Calinet out for a room at the top with hotel site purchase

Published on Wednesday 29 November 2006 12:46

A LEADING independent hotel website has promised to turn the heat up on main rival VisitScotland after it was bought over by a bigger company.

Calinet, the internet services company, has acquired the Edinburgh-based HotelReviewScotland.com website in a 250,000 deal.

And it has already targeted a 15 per cent increase in the number of hotels that are members of the site - and is also aiming to double site visitor numbers in the next few years.

Calinet said that it now wants to integrate the website into its existing web portal DestinationScotland in a bid to create Scotland's "number one" travel website.

DestinationScotland already has a number of hotel clients and the company now plans to approach them and encourage them to sign up to HotelReview- Scotland.

At the moment, there are 300 hotels signed up to the HotelReviewScotland website, and the group is looking to boost that figure by around 15 per cent over the coming 12 months.

Already the number of people using the site has grown rapidly, with a 63 per cent increase in visitor numbers over summer 2006.

Each member pays between 300 and 900 to join, meaning new membership will also give the website additional funds to expand.

Robert Gilmour, managing director of Calinet, said: "We want to feed [HotelReviewScotland.com] into our DestinationScotland network and have the number one online travel product.

"It won't just be about hotels, it will be the whole destination experience and we will be able to target specific groups, so if a fishing group is coming we can direct them to what they need, likewise someone coming for a wedding, or a romantic holiday.

"It will be groundbreaking and it will have a big impact on Scotland's tourism industry."

The company expects that linking HotelReviewScotland up with its existing network could rapidly increase the number of people using the site.

At present there are around 7000 visitors a day to Hotel- ReviewScotland, but Calinet aims to double that quickly then move it towards its wider network's average traffic levels of 40-50,000 a day.

Mr Gilmour added: "Having more eyeballs looking at the site makes it more attractive for hotels to join in.

"I know that in page-to-page view comparisons we are already challenging VisitScotland and we expect our position to get even stronger now."

Gary McLean, the founder and former managing director of HotelReviewScotland, who now takes up the position of site editor, said: "HRS's steady growth is due to strong relationships with hotel owners and managers, and the expertise of our independent, unbiased reviewers.

"We've seen slow and steady growth in the last few years and we are now set for a much faster approach following this.

"We'll be able to use Calinet's experience and skills to reach a much wider market much faster."