TVTrip creates professional hotel video production service

VC-backed tvtrip.com has launched a new service for hotel websites which brings down the cost of producing and hosting professional video content. Its vice president Stephen Stollerman told Travolution that the move was a natural extension of its core business, which films videos of hotels and hosts them on tvtrip.com, driving bookings through to its…

VC-backed tvtrip.com has launched a new service for hotel websites which brings down the cost of producing and hosting professional video content.

Its vice president Stephen Stollerman told Travolution that the move was a natural extension of its core business, which films videos of hotels and hosts them on tvtrip.com, driving bookings through to its OTA partners.

However, the current climate is driving many consumers to downgrade their accommodation.

Stollerman said: “Video is vital if you want to help a customer to downgrade from a five or four-star to a three or two.”

He also said that the investment in its proprietary technology over the past two years was starting to pay off.

“In this economy, we can offer a hotels a quality product at a low cost. The service covers hosting and embedding, with access to a video player built by TVtrip.coms development teams in Paris and Bucharest,” he said.

The revenue stream varies according to the hotel partner.

TRVtrip.com is also stepping up its preferred partners programme, which enables hotels to come above tvtrip.coms partners when customers search on the site, increasing the hotels chance of picking up the booking direct rather than through an OTA.

Stollerman said that the tvtrip.com business had a similar model to TripAdvisor, with revenues coming from affiliates, advertising and licensing.

“If TripAdvisor got into producing professional video content we might be worried, but we see them as a complementary business rather than a competitor,” he added.

TVTrip.com has been in existence for less than two years, and has picked up nearly $14 million in funding, $9 million of which was raised earlier this year.