“Online players in the luxury travel space are non-existent in China,” said CEO & co-founder Frank Lin. “Yet it’s huge and we see a lot of opportunities in the space. Contrary to what people think, not all Chinese travellers are price conscious and there is a segment that is looking for high end experiences and are driven by value.”

He added, “Ctrip and Elong are more mass market and if you have the money now, where do you go to buy online a high quality luxury experience? Nowhere at the moment, so we hope to make a difference.

“We want to create a personalized high end service platform for China. People don’t go to Ctrip to buy a high end experience, it’s like you don’t sell Prada in Carrefour.”

“What we want to do is reinvent the online travel space in China through social media and luxury.”

Calling myALN a blend of the Jetsetter (which promises the world’s best vacations at members’ only prices) and Tablet which offers “the best luxury & boutique hotels worldwide), Lin said the site now has 100,000 members, 35% of whom are active. A third of its members are from Shanghai where Lin is based, 20% from Beijing and 10% from Guangzhou.

It does not do daily deals but offers weekly packages. “We are selective about the hotels we feature and we sell more packages – multiple nights, transfers, activities.

“People are not as price conscious as you might think. They want high quality and while price is also an issue, the quality is more important than the price. Our best sellers are the more expensive packages.”

It started off with domestic destinations but in June, launched packages to nearby places in Asia. “We are starting to see sales to international destinations – Hong Kong and Macau are popular and Bali and Phuket are starting to see growth.”

Lin said it met initial resistance from certain hotel companies who were suspicious about deal sites and what that meant to their rate parity. “But this is why we work on nett rates and an opaque pricing model and offer packages rather than room-only.”

Lin said myALN’s proposition is focused on customer service. “This is lacking in China. Getting the hardware is easy but getting the service right is hard. We focus on the way our customers are looked after and we work closely with our hotel partners to ensure our customers get special treatment.”

The site was self-funded in the beginning and the founders grew the membership by inviting the aluimni of Ivy League names such as Harvard and Berkeley, and top Chinese universities.

“Growing the member base is not easy but that’s where the value is. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it,” said Lin.

Earlier this year, it secured about US$1 million in funding from angel investors.

Lin said that creating demand though was more challenging than building the content. “We cannot advertise too overtly because it is exclusive so we have to grow through word of mouth.”

Social media is thus very important to building brand awareness. “We are a social media site – people can rate packages, rank them, organise a trip with friends.”

It will soon be launching a new version of the website that will have a boutique hotel section.

On how it came up with the name, myALN, Lin said, “It took us a while. We debated for quite a long time, especially on the Chinese name. Advisors told us the URL was not the easiest to recognize but we had to consider the cost – and it’s less expensive if it’s under five characters. Anyway, luxury brands are all short names – Prada, LV, CD. So ALN could become the brand for luxury experiences beyond travel – restaurants, spa services, etc.”

Asked what mistakes they had made, Lin said, “When we started, we thought about just targeting typical five star hotels – but that didn’t work. Luxury lesiure travellers do not want to stay at branded cookie cutter type hotels.

“Secondly, we should have been more aggressive in branding and marketing ourselves. We were conservative in the early days and like most entrepreneurs in love with their business, we thought, oh, people will find us. We do social media and people will love us.

“But you really have to work hard to get yourself known out there.”

Note: Frank Lin will be speaking at the WIT Conference – he will be part of “Dream of the Red Hot Groove” panel discussing the latest trends in China.