Wotif books solid increase in room sales

ninemsn.com
20/10/2008

Wotif.com Holdings Limited (WTF) said its room night sales to 30 September 2008 were up 34% on the previous comparable period. The company noted that it had been relatively unscathed from the impact of the credit crunch and remained in strong financial health.

In an address to shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Brisbane, managing director Robbie Cooke said Wotif's room rates continued to hold firm.

"Notwithstanding the state of the global financial markets and institutions, which seem to worsen daily, we have so far this year seen strong performance from our businesses," Mr Cooke said.

"We have in the first three months of fiscal 2009 driven more than 24 million customer visits to our sites."

He said the company had an approximate average rate increase at the end of September of 2.6% for the original wotif.com business and 0.7% across the group.

"Integration of our two new operations continues according to plan with the first key initiative of improving the accommodation offering on the lastminute.com.au and travel.com.au sites complete," he said

Mr Cooke said in parallel with the integration work, the extension of the 28 day booking window to 365 days was in progress for the two sites and should be ready in early calendar 2009.

"We are confident that this initiative will provide a boost to sales as it opens up a sales window previously unavailable to the group," Mr Cooke added.

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=650092