In two weeks Travelbug will celebrate its 5th birthday (yay!) and it seemed a good time to look at some of the recent milestones and give you a wee look at some of the stuff that is going on behind the scenes here at Travelbug HQ.
Since we launched on our new booking engine, we’ve already helped travellers book 100,000 nights at NZ properties. That’s your average motel filled over 6,000 times or filled every night for 18 years!
One of the things we value at Trade Me is innovation and finding new ways of doing things. Here in Travelbug land we’ve added some innovative channels over the years so here are the biggies.
Trade Me auctions – NZ accommodation businesses can run Trade Me auctions through their Travelbug account, so once you win your accommodation bargain you can immediately book it online on Travelbug. No fuss or post-auction hassle!
Treat Me Travel redemption – there are lots of daily deals sites out there, but our mates at Treat Me offer the best way to grab an accommodation daily deal. The Travelbug-linked deals show the availability upfront so there are no nasty surprises, and we guarantee that it’s the best price you can find that offer while the deal is up for sale.
Secret Sale – Not super-innovative, but this has proved to be one of the most popular features of all. If you are a little bit flexible with exactly where you stay and you’re happy to take a wee risk, you can get great bargains with our mystery hotel feature.
So 5 years in and we’ve been steadily adding ways to help Kiwis find awesome travel deals. We promise to keep doing that because we reckon booking travel should be easy, great value secure and fun.
3,000 places to stay…
This week we ticked over the 3,000th property on Travelbug – as far as we know more than any other website has in terms of places you can book online up to a year in advance – and the lucky property was a relisting of Moanarua Beach Cottage in Ohope Beach, a nice little B&B that looks like a good option for any stay in the area.
… and 152,000 more coming!
We didn’t want to stop at having the best range of NZ accommodation, so we’re about to relaunch the site with a whole new look and feel and a full range of international accommodation. Whether you want to book in Las Vegas or Langkawi, you can now book it with us with no booking fee! You can take a sneak peek if you like, by heading to Travelbug and searching for your favourite overseas destination in our main search box:
On 1st October we hope to bring you our full new site – and from then you’ll be able to browse for these international destinations more easily – but for now we’d love your feedback on what’s on site right now. Flick us a note to support@travelbug.co.nz or leave a comment here.
That’s it for now, watch out for a behind-the-scenes look at our new Travelbug office next week including a wee video tour.
Cheers!