Careers at SiteMinder

Mission

SiteMinder seeks to make the internal systems of travel and hospitality companies more efficient and reliable through a portfolio of cloud-based software solutions.

Founding story

SiteMinder was founded in 2006 by Mike Ford (“Ford”) and Mike Rogers. Ford, who continues to serve as the Company’s Managing Director, reportedly invested around $180,000 of his personal savings in launching the business. Ford sought to streamline hotel reservations systems using strategies ha had come across during his time working at a medical technology company.

SiteMinder began operating exclusively in Australia, but later expanded its operations to include an office in the UK. The Company has since expanded its operations to further international markets across Asia Pacific, Africa, and North America using funds raised through investor funding rounds. SIteMinder completed its Series A round in 2012, raising $5.6 million from Bailador. This was followed by a Series B round in 2014, in which the Company raised $30 million from TCV.

SiteMinder has established itself as a leading provider of software solutions to the travel and hospitality industries, serving a number of high-profile clients such as Priceline and Hotel Tonight. The Company remains a privately owned company and does not appear to have any imminent plans for an initial public offering.

Benefits at SiteMinder

Health insurance Dental insurance Vision insurance Life insurance Disability insurance 401k Plan Maternity & Paternity leave Family medical leave Vacation & Paid time off Paid holidays Paid sick days Bereavement leave Employee assistance program Company social events Free lunch or snacks Gym membership

Business model of SiteMinder

Customer Segments

SiteMinder provides a range of software solutions to commercial operators in the travel and hospitality sectors. The Company’s clients can be organised into the following two categories:

  • Travel, including travel agencies, online hotel booking portals, online flight aggregators, tour operators, and flight reservations companies; and
  • Hospitality, including hotel chains, independent hotels, spas and resorts, casinos, and other hospitality operators.

SiteMinder also serves a number of software providers that provide solutions within the travel and hospitality industries. SiteMinder names a number of its clients on its website, including major travel and hospitality businesses such as Hotel Tonight, Restel Hotel Group, Priceline, Jovago, Puri Resorts, and Compass Hospitality.

SiteMinder is based in Australia, but serves an international customer base spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa.

Value Propositions

SiteMinder provides value to its clients in the following ways:

  • Its industry standing and track record, with the Company established as a leading provider of software solutions to the hospitality and travel industry, as demonstrated by its ability to secure business from a number of well-known hotel chains and travel businesses;
  • The efficiency and functionality of its solutions, with the Company’s solutions providing extensive functionality and tools to clients, including booking engines, website creation tools, and market intelligence;
  • Its international reach, with the Company serving an extensive customer base across its domestic market of Australia and New Zealand, as well as customers across Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa; and
  • Its network of partners, with the Company collaborating closely with a broad network of partners that ensure that the Company’s solutions are developed and deployed efficiently, including a network of travel agencies around the world.

Channels

SiteMinder operates a website at www.siteminder.com, through which it provides information on its products and solutions, its partners, its customers, and its operating locations. The Company’s website doubles as a sales portal, with customers able to register as a user and begin using software solutions for free or under a paid subscription. The Company also operates an online client portal, through which customers can access resources, tools, and products.

SiteMinder also makes sales through an in-house direct sales force, which is organised across the Company’s operating regions. The Company’s sales personnel operate out of the Company’s sales and administrative offices across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, including locations in Australia, the UK, the US, Thailand, and South Africa.

SiteMinder additionally makes sales through various channel and distribution partners. This includes distributors, resellers, sales agents, as well as systems integrators that assist in developing joint solutions.

Customer Relationships

SiteMinder offers many of its online solutions to customers on a self-service basis, with customers able to register for user accounts and access tools and resources through the Company’s website without interacting with members of the Company’s sales and service personnel. Customers can also access resources independently through the Company’s online client portal.

SIteMinder offers a more personalised service through its direct sales force, the members of which consult closely with customers in order to establish their individual needs and circumstances. Where possible, the Company will tailor and scale its solutions to appropriately to each individual client. SiteMinder seeks to maintain longstanding relationships with customers and to establish its solutions as an integral component of its clients’s systems.

SiteMinder offers ongoing support to clients, who can contact dedicated support personnel over the phone and online. The Company also offers a range of online resources that customers can access independently through the SiteMinder website, including articles, videos, and infographics.

Additionally, SiteMinder operates social networking accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube, through which it is able to interact directly with clients and publish company updates.

Key Activities

SiteMinder is a provider of software solutions to commercial clients operating within the travel and hospitality industries. Its clients include travel agencies, online booking platforms, hotel chains, independent resorts and spas, and tour operators.

