The future of hotel booking is here.
Pinktada is a new kind of hospitality marketplace.
Hotel reservations come in two flavors, refundable and non-refundable. Refundable reservations are expensive, and they put hotel revenue at risk. Non-refundable reservations are less expensive, but they handcuff travelers. Millions of dollars are lost every day either by hotels who are stuck with empty rooms or travelers who are stuck with reservations they can’t use.
While the reservation model made sense in a pre-networked world, it no longer does. There are hundreds of millions of people traveling each day, and now more than ever, plans are apt to change.
The world of travelers and hotels is a live ecosystem with thousands of decisions and changes to plans happening every second. Our marketplace model empowers the ecosystem. We replace the outdated reservation model with a “token” model, which effectively converts a hotel reservation into a ticket, which we call a “room-night token” (RNT).
Instead of booking a reservation for a class of room, a traveler can purchase tickets, or RNTs, for a specific room for a specific set of nights. Just like tickets, these RNTs can be redeemed for the specific nights in the specific rooms at the hotel, or they can be transferred, sold or swapped.
Once a hotel sells an RNT, it’s sold. The hotel’s revenue is guaranteed, regardless of how many times the RNT for a particular room and night changes hands.
When a traveler needs to change a reservation, they can sell it back to the market or swap it for any other RNTs. Travelers get access to discount prices without the risk of forfeiting their reservation if plans change.
The process
Hotels join Pinktada and place exclusive room inventory on our platform. These aren’t just room classes. These are specific room numbers that will only be sold on Pinktada.
Pinktada works with the hotel to create custom content highlighting how their hotel is unique. In particular, we create an immersive, true-to-life 3D rendering of the hotel and every room for sale on the platform.
Hotels post their upcoming room inventory for the next year for sale. Travelers can buy RNTs for their personal use.
Once sold, the RNT behaves just like a ticket. The traveler can use the RNT to stay in the specific room on the specific night, just like a reservation, or they can sell or swap it on the platform. Every RNT has its own price, determined by the market.
Need to cancel your plans? Sell your RNTs on the marketplace. You will receive a bid discounted from the current market price for that room. Depending on the days to check-in and other market conditions, the market price may be higher or lower than the price you paid for the RNT. If hotel prices are rising significantly, you can even make a profit.
Want to change your plans? Swap your RNTs on the marketplace for any other set of RNTs. You can swap for different dates, for a different room in the same hotel, or for a different room in a different hotel. You will only pay (or receive) the differential between the market value of your RNTs and the market value of the ones you want.