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    HotelTonight Extends Its Reach To Ireland As The Euro Clones Start To Attack

    Mike Butcher

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    Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

    Thursday, October 18th, 2012
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    2012426-hotel-tonight

    HotelTonight announced it was extending to Ireland at at the Dublin Web Summit today. The last-minute hotel booking app is already live in the UK. The news means every day at noon local time, HotelTonight offers same-day hotel deals and personalised hotel options in 65+ destinations in Ireland. Some of the hotel partners include The Croke Park Hotel, The Gresham Dublin and The Westbury Hotel. The app, downloaded 3.5 million times to date, launched in the UK three months ago and recently added Amsterdam. Other Western European markets are in the cards. However, HotelTonight has some local competition in the form of Blink a startup backed by PROFounders Capital, which is currently live in 7 countries an 97 cities in Europe.

    Co-founder and CEO Sam Shank told us “We’re aware of it – but what people underestimate is it’s easy to launch an app but hard to build the back end and hard to build that supply of inventory. 80% of the tech in HotelTonight is not seen by the user. The irony is that a simple app takes a loft to complexity. You can’t clone the back end.”

    HotelTonight recently secured a $23 million Series C investment, led by U.S. Venture Partners with continued participation from Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and First Round Capital. This latest round has helped to fuel the company’s worldwide expansion.

    European operations are being overseen by London-based Heather Leisman, managing director, Europe who was previously at Jetsetter.

    Each day at noon local time, HotelTonight offers three same-day hotel deals in each of its destinations, with deep discounts of up to 70 percent off. All hotels are vetted by HotelTonight staff.

    First time bookers can get 20 euros off their first booking by using promo code TONIGHT.


    Crunchbase

    Company: HotelTonight
    Website: hoteltonight.com
    Launch Date: December 2010
    Funding: $35.7M

    HotelTonight is the ultimate way to book a same-day hotel stay via your mobile device. Founded in 2010, HotelTonight is the first hotel booking application that is made for mobile from the ground up. HotelTonight offers some of the best pricing for last minute hotel deals in different categories: hip, basic, solid, charming and luxe. Perfect for business travelers, leisure travelers and locals alike.

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