Steve’s breakdown: I love HotelTonight! I’ve used it many times and would never book a hotel last minute, which is the way I always do it,  any other way.

So, this company and it’s new products will need to get promoted. So, throw your hat in.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: HotelTonight acquires PrimaTable and brings on an All-Star Team to drive product strategy. It’s the popular hotel booking app’s first acquisition.

Core News Facts:

• HotelTonight (http://www.hoteltonight.com/), the leading last-minute hotel booking app, today announced its acquisition of San Francisco-based PrimaTable, developers of last-minute perishable inventory demand forecasting and pricing tools for the restaurant industry.
• PrimaTable built a sophisticated platform to help restaurants optimize revenue and better manage their scarce table resources. HotelTonight will be incorporating this platform into its own yield management system, presently targeted at top quality hotels.
• The acquisition solidifies HotelTonight’s position as the preeminent expert in yield management for mobile commerce. By acquiring PrimaTable’s forecasting and pricing tools and talented team, HotelTonight is one step closer to perfecting the first ever real-time commerce platform to power the mobile generation.
• Jamie Davidson, Co-Founder and CEO of PrimaTable, will join HotelTonight as Vice President of Product. Davidson previously worked as part of the team of quantitative experts charged with optimizing the display algorithm at Google before launching PrimaTable in early 2012. At HotelTonight, he’ll be focused on product vision and execution.
• Colin Zima, Co-Founder of PrimaTable, will join as HotelTonight’s Data Scientist. Prior to founding PrimaTable, Colin spent the last four years improving Google’s search ranking algorithms. He’ll be working closely with Davidson on the data, statistics and analytics that underlie the HotelTonight platform.
• As part of the acquisition, the entire PrimaTable team will join HotelTonight and work with Davidson on building the next generation of demand forecasting and pricing tools. With the PrimaTable team’s talent and expertise, along with HotelTonight’s experience as the fastest-growing hotel booking app in the world, the company is poised to expand its reach in the hospitality space and beyond.
• Same day hotel bookings are already a $15 billion domestic business, so the stakes are enormous. Perfecting the science of accurate demand forecasting and real-time pricing will have a tremendous positive impact on hotels that still have rooms to sell same-day, as well as on customers who need a place to stay that night.
• HotelTonight recently debuted Version 4.0 of its iPhone, iPad and Android apps. The new versions bring customers more of what they love about HotelTonight, by including expanded hotel offerings personalized for each user. The app has been downloaded more than 3 million times, and is available in over 60 destinations in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada.
• Since HotelTonight’s launch in January 2011, the company has raised more than $35 million in funding and established itself as the leader in mobile travel. By building apps that allow users to easily book incredible same-day hotel deals at great properties, HotelTonight is revolutionizing the way consumers book travel.
• HotelTonight is available for free on iPhone, iPad and any Android device. Download the app here (http://www.hoteltonight.com/now).

Quotes:
Sam Shank, Co-Founder and CEO, HotelTonight
“We’re thrilled to be working with the PrimaTable team to continue to make booking a hotel room at the last-minute a seamless and magical process for consumers, and a windfall for hotels. When we look to acquire companies we look first and foremost at the talent. It’s clear that we struck gold with the PrimaTable team — not only are they brilliant, they also have more experience solving these problems than practically anyone else in the world.”

Jared Simon, Co-Founder and COO, HotelTonight
“As smartphone penetration forces ecommerce to rapidly evolve into an on-demand, instant gratification model, Jamie and the PrimaTable team have affirmed our vision to provide the next generation tools to power this revolution. Real-time yield management didn’t exist before smartphones, and, together with the PrimaTable team, we’re looking forward to extending our lead as the pioneer in this discipline.”

Jamie Davidson, Co-Founder and CEO, PrimaTable:
“Joining HotelTonight was a clear and obvious choice for us. We chose HotelTonight because of their traction, and for the opportunity for us to realize our vision and change the way consumers transact with the world around them. We’re beyond excited to be a part of the HotelTonight team and continue to build the concepts and paradigms that will define the future of m-commerce.”

Colin Zima, Co-Founder, PrimaTable:
“This acquisition is the perfect next chapter for PrimaTable. By merging the tools and technology that we built at PrimaTable with HotelTonight’s yield management platform, we’re poised to invent foundational concepts that will drive mobile commerce for the next decade.”

About HotelTonight:
HotelTonight was founded in December 2010 to provide easy mobile booking of same-day unsold hotel inventory. For consumers, HotelTonight offers incredible convenience and amazing value at quality hotels. For hotels, HotelTonight is a marketplace to fill last-minute rooms that would otherwise remain empty. HotelTonight is currently available in over 60 destinations in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada. Based in San Francisco, California, HotelTonight is backed by some of the top venture firms and travel-industry pioneers in the world. Visit www.hoteltonight.com for more information and to download the free app.

About PrimaTable:
PrimaTable offers diners access to the top restaurants, and provides restaurants the ability to optimize revenue and better manage their scarce table resources. For customers, PrimaTable curates a list that includes only the very best restaurants — the most popular, best reviewed and hardest to book tables in the city. To guarantee members reservations on their terms, PrimaTable negotiates exclusive availability on their behalf. For restaurants, PrimaTable focuses on delivering three core benefits, including revenue optimization, increased brand value and identifying and acquiring VIPs.

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