Skift Take
The kind of curation the One Night app provides its users really does set it apart from other booking channels. The bigger question, though, is how many people actually know about it?
It's been just a little more than a year since Standard International debuted its One Night same-day booking app for independent hotels and CEO and managing partner Amar Lalvani is more convinced than ever that the same-day booking model is one with staying power.
This, despite the fact that same-day booking pioneer HotelTonight recently announced its pivot to becoming more like a "Hotel Whenever," as it opened its booking window to 100 days. "I think the premise for hotel companies is less valuable for HotelTonight now," Lalvani told Skift.
The One Night app allows users to book a stay at more than 130 independent and boutique hotels in 11 cities beginning at 3 p.m. local time. Those hotels include such properties as all of The Standard Hotels, as well as the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York, the Thompson Chicago, and The Line in Los Angeles. Although Lalvani said the app was primarily designed for boutique, independent, and lifestyle hotels, a quick glance at the hotels listed on the app also found properties like the Rosewood London and The Langham, London, both of which are part of larger hotel companies.
The model One Night uses is commission-based, similar to how an online travel agency such as Expedia or Booking.com would have with their hotel partners, but the Standard, unlike most of those companies, will share guest information with its hotel partners.
"It's essentially a commission, the same way an OTA would do, but we have a friendlier approach as it relates to what our commission is and how we structure the contracts," Lalvani said.
Lalvani said the company also pays close attention to curation — which hotel partners are allowed to be a part of the app — and includes additional experience-related, in-destination information on the One Night app for its users. The app also doesn't make price a focal point.
"We also don't rank hotels based on the price of the hotel," he said. "In fact, we think that comes secondary to the experience of the hotel, so if you look at the home screen, it's very different, again, from any other booking channels. In fact, on our home screen the price is hidden; it's certainly available, but you know with One Night you're automatically getting the best deal out there."
He also said that from June to August of this year, sales on the app grew 152 percent, and average daily bookings grew by 331 percent. Downloads also grew 53 percent, and active users grew to 48 percent of downloads, representing
