When I was in PhoCusWright, I made an interview with Sam Shank, DealBase CEO

Sam previously founded and was CEO of TravelPost.com, the second-largest hotel review site (after TripAdvisor), which was acquired by SideStep and is now part of Kayak.

Sam, what was the keys advantage to use Dealbase?

DealBase is a travel deals web site with 3 key benefits for travelers:

1. Selection. Our team scours the web to find the best deals and special offers. We currently have over 15,000 on DealBase.com - that’s 100x more than our competitors. For example, we have over 440 New York Hotel Deals - that’s more deals than many deals sites have across all destinations!

2. Transparency of Savings. We analyze the deals to tell you if it’s a good deal or a bad deal.

3. Ease of use. We make it easy to search, filter and discover the best deal for you.

What is the consumer profil who use DealBase?

At this stage, we have a focus on USA, Mexico, and Caribbean locations and for American travelers’. We’ll be expanding soon to cover key destinations in Europe and Asia.

Any one can post a deal in DealBase?

Yes, anyone can post a hotel deal on DealBase.com. In this way, we’re very different than other travel deals sites, which require travel suppliers to pay to have their deals included. Having an open posting system is one of the ways we help to aggregate all the best travel deals in the world. To maintain quality, our team of reviews each deal once it’s posted.

Can you explain us the process for a hotel who want to work with DealBase?

DealBase.com has self service tools where hotels can add their hotel’s listing and deals, all for free.

How do you make money with your platform?

DealBase.com makes money through advertising we place around the deals, and through affiliate programs if someone clicks on a deal and subsequently books a hotel. As we’re focused on the best experience for the traveler, there is no play to play on DealBase.com.

You have a strong value proposition for the hotel industry. Especially with this mondial crisis where hotel need to find customers and everybody is looking for the best deal to save money…

We’re very well positioned to help hotels during this economic downturn. Our services are free, reward the best offers by giving them the most visibility on the site, and link directly to the hotel for booking.

You have a Kijiji model, Can we imagine other form of marketing and promotion with DealBase?

We’ll be adding new forms of promotion and sponsorship throughout 2009, but do not have anything to announce at this time.

Something with DMO’s or other type or products or partners?

We feel that DealBase.com, because it’s inclusionary model and unbiased presentation of deals, is the perfect partner for DMO’s, and we’re in discussions with a number of them about various forms of partnership.

Any news or other information you want to share with us?

We recently launched our hotel deals newsletter - an email of the best deals we’ve found each week. Our email is different than other travel deals newsletters in that we include the best deals, regardless of if they’re paying us. It’s shaping up to be a really fun and helpful resource for travelers, who can sign up for free at DealBase.com.

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