MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — (Marketwire) — 01/03/13 — Hotel metasearch engine today announced it has closed $30.3 million in Series C financing with participation from new investor Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE). The company-s existing investors also participated, including Sutter Hill Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Concur Technologies, Felicis Ventures as well as Expedia-s founder Rich Barton, former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford and Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow. This brings Room 77-s total capital raised to $43.8 million.
Room 77 is pioneering a better way for travelers to shop for hotels, instantly searching hundreds of travel sites at once to find the best hotel at the best price. Since launching its platform just a year ago, Room 77 bookings and revenue have accelerated dramatically. In the past nine months alone, the company has driven hundreds of thousands of room nights through its marketplace, recording significant month-over-month growth.
By combining fast and comprehensive search technology with unprecedented service, Room 77 is proving it helps users save time and money — and score a great room. Based on internal analysis of more than five million hotel searches, Room 77 uncovered at least one lower price for travelers in two out of three searches, averaging $72 per stay. And, only Room 77 offers free service, which leverages the company-s proprietary room data, such as blueprints and simulated RoomView(SM) technology, to help travelers get in a great room when they book through Room 77. The company-s consistently high savings and service levels garner high marks from customers, contributing to a repeat booking rate of more than 50 percent.
“We believe metasearch is an increasingly important model and complementary to our travel transaction businesses,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer. “The level of innovation and depth of content at Room 77 excites us about its future role in this important customer acquisition channel.”
“Room 77 is obsessed with helping travelers uncover the best hotel deal anywhere in one fast and easy search,” said Kevin Fliess, chief operating officer of Room 77, Inc. “Our investors recognize the inherent value of metasearch and the importance of rapid innovation in this category, and we-re delighted to welcome Expedia, Inc. to this esteemed group. As recent events in this category demonstrate, hotel metasearch represents a massive market and huge global opportunity. This round will only help Room 77 grow our marketplace to help travelers around the world find great hotel deals which, in turn, drive incremental business and revenue to our hotel and travel agency partners.”
Room 77 expects to use the additional capital to grow its team with top talent; expand into new markets; increase investment in product; engineering and room-level content; and step up its marketing efforts to build a world-class brand.
Simultaneous with the closing of this round, Jim White, managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures, has joined the Room 77 board of directors. Additional financial details regarding the round were not disclosed.
The hotel vertical represents the largest and most profitable category in online travel, accounting for approximately two billion room nights and more than $165 billion in gross bookings annually(1).
In addition to Room77.com, travelers can shop for hotels using the Room 77 hotel app for iPhone®, available in the , and on Android in .
(1) Based on Company and third-party estimates
Room 77 is a growing engine where travelers can instantly shop hundreds of travel sites at once to find great . By combining fast and comprehensive search technology with unprecedented service, Room 77 is proving it helps users save time and money — and score a great room. Two out of three searches on Room 77 uncover real hotel savings, averaging $72 per stay — this translates to more than $7 million in found savings for Room 77 customers. And, only Room 77 offers free service, which leverages Room 77-s proprietary room data and insights to get travelers in a room that meets their needs. The appreciation customers have for Room 77 shines through in its high . Based in the Silicon Valley, Room 77 launched out of beta in 2012, and has raised $43.8 million. For more information, visit .
Room 77 is a registered trademark of Room 77, Inc.
iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc.
is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world-s leading online travel brands, including:
®, the world-s largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 30 countries
®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe
®, the world-s fifth largest corporate travel management company
, the second largest online travel company in China
®, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
®, a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
®, a top luxury travel specialist
The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through Expedia® Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world-s leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.
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