San Francisco (TAN): Global home-sharing platform Airbnb has completed the acquisition of San Francisco-based last-minute hotel booking app HotelTonight.
HotelTonight, launched in 2010, is a hotel-booking service that focuses on making last-minute booking for boutique and independent hotels.
The company continued to grow over the years, with the number of room nights booked through HotelTonight going up over 41 per cent year-over-year, in the first quarter of 2019. While its revenue grew 39 per cent in 2018, the number of new hotel partnerships increased 110 per cent since the beginning of 2018.
HotelTonight co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Sam Shank said: “When we founded HotelTonight, we sought to reimagine the hotel booking experience to be more simple, fast and fun, and to better connect travelers with the world’s best boutique and independent hotels. We are delighted to take this vision to new heights as part of Airbnb.”
While Shank will lead Airbnb’s boutique hotel category, the HotelTonight app and website will continue to function in its present form as part of the deal.
Through this acquisition, Airbnb expects to connect its global base of guests with boutique and independent hotels from the world over, and offer a one-stop solution for travel including accommodation, activities, among others, on the same platform.
[ALSO READ: Cheap weekend flight push for Western Australia tourism]
“We want Airbnb to be the place where travelers plan all of their trips, whether they are booking one year or one day in advance. The HotelTonight team has a tremendous passion for helping guests and rich industry expertise. We are more than thrilled to have them on board,” said Airbnb president of homes Greg Greeley.
HotelTonight, known for being innovative, expanded to desktop and enhanced its reward programme last year, and recently added the personalised daily deal feature Daily Drop.
