HotelTonight Outlook — Travel’s Best and Brightest Have a Say on Its Prospects
Photo Credit: HotelTonight specializes in spontaneous hotel bookings on a mobile device. Travel analysts believe it will be tough for the startup to compete against bigger players. HotelTonight
Skift Take
Most of the travel brainiacs we consulted feel that HotelTonight has an uphill battle ahead, but as they say in baseball, that's why they play the games. In other words, maybe they're wrong, and HotelTonight will have the right stuff to persevere. The entire travel industry is watching.
HotelTonight burst on the scene nearly seven years ago as a unique and exquisite mobile- and tonight-only hotel booking app that spawned a host of competitors — startups and major players among them — all over the world.
Skift tech editor Sean O'Neill traced HotelTonight's evolution here, including its latest pivot into a hotel-booking service that enables guests to book hotels 100 days in advance.
Sam Shank, HotelTonight co-founder and CEO, posted a Reuters story on LinkedIn the other day that pointed out that the startup would now have to go head to head with Expedia and Booking.com.
Shank wrote: "Proud of the HotelTonight team and their relentless quest to reinvent the online travel agency for the mobile era. Great things ahead!"
Rock, Paper, Scissors
But will HotelTonight wither at the prospect of directly competing with the Priceline Group and Expedia, which collectively spent roughly $6.5 billion on advertising in 2016, and is increasing that spend this year?
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