SEARCHING for a safe and practical boarding house in Baguio City just got a lot easier with GrabHostel, an application suited for this purpose.
GrabHostel launched its operations in a simple get-together with media and bloggers in Baguio on May 26, to introduce the application that will be useful for parents looking for accommodations for their college-bound children in the city.
Pem Solis, GrabHostel manager said the launch was purposely done in Baguio because of the city's charm on students wishing to pursue college education.
“Baguio is one of the favorite cities in the country for students to get a college education and this is why we opted to launch the project here,” Solis clarified.
Solis added the application will allow parents/guardians to conveniently search for available boarding houses according to their desires.
Founded by Sherwin delos Santos, the startup seeks to allow easy searches not only for boarding houses but transient houses in Baguio as well.
“Online booking is the way forward,” delos Santos said, adding GrabHostel is the first of its kind in the country.
Other online booking sites like Air BnB and Trivago only assists tourists with hotel booking. GrabHostel, on the other hand, will concentrate on boarding and transient houses for short or long term accommodations.
“It is now the trend for tourists to look for alternative accommodations when they visit a locality,” Solis explained, “and this is where GrabHostel can assist them fully.”
Currently, the application is available on Apple Store for iPhones, but android versions of the application will be available soon.
“We already have the app (for androids) but as of this moment we cannot access it, so within the next few days we will be able to iron out the kinks of the system,” Solis added.
So far, the system already has six Baguio boarding houses and 25 transient houses in its list. Plans to expand are in the works as well as adding more cities in the list.
“Next on the list of cities where GrabHostel plans to expand are San Jose, Cabanatuan and Munoz cities in Nueva Ecija,” Solis added. (PNA)