hoteis | .Nxt | Internet policy and governance

hoteis

Brand

Initial Evaluation

Priority number:

526

Government objection(s):

Australia

Germany

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Applicant

Despegar Online SRL

Ruta 8 Kilometre 17,500, Synergia Building, Office 101

Zonamerica

Montevideo

1600

Uzbekistan

Phone:

+54 11 4894 3500

Fax:

+54 11 4894 3500

http://www.despegar.com

Government objection(s)

Explanation:

*** Australia ***
Competition: Despegar Online SRL is seeking exclusive access to a common generic string (.hoteis [hotels]) that relates to a broad market sector.

*** Germany ***
In the view of the GAC representatives of Germany, the applications for “.hotel”, “.hotels” and “.hoteis” should definitely be treated together in ICANN’s evaluation process.

Reason/Rationale:

*** Australia ***
The proposed string, .hoteis [hotels], is a common generic term relating to a market sector.

Despegar Online SRL is proposing to exclude any other entities, including potential competitors, from using the TLD.

Restricting common generic strings for the exclusive use of a single entity could have unintended consequences, including a negative impact on competition.

Early warnings provide a mechanism to initiate a discussion between a government and an applicant on particular issues or questions. It is intended that a constructive dialogue through this process will assist applicants to better understand the concerns of governments, and help governments to better understand the planned operation of proposed gTLDs.

*** Germany ***
The proposed strings, .hotels/ .hotel/ .hoteis are common generic terms relating to a market sector.

Restricting common generic strings for the exclusive use of a single entity could have unintended consequences, including a negative impact on competition.

Possible Remediation:

*** Australia ***
Despegar Online SRL should specify transparent criteria for third party access to the TLD. These criteria should be appropriate for the types of risk associated with the TLD, and should not set anti-competitive or discriminatory conditions relating to access by third parties.

These criteria should form part of any binding contract with ICANN, and be subject to clear compliance oversight by ICANN.

*** Germany ***
GAC Member(s) to identify possible remediation steps to be taken by the applicant
The applicants for “.hotel”, “.hotels” and “.hoteis” should specify transparent criteria for third party access to the TLD. These criteria should be appropriate for the types of risk associated with the TLD, and should not set anti-competitive or discriminatory conditions relating to access by third parties.

Further Notes:

*** Australia ***
This Early Warning is from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), on behalf of the Australian Government. In the first instance, communications and responses to this early warning should be emailed to gacearlywarning@gac.icann.org, with the text “Australian EW” and the application ID in the subject field.

Registry services

Neustar

Legal establishment

Corporation

Montevideo

Uruguay

Parent company:

SATYLCA S.A.

Benefit

Mission/purpose:

18.1 Mission and Purpose of .HOTEIS

Despegar Online SRL (“Despegar”) is a branch of the largest online travel agency in Latin America. Despegar’s online services enable its customers to book airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages, and other travel-related services, and also power travel bookings for various airlines, hotels, rental car agencies, and other tourism-related organizations internationally. Despegar serves more than five million clients annually and has a presence in 21 countries. Its services and online content are accessible in the .COM gTLD, as well as various ccTLDs.

Despegar is applying for five gTLDs: .VUELOS and .HOTELES, which target its Spanish-speaking audiences; .PASSAGENS and .HOTEIS, which target its Portuguese-speaking audiences; and .HOTEL, which targets its English, Spanish, and Portuguese-speaking audiences.

The intended future mission and purpose of the .HOTEIS gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, secure, and intuitive namespace provided by Despegar for a Portuguese-speaking audience. At present, such a dedicated, secure namespace does not exist; Despegar believes that consumers and travel companies will benefit from the presence of a secure portal dedicated to serving Portuguese-speaking markets. Despegar is applying for .HOTEIS, but at the time of filing this application there has not been enough time, and there is not enough market information available, to fully analyze and evaluate all potential use case options.

Despegar will be analyzing other gTLD applications and general market adoption to determine potential use case options to most effectively serve and enhance its online strategy as a leading provider of travel services. Despegar helps customers in many parts of the world make various travel arrangements and reservations and aims to protect its customers and other Internet users from fraudulent information. The .HOTEIS gTLD will be operated in accordance with the company’s targeted focus by providing a trusted, hierarchical, secure, and intuitive namespace for Internet users searching for relevant content.

