PRUVO, an Israeli
based start-up, has
developed a platform
that lets travellers book the
same room at a cheaper
rate, should a better rate
become available.
Doron Nadivi, vp
business development
at Pruvo, says, in the
past, OTAs allowed free
cancellation and this
has now become more
common among hotel
groups themselves.
Moreover, he says, hotels
sometimes drop rates
after a reservation has
been made, while OTAs
offer promotions where the
OTA assumes the cost of
the promotion as part of its
customer acquisition cost.
According to Doron, the
dropping of rates like this
happens 40% of the time. It’s
in these instances that Pruvo
is able to offer clients the
ability to book the cheaper
rate, either through OTAs,
or through hotels that allow
free cancellation. Travellers
sign up for Pruvo and input
their booking information
into the platform and Pruvo’s
algorithms scan websites and
suppliers to detect fluctuations
in rates. When fluctuations
are detected, the traveller is
notified. Only once the
customer has obtained
the better, cheaper deal,
can they proceed to
cancel their original, more
expensive reservation.
While Doron says Pruvo
is not yet working with
agents in South Africa,
the start-up works with
travel agents in two ways.
“Travel agencies use our
platform as one more of
their booking platforms
(Amadeus, Bedsonline,
Expedia etc). If a customer
already paid for their hotel
room, and the agent initially
booked on their booking
system, they can send the
reservation to Pruvo.”
From there, the agent can
either book the better deal
retain the difference as profit,
or offer the better rate to the
customer. The model has been
applied to agents in Israel and
Central America.
Pruvo’s revenue comes from
commission.
