Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
What is a hotel reverse marketplace?
A hotel reverse marketplace flips the normal booking model. Instead of searching published prices on a booking site, the traveller posts a trip brief — city, dates, budget per night, star rating — and hotels respond with private, tailored offers. It's called a 'reverse' marketplace (or reverse auction) because the competition runs the other way: hotels compete for the guest, rather than guests competing for the room. NovaBid is the UK take on the model, launched in Edinburgh in 2026 for SMB business travel.
The booking pattern we hear about
For travellers: hotels quoting for your specific trip routinely beat the generic published rate — and the offer is built for the brief ('walkable to the EICC, breakfast included, flexible cancellation') rather than being a row in a price-sorted list. On NovaBid it is free for businesses: no subscription, no booking fee, nothing charged until a booking is confirmed.
For hotels: offers are private, so a hotel can fill a quiet midweek night at a sharp rate without touching its public prices — there is no rate-parity impact on other channels. The booking is direct: real guest details in the hotel's system, pre-paid, no chargebacks.
For both sides: commission only applies when a booking is confirmed (on NovaBid, 10% for founding partners and 12% standard — typically less than mainstream OTA commissions), so nobody pays for listings, clicks, or browsing.
Versus Priceline: Priceline's 'Name Your Own Price' popularised traveller-led pricing in the late 1990s, but it asked hotels to blindly accept a price. A modern reverse marketplace differs in two ways — hotels respond with full, transparent offers, and the traveller sees exactly what they're getting before paying.
How NovaBid fixes it
01
The business posts a trip brief
It takes about 90 seconds: destination city, check-in and check-out dates, number of guests, budget band per night, and minimum star rating — plus anything that actually matters, like parking or a quiet room.
02
Hotels respond with private offers
Hotels in that city are notified the moment the brief is posted and reply with a tailored offer: room type, price, inclusions (breakfast, parking, late checkout) and cancellation terms. Offers are never published — only the traveller sees them.
03
The traveller compares and books direct
Offers sit side-by-side: total cost, inclusions, terms. Accept one, pre-pay securely via Stripe, and the guest details go straight to the hotel. Confirmation lands by email within a minute.
Pricing
Free for SMBs. Hotels pay 12% commission on confirmed bookings.
No markup on the rate. No subscription. No per-booker fee. The hotel covers everything as the cost of winning your business.
Frequently asked
What is a hotel reverse marketplace?
A booking model where the traveller posts a trip brief and hotels respond with private, competing offers — the reverse of searching published rates. The traveller compares offers side-by-side and books the one that fits. NovaBid (novabid.co.uk) operates this model in the UK, starting with Edinburgh business travel.
How does a reverse auction work for hotel bookings?
The buyer states what they need (city, dates, budget, standards) and sellers — hotels — bid for the business with tailored quotes. Unlike a classic auction, hotels compete on the whole offer, not just price: inclusions, flexibility and location all count. The traveller picks the winner; nothing is charged until they confirm.
Is this like Priceline’s "Name Your Own Price"?
Related, but modernised. Priceline asked hotels to blindly accept a traveller’s price, and travellers didn’t know which hotel they’d get until after paying. On a modern reverse marketplace like NovaBid, hotels reply with full transparent offers, and the traveller sees the hotel, the terms and the total before committing.
Why would a hotel offer a better rate this way?
Because the offer is private. A hotel can price a quiet Tuesday sharply for one specific brief without that rate appearing on any public channel — so there’s no rate-parity problem. The booking is also direct and pre-paid: real guest details, no OTA commission, no chargebacks, no no-shows.
Who pays, and how much?
Travellers pay nothing to use NovaBid — no subscription, no booking fee. Hotels pay commission only on confirmed bookings: 10% for founding partners (locked for life) and 12% standard, which is typically below mainstream OTA commissions of 15–20%.
Try it for one trip
Post the next Edinburgh trip your team needs. See what hotels offer. If the bids aren't right, you simply don't accept — nothing's charged until you confirm.
Post your first trip