by Few years ago we interviewed Szilard Nathan Vegas as the Founder and CEO of Wholesale Hotels Group. He launched Wholesale Hotels Group in 2012 January as a booking platform which mostly functioned as a B2B supplier to travel agencies worldwide. Szilard’s goal was to provide end-users the ability to get the rates only travel industry professionals were able to get, but at that time he was not able to expand his operations beyond the B2B market. You can read our previous interview here.
As part of our entrepreneur spotlight series in this website, we contacted him again for an interview. We were delighted to get an update from Mr. Vegas about how his new consumer brand; Low-Tels.com not only provides consumers the tool to save money on hotel bookings, but how his new business model provides funding to nonprofit organizations; extending way beyond the concept of just making money while helping people save money but the legacy he is working on to make this world a better place!
Below is the interview we had with Szilard Nathan Vegas, Founder of Low-Tels.com. We are sure that this interview will inspire you all as entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs.
1. How has Wholesale Hotels Group changed since the last time we had an interview with you?
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to get featured on your website again. It has been about 2-3 years since we last had a conversation about my business. A lot has changed for sure and I believe for the better.
Our business model used to be strictly B2B, where we have created a custom-developed site and served purely as a bed bank for travel agencies. We had contracts with wholesale hotel room suppliers worldwide, integrated, and merged their inventories on our platform and resold them to travel agencies while providing them a deposit-free contract, a simple “one search shows you all inventories” interface, and the convenience to pay with a credit card (in the B2B wholesale world that aspect is still rather unheard of believe it or not).
Our approach has changed substantially since then. We have decided to focus our attention on the B2C market and completely rebrand. While our company name (Wholesale Hotels Group) is still the same, we have created the website: Low-Tels.com which is our new consumer-facing brand.
We completely gutted out our highly complex and very expensive custom-made platform and replaced it with a website that has a cutting-edge design and now affiliated with a company that is based in the USA and the owners of it were the original creators of Hotels.com, so we are certain that the pricing we can provide through this supplier will surely win over many clients. For example, I have seen rates as low as 75% OFF compared to any of the big booking sites.
The other major change is our creation, which I am very proud of; our Hotel cashback program. Cashbacks, in general, are not news, some big companies have cornered this market (or at least they think they did). Not only do we beat them in terms of the amount of cashback we provide to our customers (we pay UP TO 6%) but we also pay out on all big hotel chains, including but not limited to: Marriott/Bonvoy brands, Hilton brands, IHG brands, Best Western brands, Accor Hotel brands, Wyndham brands, Hyatt brands, Radisson brands, Choice Hotels, MGM Resorts, Caesars, virtually all high-end chains such as Four Seasons, Aman, Taj, Mandarin Oriental, Langham, Six Senses, Shangri-La, Peninsula, and Rosewood (just to name a lot) and over 15,000 independent hotels even small Bed & Breakfast ones included.
We have also created an internet browser extension that is downloadable that automates the entire cashback process for the consumer and runs in the background seamlessly. Low-Tels.com doesn’t stop here and it is in continuous outreach with the hotels to expand our offerings and provide our customers with a valuable source of cashback. In case you have a hotel credit card and you get – let’s say – 5% cashback when you spend with the hotel, that means that you can double-stack and get as much as UP TO 11% cashback by using our system.
2. Why did you change your business model and what do you expect from your current one?
There were a lot of reasons behind it. We wanted to change our business model to cause less of a headache and more pleasure while doing something unique that stands out from the rest. The wholesale hotel room business is typically a high-volume transaction with razor-thin margins, extremely labor-intensive, high-risk with a lot of moving parts. Switching to a model that has better margins, less labor-intensive, low-risk, and gives us the ability to not only make money but to make a difference too for nonprofit organizations globally. Naturally, saving money for all of our users has always been one of my main goals and always will be!
3. How will Low-Tels.com make a difference for consumers?
The price! We can’t provide wholesale rates on our site on all hotels (I wish we could) for our customers, but on many properties, you can still achieve an almost too good to be a true discount.
Through our alternative nonprofit fundraising we have developed, we can provide an extremely simple, FREE, no-obligation program to them where we don’t require them to spend any money and we provide these nonprofits the ability to get recurring revenue FOR LIFE!
4. What is the reason you are heavily targeting non-profit organizations?
As a Vice President of a nonprofit organization myself, I know first-hand just how important it is (especially during these COVID-19 times) to bring in money, which is, unfortunately, more difficult than ever. Low-Tels.com’s alternative way of fundraising is already creating a lot of buzzes and we are definitely up for the challenge to show the difference it will bring to all nonprofits. I believe that the best business model is when you make money and help others and make the world a better place at the same time. Our program stands for exactly that! Knowing that our company has made an impact; helped a nonprofit that helped others achieve a better quality of life and made the world a better place truly adds depth to what we do daily.
5. Where do you see Low-Tels.com’s future?
One word: Expansion! I want to reach as many nonprofits as possible and as soon as possible. Educate them about the options they have when it comes to fundraising opportunities. I am in the travel industry by trade but I constantly look for ways to make a positive impact in this world, while doing what I love so much already.
We hope you are inspired with his ideas after reading this interview with Szilard Nathan Vegas .You can connect with him via below platforms.
website : www.Low-Tels.com
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/szilard-nathan-vegas/
Linkedin Business Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wholesale-hotels-group/
