By Dipo Olowookere
As part of its expansion plans, foremost Nigerian online hotels booking agency, Hotels.ng, has launched two additional brands; Hotel.africa and Fly.africa.
The new brands were launched to export the firm’s cost effective business model and operational efficiency in marketing, customer support and finance in Nigeria to win in Africa on both hotel bookings and flights.
Hotel.africa is the company’s Africa focused brand which has over 25,000 properties listed across many cities in Africa.
On its part, Fly.africa is focused on flights within and outside the continent.
In order to succeed, the firm has partnered with local hotels and airlines across Africa to accelerate its growth across the region.
Its goal in Africa is to make every hotel in Africa available to be booked online, by taking its hotel inventory on hotel.africa from 25,000 to 100,000 within the next four years.
In 2013, there were only 300 Nigerian hotels listed online and Mr Mark Essien, CEO of Hotels.ng, saw an opportunity in building an African focused OTA to give hotels in most obscure areas visibility and to help consumers find a place to stay in all the cities across Africa – no matter how small.
In 2017, his company raised over $1.5 million in venture capital to list over 10,000 hotels across 320 cities in Nigeria with pictures and reviews.
It added over 5,000 places of interest in Nigeria to its site and also acquired a stake in event booking website, OgaVenue, and importantly – became profitable in 2017.
Today, Hotels.ng is Nigeria’s largest online travel agency that specialises in hotel bookings within Nigeria.
The agency helps customers book hotel rooms online, provide comprehensive help and support to clients and make the hotel booking process smooth and easy.
