You may already be aware of pay to play auction sites like Swoopo and Swipe Auctions, now there is a new player in town who is hoping to be the bid-to-win auction site for luxury hotels. 

There is a lot of controversy around the legitimacy of these types of sites and the marketing/advertising strategies are often questionable. 

The real question is whether or not consumers will actually buy into the idea of paying to bid on a hotel room they may not get.  

I would be interested to hear your impressions of Off & Away and their unusual (at least for travel) business model.

T4: What is the Off & Away elevator pitch?

OA: Off & Away is an online travel service founded by former Amazon.com and travel industry executives. The company offers luxury hotel accommodations through an innovative type of auction game called a Bid-to-Win Auction.
These auctions have resulted in many incredible deals, usually well below 1/2 the going rate and many times for a lot less.

Unsuccessful bidders can book a "standard" room from the Off & Away site using up to 110% of their auction money, accessing the same pool of hotels, rooms and rates found on Expedia and Orbitz — that way there's zero risk to consumers.

(T4: This is an important distinction between traditional pay to bid auction sites and Off & Away.  The ability to apply bids to a booking may help to reduce the negative impact of losing an auction)

T4: Can you tell me more about who the founders are and what experience they have in travel/tourism?

OA: Co-founder Doug Aley helps steer the marketing and business development teams. Doug has over 10 years of product, marketing, and business development experience across online retail, mobile, and web applications. Prior to Off & Away, Doug was VP of Marketing and Business Development at Jott Networks (sold to NUAN '09). Prior to Jott, Doug led product management efforts in retail and digital categories at Amazon.com. Doug earned his BA from Stanford University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Co-founder Michael Walton oversees all things product & engineering. Michael has spent his career focused on building amazing customer experiences at companies like Orbitz Worldwide, where he lead the CRM & personalization efforts for Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com, and Amazon.com in their Digital Media division. Most recently, Michael served as
the VP of Product for Jott Networks (acquired by Nuance Communications in 2009) in charge of product management, product marketing & customer support. Michael has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BS in Computer Science from NC State.

T4: So how did you finance Off & Away?

OA: Off & Away raised Series A funding led by Madrona Venture Group, the venture capital firm behind Amazon.com, Farecast.com (now Bing Travel), VacationSpot (now a part of Expedia) among many other early-stage information technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.

T4: What pain are you trying to relieve? What's the purpose of Off & Away?

OA: Off & Away is focused on offering exceptional travel experiences to customers in new, fun and unique ways. The company's core belief is that people deserve to experience more when they travel and when they shop for travel.

T4: Did you have customers validate your idea before you brought the idea to investors?

OA: The Off & Away beta was well researched, developed, tested and investigated by venture capitalists prior to funding.

T4: How does Off & Away make money? Bids, Commissions?

OA: Off & Away's strategy involves driving hotel sales through online bookings, a business model similar to Expedia and Orbitz whereby the company receives a percentage of revenue on hotel bookings.

T4: Did anyone tell you your idea would not work and why didn't you listen to them?

OA: No one said we wouldn't be successful. Like any new business, success comes from trial and error, financing, recruiting, strategic business planning and partnering. Our idea of developing key partnerships with industry leaders provides Off & Away customers with access to some of the world's most luxurious hotel suites.

T4: Where do you hope to be in a year?

OA: Off & Away success will be measured by increased participation in auctions, a high volume of satisfied customers and positive cash flow in 2011.

Stephen A. Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2005 Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp., began development on Rezgo.com, a next generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking engine for SME travel suppliers and tour operators.

In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was officially released and now boasts a user base of 900+ companies. Stephen is also very active in fostering tourism technology and is co-chair of the Board of Directors of the OpenTravel Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to develop and foster messaging standards for travel e-distribution.

http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com