Ostrovok.ru launched non bank cards hotel booking service
Most of our compatriots prefer post factum hotel
payments and less than half of them are card holders. According to the data by
the end of 2011, only 43% of Russians are card holders and more than half of
them are Muscovites and St. Petersburgers.
While bank cards are not cross functional payment
tools, Ostrovok.ru booking system made a non-card hotel booking available for its
guests for 70000 hotels across 200 countries, represented by the booking system.
Normally, when booking through an on-line system, the user
should confirm his intentions with pre-payment. Ostrovok.ru users now can give
a “book” command instead of leaving their card data – and the booking will be
accepted. Money can be contributed at any moment but no later than 24 hours
before the check-in, if there are no changes in traveller’s plans, of course.
Booking can be paid with a bank card or through a QIWI terminal.
During the two weeks availability of the service it
was embraced by more than a thousand clients. “We’re working on providing our
users with maximum simple and useful way of hotel booking, - comments
Ostrovok.ru’s co-founder and President Kirill Makharinskiy. – A non-card
booking makes the process easier and is popular among travelers”.
It will be recalled, that earlier Russian on-line
hotel booking service Ostrovok.ru arranged with its partners about providing
five and more per cent lower prices than those, provided on the hotels’ websites
and other booking systems.
More than 100 thousand unique guests visit the website
every week; the revenue growth makes more than 60% monthly.