Stayful Grows its Network of Boutique Hotels by 4Xs in One Year, Enabling More Unique Experiences For Travelers

NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Stayful is celebrating its one-year anniversary today, and all the milestones it has achieved along the way. Over the past 12 months, Stayful has experienced tremendous growth, quadrupling the number of markets and expanding its service abroad. To kick off their anniversary, Stayful today launched their Refer-A-Friend program just in time for the holidays.  Stayful users can earn up to $500 by inviting friends.

Stayful helps travelers discover and book the best independent and boutique hotels within a 30-day window. Its real-time bidding platform features hundreds of hotels from around the U.S. and Canada that offer more unique travel experiences. Stayful's pricing engine determines a fair price for the room based on supply-and-demand in the market, and travelers can negotiate room price with hotel owners until both sides agree on a price.  

"Boutique and independent hotels enable travelers to experience the cities they visit in a local, authentic way," says Stayful's CEO Cheryl Rosner.  "Stayful's approach clearly resonates with travelers of all kinds. We are excited about our refer-a-friend program where Stayful users can earn as much as $500 to experience these great hotels. This is the first of many new Stayful features and innovations to come in the year ahead."

Stayful launched in November 2013 with 6 markets. Now, the startup is active in 24 markets, including the international city of Vancouver, and has laid the groundwork for extensive international expansion next year. It has also grown its network of hotel partnerships around the country, driven by close communication with its customers to better fulfill their needs.

In addition to more unique hotel experiences, Stayful's platform also helps travelers save significant amounts of money. The largest amount saved on a single booking in 2014 was $465, and the site enabled savings by as much as 45%. The average savings of most transactions was 16%. New York City is the most-booked city on Stayful's platform, followed by San Francisco.

Earlier this month, Stayful made headlines with its first-of-its-kind TweetStay campaign, where people could book hotels on Twitter. Customers tweeted where they are going and their travel dates with the hashtag #tweetstay or #tweetstayful. Stayful then bid on hotels within their price range, and returned a tweet with a link to complete the booking at one of three hotels. The campaign was wildly successful, and customers can expect more of this type of innovation in the year to come. Stayful's other big plans for 2015 include a mobile app, and further expansion that will encompass Europe, the rest of America, and adding more resorts.

Learn more about Stayful at www.stayful.com.

About Stayful:

Stayful connects passionate travelers with independent, boutique hotels. The online marketplace facilitates real-time negotiations between travelers looking for deals and hotels that would love to fill unsold inventory. Stayful travelers save an average of 32 percent on their reservation and hotels enjoy the lowest booking fees in the industry. For conscious travelers seeking off-the-beaten-path experiences, Stayful is the place to book undiscovered hotels at great values.

Stayful was founded by Cheryl Rosner, formerly of TicketsNow, Expedia Corporate Travel and Hotels.com; and Shariq Minhas, formerly of Jigsaw, Expedia and Hotwire.

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SOURCE Stayful

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