Will holiday.com become the most expensive domain name ever?

Classical .com domain names are still very sought after, which is once again proved by the forthcoming auction of holiday.com. Will the record of the most expensive domain name ever be beaten?

Many travel chains and quite a few domain specialists are looking forward to the next edition of World Travel Market, an event for the travel industry that will be held in London on 5 November, because the domain name holiday.com will be auctioned for the occasion, and expectations are quite high.

According to the information available on whois.com, holiday.com was created in 1998, but was never developed as a real website for a travel chain or an amusement group. And yet, it is a very interesting domain name, with a generic word that many Internet users type every day in their search engine when they are searching for exotic destinations and sunny beaches: holiday.

According to the British newspaper The Telegraph, its owner, enom.com, would already have turned down seven-digit offers. So, holding the auction during this edition of World Travel Market is a smart move by Breathe Luxury, the organiser of the auction, because all the major players in the travel market will be there.

The auction is announced on Holiday.com itself, where it is referred to as the “Holy Grail” for the travel industry. On this very same day, other very interesting domain names will be auctioned: journey.com, kuwait.com, iraq.com, arab.com, doha.com and dubai.net. According to Emirates247.com, the latter could raise over 3 million pounds (3.75 million euros). But it is expected that holiday.com will achieve a much better result – observers expect that the domain name will sell at no less than 21 million pounds (26.3 million euros).

If holiday.com succeeds in reaching that amount, it will become the most expensive domain name ever. By way of comparison, Insurance.com was bought in 2010 for $35.6 million (27.09 million euros), vacationRentals.com reached $35 million (26.63 million euros) in 2007, and PrivateJet.com brought in $30.1 million (22.9 million euros) in 2012.

Dazzling figures… But, fortunately, there are now new gTLDs, which allow young companies in the travel industry to register a domain without breaking the bank... gTLDs such as .voyage, .reisen, .viajes, .vacations, .tours... and even .holiday are now possible. Wanna bet that you won’t have to pay 20 million or more for the registration of your domain name in these new gTLDs?