Business-to-business media company Questex Media Group has acquired Five Star Alliance, an online luxury hotel booking service that caters to affluent travelers. Questex already serves that audience with a slate of publications, such as Premier Hotels & Resorts, Luxury Travel Advisor and Travel Agent Magazine. The company also hosts travel-related conferences.
Criteria to list properties on Five Star Alliance is very strict—it's by invitation only. The site currently features more than 1,300 hotels, including The Carlyle in New York and Washington, D.C.'s The Hay Adams. Newsletters and blogs on the site offer visitors recommendations. The site averages more than 3 to 4 million page views and more than 400,000 visitors each month.
Questex understands the importance of making its pages come to life. For a traditional b-to-b publisher like Questex to add a transactional service to its product and service portfolio is a good move. This acquisition really rounds out Questex's offerings to serve the affluent traveler, hotelier and travel advisor at every step of the customer life cycle. Customers can now research destinations and book their trips without leaving the Questex portfolio of products. These days, it's all about becoming a complete service provider; and that's exactly what Questex has done.