The Company offers a range of solutions, including Prophet, a real-time market intelligence tool for hotel pricing; Canvas, a website creator for hotels and resorts; and The Channel Manager, a cloud platform for online room inventory and rate management. SiteMinder is based in Australia, but serves an international client base across Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It maintains an international office network, including offices in the UK, South Africa, the US, and Thailand.

Key Partners

SiteMinder works in close collaboration with a network of partner companies and organisations around the world that support its core operations. These partners can be organised broadly into the following categories:

  • Supplier and Vendor Partners, including suppliers of services, equipment, technologies, and tools that are utilised across the Company’s operating units in support of its core development, deployment, and maintenance operations;
  • Channel and Distribution Partners, including the Company’s network of resellers, wholesalers, distributors, and sales agents that assist in supporting and supplementing the capabilities of the Company’s in-house sales and marketing teams;
  • Technology Partners. Including a range of technology companies, IT service providers, and systems integrators that assist in developing the Company’s solutions, integrating third party functionality, and developing joint solutions; and
  • Strategic and Alliance Partners, including market leading companies across multiple industries with which the Company collaborates on various joint projects, including in branding, marketing, and development.

SiteMinder lists a number of its partners on its website, including local and regional operators. This includes companies such as AOTGroup, CBS Travel Asia, IBC Hotels, Mitchell Corp, RateManager, and Duetto Edge RMS.

Key Resources

SiteMinder’s key resources are its proprietary technologies and intellectual properties, its products and platforms, its sales and distribution channels, its IT and communications infrastructure, its network of partners, and its personnel.

SiteMinder uses a number of proprietary technologies in the development and deployment of its solutions. The company, however, does not appear to protect these technologies through patent law. Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office and by IP Australia identified no patent applications filed in SiteMinder’s name (or under the name Online Ventures Pty limited).

SiteMinder additionally owns and or leases a portfolio of physical properties that comprise its international network of offices.

Cost Structure

SiteMinder incurs costs in relation to the development of its technologies and solutions, the development and maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the operation of its sales and distribution channels, the management of its partnerships, the procurement of services, the implementation of marketing and advertising campaigns, and the retention of its personnel.

Revenue Streams

SiteMinder generates revenue through the development and sale of software solutions designed to support the activities of companies operating in the travel and hospitality industries. The Company principally derives revenue under a subscription software-as-a-service model.

Pricing for the Company’s subscriptions varies with it’s the Booking Button product priced at $37 per month and it’s The Channel Manager product priced at $56 per month. SiteMinder additionally derives revenue under individual sales and service contracts in relation to its ancillary services.

SiteMinder remains a privately owned company, and as such it is not obliged to publish its financial results online. Research did not identify any recent reference to the Company’s recent revenue figures. Reports, however, suggest that the Company recorded annual revenue growth of around 50% in 2015.

Our team

Mike Ford,
Co-Founder and Managing Director

info: Ford has served as Managing Director at SiteMinder since co-founding the Company in 2006. He is tasked with overseeing the Company’s overall strategic direction, and serves as its principal decision maker. Ford is a graduate of Rhodes University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Information Systems. He moved from South Africa to Australia in 2001, where he joined ICS Global as a delivery program manager. He left this role in 2005 to found Australian Leisure Operators, where he served as a director until 2007, leaving this role to focus on the development of SiteMinder.

John Burke,
Chief Financial Officer

info: John has served as Chief Financial Officer at SiteMinder since 2015, leading the Company’s various financial operations and functions. He first joined the Company in 2014 as Director of Business Analytics. Burke has held a number of roles in the finance sector. He began his career in 2008 as an assurance associate at Ernst and Young. In 2010 he became a senior associate at Ernst and Young’s Transaction Advisory Services division. Prior to joining SiteMinder, Burke served for around three years as an associate at Technology Crossover Ventures.

Alex Stewart,
Chief Operations Officer

info: Alex has served as Chief Operating Officer at SiteMinder since joining the Company in 2014. He is responsible for managing much of the Company’s day-to-day operations. Stewart has served in a number of senior leadership roles within the technology sector. He began his career in 1990 as an associate at LEK Partnership, following which he served as a consultant at Bain and Company for two years between 1994 and 1996. Stewart joined Microsoft in 1996 and held a number of positions at the company, and at partner company Ninemsn, over the course of more than 15years. This included spells as Director of Marketing and Operations and General Manager of Consumer and Online Australia for Microsoft, and as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Ninemsn. Prior to joining SiteMinder, Stewart served as Chief Executive Officer at Healthshare for just over a year.