Raphael is the co-founder of Hotel Quickly.
Raphael worked for Rocket Internet as Managing Director of foodpanda Vietnam and DropGifts Singapore, before joining HotelQuickly as Chief Sales Officer. As serial entrepreneur, he previously founded the online graphic design outsourcing company Corporate Edesign, as well as CGHK Export, a China-focused trading company. Raphael was born and raised in Paris, but lived in Toronto, Shanghai, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong, which is also the reason why he speaks 6 languages and travels so much.
What is your startup?
HotelQuickly is a mobile-only, last-minute hotel booking application with the biggest inventory and best rates available across Asia. With the most exclusive hotels in the region on offer, our users enjoy the fastest and most convenient way to book the most attractive last minute hotel room. For hotels, we provide a solution to fill unsold rooms that would otherwise remain empty and incur costs. HotelQuickly is currently active in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. It will be available all across Asia over the coming months.
How did you come up with this idea?
Back over last summer, we heard about this concept working extremely well in the US and Europe. We found a real need in Asia both from the users’ and from the hotels’ side, with all the figures in our favour and no direct competitor existing, giving us a first mover advantage.
Who are you targeting and how big is the market in HK/Asia?
Our target customers are everyone who needs to book a hotel at the last minute. They range from business travellers to last-minute leisure travellers, party people, people who missed their flight or train, staycationers.
The market in Asia is enormous. Hospitality industry in APAC accounts for USD 93.9bn in total volume. Booking through online channels grew by 97% to USD 19.7bn between 2008 and 2012. Market size of the same-day booking via mobile is valued at USD 6 bn.
What are your future plans for your startup?
We successfully launched HotelQuickly simultaneously in 6 countries on March 20, 2013. Over the coming few months, we will be expanding to many more countries and cover all of Asia. We have really aggressive growth targets and aim at becoming the reference app for Asian travellers for last minute hotel booking.
Can you tell us one Benefit and one Challenge in the HK startup scene?
HK is a major international business hub in Asia, which makes it a great place to start-up a company, especially on the networking, legal and financial sides. Many companies’ Asian headquarters are in HK, making it a good place to approach business customers and close deals.
However HK is also an expensive city to live and work in, which may pose a challenge to many start-ups during their infancy stage.
Hotel Quickly:
URL: www.hotelquickly.com
Twitter: @hotelquickly
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HotelQuickly
Instagram: @hotelquickly
Connect with Raphael Cohen:
Twitter: @raphaelcohen23
LinkediN: Raphael Cohen
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