Our History

March 2000

Wotif.com launched in Brisbane, Australia, and quickly became known as the online marketplace for hotels' distressed inventory. We pioneered selling discounted accommodation based on hoteliers' live and up-to-date inventory. By only selling a week ahead, we got great rates from the hotels.

Our innovative way of displaying room rates (our "hotel price matrix") added to our success. It gave travellers, and the hotels, an easy way to check all available prices, up-front. Customers could now see discounted pricing from a number of hotels on the one screen, and then simply book the room they wanted.

Initially, we showed rates for the next 7 days, to give genuine last-minute prices.

September 2000

Our website's simplicity, and positive word-of-mouth referrals, brought lots more customers and hotel bookings. This led top-quality hotel chains to start using us as a sales distribution channel. We expanded our site to include motels, serviced apartments, guesthouses and bed & breakfasts.

February 2001

Our customers were so happy with what we were doing that we extended our booking period to 14 days in advance.

July 2001

We opened our European office in the UK.

July 2002

We launched our advanced search feature so customers could select their preferred price range, type of accommodation, hotel name or destination.

October 2002

With deals now available in the USA, we had expanded our site to offer accommodation in 20 countries, covering Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and America.

July 2003

We opened our office in New Zealand.

September 2003

Our Customer Service Centre, based in Brisbane, extended its hours to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We were the only accommodation site in Australia to provide this service.

March 2004

We celebrated four successful years in business. The number of bookings in this 12 month period increased 75%, compared to the previous 12 months.

June 2004

We opened our North American office in Toronto, Canada, continuing our growth.

July 2004

Singapore became home to our Asia regional office, reinforcing our commitment to the international market.

We were announced as overall winner of the "Premier of Queensland's SMART Awards" for 2004, as well as receiving the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Organisation in the Services Sector. The SMART Awards recognise businesses that are innovative, create jobs, export revenue and contribute to the future of Queensland – "The Smart State".

November 2004

Our CEO, Graeme Wood, received the Australian Institute of Management Medal for Management Innovation at the "2004 Management Excellence Awards".

February 2005

Hitwise ranked us as the number 1 website in the Travel - Destinations & Accommodation category, based on visits for 2004.

March 2005

We celebrated five successful years in business, recording a 45% growth in the sale of room nights for 2004, compared with 2003.

August 2005

CEO, Graeme Wood, was announced as the 2005 Technology, Communications, E-Commerce and Life Sciences category winner of the Ernst and Young, "Entrepreneur of the Year" award for Australia, after earlier winning the award for the Northern Region (Queensland and NT).

September 2005

Our Board of Directors announced the decision to seek a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

We also announced that we would extend our booking window to 28 days, making it even easier for consumers to book accommodation online.

January 2006

Robbie Cooke joined Wotif.com as Chief Operating Officer.

February 2006

Dick McIlwain was appointed as independent Chairman of the Wotif.com Board of Directors.

For the second year running, Hitwise ranked us as the number 1 website in the Travel - Destinations & Accommodation category, based on visits for 2005.

April 2006

Ben Smith was appointed as independent non-executive director of the Wotif.com Board.

We continued to grow our presence and service in Asia, registering our Malaysian office as Wotif.com Sdn Bhd.

We won the Inspiration iAward for overall excellence in ICT innovation, as well as the iAward for the Tourism & Hospitality category.

May 2006

The Customer Service Institute of Australia gave us the top prize in the 2005/06 national "Service Excellence Awards" for a contact centre under 50 seats.

June 2006

Wotif.com successfully listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), trading under the code "WTF".

August 2006

We published our annual results for the 2005/06 financial year, showing 40% growth in room night sales and 37% growth in net profit on the previous financial year.

September 2006

Our co-branded website with ninemsn - Australia's number one interactive media company - went live, after announcing the partnership in July.

October 2006

We held our first Annual General Meeting as a publicly listed company.

November 2006

Dave Warneke was appointed as independent non-executive director of the Wotif.com Board, following Kevin Fitzpatrick’s retirement from the Board.

We were voted as having the best investor relations for a company outside the ASX 200 but within the ASX 300 by the Australian Investor Relations Association.

February 2007

We released our half-year results, showing a 58% increase in net profit for the 6 months to 31 December 2006. Our site was now offering deals in over 40 countries around the world.

We scored a hat-trick of Hitwise awards! For the third year running, Hitwise ranked us as the number 1 Australian website in the Travel - Destinations & Accommodation category, based on visits for 2006. We also picked up the number 1 ranking for New Zealand in this category for 2006.

May 2007

Craig Dawson joined us as Chief Financial Officer.

We added an intuitive Text Search function to the site, giving customers more options when searching for specific accommodation features or destinations.

June 2007

We launched our "Wot Hotel?" promotion, giving customers who are flexible about where they stay access to even better deals.

Our New Zealand office received the "Most Significant Contribution by a large business or Corporate Award" at the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards.

August 2007

Our annual results for the 2006/07 financial year showed a 60% growth in net profit over the previous financial year, and a total of 2.06 million bookings for the 12 month period.

October 2007

Graeme Wood handed over the role of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director to Robbie Cooke at the company's Annual General Meeting. Robbie had held the office of Chief Operating Officer from January 2006. Graeme remained on the Board as Executive Director to focus on developing new business concepts and promoting Wotif.com.

January 2008

Wotif.com Holdings Limited acquired travel.com.au Limited, which owns the travel.com.au, lastminute.com.au and lastminute.co.nz brands and websites.

We signed an agreement with Tourico Holidays Inc., lifting our accommodation range in the USA and Canada.

February 2008

Our half-year results to 31 December 2007 showed a 43% increase in net profit over the same period in the 2007 Financial Year. Our customers were making more than 200,000 bookings every month, for more than 44 countries world wide.

After entering into an agreement with Asia Web Direct (HK) Limited, we acquired all their issued shares. Asia Web Direct has been one of the pioneers of online travel services in South East Asia since 1993, and owns a number of websites, including Phuket.com, Bangkok.com and LateStays.com.

March 2008

Neil Cumming, founder of Asia Web Direct, was appointed as a Director of Wotif.com Holdings Limited.