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New highly curated hotel marketplace and exchange focuses on events that drive high demand / high compression; no cost for hotels
NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoken, a travel startup led by an all-star team of hospitality and tech industry executives, has raised $9 million for its event-focused lodging marketplace. The new company brings much-needed room flexibility and pricing transparency to large events, while driving higher hotel revenue. The round was led by Streamlined Ventures, with BY Venture Partners and individual financial and family investors also participating in the raise. The Hoken marketplace will be launching in the coming days.
Lack of hotel room availability during major events is an ongoing challenge, leaving hotels with sub-par room rates and uncertainty around release and pricing of inventory during their highest compression periods that over-index for revenue contribution. Through Hoken, consumers can purchase a room well in advance of an event with incredible flexibility and trade that room if unable to attend or simply to make a profit. Secondary buyers benefit from booking availability of highly desirable rooms that sell out quickly. Hotels benefit at every stage.
By providing a flexible marketplace around high compression periods, Hoken enables forward-selling of inventory, and as the room is traded, real-time market pricing and insights, ensuring the hotel a higher RevPAR through a revenue share on the trading fees earned. Hoken also charges no commissions or distribution costs and covers transaction fees, providing only upsides for hotel partners. The company has to-date established prominent lodging group and independent hotel partnerships and is in advanced discussions with more.
"Hoken is positioned to dramatically impact lodging as it creates a win-win setting for hotels and consumers," shared Chris K. Anderson, professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and Hoken advisor. "Hoken ensures consumer access to great hotel rooms at high demand events and provides an opportunity for them to recover costs if their plans change and they no longer need their reservation while simultaneously helping hoteliers better price rooms during higher demand periods."
Catering to large events with hundreds of thousands of attendees, initial events Hoken will offer room access for New Year's Eve in Times Square, Sundance Film Festival in Park City, SXSW in Austin, Coachella in La Quinta, Art Basel in Miami, and Firefly Music Festival in Dover.
"We are passionate about our mission to drive flexibility, accessibility, incremental guests, and increased revenue within the lodging industry," said Tarek M. Daouk, co-founder and CEO, Hoken. "In a world where everything is tradable, from concert tickets to sneakers, we are providing enhanced liquidity to an asset class - online room bookings - that generate more than $550 billion in sales annually."
Founders of Hoken represent an international group of experienced tech, travel and hospitality, trading, and fintech veterans from Expedia Group, eBay, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. In addition, the company's stellar advisory board includes Anne M. Busquet, Michael Flory, Steven Angel, Jeremy Jauncey, Chris K. Anderson, Cordell Ratzlaff, David Neubert, Tariq Janmohamed, Joe Daoud, and Olivier Lordonnois.
About HokenLaunched in 2022, Hoken's vision is to provide a highly curated and flexible hotel exchange and marketplace for the world's most popular events. With drops of rooms and the ability to trade rooms as demand rises, Hoken benefits both the early buyer and the last-minute eventgoer. For hotels, Hoken enables forward-selling of inventory, real-time market pricing and insights, and incremental revenue during high compression periods - with no commissions or distribution costs. For more information, please visit https://gohoken.com/.
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SOURCE Hoken