HotelQuickly is launching its last-minute hotel booking app in Australia today, with immediate listings for Sydney and Melbourne followed by support for additional cities in the coming weeks.
The iOS and Android app launched in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia back in March, with the simple premise of offering its users cheap hotel rooms at the last second.
Booking hotels in this fashion isn’t exactly a new idea, however (see our coverage of HotelTonight). HotelQuickly tries to attract new users by offering exclusive discounts on a curated list of hotels in the nearby area, as well as a condensed three-step process for booking a room.
It’s also worth emphasizing that the entire service is mobile-only. There’s no website to speak of – not for booking at least anyway – so the experience has been built from the ground-up for smartphone users.
In the six weeks following its launch, HotelQuickly has expanded into Vietnam and Macau, further strengthening its position and hotel offerings in its Asian home market. The company has also attracted over 50,000 app downloads from both iOS and Android devices, as well as 7,000 fans on Facebook, so now seems as good a time as any to take on Australia.
Navigating the app is remarkably straight-forward, with a no-nonsense list of countries to peruse from the outset. If you’re worried or under pressure to find a hotel room, refining the interface in this way can make all the difference.
A drop-down will appear with the available cities covered by HotelQuickly, followed by a list of available rooms promoted with a high-resolution photograph, normal price and app-discounted price. It’s not a ground-breaking process by any means, but in day-to-day use it works just fine.
Existing and prior bookings are available from a dedicated tab at the bottom, and it’s possible to pick up in-app credit by recommending the service to other users, which is a neat touch.
Last-minute hotel bookings regularly occur when you’re stuck in an unfamiliar city, so a map showing the location of each available room – located in the top right-hand corner of the app, is also a small, but welcome addition.
HotelQuickly is headquartered in Hong Kong, although its team of 40 employees are spread out across the Asia-Pacific region. Two of HotelQuickly’s five co-founders are also Rocket Internet alumni; Christian Mischler used to be COO of Foodpanda, while Raphael Cohen was Managing Director of Foodpanda Vietnam and DropGifts Singapore.
➤ Hotel Quickly | iOS | Android
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Image Credit: ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images
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