Re the original question, this article and link from Elliot of DomainInvesting about the $11 million purchase, and an earlier sale for a higher amount, provides some background. Note also the idea of one of the commenters who points out that strictly speaking when a domain was sold in past we should apply some rate of inflation to get current dollars (although question of whether domains are increasing at, below or above inflation rate has no clear answer in my opinion).
https://domaininvesting.com/bbc-hotels-com-domain-name-originally-bought-for-11-million/
For convenience here is a link for the NameBio listed sales of exact word 'hotels'
https://namebio.com/?s==YDO0IDM4AjM
Now most of those are country/region sales so not useful comparators. The .top sale (mentioned earlier in this thread) is more relevant, but it apparently went to a domainer as it is up now on Undeveloped I see. Also, the strong single country bias in registrations of .top make it less desired for other regions.
Re valuation, it does need to be taken into account that hotel and hotels are being sold as a package. How much does that add to just hotels? Not sure but something, although less than a factor of 2. The package sale of sleeping and snoring last year, officially listed as $500k each, is perhaps relevant.
I think the availability of 'besthotels' in various extensions (here is DOFO link) including .net for just low/mid $$$$ dampens price possibilities. Also the .online can be bought for not that high a price. Possibly the .best social network makes the .best much more valuable, but it is still early days. Here is link:
https://dofo.com/search/?contains=besthotels
If it was mine, I would close the deal as soon as possible (rather than asking for advice here
).
All the .best,
Bob
