General manager Eric Hallin (left), who said he first heard of the Groupon phenomenon at the Web In Travel conference two years ago, has so far initiated two deals.

One, a brunch with a local site in January which yielded only 50 covers, the minimum required and two, an offer with Travelzoo which generated 180 room nights.

He said one had to be cautious about doing too many deals “unless they are in areas where we normally do not distribute to and we do not cannibalize our own markets”.

On the thinking that deals such as these would lead suppliers on a slippery slope to nowhere, he said, “Only if you keep doing it and it becomes predictable or institutionalized in any way.”

He said with Travelzoo, it was a question of paying the advertising rates – “regions vary in price depending on relevance. They also need a very good offer.”

He added, “We have also worked with tour operators. We can only do deals like this sporadically. A friend of mine recently did a campaign with an Australian Groupon-type business and received more than 10,000 room nights in a few days.

“Subsequently others wanted to do similar deals but were rejected as they were too similar too soon for the same market.”

Asked what kind of customers it had seen from such deals, he said, “I cannot really quantify the demographics but guess it may be ladies who are quicker to decide on a travel bargain but we end up with both genders.”

“I think it is mainly guests who would not normally come, but just grabbed a deal which had a very small period of availability.”