Primed for holidaymakers looking to make a saving on their accommodation, Quidco – recognised as one of the UK’s biggest cashback sites – is hoping to win big off the back of a cashback offering for the travel industry.
EarnAway is a hotel discovery and rewards platform which allows the user to earn money back off what they spend on booking rooms through platforms like Hotels.com, eBookers, agoda, Venere and more.
The new site lists former Quidco product director Joshua James and Markco Media chief commercial officer Robert Berrisford as its co-founders.
Performance marketing industry pros may recognise James from his time as Quidco’s product director, which looks to have come to an end following his involvement in EarnAway. Berrisford on the other hand served as the chief commercial officer Markco Media before its purchase by mobile money tech provider Monitise.
Further ties between Quidco and EarnAway are highlighted by Andy Oldham, the managing director of Quidco, and Paul Nikkel, its co-founder, sitting on the EarnAway board.
Topping things off is Quidco’s investment of over £1 million into EarnAway at what Crunchbase describes as an “unknown valuation”.
Targeted offers
EarnAway launched at the start of the year and already appears to have built up a healthy presence on Facebook and Twitter.
The core offering also appears to be there, with a good supply of hotels coming from a few searches conducted by PerformanceIN.
A sample search for three-night stay in Dublin shows commission hovering around the 8-9% mark, paid by EarnAway as a result of what they earn from referring customers to its partner sites.
Cashback aficionados will be aware that the likes of ebookers and booking.com are already on Quidco – the latter offering cashback of up to 10%. However, there is always the chance of a new audience arriving through EarnAway, which zones in on the multi-billion pound travel market.
While it takes off, Quidco appears to be looking to give the service a helping hand by broadcasting communications out to its email database about the EarnAway proposal.