Last Minute Hotel Booking App, Nightstay Raises $500K From BedRock Ventures & Others

Noida-based last minute hotel booking App, NightStay, has raised around $500K in a pre-seed round from BedRock Ventures and angel investors Rajesh Sawhney of GSF and Shailesh Vickram Singh, partner at SeedFund.

NightStay was started by Nasr Khan in December last year with a basic alpha app, however, the beta version of the product was announced in March 2015.

Idea Behind Starting with NightStay

The idea with which NightStay started was to create a platform that can provide instant hotel booking for the travellers while assuring high quality of service and hygiene.

Founder and CEO, Nasr Khan said,

We deliberately did not want to go into budget accommodation space as we want to assure quality and hassle free experience for the customers. NightStay was formed keeping in mind that last minute booking do not involve thorough reading of reviews but for making quick bookings where quality is the main constraint.

Hotels usually have a check in and check-out time in the afternoon where most of the rooms in the hotels either get occupied or are left empty. Ideally, the percentage of occupancy or the people checking in is hardly 1-2%.

Talking about the upscale property like that of The Lalit, The Hyatt and Shangri-La which have around 300+ rooms or about a boutique property which anyway is struggling to keep the cost low and still maintain high standards, it becomes a matter of concern when 30-50% rooms are vacant on most of the days. These rooms anyway do not get occupied but the property owners face a dilemma to either shell them out at a discounted rate, after 12 noon, on online travel agencies (OTA) like that of Makemytrip.com or Yatra.com. However, this would dilute the brand perception of high end hotels.

This is when NightStay came out with solution by offering a non-conflicting and a dedicated channel for expired hotel room inventory. Through this the hotels get an open and flexible option in the form of flash accessibility. They can put the inventory on NightStay app, which goes live from 12’o Clock afternoon and is available till 12’o clock midnight, and increase the footfall at their premise along with maintaining brand identity.

USP

NightStay targets the last minute customers by providing upscale hotels and does not hold inventory like any other OTAs. The startup operates as a flash marketplace for high end hotels. Nasr said that NightStay is trying to build a value such that people view it as flash sale chain for high brand hotels.

NightStay claims to have signed up with more than 150 above three star and deluxe hotels and is expanding week by week with almost 200% growth on month-on-month basis. The startup has its presence in six cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Though NightStay does not face any direct competition, players like Stayuncle are sure to impact its business with enlisted upscale hotels providing discounts to the seekers. Also, the budget accommodation hotel marketplace sites like Oyo Rooms & ZO Rooms are making big wave as travelers do seek affordable stays.

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