Ostrovok.ru Островок.ру

Ostrovok.ru (Островок.ру) is an online hotel booking service. In addition to the site, the service is also available through a mobile application on iOS and Android. The support service is available 24/7, there is the ability to communicate via the Internet in the mobile application. The company's office is located in Moscow.

Features of the service

The service is an online information technology platform for booking hotels and searching for air tickets. Searching and booking hotels around the world is the main functionality of the site Ostrovok.ru. Depending on the company's model of cooperation with each specific hotel, the user is offered one of three ways to make a reservation: guarantee of booking with a bank card, booking without a card and booking and payment with a bank card. If a full prepayment is required, then for booking the user is offered a form of payment implemented on the site Ostrovok.ru.

In addition, the site has implemented a loyalty program called "Dream Bank." It is stylized as a fictional bank in which dreams are put on the account. For every night in a hotel booked through the service, the client receives 2-4% of the cost of booking in the form of dreams. In this case, one sleep is equal to one ruble, which can be spent on the next booking.

History

2021: Detention of the founder of the service, Sergei Fage, while trying to import drugs

On September 8, 2021, it became known about the detention of the founder of the Ostrovok.ru booking service, Sergei Fage. During the search at the Domodedovo customs, the businessman found drugs. Read more here.

2018

• In total, more than 1 million accommodation options are available on the site, the monthly audience of the service is estimated at more than 3.5 million people.
• Ostrovok.ru partners include such companies as Megafon, HotelsCombined, TripAdvisor, Sheremetyevo Airport, Aviasales, Kayak.

2017

• In 2017, after Sergey Fage left the Ostrovok.ru, Felix Shpilman took over as CEO of the company, who worked for Ostrovok.ru since 2013, first as vice president for strategy, and then oversaw the company's main operating activities.

Investment $13.5 million

To launch Ostrovka attracted $13.5 million in investments from international investors: General Catalyst Partners (investors of Kayak and ITA Software), Accel Partners Facebook (investors and Groupon), Atomico Ventures, Peter Thiel and Founders Fund (investment in Facebook), Nicholas Sennstorm (founder), Skype Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga), Esther Dyson (member of the board of directors of Yandex), Fritz Demopoulos (founder of Quépard) Sebastian

According to Crunchbase (2017 data), the total investment in Ostrovok exceeds $50 million. According to Sergei Fage, during the entire existence of the company, he himself invested $2 million of personal funds in it and remains one of the largest shareholders in the business.

900 thousand hotels

In total, over 900,000 options for hotels, hostels and apartments around the world can be found on the site.

2016

• Serey Fage leaves Ostrovok, Felix Shpilman takes his place (Felix Shpilman came to Ostrovok in April 2013 to the position of vice president for strategy, since 2014 he oversaw the main operating activities in the company. Until 2013, Shpilman developed the Yuri Milner Start Fund in San Francisco, which invested in more than 400 projects, including Uber, Evernote and others).
• Ostrovok took second place in the ranking of sites in the Russian hospitality industry according to SimilarWeb.

2015

• Ostrovok.ru took 3rd place in the top 20 most popular sales channels for Russian hotels in 2015 according to TravelLine.
• A remote contact center has been created.

2014

• Ostrovok forms a partnership with Airbnb.
• Makharinsky Kirill leaves the Ostrovok.ru, but remains on the board of directors.
• Later that year, one of the company's first investors, Fritz Demopoulos, co-founder of Qunar, the largest online hotel and airline booking service in China, joined the board of directors.
• Ostrovok.ru is launching a project to work with legal entities (B2B.ostrovok.ru) and opens the way to a new market. The first loyalty program is launched.
• The co-founders of the social network Vkontakte"" Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviyev invested 12 million in the Ostrovok.ru. The dollars company's board of directors was joined by one of the first investors Ostrovok.ru Fritz Demopoulos, co-founder of Qunar, the largest online hotel and airline booking service. China
• Investment funds General Catalyst and Accel Partners withdrew from capital Ostrovok.ru.

250,000 hotels

• As of June 2014, the hotel base Ostrovok.ru one of the largest among global online services - 250,000 hotels around the world, including 8,000 direct hotel contracts and inventory of 20 discounters.
• The company has also contracted with a number of leading international hotel chains such as Rezidor Hotel Group, Marriot, Accor, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. All this allows the service to provide customers with a large selection of hotels and prices up to 80% lower than competitors. Ostrovka's plans include connecting new inventory suppliers and more than 900,000 different placements, which will allow the company to become a global leader in its segment.

