Priceline.com

Priceline.com, is a company that operates a commercial website that helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; instead it facilitates the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its customers. It is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States.

Priceline was the brainchild of digital entrepreneur Jay S. Walker; the company's origins were closely tied with Walker's company Walker Digital. Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Holdings later purchased a significant portion of Priceline's stock.

Spokespeople

For years, Priceline's official spokesperson has been William Shatner, who agreed to do the spots for free in exchange for stock in the company. The arrangement turned out to be quite profitable for Shatner, who sold much of the stock shortly before its value plummeted in the dot-com bust and has since made approximately $600 million from Priceline.com. (This reported sum has been met with some skepticism from the financial press.) An early ad campaign featuring Shatner had him belt out popular songs in spoken word, in the style of his album, "The Transformed Man". He was "replaced" in 2004 by his Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Shatner still appeared in spots for Priceline, running into Nimoy as his replacement. When that campaign ended Shatner again became Priceline's sole spokesperson. In 2007 a new ad campaign by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners had Shatner take on the role of Priceline's Negotiator.

In September 2008 in a Saturday Night Live skit during the opening monologue by Olympian Michael Phelps, Shatner rose from the audience to give Phelps tips on product endorsements. Priceline has been parodied in other Saturday Night Live skits and on the Tonight Show by Jay Leno.

Acquisitions

Agoda.com

In November 2007 Priceline acquired Bangkok-based Agoda, an online hotel reservations service which provides a service similar to Priceline's but specializing in Asia Pacific. Agoda's network includes 8,000 hotels in Asia and more than 49,000 worldwide.

Booking.com

Priceline is the parent company of the European organization Booking.com. Established in 1996, Booking.com is one of the world's leading online hotel reservations agencies by room nights sold, attracting over 30 million unique visitors each month via the Internet from both leisure and business markets worldwide. Booking.com offers many types of property, ranging from small independent hotels to a five star luxury through Booking.com. The Booking.com website is available in 41 languages and offers over 120,000 hotels in 99 countries. Booking.com is based in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and is supported internationally from offices in Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cambridge, Cape Town, Dubai, Dublin, Grand Rapids, Istanbul, London, Loulé, Lyon, Madrid, Montréal, Moscow, Munich, New York, Orlando, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Vienna, Warsaw and Zürich.

Active Hotels

In November 2006, Active Hotels Limited merged some operations with Booking.com. The company’s physical locations and personnel are not affected by the name change and its websites will continue to be marketed with differentiated products targeting their loyal and growing customer groups.

Priceline branding

Priceline, Booking.com, Active Hotels and Agoda are separately branded for dissimilar demographics. However each company is regulated and integrated into the Priceline business model.

Partnering with Jetstar Airways

Here's how we think of the potential impact:

More hotel stays for Priceline through the Jetstar Airways partnership

Jetstar Airways flew 14.6 million passengers in 2010.

Assuming that even if a conservative 1 in every 10 passengers booked a hotel stay at Priceline, this translates into 1.4 million more hotel stays

More hotel nights booked through Priceline

We estimate that on average there will be 2 persons per hotel room and 3 nights per stay leading to additional 2.1 million hotel room night bookings at Priceline in a year (1.4 million visitors / 2 visitors per room X 3 nights per stay). Over the remaining 6 months (July-Dec) in 2011, this could contribute 1.05 million (2.1 million/2) hotel-nights booked at Priceline.

We assume the hotel-nights booked at Priceline through Jetstar partnership to grow in line with the passenger traffic at Jetstar, at ~9% ((Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation)) historical growth rate. This leads to 2.5 million additional bookings in 2012, rising to almost 3.8 million additional bookings by the end of our forecast period.

We currently estimate Priceline's share of hotel-rooms booked to grow from 2.33% in 2011 to 3% by the end of our forecast. Priceline's partnership with Jetstar Airways could result in Priceline's market share rising from 2.35% in 2011 to 3.06%, resulting in over 2% potential upside to our current $506 Trefis price estimate of Priceline's stock.

However if Priceline could secure more of these partnerships and the market share for occupied hotel nights were to rise to around 3.5% by the end of our forecast, it could lead to roughly 14-15% upside. You can drag the graph below to see the impact on Priceline's stock price estimate.

History

It first gained prominence for its Name Your Own Price system, where travelers would name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals and vacation packages. While the purchaser can select a general location, service level and price, the hotel, rental car company or airline (as well as the exact location of the hotel and the exact flight itinerary) is disclosed only after the purchase had gone through, with no rights to cancel.

Priceline's cut of the proceeds was the difference between the price an individual named and the price charged by the service establishment. More recently, it has added a more traditional model where travelers are presented prices and are also told the name of the establishment. Travelers can still choose to name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. The number of airlines, hotels and car rental company participants in the name your own price program has increased as these suppliers utilize this opaque market Priceline created to sell their perishable inventory without lowering prices through other traditional sales channels. Priceline now also sells discounted cruises, as well as tours and attractions.

Priceline.com also experimented with selling gasoline and groceries under the Name Your Own Price model in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, through a partially-owned affiliate, WebHouse Club. Priceline also got into the online auction business with Priceline Yard Sales, where individuals would use the Priceline system to haggle for various second-hand items and trade them in person. Priceline also sold long distance telephone service and automobiles under the Name Your Own Price model. All of these experiments were terminated in 2002. Another experiment, the Name Your Own Rate system for home loans, continues under a license with EverBank. In 2002 Priceline licensed its “Name Your Own Price” travel system to eBay.