One of Despegar’s most important business segments is powering hotel reservations, and Portuguese-speaking individuals comprise one of its key customer demographics. The .HOTEIS gTLD will become one of Despegar’s core assets as it is intended to enhance Despegar’s online presence and identity; expand its marketing and promotion efforts; provide a secure channel for hotel bookings and reservations; and create a marketplace dedicated to Portuguese-speaking audiences and markets.

Despegar intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within .HOTEIS to Despegar and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Despegar to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt Despegar from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.

After Stage 3 (see below), Despegar will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the .HOTEIS gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Despegar and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.

Despegar currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .HOTEIS gTLD:

1. Stage 1
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Despegar registering a limited number of .HOTEIS second-level domain names.

This initial use will provide Despegar’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using .HOTEIS domain names, interoperability with various software and Web-based applications, and unbroken and secure use of all names. This initial allocation will also allow the appropriate Despegar staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .HOTEIS gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.

2. Stage 2
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Despegar will begin allocating domain names in .HOTEIS for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, Despegar will begin evaluating strategies to potentially migrate traffic away from its current patchwork network of second-level domain names, which are registered in a variety of TLDs, to Despegar’s new gTLDs.

It is in Stage 2 that Despegar will evaluate expanding the operations of the gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees and⁄or strategic partners. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other parties, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage 3. However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with Despegar’s business model.

3. Stage 3
Depending on the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage 2, Despegar may implement its decision to extend registration rights to licensees or strategic partners, including, but not limited to, travel companies, hotels, airlines, and other tourism organizations, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors at the time.

After consideration of the following factors: analysis of Despegar’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Despegar will have full control over the number of registrations in the .HOTEIS namespace, Despegar is confident that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.

4. Stage 4
Based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage 3, Despegar will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees, including potentially customers of Despegar. It is anticipated by Despegar that changes to the domain name industry will take at least five years to be realized and assessed. Any decision to expand the gTLD beyond corporate, partner, and licensee use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.

Notwithstanding the potential future expanded use of .HOTEIS, Despegar currently anticipates implementing a throttle mechanism to ensure that any proposed expansion is controlled and responsible.

Specifically, under the anticipated throttle mechanism Despegar would cease registration of domain names to this potential expanded universe of registrants if and when it reaches 90 percent of the annual 50,000-domain name transaction threshold currently provided for in the template Registry Agreement. Despegar believes that is prudent to incorporate this “time-out” into the business plan in order to reevaluate potential future growth and the necessary resources to ensure that this growth does not negatively impact the secure and stable operation of the .HOTEIS namespace when approaching the 50,000-domain name transaction threshold. This proposed “time-out” mechanism is described in greater detail in the responses to the financial questions (Questions 45 through 50) of this application.

The potential use of .HOTEIS will also be driven by Despegar’s future business strategies. Utilizing current projections based upon Despegar’s existing business, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Despegar estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the financial template provided in response to Question 46 of this application.

Operational rules

Pricing:

18.3.2 How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?

Despegar does not envision multiple applicants for the same domain name, as domain names will only be allocated to Despegar and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, at least for the first three years of operation, in accordance with Despegar’s business plan for the .HOTEIS gTLD.

Geographic

Protections:

22.1 Despegar Online SRL has Properly Researched this Topic

Despegar Online SRL (“Despegar”) is keenly aware of the sensitivity of national governments in connection with protecting country and territory identifiers in the Domain Name System (ʺDNSʺ). In preparation for answering this question, Despegar reviewed the following relevant background material regarding the protection of geographic names in the DNS:

