New owner Dylan Ratigan sees big things for Reservations.com
Ratigan acquired Reservations.com in March.
"I believe that the domain name itself is incredibly valuable and ripe for massive expansion," he said.
But three months into owning Reservations.com, his main focus right now is the customer experience. That's also where HotelPlanner comes into the picture. Ratigan has contracted the OTA to provide travel tech support, including AI-powered customer service agents that are layered with human agents to serve more customers faster and more smoothly.
Ratigan, HotelPlanner and Reservations.com are no strangers. While he's focused on entrepreneurial pursuits today, Ratigan's background is in news. He was Bloomberg's global head of corporate finance before hosting its morning show. He also started the show "Fast Money" at CNBC, before hosting "The Dylan Ratigan Show" at MSNBC.
He left television in 2012, and that's when he met HotelPlanner owners Tim Henschel and John Prince. In the years following, he invested in a number of businesses, from hydroponics to medical devices.
Today, his focus is Reservations.com and a luxury Italian sneaker business.
Key to the acquisition
Before Ratigan owned Reservations.com, the OTA and HotelPlanner almost merged, but that deal was called off in 2022.
But now, Ratigan -- who has long been an admirer of the tech stack HotelPlanner has built -- is bringing the two OTAs together in a different way.
"The reason I was like 'I'll do this deal' was because I knew I could get an agreement for the travel tech support from HotelPlanner, which gave me the confidence to engage," he said.
Ratigan also said he believes Reservations.com is one of the strongest domain names in travel, perhaps second only to Booking.com, he said.
"I believe travel is booming and will continue to boom, and I also believe Reservations has a lot of potential outside of travel just by virtue of what the domain name is," he said. "You know, we make reservations for lots of things that are not hotel rooms, from restaurants to airplanes to events."
While his initial focus is on customer experience, Ratigan has begun studying what other kind of reservations the OTA can incorporate into its business mix.
He's also focused on growing Reservations.com in Europe; the investor himself is based in Milan.
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