What Happened to the HotelTonight Clones?
Skift Take
In light of Airbnb buying HotelTonight, Skift looks back at the many copycats of the mobile-first hotel booking agency. Where are they now?
After Airbnb bought HotelTonight, our thoughts turned to the many clones of the startup.
When CEO Sam Shank and chief technology officer Jared Simon co-founded HotelTonight in 2010, they had to popularize the new concept of mobile-only, last-minute, curated hotel bookings.
However, before long, roughly a dozen other companies with strikingly similar business models popped up around the world.
HotelTonight defended itself by out-raising the copycats. It collected about $117 million from investors. It also sourced its inventory directly from hoteliers, and general managers could easily see how it was driving lower-cost, high-value bookings. Some copycats became resellers instead.
Earlier this month, Airbnb said it would acquire hotel booking platform HotelTonight for a little more than $400 million, with about half in stock.
"The acquisition by Airbnb certainly represents the end of an era for stand-alone, last-minute, mobile-only hotel booking," said Joe Haslam, chairman
