Articles tagged “hoteltonight”

HotelTonight's pivot into a 100-day booking window is a concession that the last-minute market was too small. Yet the company's swing to profitability is remarkable.

Hotel booking startup HotelTonight took immense losses in 2015. If it is truly profitable now and doubled its revenue to at least $60 million in 2016, then that still doesn't scream IPO.

Kayak apparently got cute in trying to use the phrase "Hotel for tonight" in its apps and it appears as though HotelTonight prevailed in a trademark flap. Now they've partnered up as HotelTonight is selling through Kayak in a bid to trim costs.

Let's see: HotelTonight claims to have grown revenue 200 percent year over year in January while shifting its emphasis toward profitability instead of growth, and after laying off 20 percent of its staff in November. Sometimes it's just great to be a private company and to have such freedom of speech.

25 Moments that Mattered in 2015: To make our selection of 25 moments, we thought back to the stories that drove reader engagement and sparked discussion among both travel experts and the general public. Some stories were quick blips that represented bigger things while others were narratives that built slowly through out the year. Each one, though, spoke to where we are right now when it comes to the big business of global travel.

Given the headlines, while Rome2Rio, Captain Train and Loco2 are trying to get the message out that they are just as hot as travel-startup peer GoEuro, in contrast Hot Hotels is getting the word out that it will avoid some of the business model pitfalls of HotelTonight.

The rest of the travel industry -- or at least the big players that matter -- have caught up to HotelTonight, the first mover in the same-day mobile hotel-booking space. Heavily funded, HotelTonight is seeking an exit that makes its investors whole.

As we've said before, HotelTonight was facing tough challenges from hotel brands and better funded online booking sites that have their own design on the last-minute booking space.

As competitors close in and some do heavy TV advertising, HotelTonight states that it is doing "hundreds of millions of dollars" annually in gross bookings and that it has grown 100 percent per year over the last two years. This will continue to be an interesting skirmish between a well-funded startup focusing on last-minute versus larger players that can offer more wide-ranging solutions for hotels.

This app is obviously only for married couples celebrating their 25th wedding anniversaries or higher. Know what we mean?