This comes right after the launch of CheckInTonight, a Cambodia-based start-up that is also scaling across South-east Asia.

HotelQuickly, also based on the HotelTonight model, the American first mover in this space, is founded by a team from former Rocket Internet ventures in the region. The company is expected to close its seed round of US$500,000 in funding soon and claims to offer the biggest inventory (more than 150 partner hotels) across the region. It serves both IOS and Android users with apps for the latest devices including iPhone 5 optimisation.

Said COO and co-founder Christian Mischler, who hails from Foodpanda, “We have attracted a lot of interest from investors globally, not only because we are the biggest player offering same-day hotel bookings in this fast-growing region, but also because we have managed to put together an incredible team.

Christian Mischler

“By now, more than 30 people are involved in HotelQuickly, which is the reason for the results that we have managed to deliver in a relatively short time-frame. We have ambitious goals and we are on track to reach them.” 

A maximum of six hotels are offered per hub each day. Offers are published each day at noon local time. Users can book anytime between 12pm and 2am for the same night and there’s a help desk 24/7 to support users. The company earns commissions per booking.

Mischler said the five co-founders (pictured) have experience in building up ventures in Europe and Asia.  “We know how to build companies from scratch, where it is important to spend money and time (and where not) and how to avoid common pitfalls.

“Our diverse but complementary background created an incredible network, which allowed us to source the best and brightest talent for key positions such as country managers and IT developers.”

Mischler with the five co-founders

Most of its country managers have worked in hospitality. In terms of hotel content, Mischler said to ensure it only has popular and quality hotels, it curates its list based on ratings on TripAdvisor and other review websites.

“The most popular hotels usually have above-average occupancy, which is the reason why they are usually relatively satisfied with their own performance and do not see the need for last-minute occupancy optimization. However, the concept of mobile-only private sales via a dedicated app is appealing enough for many good brands and we managed to team up with a number of good hotels in all cities where we launched so far.”

There were teething issues, for example, with its iPhone application when some of the features were not running properly. “With the latest release published yesterday, these bugs were fixed. Also, some hotels we contracted back in fall 2012 – they almost forgot about us  – hence, we had to ensure we had enough inventory to allow enough bookings in the first days.

“Luckily, the hotels picked it up quickly. So far we have received bookings in all major destinations, though as we shuffle the offerings each day based on the best discounts from regular prices, the internal league table is not yet very meaningful.

“In general, we observed that hotels which grant the biggest discounts on prices online have seen the most bookings in their respective cities, which doesn’t come as a surprise.”

It is engaging with customers via social media channels – its Facebook page grew to more than 4,000 fans in less than two weeks – and emails and surveys after the booking process. 

Asked if it could find itself offering “tomorrow” deals as CheckInTonight did weeks after launch, Mischler said, “We will learn from the market and reflect the most popular demand in our app – bookings for the next day could be one of the future features. However, we do not want to dilute the value proposition and stay focused, as exploring too many avenues at once is a common mistake of many failed startups. We will remain focused also going forward, but at the same time make sure to serve our target market the best way possible.

“Unlike CheckinTonight we also offer booking via Android smartphones, which in our opinion is key for success. Why would we want to only serve 50% of our market?”

Mischler said he saw CheckInTonight not as a direct competitor but as an ally in educating customers in South-east Asia about the benefits of same-day mobile hotel booking.

HotelQuickly will focus on demand from the more mature markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei compared with CheckInTonight’s focus on the newer emerging markets, he said.

“We also closely monitor what Hotel Tonight, Blink Booking, Just-Book, and other European players are doing. Many of them started 6-12 months before us, hence we have the opportunity to learn from them.

“We are first movers in most of our markets, which is beneficial from many angles. However, we expect one or two western competitors to enter the region in 2013. The market is massive in Asia, and we don’t think that there will be much negative impact on our success by having more than one player in the region.”

As for why he’s doing this, Mischler said that COO and CTO of Foodpanda, an online food delivery service, he travelled a lot.

“To find a decent hotel, within the company allowance limits and in a good location, was often time consuming and cumbersome; sometimes I traveled to three countries in one week. HotelQuickly would have been the perfect solution but there was no app like ours available back then. When Tomas Laboutka (CEO of HotelQuickly), a good friend of mine from university, approached me and presented me the opportunity of becoming part of the founding team, I did not hesitate long.

“The growing middle class, the amount of domestic and international travellers in Asia, and the penetration of smartphones in the region are just a few of the driving factors which make this business model successful in Asia.”