With more than 25 years experience in the travel industry, Bob Diener has been a pioneer in the hotel consolidation and online travel industry. Diener is the President and Co-Founder of online travel site Getaroom.com, specializing in offering travelers the best rooms at great values. Diener practiced law with the international law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher before beginning his career in the travel industry. In 1984, Diener, along with his Cornell Law School classmate, David Litman, began a career in the airline consolidation business. The two then founded Hotel Reservations Network, now known as Hotels.com, in 1991.
As a leading travel industry expert, Bob has been a frequent source for news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times. Bob is a regular guest on many broadcast and cable television programs including CNN, FOX, CNBC, WNBC-TV and WABC-TV.
Thankfully we had a chance to ask Bob some questions which he was nice enough to answer. Here they are!
Tell us about your childhood and growing up
I grew up in Miami Beach, went to Jewish Day school and competed in swimming. I loved cars, and would re-build old sports cars and sell them. I was several years ahead in math and made a nice income tutoring other students in math at all levels, even those in higher grades. To help pay for law school, I started an airline consolidator business and worked at this business part time in law school.
You were originally a lawyer. What inspired you to move into the travel business?
I continued my part time business from law school while practicing law. I was earning a higher income from the travel business than from law practice and decided to go into it full time after practicing law for about 2 years.
Tell us about the founding of Hotels.com….
I sold my travel business in 1990, was sitting around the beach at 29 years old bored. So my partner and I went on a scuba diving trip to Belize and figured out what we would do next. We understood the travel industry, and believed the hotel segment offered the most opportunity since it is so competitive with over 50,000 hotels just in the US. Hotels were losing money with low occupancy levels at the time, and we offered them another channel to distribute their hotel rooms. We offered consumers an easy convenient way to find rooms and find deals. At first there was no internet, but in 1995 a friend of mine showed me this new technology called the internet. We embraced it and built one of the first sites for commerce on the web, hoteldiscount.com. When the internet went interactive in 1997, we took off by storm. Most hotel rooms on the internet went through our company. We created the merchant model which is the standard used today for travel online commerce.
What inspired you to create Getaroom.com?
We( along with my business partner – now of 30 years, Dave Litman) sold hotels.com an late 2003. After a 5 year non-compete – we saw a great opportunity to get back into the business and create new models. Hotels were, like in 1991 when we launched the last hotel business, still suffering from a deep recession and needed help. We created a new channel of distribution for hotels and new models to book deals for consumers. We created the “Unpublished Rate System” where hotels give us lower rates in our call center than online. 35,000 + hotels participate and the discounts are typically 10-20% off the lowest online rate but can be up to 60% off. We also created a “Flash Sale’ model where hotels give us huge discounts online for limited periods of time. For example, the hotel may lower there rate by 5o% for the next 12 hours and you can stay anytime – as long as it is booked during the booking window. Hotels love this because it entices the consumer to make a decision vs. waiting and continuing to shop. It puts a lot of occupancy on the books early and then the hotel can charge more as it gets closer to check in. We are also very big on the mobile space and have proprietary technology for membership organizations to offer special hotel programs to their members.
What do you think the three most important advantages to Getaroom.com are?
1. Lower rates thru our Unpublished Rate system and Flash Sales.
2. The best call center in the industry and available 24/7 to help with any issues.
3. Unique product – we have many types of lodging such as vacation rentals, condo hotels, lofts, shared bath hotels that are often 1/3 of hotel prices and more.
Are you able to share any financials about the company?
We are private so we don’t release financials but we are on track to have over a billion in sales in the next few years. We are profitable and growing at a significant rate.
You’ve been interviewed numerous times on radio and on television. Who is your favorite interviewer and why?
The morning day shows as these tend to be lighter and more fun. We blend in travel deals with fun things to do while there.
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
be conservative. Keep costs low and test before jumping into new areas and increasing expenses. DO your homework before jumping in. Think about how you are going to give back if it succeeds – this will give you a higher motivation and attract others,
If you could rent out one room in the world for one night, which one would it be and how much would you pay for it?
The Burj Al Arab in Dubai – this “seven” star hotel is one of the best in the world and has an amazing Royal suite that rents for $19,000 a night. I’m going to try and get a comp.
Got any discounts for us?????
Go to getaroom.com and you’ll find tons of deals. Find someone that is a getaroom VIP member to invite you into the program. You have to be invited in and if you become a member, there are thousands of hotels at lower rates,
