Jetsetter reports 176,000 room nights since launch

We know that the flash and private sale models are working well and growing fast. But how well and how fast? In an article from SF Gate Jetsetter CEO Drew Patterson spills some interesting performance metrics on the company (and by implication the sector). Highlights from the interview include:

• Member number: 2 million members. Two thirds from parent company Gilt group. One third acquired independently;
• Turnover: 176,000 room nights since launch "via 800 partners in over 70 countries". That's the quote from the interview. Let's try a bit of back of the envelope maths and see what this means for the overall size of the business. Jetsetter launched in Sept 2009 so that is 176000 room nights in eighteen months of operation. Let's guess an average daily rate well above industry average of $250. That is $44 million in gross bookings for Jetsetter over 18 months. If you guess that the second year is 100% bigger than the first then that puts year 1 gross booking at $22mm and year 2 on track for $40-50 million in gross bookings.
  
• Customer care: they have a team of 12 in-house to answer customer and supplier emails. Is committed to answering all emails in 2 hours (something Patterson says he learnt from working at Kayak)
• International expansion: Currently 10% of customers outside the US
  

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Thanks to JPhilipson via flickr for the great flash kid photo