Tomas Laboutka founded HotelQuickly five years ago

HotelQuickly’s Co-founder Tomas Laboutka has stepped down from his role at CEO at the company. He will, however, continue to serve as a Board Advisor and assist in the company’s business strategy over the next few months.

“HQ [HotelQuickly] is headed towards its destination on a new route with a re-energised crew, and this carves out a new role for me as well,” he explained, in a Medium post.

“In mid-September, I decided to hand over the reins to a new captain, the Executive Chairman of our company,” he added.

In the same post, Laboutka also gave a quick overview of HotelQuickly’s journey and the challenges it had to face.

“There were definitely times when I sensed that a storm was on the horizon. Competing OTAs and their products were catching up in their speedboats, and the sea of mobile and online travel was becoming a lot rougher,” he said.

“We built a lighter ship and focused on tightening the HQ crew. Earlier this year, we rolled-up our sleeves, rebuilt the company team structure, aligned everyone to push for profitability and worked hard to make it happen,” he added.

Going forward, Laboutka, who is also the founding partner of FL Ventures and Co-founder of CEMS Entrepreneurs, did not specify what new projects he will take on, only that they will be in “the space of rapid growing business…in Southeast Asia or globally.”

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“I know I will take my time to decide where my full focus will be, and I know that whatever I commit to will be aligned with my purpose and values…. Working with people who dream big and enabling them to change the world, quickly,” he said.

Laboutka founded Hong Kong-headquartered HotelQuickly with CFO Mario Peng, CSO Raphael Cohen, CMO and COO Christian Mischler, and CTO Michal Juhas in 2012. Their aim was to help travellers find last-minute hotel bookings easily.

Since then, HotelQuickly has expanded to over 15 countries in Southeast Asia, offering over 12,000 hotels in over 250 destinations. To date, it has raised over US$10 million in funding from investors, including GREE.

Last year, HotelQuickly revamped its platform. It also acquired Japan’s domestic hotel booking platform Tonight, partnered with payment gateway DOKU, and streamlined its marketing operations.

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Image Credit: HotelQuickly

 

 

 

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