Dealgobbler.com
The low-down
Dealgobbler.com is a social, e-commerce group-buying site with a simple philosophy for its consumers: get out, have fun and try something new at a great price.
There are over 30,000 opt-in subscribers in Dubai; these are people who have requested to receive the daily email alert. Exclusive contracts with content providers in the UAE mean the daily deal is also distributed to other email databases; one such relationship is with 7DAYS.
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The deals therefore go out to almost 100,000 individuals in the country. The site is active in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates. The plan is to operate across all major cities in the Middle East and North Africa.
What’s so special?
As well as daily deals, closed deals are also an option for hotels. A closed deal is an offer that runs on a hidden section of the site and is not available to all site visitors.
The deal is only accessible to a pre-determined audience which is specially targeted for that particular offer. This is a great way for an outlet or hotel to stress test an offer before distributing it to a broader audience.
What’s in it for you?
The site allows hoteliers to assess the funnel of how many people saw the offer, how many purchased it and how many people redeemed their purchase.
The daily deals drive volume, so if you are looking for 100 customers this is your option. But closed deals drive targeted bookings and therefore, lower volume, allowing hotels to increase occupancy without paralyzing operations and leaving room for full-paying customers.
For example
Offer: 50% off of Blades Friday Picnic Brunch, held at Al Badia Golf Club.
Result: 90 vouchers were bought at AED 165 (US $44 ) with customers requesting, via social media sites, that the offer be repeated. IHG DFC director of marketing communications Katerina Dixon comments: “We had a couple of great campaigns that worked well with dealgobbler.com for our Blades picnic brunch.
We’ve just launched it and needed something instant as we don’t have that many weeks to do outdoor activities before summer. Dealgobbler reached out to their audience that wasn’t part of our database and we now have pre-confirmed bookings up to the end of May already”.
GoNabit.com
The low-down
GoNabit.com became the first group buying website in the Middle East when it officially launched its daily deals for Dubai in May 2010.
Since then, GoNabit.com has become the first Arabic group-buying website in the world.
It introduced a combined daily deal website for Sharjah, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah and most recently started running deals specifically to serve the families of Dubai.
The site currently provides offers in seven territories in five countries — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, Amman, Beirut, Cairo and a combined site for Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman. Family friendly deals in Dubai also run on a separate channel.
What’s so special?
It has local offices in all the markets it operates in, meaning good local market knowledge and easy accessibility for hotels. Customers can call, email, Facebook message, Tweet or leave a comment on the website and are promised a response within 60 minutes.
What’s in it for you?
Across all cities, GoNabit.com has a subscriber database in the hundreds of thousands and a large social media following. If a hotel wants to directly engage with potential new customers, they can use the social media buzz generated by the deal.
For example:
Offer: 50% off of The Banyan Tree Al Wadi — a night’s stay in an Al Rimal Deluxe Pool Villa, which includes a Rainforest experience at Banyan Tree’s renowned spa.
Result: 966 vouchers bought at AED 1400 (US $3,800) each.
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