by Wholesale Hotels Group is a booking platform that connects a range of consumers with wholesale suppliers worldwide. However, Wholesale Hotels Group is not just another listing site.
Recently I had the opportunity to talk with its founder and CEO, Szilard Nathan Vegas about the success story of Wholesale Hotels Group and his efforts as a young entrepreneur.
Here is the interview I had with him. His success story will sure inspire you!!
1. Hello! Can you please tell us about yourself?
My name is Szilard Nathan Vegas and I immigrated to the USA by myself, without any money, when I was 22 years old. Just like any beginnings, life was extremely hard; arriving to a country where a different language was spoken, realizing that there was an entirely different system here and not having anybody who could help me figure out how things worked. Once I established the basics, I lived in 1-star motels, surrounded by cockroaches with no private bathroom, working full-time for minimum wage in one of the most expensive cities in the USA. I have always had an entrepreneurial side and – out of necessity – I had to live frugally and save up money to open my own business for the prospect of a better future. Soon thereafter, I established my own consulting company, which allowed me to meet influential and wealthy people. I was invited to meetings on yachts while still working on getting out of that 1-star motel and moving into an apartment; life was incredibly surreal. But there was another great thing that came out of that: my job allowed me to travel worldwide. Traveling quickly turned into my passion (having already visited 81 countries and 32 States), but all expenses had to come out of my own pocket and, even though there was an abundance of hotel booking sites with limitless inventories, I knew that there had to be an alternative way to achieve substantial savings on hotels – so I spent a significant amount of time learning the ups and downs of the travel industry. I turned my passion and knowledge into a company, and I am now the CEO of Wholesale Hotels Group, which connects a variety of consumers with WHOLESALE hotel pricing worldwide and has already acquired the highest number of accreditations in the travel industry. I currently reside in Las Vegas, Nevada and I have been living here happily for the past ten years. My hobbies include being involved with various charity organizations, Mensa meetings, church, a little bit of politics, my work and of course traveling!
2. Why did you decide to create a platform such as Wholesale Hotels Group? What inspired you?
My intention was to help everybody access hotel discounts that only the big corporations were able to obtain in the past. I wanted to merge all the resources I have acquired over the past few years into one platform where even the seasonal traveler can take advantage of wholesale hotel prices without being able to produce the purchase volume. The creation of www.WHotelsGroup.com finally enables users from all over the world to get access to wholesale hotels worldwide. Helping people save money on their hotel stays used to be a privilege of my circle of friends but now I am able to operate a business while doing this to everybody! It is truly a win-win-win!
3. How do you think Wholesale Hotels Group is helpful for its consumers including travel agencies?
We put emphasis on a variety of consumer types and provide a personalized platform for every user type in order to help them reach their objectives: Individual Users: In exchange for a nominal membership fee, we allow access to our platform to our members who can then take advantage of discounted pricing on wholesale hotels.
Travel Agents and Travel Agencies: We offer our platform FREE of charge to certain accredited Travel Professionals who further resell the inventory through our site. Preferred pricing is also provided due to the sales volume these travel professionals generate.
Corporate Entities: Annual memberships can be purchased by Corporate Entities that provide these corporations substantial savings. The membership can also be used by the employees for their own discounted leisure travel as part of a corporate perk. Corporations get big discounts on memberships and preferred pricing.
Non-Profit and Government Entities: Same is true for qualified Non-Profit companies and Government entities who can access our platform FREE of charge.
4. With other travel booking sites available in the market, what makes Wholesale Hotels Group unique? How is Wholesale Hotels Group different from its competitors?
Travel clubs – which is essentially what Wholesale Hotels Group is – are a dime a dozen. Our platform however completely varies from the ones out there in a way that it acts as a meta-search engine between a vast variety of wholesale hotel suppliers worldwide. Most travel clubs have a contract with one or maximum two supplier(s). The integration is a very complex and time-taking task when it comes to integrating multiple wholesale suppliers into one platform. The problem is that these travel clubs don’t ever get extremely popular due to the fact that one or two suppliers can only be strong in one or two markets. For example, one supplier may be really strong in the Caribbean but don’t have competitive pricing in other markets. Customers, as a result, may see good pricing the first time they sign up because they are interested in one specific destination but then they quickly realize that the lack of competitive pricing on hotels in other markets which usually ends up not justifying the associated membership costs.
Our platform integrates virtually ALL wholesale hotels worldwide thus allowing our clients to have the best deals everywhere in the world. Our fantastic IT team took care of the meta-search algorithm so our customers can enjoy the savings they can get through our site instantly. Last but certainly not least, we apply one of the lowest markups on hotel rooms in this industry with virtually little-to-no profits. We make our money on selling memberships in order to wow our customers with our superb pricing on hotels thus allowing them to access the best wholesale travel deals out there.
5. Did you face any difficulties or challenges when you decide to launch Wholesale Hotels Group? How have your customers responded since the launch of Wholesale Hotels Group?
We face challenges on a daily basis, just like every business and individual. Out of the many challenges that have arisen in the past, the two biggest ones were:
1. IT and infrastructure: We are working with virtually all of the wholesale hotel suppliers in the world. Every supplier has its own technical infrastructure, and once you integrate and adjust your system to accommodate one supplier, another one comes along with an entirely different database and technical features. The more you build in, the more confusing it gets, until you eventually realize it is impossible (I should say improbable) to handle it all. We have spent four years’ worth of money, time and sweat into the development of what now accommodates all of these suppliers’ different infrastructures. One of the reasons why membership-based travel sites never got too popular was because of the technical hurdles. Companies ended up integrating only one or two suppliers because that’s what they were able to handle. Of course, one supplier can only have competitive pricing in one area, so while you may get a good deal in one part of the world, pricing for the rest of the world may nowhere near be as competitive. Since we have contracts and infrastructure built with virtually all the suppliers out there, this is not going to be an issue with us.
2. Education and Consumer habits: It is very difficult to educate people about why they need to pay for a membership to book hotels, especially the people who are seasonal travelers and only book one or two hotels per year. Why would they pay for such a membership? We are trying to put out as much information as possible to demonstrate the difference in hotel pricing and are introducing different membership structures that also benefit the occasional travelers too. Essentially, changing consumer habits is one of the most difficult challenges since people are used to the way things are. Introducing new platforms is always time-taking, costly and difficult, but we are up for the challenge and are very certain that once people try our platform they will see the difference.
Since our launch, Wholesale Hotels Group has received numerous positive reviews and feedback. We take our customer’s feedback very seriously. In fact, the majority of our improvements are due to that feedback because our platform is there to serve our customers so what they say highly matters to us. We are doing our absolute best to create as user-friendly environment as possible and no matter how well we are doing, we know that we can always be better and this is the type of work-ethic that I require from everyone working for our great company!
6. As a young entrepreneur, would you like to share some advice for others who want to become entrepreneurs?
Don’t ever give up, EVER! When you think that life has already thrown 1,000 curveballs at you, get ready…. 10,000 more will come, but it is how you tackle those at the end of the day that matters. Don’t consider anything a problem, treat it as a challenge. Stay positive even if you don’t think it is realistic but know your reality. Recognize the fact that there will always be certain things that are beyond your control, but always brainstorm on how you can make the most out of your current situation. Last but not least, keep your customers happy, you are doing this for them and not the other way around!
You can connect with Szilard Nathan Vegas and Wholesale Hotels Group by visiting their website and social media sites below.
Website: www.WHotelsGroup.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whotelsgroup
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wholesalehotels
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wholesale-hotels-group
