Online travel booking website Travelstart on Wednesday (6 December) announced that it has bought a majority stake in Cape Town-based SafariNow.com, for an undisclosed fee.<\/p>\n
SafariNow is an accommodation booking website which represents accommodation over both the informal (self-catering and vacation rentals) and formal sector (hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts).<\/p>\n
The acquisition of SafariNow\u2019s 40-man team sees Travelstart fast-track the growth of its accommodation offering, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to supercharge our accommodation offering and with more than 23,000 listings on SafariNow, we can give our customers much better choices,\u201d said Travelstart\u2019s founder and CEO Stephan Ekbergh.<\/p>\n
SafariNow.com, founded in 1999, will stick to its core business of selling accommodation and retain its current brand, CEO and team.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravelstart shares our mission of transforming the travel-booking experience to be simple and powerful,\u201d said Tom Williams, CEO of SafariNow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve booked millions of bed-nights in the past 18 years and we\u2019re excited to tackle this next chapter with a strong, supportive partner.”<\/p>\n
Travelstart and SafariNow started operations in South Africa in 1999 and are established players in Africa\u2019s online travel booking industry. SafariNow will continue to run as a standalone business.<\/p>\n