2. Reverse Auction History Concept invented in 1995 by Glen Meakem Freemarket was the first reverse auction website Development in the late 90’s thanks to the dot-com boom era 1998: creation of priceline.com, the first reverse auction focused on hospitality and travel
3. General Principles In foreward auction there is one seller, many buyers and the buyer with the highest bid gets the product In reverse auction there are many seller and one buyer who buys at the best (lowest price)
4. General Principles: two main types of reverse auction Attention: may be risky and expensive if there is a fee to make a bid The sellers do they best to make the best offer to a specific demand i.e.: mybestfarefinding.com The lowest unique bid Sellers make the lowest bid to match buyers expectations
5. Types of hotels on priceline.com “name your own price” All categories 1 to 4 star hotels Many types: Independents Chains International groups
7. Can a hotel participate reverse auction? Can be a useful tool to sell distressed inventory But hotelier should chose carefully the auction site There is a risk of for the image of the hotel because reverse auction users are mostly price focused and do not really care about the values or specificities of the hotel/brand