-ICANN Board Resolution 01-92 regarding the methodology developed for the reservation and release of country names in the .INFO top-level domain, see http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄minutes⁄minutes-10sep01.htm;
-ICANN’s Proposed Action Plan on .INFO Country Names, see http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄meetings⁄montevideo⁄action-plan-country-names-09oct01.htm;
-“Report of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process: The Recognition and Rights and the Use of Names in the Internet Domain Name System,” Section 6, Geographical Identifiers, see http:⁄⁄www.wipo.int⁄amc⁄en⁄processes⁄process2⁄report⁄html⁄report.html;
- ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Principles Regarding New gTLDs, see https:⁄⁄gacweb.icann.org⁄download⁄attachments⁄1540128⁄gTLD_principles_0.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1312358178000; and
-ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization Reserved Names Working Group – Final Report, see http:⁄⁄gnso.icann.org⁄issues⁄new-gtlds⁄final-report-rn-wg-23may07.htm.

22.2 Initial Reservation of Country and Territory Names

Despegar is committed to initially reserving the country and territory names contained in the internationally recognized lists described in Article 5 of Specification 5 attached to the Applicant Guidebook at the second level and at all other levels within the .HOTEIS gTLD at which Despegar will provide registrations. Specifically, Despegar will reserve:

1. The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union, see http:⁄⁄www.iso.org⁄iso⁄support⁄country_codes⁄iso_3166_code_lists⁄iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#EU;

2. The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and

3. The list of United Nations member states in six official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

22.3 Fair & Non-Misleading Use of Geographical Identifiers

Despegar is part of the largest online travel agency in all of Latin America that enables its customers to book airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages, and other travel-related services, and also powers travel bookings for various airlines, hotels, rental car agencies, and other tourism-related organizations internationally. Despegar serves more than five million clients annually and has a presence in 21 countries. Its services and online content are accessible in the .COM gTLD and the .AR, .BO, .BR, .CC, .CL, .CO, .CR, .DO, .EC, .ES, .HN, .MX, PA, .PE, .PR, .PY, .TV, .US, .UY, .VE, and .WS ccTLDs.

Despegar is applying for five generic-term gTLDs: .VUELOS and .HOTELES, which target Despegar’s Spanish-speaking customers and Internet users; .PASSAGENS and .HOTEIS, which target Despegar’s Portuguese-speaking customers and Internet users; and .HOTEL, which targets Despegar’s English, Spanish, and Portuguese-speaking customers and Internet users.

In providing online content, sales, and services to customers throughout the world, Despegar makes regular use of geographical identifiers to provide consumers with a hierarchical and intuitive namespace to navigate for relevant content. For example, on its home page, users have the ability to select a country in order to receive the appropriate, geographically specific content, see www.Despegar.com.

Despegar would like to provide a hierarchical and intuitive framework for the .HOTEIS namespace by using geographical identifiers as second-level domain names. This use of geographical identifiers to the left of the gTLD and as part of the domain name itself is believed to have a direct and material impact on search engine algorithms and their corresponding query results. Despegar would like to see if this type of hierarchical and intuitive use of second-level domain names within a gTLD provides increased consumer functionality and innovation, as premised by ICANN.

Currently, Despegar operates a number of corporate websites using a combination of second-level and top-level domain names. A representative sampling of Despegar websites that incorporate geographical identifiers into the domain name include:

Despegar.cl
Despegar.com.bo
Despegar.com.ve
DespegarPeru.com

Despegar believes that a .HOTEIS gTLD can provide an online, single-source identifying function for its current and future customers around the world, especially Portuguese-speakers who are seeking to make hotel reservations and other travel purchases. This is in contrast to the present approach Despegar has used as it expands into different markets around the world, which consists of registering the domain names that are available, rather than those that may be the most intuitive.

22.4 The Legal Protection of Geographical Identifiers

One of the more authoritative resources on the current state of the law in connection with the protection of geographical identifiers was authored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in its 2001 “Report of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process: The Recognition of Rights and the Use of Names in the Internet Domain Name System” publication. Section six of this report was devoted exclusively to the protection of geographical identifiers.

In analyzing the well-established framework against the misuse of geographical identifiers at the international, regional, and national levels, WIPO identified the following two elements for the protection of geographical identifiers: (i) a prohibition of false descriptions of the geographical source of goods; and (ii) a more extensive set of rules prohibiting the misuse of one class of geographical source indicators, known as geographical indications (see “Report of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process,” Paragraphs 206 and 210). Neither false descriptions of the geographical source of goods, nor misuse of geographical indications, is present in Despegar’s current or proposed use of geographical identifiers.

