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Etraveli Group AB
Company typeTravel agency
Metasearch engine
Founded2000; 24 years ago (2000)
Headquarters
Uppsala[1]
,
Sweden
Key people
Mathias Hedlund (CEO)
Brands
  • FlightNetwork
  • GoToGate
  • Seat24
  • Mytrip
  • TripStack
  • PameDiakopes
  • SuperSaver
[2]
Number of employees
+2300
Websitewww.etraveligroup.com
GoTo Gate, Inc
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Travel agency
Metasearch engine
Available inEnglish
OwnerEtraveli Group AB
URLwww.gotogate.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Current statusActive

Etraveli Group AB is group of online travel agency websites servicing both the business-to-business and retail travel markets, primarily in Europe and primarily serving to Booking.com. It operates subsidiaries GoToGate, MyTrip and Seat24. The group is based in Sweden and its largest market is in Europe.[3] Etraveli Group operates in more than 50 markets, including the Nordics, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.[4]

Etraveli Group accepted an offer in 2021 to be bought out by Booking.com parent Booking Holdings for US$1.83 billion, though the European Commission ultimately blocked the merger.[5]

History

[edit]

Sources conflict on when both GoToGate and Etraveli Group were founded. One report suggests that Etraveli Group was founded in 2000 while another source says Etraveli was founded in 2007 from the merger of Seat24 (Sweden) and SRG Online (Svenska Resegruppen).[6][7][8][9]

In 2015, Etraveli Group was acquired by ProSiebenSat.1 Media and placed under its investment subsidiary 7Travel for €235 million. Later in 2017, Etraveli Group was sold to CVC Capital Partners for $570 million USD, or €508 million.[10] Later on the same year the group was merged with Greek online travel agency e-Travel S.A[11] That same year, Etraveli Group entered a partnership with Booking.com after the latter launched a flight business.[3] Two years later, Etraveli Group acquired Canadian travel technology company TripStack and online travel agency (OTA) Flightnetwork.[4]

In 2021, Etraveli Group was acquired again by Booking Holdings, two weeks after it bought hotel distributor Getaroom, for €1.63 billion.[12] The Government of the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority has launched an enquiry into the acquisition, and as of November 2022, Booking Holdings is continuing to defend its proposed acquisition.[13][14] The deal is also under investigation by the European Union, which had been assessing the move since October and under a more extensive investigation by the European Commissioner for Competition since November.[15] Despite concessions offered by Booking Holdings in October, On 25 September, 2023, the European Commission announced that it has rejected the transaction.[16][17] That day, Booking said it would appeal the veto.[18]

Subsidiaries

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GoToGate

[edit]

GoToGate is a seller of air travel based in Uppsala, Sweden,[a] and one of the most prominent trade names of the Swedish travel corporation Etraveli Group AB.[19][20][21] GoToGate claims it serves 30 million customers a year across 77 countries and fills 140 Boeing 737 planes every day.[22] GoToGate was used for a time as the flight provider for Booking.com for various European countries.[23]

GoToGate is listed by Etraveli as the brand which gave the Scandinavian holding company international marketshare. The site is described as especially successful in the United Kingdom and France, and in 2015, Etraveli expanded GoToGate to Singapore, Australia, Japan, and 12 other new markets. Etraveli lists GoToGate as its most successful brand and foresees it remaining the most successful subsidiary of Etraveli.[24]

GoToGate has been subject to frequent controversy and criticism, often targeting its poor customer service despite boasting "unbeatable low prices". The agency has a Better Business Bureau grade of "F" and hovers around a 1-star rating with reviewers frequently calling the website a scam.[25][26]

MyTrip

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Under Etraveli, GoToGate also operates MyTrip.com, whose US division lists GoToGate as its owner.[27]

Refund controversies and reception

[edit]

GoToGate's, MyTrip's and Supersaver's most frequent criticisms target its speed of delivering refunds to customers. London-based journalist Anna Tims of The Guardian claimed that sixteen months after requesting a valid refund, the company refused to provide her with one. She additionally outlined and slammed GoToGate's policy in which the agency would take a cut out of any refund given to a passenger from an airline unless the customer purchased a "platinum support package". Tims' complaints against the company were mirrored and expanded upon by Which?, further slamming GoToGate and fellow online travel agency Lastminute.com for illegally refusing refunds and charging customers "administration fees" just to process refunds.[28][29] Customer complaints against GoToGate also attracted the attention of CBS News and News.com.au; CBS, when documenting a flight purchase from Illinois to Serbia, highlighted that no representatives responded when the company was called, and News.com.au highlighted how GoToGate refused to transfer a COVID-related refund from Qatar Airways to a customer whom was granted a refund by the airline.[26][30]

