Six Continents Lets Valuable Domain Names Expire

If you follow the domain name drop lists, you probably noticed some high value hotel-related domain names coming up for auction. It looks like a major hotel company let some valuable domain names expire, including the following names:

  • AtlantaHotel.com
  • HoustonHotel.com
  • HollywoodHotels.com
  • OntarioHotels.com
  • LosAngelesHotel.com

These domain names seem to be pending delete, and I could be wrong, but I do not believe they can be renewed at this point. There are other hotel related domain names not included in the list above that appear to be in a similar status. The domain names show the registrant as Six Continents Hotels, Inc. This company operates well-known hotel chains around the world, including Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites.

These domain names are registered at MarkMonitor, and they will likely go to auction at the drop catching platform that catches them individually. I don’t believe MarkMonitor has a relationship with any of the drop catching auction platforms. There are many backorders at NameJet for most of the domain names, and I presume the other platforms also have significant interest from their participants.

I don’t know why the company would decide to let these domain names go. They could be used simply to forward any traffic to a specific local hotel or to the corporate website. Even though they aren’t on-brand from what I can tell, they could have sold these domain names prior to expiration. I believe MarkMonitor handles domain name sales on behalf of its clients who wish to sell their domain name assets and there seems to be quite a bit of interest in them judging by the number of backorders.

I backordered several of these domain names and might be an active bidder. It will be interesting to see how much these domain names are worth to domain investors (primarily) on the wholesale market. From the looks of it, these domain names will sell for quite a bit of money, so the fact that they in an expired status is puzzling to me.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

19 COMMENTS

  1. Personally I think these are almost too generic to really do much with. Some are decent but others like MemphisHotels.com or NashvilleHotels.com…I don’t see the real life usage. People won’t be typing this in.

  2. So why is Domaining censoring your weekly brokerage listing and TheDomain but not the DShame self serving listing?

    Is it because he likes DShame’s middle finger better?

    Where is the fairness??

  3. I disagree that these domain names have much value in 2018 beyond a couple hundred $. Recent auction sales for similar domains don’t look very inspiring. In the past they were worth more, but no longer as desirable to endusers IMO, hence why these have been dropped.
    Sure, If I were a hotel chain I might keep hold of them for $8/year, but how much does Mark Monitor charge its clients to renew domain names? The annual saving will likely be more than any sales generated from type-ins.
    I doubt it was worth anyone’s time trying to sell them prior to expiry.

  4. Fantastic Domains They sure do have value its totally crazy to drop them. Can tell you whats happening. Hotel companys hire branding experts who then tell company domains are debranding your own brand then hotel company drops the domains.

    I have seen this happen in Europe with some firms. Crazy Crazy Crazy

  5. Current high bids at NameJet:

    atlantahotel.com – $1,051
    hollywoodhotels.com – $1,951
    losangeleshotel.com – $1,400
    memphishotels.com – $1,401
    nashvillehotels.com – $1,551
    ontariohotels.com – $620
    frenchquarterhotel.com – $79
    sanantoniohotels.com – $1,659
    sandiegohotel.com – $1,647

    Looks like $10k +/- in so far just on NameJet.

    • Looks like you were correct about the auction prices. I can’t see who a domainer could sell to at a profit though?
      A hotel chain? They are done with trying to outrank/out-market OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, Google Hotels etc) and in any case would promote their own brand over a generic domain name. These dropped domains are a case in point.
      Are there any examples of a hotel chain buying generic domains like this in recent years?

      “I am sure someone with development chops can build an affiliate site and monetize.”
      The development angle – this is domainer wishful thinking. Unless you are an OTA with a multi-million dollar Adwords budget, Google won’t let you see page 1 in this niche.

      These hotel domains are a throwback to the glory days (and past value) of Exact Match Domains, times have changed…

  6. Here are some of the auctions I was tracking on NameJet, which totaled a little more $34,000:

    memphishotels.com – $4,290
    sanantoniohotels.com – $6,459
    hollywoodhotels.com – $7,501
    atlantahotel.com – $2,852
    losangeleshotel.com – $2,450
    nashvillehotels.com – $6,100
    ontariohotels.com – $1,380
    sandiegohotel.com – $3,088

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

7
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...

Price Testing

1
In 2022, my wife and I decided our kids were ready for some big mountain skiing and we planned a trip to the Rocky...

GoDaddy Making You Sign in to See What You Renewed (Updated)

3
This morning, I noticed something different in a domain name renewal email from GoDaddy. Instead of telling me exactly what domain names I renewed...