Warsaw and Bratislava Prove a Surprise Hit With the Aussies

LONDON - Australia’s number one online accommodation provider recently opened Poland and Slovakia as new destinations on its popular website. And the take up by the Australian users has been staggering, especially when you consider that at this stage they have less than 50 hotels in the major cities between them.

European General Manager Ines d’Arces had this to say “The majority of our users fly in to the UK from Australia and then use our site for accommodation whilst they tour around Europe. We are a known and established brand to them and we provide hotels in key cities that we know are of interest.”

The move into Eastern Europe has been directly prompted by taking notice and responding to customer feedback “We are always listening to what our customers have to say and in the last few months we have seen a dramatic increase in users searching for and requesting Eastern European cities, particularly Warsaw, Krakow and Bratislava.”

Opening two entirely new regions at a time of global financial crisis may seem like a risky strategy but Eastern European Product Manager Daniela Sedlonova is very confident of success. “Eastern Europe is a vast region and if we were going to try and take it all on at once I believe that we would struggle but this industry is all about listening to your customers and expanding with their needs. We have seen increased bookings in both Slovakia and Poland every month since we started working with them and I predict that we can continue to increase bookings and inventory rapidly over the coming months.”

www.Wotif.com is reporting monthly sales increases of 23% and 25% in Slovakia and Poland respectively. It is still very early stages but at the moment it all looks very promising and with the company apparently set to announce further expansion into UAE in the very near future, it looks like Australia’s online accommodation specialists are set to continue with their bold expansion plans.

Source: Wotif.Com Ltd

Please contact: James Coulbault, Brand Development GM - Europe & Americas, T: +44-20-7539-0766, F: +44-20-7539-0770, E: james.coulbault at wotifgroup.com