General Catalyst and Accel Partners pull out of project with $25M loss

In September 2014, Островок.ру co-founder Sergey Fage gave a Siliconrus.com detailed comment on disagreements with Western investors General Catalyst and Accel Partners, which led to the write-off of investments in a Russian startup by these funds:

We started communicating with General Catalyst just six months after the company was founded. Then they invested $100,000 in our seed round [..]

Joel [GC partner - Roem] invited me [..] and said: "Serge, this business will need more than $100 million. I have already reserved $50 million from my partners. All you have to do is grow up really quick.' I agreed, and we aggressively began to hire people before we figured out in detail the features of the business; began to buy advertising on a large scale, before they deeply understood the unit economy

For a whole year after the investment, GC did not ask us for any KPIs, and, to be quite honest, he never even came to Russia to see what Ostrovok is. [..] Then, at some point a week before the next board of directors, requests from them for high-quality operating and financial statements suddenly fell. And at that moment we still had a startup: we had neither the right financial service, nor the right analytical system. [..]

The main problem was that even when the snags in the relationship began, they never came to our office and were not involved in what was happening in the company. They asked for presentations and reports, but at the same time I did not understand what they wanted, and they did not convey it well enough. [..]

After that, they repeatedly announced that they would continue to invest money in the company. But at a critical moment, they suddenly announced that they would not invest more, despite all the promises. Other Ostrovka investors threatened to sue them, and as a result, they not only gave us their shares, but also paid an additional $1.5 million, just to get guarantees that we would not judge them. For us, they paid so much for not being tried - proof that they understood they were wrong. [..]

The result turned out to be extremely successful for us - the Ostrovka team owns more than 50% of the company, despite the amount of attracted investments of more than $50 million [..] Of course, for General Catalyst and Accel everything turned out much worse - I think it will be quite difficult for them to explain to their investors how they can invest more than $25 million in a company in Russia, having never arrived at the office of this company after the investment^[1]

$12 million in investments from VKontakte co-founders

On June 19, 2014, it was announced that Ostrovok.ru had raised $12 million. The main investor in the new round of financing was the fund Vaizra Capital owned by the co-founders of the social network "" and Vkontakte Vyacheslav Mirilashvili Lev Leviyev. With the new funding, one of the company's first investors, Ostrovka Fritz Demopoulos, co-founder of Qunar's largest online hotel and airline booking service, joined the company's board of directors. China

Ostrovok intends to invest in further expanding the hotel base around the world, developing the product and service.

"I am impressed with the progress that Ostrovok has made - comments Fritz Demopoulos, the founding of the Chinese airline and hotel booking service Qunar, as well as one of the first business angels of the service. - The company provides its clients with a rich selection of various hotels around the world at consistently low prices through integration with leading international discounters of hotel equipment. I am very glad that I will be more involved in the development of the company and help the Ostrovok.ru team, go to their goal. "

In three years, we've come a tough way to get to today's level, but this is just the beginning of our journey. We are very glad that Lev and Vyacheslav supported Ostrovok, "says Sergey Fage, co-founder and general director of the Ostrovok.ru. - Investments from the most successful Internet entrepreneurs in Russia once again confirm the value of the work that our team does every day. The new funding will allow us to provide even more accommodation facilities at even lower prices to Ostrovka's customers. We also want to thank the rest of our investors for their continued support of the company.'

"The island has made significant progress towards creating a product that can successfully compete with global tourism leaders," says Lev Leviyev, managing partner of Vaizra Capital and co-founder of Vkontakte. - We are impressed with how much the team is focused on improving the level of service for each specific client. We fully support Ostrovok in his long-term plans and are confident in his management team. "

For three years since its inception, Ostrovok has been focusing on booking hotels on the service's website as easy as possible. The product team is constantly refining the service, adapting it to the smallest needs of its users. For example, as of June 2014, Ostrovok is the only service in Russia that has created the ability to pay for hotels without a bank card in more than 100,000 offered hotels. The company has a 24-hour multi-language customer support service.

The quality of the product and the service provided was Ostrovok.ru recognized by the National Geographic Travel and E-Travel Navigator awards. The high level of service is also confirmed by the customers themselves - according to the company, the consumer loyalty index (NPS) Ostrovka is 69%. For comparison, according to Satmetrix, this rating does not exceed 35-45% among international competitors. Since its inception, Ostrovok has attracted more than 300,000 customers, most of whom have become loyal users of the service. This is partly due to Ostrovka's Dream Bank loyalty program launched in 2014.

