Competitive pressure could force the closure of Brisbane online accommodation booking outfit Stay247.com

The founder of a Brisbane online accommodation booking group is planning to pull the plug on the business unless a buyer can be found by the end of this week.

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith. Picture: Jonathan Ng

END OF THE ROAD

It looks like the end of the road for Brisbane outfit Stay247.com as competitive pressures put the squeeze on the discount accommodation provider.

Unless a buyer can be found for the online player, founder and managing director Brent Cooper plans to pull the plug by the end of this week.

Cooper launched the business in 2007 just a few years after Wotif.com started to make a splash in the booking space.

At its peak, Stay247 employed a 30-strong staff was turning over more than $1 million a year.

But Cooper is the only man standing now, along with 2 other small investors, and annual revenues have fallen to a meagre $100,000 or so.

He blames the rise of a global duopoly, with Expedia (majority owner of Trivago) and Priceline dominating the game now. Both charge more than the modest 10 per cent commission which Stay247 has stuck with.

Reading the tea leaves correctly, Cooper and his mates have been trying to sell the business with no luck since 2016.

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith. Picture: Jonathan Ng

They have been knocked back by the RACQ, while entrepreneur Dick Smith and the Accommodation Owners Association failed to respond to overtures.

Smith, who has railed against the big online booking agencies, told City Beat yesterday that he gets 150 letters or emails a day and doesn’t recall hearing from Stay247.com.

Even if he did recall, he’s not interested. “I’ve got no time to get involved in purchasing a business,’’ Smith said.

SHARE DRAMA

Corporate Travel Management tried with mixed results yesterday to hose down the convoluted drama swirling around chairman Tony Bellas and the serious delay in his reporting the shift of 82 per cent of his company shareholding, valued at a cool $4.5 million.

Back in November, the family court ordered the transfer of 180,836 CTM shares held in a family super fund as part of his divorce from former spouse, Maria.

But because the order contained an error (a transposed name apparently), Bellas understood nothing could happen until the mistake was corrected.

He signed documents to effect the transfer but believed the shares would be held in escrow until the corrections were made.

Bellas now maintains the transfer occurred on February 14 without his knowledge and he informed the market as soon he learned about it last week.

All of this left a few interested parties scratching their heads.

“Why would anyone sign a court order if they thought it contained an error?’’ one asked.

“Also, it sounds as though he did not tell the board of this until last week when he knew about it in November.’’

REVOLVING DOOR

The revolving door at stricken Blue Sky Alternative Investments has taken another whirl.

CFO Elizabeth Walker announced plans to resign “for personal reasons’’ yesterday after less than three months on the job at the Brisbane funds manager.

Walker, who formerly toiled in a similar role at RPG Developments and Consolidated Pastoral Holdings, heads for the exits on April 5.

She didn’t return a call seeking comment yesterday and a company spokesman declined to elaborate.

Chief risk officer Andrew Werro will take over her role as a search gets under way for a replacement.

The announcement came just five days after Blue Sky tapped Aspen Group boss Joel Cann to take on the CEO’s job and a few weeks after the half-year results.

Blue Sky reported an underlying net loss of $25.7 million and warned it might breach lending covenants related to a $50 million loan.

VOID FILLED

The Brisbane Lions have scrambled to fill the void left by the departure of co-major sponsor SOOW, an embattled tech start which allegedly failed to cough up any of their $2 million commitment. In their place has stepped Neds, the online bookmaker owned by UK giant Ladbrokes.