Notwithstanding WIPO’s recommendation that the protection of geographical identifiers is “a difficult area on which views are not only divided, but also ardently held” (Paragraph 237) national governments within the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and other international forums have continued to advocate for increased safeguards to protect against the misuse of geographical identifiers within the domain name system.

Despegar, acting as a responsible international business, seeks to minimize any potential business practices that might mislead consumers. However, at the same time, it believes that it is important to be able to use geographical identifiers in a fair use and non-misleading manner, if such use can benefit Internet users as proposed in Despegar’s business model.

22.5 Samples of Fair & Non-Misleading Use of Geographical Identifiers

In undertaking a thorough research of this subject matter prior to filing this application, Despegar’s subject matter experts were able to uncover the following representative sampling of fair and non-misleading use of geographical identifiers used in the existing gTLD domain name space:

Fair Use of National Geographical Identifiers

AUSTRALIA.COOP – Is operated by Co-operatives Australia, the national body for State Co-operative Federations, and provides a valuable resource about cooperatives within Australia.

USA.JOBS – Is operated by DirectEmployers Association (ʺDEʺ). While Employ Media, the registry operator of the .JOBS gTLD, is currently in a dispute with ICANN regarding the allocation of this and other domain names, DE has a series of partnerships and programs with the United States Department of Labor, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, and Facebook to help unemployed workers find jobs.

MALDIVIAN.AERO – Is the dominant domestic air carrier in Maldives, and provides a range of commercial and leisure air transport services.

Fair Use of Regional⁄Local Geographical Indicators

BROOKLYN.COOP – Is operated by Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union, which began as a modest storefront business in 2001, but is now New York City’s fastest growing credit union and a model for community development credit unions nationwide.

HYDERABAD.AERO – Is operated by the Hyderabad International Airport and provides a range of interactive services and information for both business and leisure travelers.

SACRAMENTO.AERO – Is a portal website operated by Sacramento County to provide links to each of the airports serving the Sacramento area: Sacramento International Airport (SMF), Mather Airport (MHR), Executive Airport (SAC), and Franklin Field (F72).

22.6 Protection of Regional and Local Geographic Names for Non-Misleading Use

Despegar has stated its intention to consider using non-reserved geographic identifiers as part of a hierarchical and intuitive framework in a fair and non-misleading manner to help consumers navigate the .HOTEIS namespace. Despegar is committed to operating the .HOTEIS namespace in a manner that minimizes potential consumer confusion, and will actively work with others in the ICANN community regarding any future policy development in this area.

22.7 Potential Future Release of Initially Reserved Names

Given that Despegar is an international organization currently operating in numerous countries, Despegar looks forward to collaborating with other new gTLD registry operators in potentially working with ICANN’s GAC to explore potential processes that could permit the release of initially reserved country names (including ISO-3166 two-characters). Specifically, Despegar is interested in exploring other Registry Service Evaluation Processes (RSEP) that have been filed by existing gTLD registry operators in releasing previously reserved domain names.

22.8 Dispute Resolution

Despegar does not envision any potential disputes from governments or public authorities in connection with the registration and use of geographic names within the .HOTEIS gTLD based upon its proposed use, set forth in the response to Question 18 of this application.

However, Despegar is committed to working with governments, public authorities, or IGOs that may have a concern regarding the registration of names with national or geographic significance at the second level within .HOTEIS. Therefore, should there arise any potential disputes, Despegar will undertake an immediate policy development process as identified below.

22.9 Creation and Updating the Policies

If there should arise some future need for the creation or updating of the policies regarding this class of domain names, Despegar will act in an open and transparent manner consistent with its prior practices to develop such a policy and⁄or recommendation.

Despegar is also committed to continually reviewing and updating these lists to prevent the misleading use of geographical identifiers. Consistent with this commitment, Despegar intends to remain an active participant in any ongoing ICANN policy discussion regarding the protection of geographic names within the DNS.

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