In June 2014, Ostrovok launched an application for, iPad which complemented the company's existing mobile products. Applications for iPhone Android and are already used by more than 220,000 people. The company plans to continue to develop mobile products to make it convenient to book accommodation from any device.

Ostrovok launched a joint project with Dobrolet. The flagship low-cost airline of the Russian airline Aeroflot has chosen Ostrovok.ru as the hotel reservation system for its official website. Dobrolet joined hundreds of existing partners of Ostrovka, including such large corporations as Sberbank and Megafon. Meanwhile, the comprehensive Ostrovok.ru product for travel agencies, launched in 2013, continues to gain popularity among industry professionals.

2013

• In the spring of 2013, the company raised a new round of investments in the amount of $25 million.
• A new type of booking is emerging - many hotels can be booked without a bank card or prepayment.
• In the same year, at the initiative of investors, in order to optimize finances, the company reduces a third of its employees.

By June 2013, Ostrovok.ru received support from leading global investors, including top managers of Facebook, Kayak and Skype. Ostrovok.ru is not only one of the fastest growing Russian Internet companies, but also actively develops the technological and hotel industry in the country.

The top most popular summer European destinations among independent travelers include countries such as, Spain,, France,, Italy Great Britain Germany Thailand. In these, as well as other European cities, Ostrovok.ru connected the largest number of hotels among hotel booking services in. Russia

The CIS countries are a popular destination for summer vacations of Russians due to affordable prices for air travel and accommodation. Ukraine tops this list. For recreation in the summer months, Russians mainly choose Odessa, Kyiv, Crimea and Lviv. In June 2013, Ostrovok connected more than 1,500 hotels to its base directly in Ukraine and plans for the near future to expand its partner network in Crimea, the Black Sea coast, the Carpathians (ski resorts Bukovel, Slavskoye, etc.) and in western Ukraine. A great achievement in the Ukrainian direction was the connection of the largest hotel in Ukraine "Yalta Intourist" with 1140 rooms.

It is also popular with Russians, and the Belarus demand for travel to this country is growing annually. Holidays Belarus in are much cheaper than in Russia or, To Europe on average, a hotel room for two can be booked within one and a half to two thousand per night. For comparison, the average cost of a night at a hotel To Moscow in - from 3500, in rubles Belarus - 2500 rubles.

The number of tourists choosing the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia for summer holidays is growing. According to Ostrovok.ru, most hotels are booked in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. The choice of these countries is obvious, since they have preserved historical cultural attractions, as well as good climatic and natural conditions.

In Russia, the most popular are St. Petersburg and, Moscow as well as the cities of the "golden ring" and cities with a population of one million. The island connected hotels in more than 300 cities, including the largest such as,,, Novosibirsk,, Yekaterinburg,, Nizhny Novgorod,, Samara,,, and Kazan Omsk. In the Chelyabinsk Rostov-on-Don Ufa Volgograd Perm Krasnoyarsk near Voronezh future, Ostrovok will also begin active work to promote the Moscow region as a tourist destination and hotels in particular, together with the association of hotels near Moscow and the government of the Moscow Region.

2012

• Ostrovok.ru becomes a resident of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, signs partnership agreements with large companies such as Aviasales, Sheremetyevo Airport, Hotelscombined, etc.
• The first versions of applications for IOS and Android are launched, and additional payment methods allow customers to pay for bookings in cash (through Euroset and Svyaznoy).

2011

• The company ultimately decided to focus on hotel reservations to make a quality and modern product. On July 11, a website appeared online Ostrovok.ru. From that moment on, the company grows rapidly, opens the first office and hires experts from Google, Yandex, Booking, British Airways, etc. First bookings come to the site within 24 hours of launch and this drives further growth.
• Later this year, the Extranet service was launched and the company signs the first direct contracts with hotels, and the QIWI system is connected to pay for bookings.

2010

• The history of the company begins in 2010, when Sergey Fage and Kirill Makharinsky founded Emertra LLC and attracted the first investment of $13,500,000 from foreign investors (including General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners, Atomico Ventures).
• In 2010, Emertra LLC launched its first online brand of package tour Bajdarka.ru. Later, in the same year, the company decides to abandon tours and book hotels and air tickets.

Notes