I am Mark Essien, Founder of Hotels.ng, ask me anything!

[mark]

@OoTheNigerian

Congratulations man!

1. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. With the benefit of hindsight what would you do different as regards

A. Raising money. Seed and Series A.
B. Recruitment.
C. Gaining traction.

2. How many bookings do you process a month?

3. What is the weirdest booking request you’ve got? e g. A Swinger Party or Booking a whole Hotel for a single individual who does not like right be disturbed.

4. Your pick for the most underrated hotel in Nigeria. Price and quality.

Answers:

A. Start early, and understand the power of story telling, and also the power of the right numbers.

B. In terms of recruitment, be very strict with achievement metrics, and focus on raw intelligence and dedication above everything else

C. On gaining traction - focus on traction channels and make them work perfectly.

2. Enough that we hire 12 people to handle them

3. The guy who booked a top hotel in Lagos, then went there not wearing any shoes and some rugged clothes and told them he had reserved the room and would pay on checkout. When he was not let into the hotel, he came to the office.

4. Underrated hotel: Cotton Suites

[mark]

I have not finished it yet. I got caught up in other things. Or may be it’s a test for patience

[mark]

We made Millions!

[mark]

@Emeka

Jason njoku invested in hotels.ng when you were not 100% ready would you do the same to another startup?

The right guy in the right market with the right motivation - of course I’d invest.

[mark]

@princehumphrey

Hi Mark. Well done on the funding. How were you able to run hotels.ng before Spark? What’s your advice to entrepreneurs particularly Tech startup founders like myself who are fully bootstrapping their businesses and looking to go for funding at some point in the future.

Make some money so you can make your product. Build it yourself. Then get traction! Do this BEFORE looking for investment. If the product does not work for that, find something else for now.

[mark]

@Havilah

Hi Mark, Congrats!:

1. Can you explain what you meant by ‘Referral fee’ is that same as commission?
2. If it’s commission, how do you treat payment - user pay you and you remit to hotel or they pay hotel and you get your commission?

Yes commission, and to the below - both.

[mark]

@Kads

Have you ever had to fire anyone? When was the last time you hired someone? What do they do and are there any job openings for a new graduate?

Yes, in a startup you will always have people coming and going. We are not a multi-national - it’s a place where you do a lot and learn a lot. If the company grows, you grow with it. We are hiring a lot - I think the last person I hired was someone in finance. Yes, there are job openings, but it depends on the concrete skills or abilities of the new graduate.

[mark]

@nanamenz7

Congrats! what an inspiring feat!

How did you manage to market the platform across the 36 states. Did you form your own marketing team on a temp / ongoing contract?

We do our marketing in-house. Luckily, we have a team of talented people and don’t need to outsource it to a marketing agency.

[mark]

[mark]

@neo

Hi Mark,
We all know money isn’t always the most important thing when starting a business but I’d like to know how much you had when you started.
Did you have any other regular income from elsewhere at the time or a stash of cash?
Also what particular scenario/situation would have made you quit and after how many months/years that would have made you conclude that your business wouldn’t be successful.

Nice work you’re doing.

Starting a startup is hard. Starting a startup with no cash is very hard. I had been working for a while as a software developer, so I had some money in the bank when I started. It finished at some point though, but having money in the bank is required.

I don’t beliueve in doing two things at once time. I would have decided the businesses was a failure if after 3 months I had less than 50 customers. Market is key. Traction is key.

[Kads]

Does Mustapha Abiola work for you?

[mark]

@Kads

Does Mustapha Abiola work for you?

How did you find that out? We are not yet revealing our new all-star executive team.

[Kads]

On Twitter you were talking to each other about it but I thought it was a joke, does he really work for you? What does he do if he does?

[mark]

@Kads

On Twitter you were talking to each other about it but I thought it was a joke, does he really work for you? What does he do if he does?

No comment

[Dotunnn_]

Hey Mark,
Congrats with your new funding round. This is only the starting point.

1. Do you still code?
2. What are the keys/secret to entrepreneurial success?

[Kads]

What languages do you know and how long have you been coding?

[Kads]

What is one thing you’d tell yourself in 2012 if you could go back in time?

[Kads]

Can you take pics of the new office space please mark

[Havilah]

Thanks Mark for your response.

1. Do you mind disclosing how many percent commission you charge the hotels?
2. How do you deal with your client staying beyond the number of days they booked - How do you get notified to get your commission if they pay the hotel directly?

[HailMary3]

Greetings Mark…
If you had 5 minutes of the world’s attention, what story will you tell?

What advice would you give a bookseller with a consistent but small clientele base in a world where people don’t just read but also with many kinds of e-readers in the market?