A cryptocurrency travel startup called Concierge.io announced its decision to rebrand as Travala because it couldn’t get the .com domain name it felt was important. Concierge.com is a domain name owned by Conde Nast that is now used as “all-in-one event concierge platform.” The announcement was published on Medium today.

Here’s what the startup had to say about trying to buy Concierge.com and why it felt that operating on a .com domain name was important to its success:

“It’s been several days since we broke the news of the Concierge.io rebrand. This is something we have given very long, considered and carefully thought over. In the early days of working on Concierge, we were in the process of trying to secure the .com which had no website at the time. Unfortunately, a multi-billion dollar company was able to acquire that domain first.

To move forward and become a truly global travel brand that would appeal to everyone, we’ve always believed a .com was essential to that goal. And so this has provided us a unique opportunity to develop something that we believe will become a name synonymous with travel. That name is… Travala.”

From what I can see with DomainTools’ Whois History tool, Conde Nast has

It looks like the high value 21.com domain name is going to become a casino. I noticed a change (via DomainTools) yesterday when the domain name transferred registrars from eNom to SafeNames. When I visited 21.com, I saw a coming soon landing page announcing plans for the domain name and website:

From what I can see, the domain name appears to have been registered privately at Enom. I am unsure if the domain name was recently acquired or had been held by the same registrant under privacy.

I reached out to the domain registrant

In some countries, it seems like hyphenated domain names are more commonly seen and/or acceptable than here in the US. I occasionally see hyphenated domain names in use here, but it is not a regular occurrence. Because of this, I don’t recall owning hyphenated domain names.

There are investors who have no issues with owning hyphenated domain names. I am sure there have been some domain names with hyphens that have sold for solid amounts, too. With the limited usage and demand here in the US, I don’t even know if I would buy a great two word hyphenated .com domain name even if the price seemed reasonable.

Today’s poll question asks if you own domain names with hyphens:

Every day when I scan lists of domain names that are coming up for sale via expiry auction, I see a ton of typographical error domain names. Some of these names have bids, and occasionally, a typo domain name will have a considerable amount of bids. I presume some of the bidders are bad spellers or are following the action of other bidders, but I am sure there are plenty that are desired because they are typos.

I have stayed away from typo domain names over the years. I think generic typos (like Morgage.com or Cryptocurency.com) are likely defensible to own, although I am not a legal expert. Typo domain names can see significant levels of traffic and may produce substantial income.

With PPC revenue down considerably over the past decade, I presume fewer people are buying typo domain names, but it’s not something that is really on my radar. Today’s poll asks if you own typo domain names: