Wanted to revisit SiteMinder and do a deep dive into what it's all about - here's what I came up with.

What’s SiteMinder All About?

SiteMinder is a cloud software company that helps hotels get booked online. Think of it as the “invisible middleman” that connects a hotel’s room availability to all the big booking sites - Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, etc. It also helps hotels build their own websites, accept direct bookings, optimise pricing, and now even manage payments.

They’ve got ~44,500 hotel customers globally and power around 125 million bookings a year - about $80 billion worth of hotel revenue.

How They Make Money

Mainly through two revenue streams:

• Subscriptions: Monthly/annual fees for their core tools (channel manager, booking engine, etc.)
• Transactions: Fees from booking volume, payment processing, and extras like price optimisation tools.

In FY24:

• Revenue: $190.7m (+26% YoY)
• ARR (recurring revenue): $209m
• EBITDA: +$0.9m (first time in the green)
• Gross margin: 66.7% overall (85% on subscriptions)
• Cash burn: Down to –$6.4m for FY24, positive cash flow in H2 (huge turnaround)

Their unit economics are great: LTV/CAC is 5.4× and churn is super low (~1% monthly).

What’s the Big Opportunity?

SiteMinder is going after millions of small-to-midsize hotels still running clunky old systems. The travel tech space is hot, and they’re evolving fast - launching things like:

• Channels Plus: Advanced OTA integration (including new giants like Meituan in China)
• Dynamic Revenue Plus: AI-backed pricing tools for hotels
• Payments and metasearch upgrades: More “sticky” services to boost hotel revenue

They’re moving beyond a simple tool into an all-in-one “revenue platform” for accommodation providers. Think Xero, but for hotels.

Pros

• Big market & first-mover scale - global customer base, millions of bookings a year
• Recurring revenue engine - sticky SaaS with high-margin subscriptions
• Improving financials - nearly breakeven on EBITDA and free cash flow
• Strong retention & ARPU growth - customers spend more over time
• Global diversification - growing across APAC, EMEA, and Americas

Cons

• Still unprofitable on net income - FY24 loss was ~$25m
• Travel sector sensitivity - downturns hit bookings & transaction revenue
• Valuation is high - trading at ~7–8× revenue, so expectations are baked in
• Competitive space - others like Cloudbeds, OTAs themselves, or PMS vendors could fight for share

Final Take

SiteMinder’s looking like a well-run SaaS business on the verge of real scale. It’s got that “Xero-in-2012” feel - smart product, global footprint, and strong growth with improving margins. If they keep executing, grow those higher-margin upsells, and stay cashflow positive, there’s long-term upside.

Not a bargain-bin stock, but one with a solid strategy and a moat that’s quietly deepening.