Groupon & Expedia Deal Means Deep Discounts for Travelers

It certainly was a deal that most people either saw coming or could easily imagine: Groupon and Expedia launching “Groupon Getaways With Expedia.”

The new company, says Hotelmarketing.com, will offer consumers deeply discounted deals from among the 135,000 hotels in Expedia’s data base...and then the partnership will move on to offer Groupon-like package deals for airline tickets, cruises and destinations.

The partnership, which Hotels.com calls “unprecedented” will follow the wildly successful Groupon model where customers have a limited window to buy deeply discounted (up to 50%) vouchers for future travel.

The beauty for travelers is the lack of pressure to “travel now.”  While there is the familiar redemption period, buyers can be spontaneous, they can redeem the coupon when the spirit moves them, as long as it’s before the redemption period expires.

This flexibility is a major plus for travelers and a compelling marketing point for the “Groupon Getaways With Expedia” partnership.

Groupon and Expedia, combined, have more than 50 million social network-savvy members which give hotels a powerful marketing reach, accessing new customers and revenue, and getting the money up front as soon as the voucher sale closes.

Portfolio.com quotes Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide  as seeing the deal as a “win-win” situation with travel suppliers reaching an enormous audience at no cost, and Groupon “extending its business into new markets,” while giving the traveling public  deep discounts and flexibility.

The program will roll out sometime in June in the US and Canada, but onsumers can sign up now for the emails.