Planning last minute trips are always painful on the wallet, especially when it comes to booking hotels. Getting charged more because you’re a walk-in is something that most of us have grown to accept as the norm. However, this app aims to change that.
HotelQuickly lets you book rooms last-minute at a discounted rate that are on average, 28% cheaper than anywhere online. What kind of sorcery is this, you ask? Well, it makes sense that hotels are not fully booked all the time doesn’t it? This could be due to a number of reasons, be it cancelled bookings, off-season periods, or undesirable room locations. When the rooms are not been maximally utilized, the hotels are not making a profit. Instead of letting this rooms go bare, they offer the rooms for a last-minute discounted price.
HotelQuickly is available in 14 different countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Macau, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Australia, and New Zealand. The app officially launched in Malaysia last Friday, on November 21, 2014 by CEO and co-founder, Tomas Laboutka. In an article in Techattack, Laboutka shared that more than 70,000 rooms go unsold in Malaysia everyday.
Laboutka added, “We want to bring people last minute, high-quality hotels with great deals to help bring the spontaneous travel experience to anyone with a cell phone.” The app is currently available on Android, iOS, and Blackberry devices.
You can log into the app using your Facebook account, or simply create a new account by typing in your name, email address and password. The app then shows you a list of best hotel deals near you by using your smartphone’s location. Sounds remarkably simple, doesn’t it? It gets better. The app only picks hotels that are rated 3 to 5 stars and offers deals guaranteed to be cheaper than anywhere else.
It allows for the user to check in today or tomorrow and book the room for up to 5 nights. The app currently covers 10 locations in Malaysia: Alor Setar, Cameron Highlands, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Langkawi, Loagan, Malacca and Penang. Though I do spy additional areas not stated here that are also covered after I downloaded the app. The overview of the hotel summarizes what users need to know such as the best price on the internet versus how much they’re offering.
You can pay for the rooms with either a credit card or Paypal. The site obtains most of its information and reviews from Trustyou, a site used mainly for hotels and restaurants that have been around since 2008. According to their website, “TrustYou is setting the standard for reputation with solutions for businesses to analyze reviews, tweets and posts across the social web, gather trusted reviews directly from their customers, and use their authentic conversations to successfully market their reputation online.”
Basically what it’s saying is that HotelQuickly gets the details in the “Info” tab from the Trustyou site, as you can see in the picture above. For example, Damai Beach Resort has a TrustScore of 68, which according to the app, is not really all that good. The app pulls key details like what you see in the picture above from reviews available on the net and summarizes it for users.
The information is condensed into bite-size pieces so you don’t have to read through 20 reviews to find out what it has to offer. In addition to letting you know how much you’re saving compared to the best price on the internet, it also allows you to know the vital details of the hotel such as parking availability, breakfast, pool, gym and wi-fi service. There’s also a map that can guide you there.
If you look at the reviews on the app, you’d see lots of referral links from random strangers on the internet. The reason why they’re generously offering you discount codes is because it helps them earn credits with the app. Once you refer your friends to sign up as a HotelQuickly user, make sure they use your personal invite code (available via the Share tab). This grants them a free $15 USD voucher and you a nifty $1. When your referrals book rooms, you get extra credits as well!
You don’t have to wait until the holidays to stay in hotels. It could be for a quick staycation. While staying at home is nice and all, sometimes relaxing in a room (that you don’t have to clean up) is necessary to de-stress. After all, you deserve some time off after the long weekend you’ve had.
