has been shown that travel requires dedicated and different effort to selling other products. We are able to give our suppliers television as well as digital media exposure. Our first TV spot is here. This was run as a stand-alone advertisement and as a piece on the Getaway show.
“The stars on the Getaway show talk about the deals and brands and that has a value in itself.”
But does it devalue the journalist when deals are driving the inspirational content? “No, we are very clear in the types of properties we put in the deal and brands that are recommended are the ones that should be recommendend.”
He said he had turned down as many deals as had been loaded. While he said that the travel deals space was very crowded, “it’s also a very huge space”.
“I think travel is and always will be a multi channel enterprise. There will be space for group sites like Getaway Lounge as marketing, brand, sales and customer acquisition. Similarly OTAs will continue to flourish as places to book travel on specific dates - and drive retail volume. Media and review sites have a role in helping drive advice and destination inspiration. This is one of the world's biggest industries so there is room for a wide variety of services.”
He believes that deal sites are brilliant for brands. “Travel is one the largest advertising buying industries in the world with billions spent each year on travel advertising around the world. Most of it is only broadly targeted through media demographics or ultra targeted to those that have already decided on a place such as through paid search advertising.
“What the Getaway Lounge model does is allow a brand to target their marketing to a dedicated travel audience.”
For the moment, Getaway Lounge will focus on deals in domestic Australia and South-east Asia, namely Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the South Pacific. Eventually, it will cover Europe and the US.
As for his BOOT blog, Hughes intends to continue writing it. “Finding time is hard right now to write all that I want to. But I will continue to have two lives in travel - pundit and executive. I love both parts too much to give up one of them.”
Note: Timothy Hughes will be speaking about online innovation at WIT Australia, Sydney, June 21.
