DealAngel

DealAngel operated as a data-centric hotel search and booking engine, established in 2011 by co-founders Roman Peskin, Bob Rogers, and Oleg Zaidiner. The founders leveraged their deep-seated experience in the hotel industry to develop the platform; Peskin was a former cluster revenue manager, and Rogers had been a director at Expedia. Their initial work involved creating business intelligence software to help hotels with pricing and revenue management. This B2B-focused technology evolved into a consumer-facing application after they realized its potential to empower travelers.

The company's core business was an online portal for hotel bookings that distinguished itself from competitors by ranking search results based on value rather than absolute price. It served travelers looking for the best value-for-money deals, particularly in competitive hotel markets like Las Vegas and New York. The business model was based on generating revenue through referral fees from partner hotels and booking sites when a user made a reservation, with no fees charged to the consumer. DealAngel's proprietary DealRank® algorithm analyzed historical pricing data and market dynamics to determine a "fair market value" for hotel rooms on specific dates. The platform would then highlight instances where a hotel's listed price was significantly below this calculated fair value, effectively flagging it as a strong deal for the consumer. This analytical approach was designed to give users confidence and combat the "deal fatigue" common in online travel searches.

After its launch, DealAngel participated in the TechStars accelerator program in Boulder, Colorado. The startup secured approximately $1.4 million in total funding from investors including Foresight Ventures, Bright Capital, Right Side Capital Management, and TechStars. In February 2013, the company expanded its strategy by releasing a private beta of its API, allowing other travel businesses to integrate its pricing analytics into their own websites. A significant milestone occurred in August 2013 when DealAngel was acquired by the Russian online travel agency OneTwoTrip. The acquisition, reportedly valued between $12 and $15 million, was aimed at strengthening OneTwoTrip's hotel booking services. Following the acquisition, the DealAngel team, including the founders, transitioned to OneTwoTrip.

Keywords: hotel search, price analytics, booking engine, online travel agency, value investing, deal ranking, revenue management, travel technology, acquisition, TechStars