It shouldn't surprise anyone when a successful web-based portal launches its mobile native application to accelerate its business.
Berlin-based startup JustBook has just turned the equation on its head by breaking its 'mobile-only' presence to launch a new web-based portal.
JustBook is in the business of providing last-minute hotel deals through its native app for three major operating systems - iOS, Android, Blackberry.
The company claims that its mobile apps were downloaded 500,000 times and has 3,500 hotels in 65 destinations across Europe.
According to the local media Deutsche Startup, just a little after a year from launch, JustBook has learned that its 'mobile-only' business model alone isn't enough to serve its customers in Europe.
JustBook has launched a new portal to allow its customers to reserve last-minute hotel deals on the web, the site is currently in beta.
All features in its mobile app are now also available via the new web portal.
Other players who also offer mobile-only hotel deals in Europe include BlinkBooking, VeryLastRoom and Hot Hotels. On a global scale, we have HotelTonight (US major), LastRoom (Mexico), Booking.com Tonight (Global), CheckInTonight (Asia).
ReallyLateBooking is another similar player in Europe who has both mobile app and a web portal.
While JustBook's European competitors are staying as 'mobile-only' model, why is JustBook is venturing into a web-based-portal-too model?
Founder Stefan Menden says:
"We are a "customer-first" not just a "mobile-first" company. We take our customers extremely serious and one of the constant points of feedback was 'I love your hotel selection, can I please also book on the web?' We are still a full-blooded mobile company, but we wanted to see what happens, when you take a "mobile-first" experience and bring it to the web. Our competitors are the big booking portals, where most of our potential customers are now booking their hotels after searching through long lists, cumbersome filters, promotions etc.
Our customers love the curated hotel selection and clear focus on a lighting quick and aestheticaly pleasing booking proces. We try to take this to the web to offer another channel and make it as easy as possible to book the coolest possible hotel."
and to the question of whether other (similar) players in the market will also follow suit, he says:
"I think that the "mobile-only, hotel-only, tonight-only" model is too product-centric, instead of being customer-centric. We have internally discussed various angels to extend the offering by venturing into other verticals (think: cars, restaurants, tickets...) or by focusing on hotels but offering what our existing hotel bookers request all the time: mobile and web, several days in advance, personally vetted hotels. I do think, that other players will react to that in one way or the other."
Finally, we asked Menden about the percentage of bookings/traffic JustBook expects for the new web portal:
"To be honest: We don't know. JustBook has mobile-DNA which we employed to build a new kind of hotel booking site based on the feedback of our users. We will not be a hotel booking site for everybody. We are for the discerning traveler."