Members of Want Me Get Me, a startup promising its members a VIP experience at any partner hotel, should have an easier time finding the right hotel starting today.
The site connects travelers with luxury and boutique hotels looking to attract new customers and build loyalty. Every booking through Want Me Get Me includes a spot on the hotel’s VIP list, free WiFi, and a room upgrade when available. Users can search for other free perks too. And the startup even sends users’ Facebook profile photo to the hotel so that they can be greeted by name when they arrive.
Today’s upgrade isn’t a full redesign (that’s something Want Me Get Me did in February). Still, co-founder and CEO Tristan Gatsby Mace told me that the map functionality in particular is something that a lot of users have been asking for. Now when they search for hotels, they can see their geographic location via Google Maps.
It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but Mace said it’s a significant change for the site, which previously used a grid-like interface for search results. That format was more experience-focused, with an emphasis on perks and on photos of the hotel. However, Mace said a large number of Want Me Get Me users seem to be business travelers, and they want to know how close their hotel is to their meetings.
At the same time, the VIP treatment is still the big selling point, and Mace said Want Me Get Me has revamped its presentation for those perks. Now, instead of toggling between different hotel search results based on different perks, you can use use perks as filters on a single set of results. It’s a subtle distinction, but Maced pitched it as a more logical approach, where users can see the perks that interest them without making them the dominant factor in their search.
“It’s much more intuitive to treat these perks as a filter,” Mace said. “It’s not the thing that makes the final decision, but it has a role in that decision.”
He added that Want Me Get Me has been focused on improving its conversion rate — that focus has been paying off, with more than 50 percent of visitors to the site becoming members. More than 200 hotels have signed with the startup, and Mace said it has verbal agreements with another 150.
“What we’re providing ultimately provides loyalty,” Mace said. “There are too many undifferentiated products in the purchasing/booking space.”
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/us0SZ8O48N8/
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