Snaptrip acquires LateRooms from Secret Escapes to expand last minute travel market share

The UK’s leading last-minute holiday rental marketplace, Snaptrip, has acquired LateRooms to add to its growing roster of travel sites. Rest Easy Group, the parent company of Snaptrip.com, purchased the domain and digital assets from Secret Escapes, one of the world’s leading, members-only online travel and experiences companies, adding LateRooms to an increasing number of last-minute travel domains owned under the Snaptrip umbrella.

Rest Easy Group, the parent company of Snaptrip.com, has purchased the digital assets and domain of LateRooms.com from Secret Escapes to add to its growing list of last minute travel websites trading under the Snaptrip family umbrella.

The acquisition fits perfectly with the group’s mission to provide the most comprehensive last-minute travel options for holidaymakers of all kinds, be it young families looking for a cottage, or business travellers needing a quick, quality hotel room.

Launched in 2013, Snaptrip is a trusted marketplace for travellers to discover the best last-minute cottage, apartment and lodge holiday deals in the UK, Ireland and other European destinations. With more than 100,000 properties available on-site, Snaptrip.com helps people find and book last-minute accommodation with discounts of up to 60%.

The site’s owners have added LateRooms to a roster of other last minute travel websites catering for a wide range of travellers, including Snaptrip and Last Minute Cottages. The latter saw a 250% increase in website traffic and increased revenues of more than 1000% following a site relaunch and extensive redesign. In September 2019 the brand also purchased iknow-uk.com in a six-figure deal to expand its share of the holiday lettings market in the UK and Europe.

Secret Escapes had operated LateLuxury.com in partnership with Laterooms. When the Malvern Group ceased trading following a withdrawal of funding, Secret Escapes purchased the trademarks, domains and digital assets of LateLuxury.com (and Laterooms.com), to secure and build on its previous activities. Following the deal with Snaptrip, the Laterooms.com domain name and digital assets will transfer from Secret Escapes over to Snaptrip.

LateRooms has been acquired to diversify the Snaptrip umbrella’s offering to existing bookers. Snaptrip hopes the addition of LateRooms will reinforce the group’s mission to become the number one destination for last-minute bookings, while also giving customers access to all other types of accommodation through more than half-a-dozen different marketplaces.

Snaptrip co-founder and CEO Matt Fox, said:

“The LateRooms.com brand offers a wonderful opportunity for us here at Rest Easy Group. Not only is it a brand known nationwide, but it is synonymous with last minute bookings and we are hugely excited to breathe new life into what was once one of the biggest and most relevant websites in UK travel.

“Restoring LateRooms as a reputable last-minute hotel booking platform will fit perfectly in our portfolio alongside our holiday rental marketplaces Snaptrip and Last Minute Cottages and will enable us to offer customers of all of our brands a wider variety of accommodation.”