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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#111

Post by splonk »

jpalomaki wrote: post #63
tudelo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I have used HotelTonight for day of booking and it had a better deal than I could get through any other location online for a very nice hotel.

I’ve been under the impression that some of the large sites force hotels to sign agreements, which prevent the hotel from giving better rates to other sites. Found one article mentioning this [1]. Edit: but could be these don’t apply to last minute or same day reservation. Looks like for example Hotels.com best price guarantee excludes these. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/sep/15/australians-t...

Correct, but this is being slowly phased out in some areas, particularly in the EU due to regulations. e.g. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d2ab9fe-a2a5...

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#112

Post by krn »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #35
nedwin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any data to back that up? My anecdotal understanding was that HotelTonight was doing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Some component of that $130m may have been secondary stock sale. I don't think we have enough data to determine what the price might have been, or how well employees will do.

I’m referring to their last valuation of $400m in 2017. The company hasn’t hockeysticked since then, by any measure (e.g. App Store rank), so I think we can deduce the sale price was likely well below $1b, maybe 500m at very best but guessing lower. Factoring liquidation preferences for VCs and you get a small pie for most people involved.

> Factoring liquidation preferences for VCs and you get a small pie for most people involved.

Let's say HotelTonight was acquired for $500 mln. How much of that the founders could get at most based on the last valuation?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#113

Post by linuxftw »

manigandham wrote: post #34
linuxftw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By how much? I suspect they simply were operating at a loss to build up their brand. Jet.com did the same thing.

HotelTonight's model is to find and offer up rooms for last-minute demand that would otherwise go empty. Hotels are happy to offer discounts for these. It's really just automating the same deals you could get if you called.

This is what priceline et al have been advertising for two decades.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#114

Post by goshx »

jonknee wrote: post #94
Alex3917 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs. It isn't, which is why I posted the video showing that. On the screen you can very clearly see: Room (1 Night): $180 Taxes & Fees: $32 Total: $221 The resort fee isn't included in any of those. They put it in fine print thats hidden below the Apple Pay button. But they designed the UI to make it so that the Payment button is flush…

Well it's because they aren't charging you the resort fee, the hotel does that. They itemize what you're actually paying for... Just like they mention, but don't charge you for parking ahead of time. That's up to the hotel. Anyway, the UI is different now and in big type it says "Due Now" with the resort fee mentioned under that. I personally didn't find it confusing before, but it's now quite clear.

"Resort Fee" is a made up fee to mislead customers and it is not the same as a parking fee.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#115

Post by manigandham »

linuxftw wrote: post #113
manigandham wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HotelTonight's model is to find and offer up rooms for last-minute demand that would otherwise go empty. Hotels are happy to offer discounts for these. It's really just automating the same deals you could get if you called.

This is what priceline et al have been advertising for two decades.

Last minute? That was HT's original thing, same day bookings in an easy app.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#116

Post by rising-sky »

HeavenFox wrote: post #31

Those who have used HotelTonight, can you comment on your experience? For me, there have been several rare occasions when I needed a room at last minute, but HotelTonight was never actually cheaper than any other aggregators or booking directly with the hotel. All being equal I vastly prefer booking direct so I get my points and elite benefits. I guess they have a fancy interface, and that's... it? Maybe it's market…

Used HT since 2016. I think the biggest feature for me has always been the last minute convenience. It's true as other's have mentioned that the pricing has mostly reached an equilibrium with competitors but they still offer decent discounts based on several factors including points like your current location while you have the app open. I usually open the app before I get on a flight to see what's available, then when I land at my destination airport and I'm ready to book for same day or night, the prices tend to be discounted by a fair amount for some hotels.

The points and perks are also an added benefit, like not having to physically checkout at the front-desk for certain hotels once you've attained a "perk level" (read: loyalty points).

I will say I'm a little tepid about this deal, although very happy for the HT folk for what hopefully is a decent exit. I hope this only helps the app grow and offer more features and stay true to core, although it will likely be absorbed into the Airbnb app experience

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#117

Post by crushcrashcrush »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #97

Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire. A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.

Another thought (should I have edited my original post?) - this may have been a pure Customer List & Historical Data acquisition play. They may have purchased HT fully knowing that they'll lose hotel partners at contract expiration... could be next year or in 2025.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#118

Post by hunter23 »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #100

I still to this day scratch my head over how we’ve normalized sleeping in another stranger’s bed, as as hosts have normalized complete strangers touching our stuff and having sex in our beds. It’s wild.

A majority of the airbnb hosts nowadays are professionally managed ones at this point. I would say out of my last 10 stays, only 2 of them were hosts who actually lived in them. Airbnb is essentially a hotel operation at this point.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#119

Post by randomacct3847 »

krn wrote: post #112
randomacct3847 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m referring to their last valuation of $400m in 2017. The company hasn’t hockeysticked since then, by any measure (e.g. App Store rank), so I think we can deduce the sale price was likely well below $1b, maybe 500m at very best but guessing lower. Factoring liquidation preferences for VCs and you get a small pie for most people involved.

> Factoring liquidation preferences for VCs and you get a small pie for most people involved. Let's say HotelTonight was acquired for $500 mln. How much of that the founders could get at most based on the last valuation?

I don’t know what the terms are or how much the CEO/founder has. Assuming a 2x liquidation preference there would be $240m left after investors take their share. If the CEO has 5% then that’s $12m.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#120

Post by goshx »

jak92 wrote: post #84
goshx wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fee is disclosed in the small print on HT. But it's not part of the total you pay to HT.

when is a fee not a fee? why isn't it included in the fee + taxes ?

That's the point we are trying to make. I don't agree with this practice. I don't agree with the "Resort Fee" practice and I'd love to learn about a hotel aggregator that doesn't do this. Any recommendation?
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