Luxury holiday site Secret Escapes expands operations to France and Eastern Europe
Cut-price luxury holiday site Secret Escapes has no time to relax by the pool this summer, as the company has expanded its operations into another four European countries.
The flash sales travel hub is now available in France, where it will be called Evasions Secretes, as well as Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
In Eastern Europe, it will go under the name Travelist.
Secret Escapes is now operational in 21 countries worldwide and serves more than 32m members, up from four million in January 2014.
As well as being a key player in the European travel market, it also has a presence in the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
The group was named a 2016 Bloomberg innovator company in a list published in January.
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Its European expansion and recent move into four Asian markets has been enabled by the $60m (£45.9m) Series C investment from Google Ventures and Ocotopus Investments the company received in 2015.
Formed in 2011 in the UK, more than half of its members are now based in other territories. Members are offered exclusive deals on luxury hotels and holidays at up to 70 per cent off.
The company has reported average year-on-year growth of 230 per cent and sold more than four million room nights across the world.
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Chief executive Alex Saint said:
Expanding operations to France, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic is the next exciting step in Secret Escapes' plans for continued global expansion.
Eastern Europe, and particularly France, have always been key markets we wanted to approach and after assessing that there was a desire for our product there, it felt like the next natural step for us.
Our expansion into new markets will give even more travellers the opportunity to access our exclusive deals, and will provide new offerings for existing members around the world.