FindBed enables customers to book a hotel room at a rate of their choice.
Hotels are often left with unfilled rooms, which is why websites offering to cancel and rebook rooms for customers (and make the most of fluctuating room prices) have already proved so successful. Polish startup Findbed reverses the booking process by enabling customers to name their ideal price, leaving hoteliers to decide whether or not to accept their offer. Simple to use, and with hoteliers answering in real time, travellers have an opportunity to negotiate a great price and ultimately pick up a bargain.
As Findbed says on its site, the most expensive room is an empty room. So this new approach to the hotel industry could prove extremely beneficial to both buyers and sellers. Registration is free for both hotels and travellers, and Findbed does not charge accommodation owners a commission.
Travellers wishing to use the service fill out a simple form consisting of desired arrival and departure dates, numbers of adults and children, preferred locations (such as mountainous, seaside or anywhere in Poland) and what type of catering he or she would like (none, breakfast only, or breakfast and dinner). Lastly, a minimum and maximum price must be listed.
Travellers are required to include an email address in order to receive responses from the hotels, and Findbed emphasizes the site’s privacy and security. Once a request for a room is submitted, the traveller sits back and waits for a response or responses.
Every request for a room has a unique reference number and is live on Findbed for 24 hours, giving a range of hoteliers time to consider and reply. Once potential visitors receive replies to their query, they have a further 24 hours to make a decision about where to stay. Generally, travellers will receive responses only from hotels happy to provide a room at the offered price.
Findbed says that the entire process often takes only a few minutes; the 48-hour limit is there to protect both sides of the bargaining table from wasting time and effort. Once a user has decided which hotel’s offer to accept, he or she must contact the relevant business’s booking department and use the unique reference number generated by Findbed to confirm the reservation. The booking then follows the typical reservation process, with fees confirmed, payment made and the visitor receiving final confirmation by email.
If a hotel does not hear back from a potential visitor before the end of the 48-hour period, it is safe to assume that the traveller chose another destination. Although the platform does not currently charge a commission to hotels that receive bookings through the service, Findbed does offer premium, paid-for marketing and sales packages to help hotels improve promotion and sales conversions.
Other industries testing out the pay-what-you-like model of economics include a taxi service in Los Angeles and the US-based Aspiration Bank. Opoli is a smartphone, desktop and tablet transportation app, which enables customers to confirm a price during booking, eliminating the surge pricing and unpredictable metered fees of other taxi services. Aspiration wants to see a move away from the profit-driven fees that investment banks attach to user accounts, instead opting for a ‘pay what Is fair’ fee model.
__TAKEAWAYS
Website: www.findbed.pl
Contact: rafal@findbed.pl
Innovation name: FindBed
Country: Poland
Industries: Retail & e-commerce / Tourism & travel