Summit Media, publisher of magazines and websites like Cosmopolitan, FHM, and Spot.ph strengthens its position on the internet with the relaunch late February of e-commerce site TravelBook.ph, an online hotel booking website.

TravelBook.ph lets users conveniently book hotel rooms at prices lower than their published offline rates. Users can make bookings using the website or through a call center. Payments can be made via credit card or over-the-counter bank deposit, with alternative non-traditional methods like bayad centers soon to be available.

These features are in line with the thrust of JG Summit, of which Summit Media is an affiliate, to extend premium services to a broader mass market base, making travel more accessible to the substantial number of Filipinos without credit cards. JG Summit has employed this market-expansion strategy successfully to create strong brands like Cebu Pacific, Go Hotels, and Sun Cellular, which are known for their affordable products and services.

Summit Media leverages its expertise in the print and online publishing industries to give the participating hotels maximum exposure through articles, advertisements, and social media campaigns.  A blog with regular stories on the hotels introduces the properties to a targeted market and highlights their unique features to travelers on the lookout for good deals and new discoveries.

TravelBook.ph was initially launched in 2010 as a catalog of hotels and resorts with over 3,000 listings that allowed users to make inquiries directly with the hotels. The new website leverages the site’s existing user and hotel base and activates its potential for e-commerce with online bookings. While it is launching with hotels in popular summer destinations Boracay and Cebu, locales like Manila, Bohol, Palawan, and other provinces all over the Philippines are scheduled to follow within the year.

The website will be operated by Travel Book Philippines, Inc., Summit Media’s joint venture with Recruit, a Japanese media and e-commerce conglomerate that runs Japan’s popular Jalan.net hotel and ryokan booking website.