HotelQuickly is a startup founded in December 2012, that offers last-minute hotel bookings on the cheap. Earlier today in Eastin Hotel, it has announced its official presence here in Malaysia, with the inauguration made by the CEO and Co-founder himself, Tomas Laboutka.
HotelQuickly claims to be the first and most popular last-minute hotel booking app in the Asia Pacific region. Laboutka said that in Malaysia alone, there are a total of some 3,000 hotels, but over 70,000 rooms went unsold daily. This could be due to multiple reasons, including cancelled bookings, undesirable room location, off season, et cetera. To manage the yield, these hotels would rather sell the empty rooms last-minute at a steeply-discounted price, to guests who wouldn’t have otherwise stayed at their premises.
Because of this scenario, HotelQuickly is able to offer rooms on an average 28% cheaper than competing hotel rates online. It vetted each partner hotel individually and said to only offer hotel rooms rated 3 stars and above, though there are some 2-star Malaysian hotels showing up in the HotelQuickly app now. At the same time, folks who are hosting friends for a party, have a last-minute business appointment, or would like to just go on a spontaneous weekend getaway (nearby), could choose from HotelQuickly’s network of over 4,000 “curated” hotels in 120+ destinations, spanning 14 different countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Macau, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Australia, and New Zealand. The app also supports besides the English language, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese.
The company delivers this service as a mobile-only experience, having no public announcement as to whether there’ll be a web version of HotelQuickly in the future or not. One of the reason for its non-web approach is to keep the discounted rates out of public view, except those who have signed up to the app.
Tomas Laboutka presenting at the official launch of HotelQuickly
HotelQuickly Co-founder and CEO Tomas Laboutka said at the event, “We believe spontaneous travel enriches people’s lives, and our goal is to make last minute hotel booking be fast and rewarding. 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 available on Android, iOS, and even BlackBerry 10 devices. The way it works is, upon launching the app, you’ll have to sign up for an account or just login with your Facebook. Your smartphone’s location information will tell HotelQuickly where you’re at, and the app will only show you 10 of the “best” deals. This is given to you based on your location, whether you’re staying today or tomorrow, and for how long (up to five days). You can even fine tune by budget, pick another city, view all listings on a map, or even shake your device for a for a random “I’m feeling lucky” pick.
There are ten locations in Malaysia covered so far — Alor Setar, Cameron Highlands, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Langkawi, Loagan, Malacca, and Penang — and though there are not many choices to pick from now, not to mention very few backpacking lodges, there are several well-known hotels available on HotelQuickly. They include Best Western Premier Dua Sentral, GTower Hotel, Prince Hotel & Residences, and Wolo Bukit Bintang.
Payment is also frictionless, with options to use your credit card, PayPal, or TrustYou. When asked how much is HotelQuickly getting from each booking, Laboutka did not gave us the specific percentage. However, he did say that most hotels gives high commissions to the online booking sites, but HotelQuickly transfers the commissions to the customers, which translates to cheaper rates for us.
Photo (left to right): Sarah Lian (actress & TV personality); Tomas Laboutka (CEO & Co-founder of HotelQuickly); Tan Wen Dee (Malaysia Marketing Manager); and Lee Yvonne (Miss Universe Malaysia 2012).
Laboutka also answered a question about the challenges faced by himself, the four other co-founders, and their Hong Kong-based team, “One of our biggest challenges is localization. We have done careful research on travelers’ behavior and watched booking trends in Malaysia, in which most users would like to search various hotel-booking services then come back to us again and see if we have the best deals. Only through this could we improve the app quality and customer service.”
So here’s the deal. When you sign up for the first time, you’ll receive an email from the CTO, Michal Juhas, with a US$15 code (~RM50). There is also a complimentary ‘QUICKBOOK’ code that’ll give you US$5 (~RM17). You can only use one of these referral codes once on your first redeeming, however for us Malaysian accounts, we get to enjoy a higher referral reward of RM70, so pick only one of these codes wisely:
Tomas Laboutka, CEO and Co-founder
- TLABO
- US$10 (~RM33)
Michal Juhas, CTO and Co-founder
- MJUHA15
- US$15 (~RM50)
Given to you in the app
- QUICKBOOK
- US$5 (~RM17)
Tan Wen Dee, Marketing Manager, Strategic Partnerships & Public Relations, HotelQuickly
- WDEES2
- RM70
Reuben Thum, yours truly
- RTHUM
- RM70
If you own one of these smartphones, give HotelQuickly a whirl today:
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