Splitty, an Israel-based
hotel booking platform founded in 2015, has acquired the assets of Cancelon.
Cancelon, also based in
Israel, is an online marketplace for travelers who want to buy and sell hotel
reservations that cannot be cancelled.
Terms of the acquisition
have not been disclosed. According to the Cancelon webiste, in late-March the company filed for insolvency in
Israeli court.
Splitty says about a third of Cancelon's employees will join Splitty.
"Since the very
beginning of Splitty, we invested all our efforts at developing proprietary
technology with the mission to make hotel stays more affordable. While focusing
on that, we provided savings of over $10 million for our
customers," says Eran Shust, CEO and co-founder of Splitty.
"Cancelon, on the
other hand, was focused on marketing efficiency, successfully acquired millions
of customers, and had nearly half a billion dollars in sales over the last three
years, while creating strategic distribution partnerships with key players. Merging
the two companies, and two approaches will create a distinctive OTA, one that
doesn't need to spend an enormous amount of marketing budget, to deliver
unbeatable hotel deals to millions of travelers around the world in the coming
years."
Splitty uses machine-learning
technology to combine multiple booking options into one hotel reservation, in
order to provide travelers with cost-savings while maintaining a seamless user
experience. In an email, the company says it is "considering adding Cancelon 'resell products' to its platform, but if that happens it would not be fully operational until next year.
In June, Splitty launched
OkToStay, an online resource that scores hotels based on their policies to
address COVID-19 through activities such as sanitization, temperature checks,
distancing and housekeeping.
The company says it has global coverage of more than 500,000 properties in 127 countries and has raised $10 million in funding.