Groupon will launch travel vertical Groupon Getaways with Expedia this week, Julie Mossler, PR and consumer marketing manager at Groupon, said July 11. The Chicago-based company will offer travel deals including discounts on flights, hotels and cruises through the service.
“I think when people traditionally buy a travel deal, they already have their mind made up that they’re going to Mexico, so they go and they shop by price and they pick a cheap hotel room,” said Mossler. “But with us, this is going to be more about you going in and buying an experience.”
A Groupon Getaways deal “may include a spa package, plus a dinner reservation, plus the hotel room,” she said. The vertical-specific deals site will initially launch for subscribers in the US and Canada.
In advance of the Getaways rollout, Groupon updated its privacy policy July 9 to enable information sharing with partners such as Expedia. The company said in a statement outlining the changes that Groupon may share consumers’ personal information with its partners, “if you subscribe to special communications or buy deals in these new deal categories.”
The updated policy also categorizes consumers’ mobile location information as personal data. Mossler said merchants will be able to access where a consumer was located when they purchased a Groupon from that merchant via one of Groupon’s mobile apps.
Groupon will also share consumers’ “lifestyle information,” including interests, with merchants from which a consumer has purchased a Groupon, she said.
