We first covered same-day hotel-booking app HotelTonight way back in early 2011, when it launched initially for iPhones. Well, a lot has happened since then.
It hit Android last summer, before being rolled out for iPads earlier this year, which geared it up nicely for its first tentative steps outside of the US market, first in Toronto and then London in June. Oh, and it also recently secured $23 million Series C investment, led by US Venture Partners with continued participation from Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and First Round Capital – this took its total funding to more than $35m.
Now, we’re told that the San Francisco-based company has notched up a cool 3 million app downloads across all platforms, as it rolls its service out to ten new cities.
“Hitting the 3 million download mark and announcing ten new cities shows how serious we are about our aggressive expansion and fulfilling our promise to be ubiquitous,” says Jared Simon, Co-Founder and COO, HotelTonight. “Our goal is for HotelTonight to be the next big brand in travel and the go-to solution for last-minute, spontaneous hotel stays – no matter where you are. We’re getting there fast, and this recent momentum proves it.”
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HotelTonight is very much aimed at the last-minute market, letting you book same-day hotel rooms for up to 70% less in dozens of cities across the US, including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Washington DC, as well as in Canada and the UK. Oh, and the company curates the hotels itself before including them on its platform, so this isn’t like another TripAdvisor. Another key differentiator is that it works on mobile only, so it’s very much aimed at those already in transit.
From this week, HotelTonight will be available in four new cities across the the UK – Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool, as well as four more in the US – St. Louis, Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Nashville. We’re told that Manchester (UK) and Salt Lake City/Park City will be added within the next week.
The company says that it’s adding – on average – one new destination to the app every two weeks, and it will be announcing more countries in the coming months.
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