Over the last few months the travel and hotel sector has been involved in a series of transactions acquisitions by large groups. It is a good thermometer of the high level of competition in the sector and the need to seek advantages through the incorporation of differential technology.

Leading Groupon buys Blink, last-minute hotel offers

According to Loogic, Blink the Spanish startup founded by Rebeca Minguela, has been acquired by the American giant Groupon. Blink has a very important international component and investors such as Kibo VenturesThe company's investors also include business angel Carlos Domingo and a number of international investors. Its investors also include business angel Carlos Domingo and a number of international investors.

» A Blink le había pasado como a muchas empresas españolas cuando les toca dar el salto internacional. Se empiezan a encontrar con mucha competencia y con un bolsillo mucho más pequeño que sus competidoras americanas. La empresa había logrado un total de 2,5 millones de dólares de inversión frente a los 80 MM$ de su competencia HotelTonight" analyses Diego GUtierrez, an expert in alternative financing at ABRA INVEST.

Flight search engine Skyscanner buys hotel metasearch engine Fogg

Fogg was founded in 2009 in Barcelona and is directed by Carlos González. The website is characterised by offering a hotel meta-search engine that uses NLP (natural language processing) to offer users the best possible results, avoiding them having to use many filters to find what they are looking for. It is also worth highlighting the important international presence of this project, as it offers its service in more than 10 countries. I have no doubt that this international vision is one of the fundamental aspects for the success of any Spanish startup at the moment.

How is hotel reputation measured?

Reputation analysis is nowadays more and more taken into account by all marketing and communication professionals. Last year, the leader in brand reputation analysis in the Spanish-speaking world, Brandrain received more than €1 million from Inveready through its crowdfunding platform. Investors have not lost their focus on the travel sector, Active Venture invested a few months ago in Reviewpro's reputation vertical for the hotel sector.