Simon Calder, a journalist for The Independent, warned consumers that booking airline tickets through GoToGate and myTrip, which he noted to be among the more untrustworthy travel agencies, would only be worth the money paid if both the flight was sold for a substantially cheaper price than a more trusted agency and the flight was being booked very close to its departure.[31]

The New Zealand Herald has attributed GoToGate's business practices, along with those of other online travel agencies, as a cause for their overall decline after the COVID-19 pandemic.[32]

As of June 2023, MyTrip had a rating of 1.05 stars (out of 5 maximum) from 1,206 reviews on Sitejabber.[33][34]

In May 2024, a businessman obtained settlement from GoToGate after suing their UK company for fraud. It was alleged that GoToGate had misrepresented the sale of a flight, and that they had refused to enact the carrier terms of American Airlines for a refund.[35]

Notes

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  1. ^ Each of GoToGate's sites list national addresses for incorporation. For example, gotogate.com lists a Miami-area mailing address, and gotogate.co.uk lists an office in London.

References

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  1. ^ "Facts". Etraveli Group. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
  2. ^ "Our brands". Etraveli Group. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. ^ a b Schaal, Dennis (3 October 2023). "After Booking Deal Went Bust, Etraveli CEO Says Price 'No Longer in Play'". Skift. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b Fox, Linda (20 June 2019). "Etraveli Group Acquires Tripstack, Flightnetwork In Effort To Build North American Presence". PhocusWire. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  5. ^ "EU blocks Booking takeover of Swedish online travel rival – DW – 09/25/2023". dw.com. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  6. ^ Novac, Dragos. "Etraveli was acquired by CVC for 508 million Euro from ProSiebenSat.1". Nordic 9. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  7. ^ FinSMEs (2015-10-13). "ProSiebenSat.1 Acquires Etraveli for €235M". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  8. ^ "History". Etraveli Group. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  9. ^ "Norvestor creates largest online travel agent in the Nordic countries". www.supersavertravel.se. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  10. ^ "ProSiebenSat.1 sells online travel agency Etraveli to CVC". Reuters. 2017-06-20. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  11. ^ "Etraveli and e-Travel join forces". CVC. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  12. ^ "Booking Holdings acquires ETraveli Group for €1.6 billion | PhocusWire". www.phocuswire.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  13. ^ "Booking Holdings Inc / eTraveli Group AB merger inquiry". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  14. ^ "Online Travel Update: Booking Holdings Presses Ahead With Etraveli Acquisition". JD Supra. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  15. ^ Chee, Foo Yun (2022-11-10). "Booking's Etraveli deal faces full-scale EU antitrust probe, sources say". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  16. ^ "Press corner". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  17. ^ "Booking offers concessions in bid to allay EU concerns on ETraveli buy". Yahoo Finance. 2023-08-08. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  18. ^ Stolton, Samuel (25 September 2023). "Booking's €1.6 Billion Etraveli Deal Blocked by EU". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  19. ^ "Gotogate Taiwan: low on cost, big on miles! Book your flight now!". tw-en.gotogate.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  20. ^ "Cheap Flights: Book Last Minute Flight deals | Gotogate". www.gotogate.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  21. ^ "Booking to buy Swedish travel agency Etraveli for $1.83 billion". Reuters. 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  22. ^ "Gotogate". www.gotogate.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  23. ^ "Booking.com Launches Flights Through Partnership Across Europe". Skift. 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  24. ^ "Facts". Etraveli Group. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  25. ^ "Gotogate, Inc. | Reviews | Better Business Bureau® Profile". www.bbb.org. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  26. ^ a b "Customer Service Complaints Have Piled Up For Travel Agency GoToGate, And New Customers Have Meant New Complaints". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  27. ^ "Online travel agent Mytrip – learn more about us". us.mytrip.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  28. ^ Which?. "Best and worst flight booking websites". Which?. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  29. ^ Hughes, Lorna (2020-11-28). "The 'serious problems' holidaymakers face with travel booking sites". HullLive. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  30. ^ Borg, Rebecca (May 19, 2023). "'Genuine people are getting ripped off': Mum's warning to savvy travellers". News.com.au.
  31. ^ "Long wait for a flight refund from Gotogate". the Guardian. 2021-12-02. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  32. ^ "The eDream is over: How travellers fell out of love with OTAs". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  33. ^ Ham, Larissa (June 13, 2023). "My holiday in Nepal turned into a nightmare". Escape.
  34. ^ "MyTrip Reviews". Sitejabber. Archived from the original on 20 February 2023.
  35. ^ https://slapp.blog/online-travel-agent-agrees-to-settle-fraud-claim-brought-by-businessman/
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