SPOTS.NG - OPENING NIGERIA AND AFRICA TO THE WORLD

Spots.ng – come on, say it with us slowly: S-P-O-T-S.N-G

There, a name that will shake up tourism in Nigeria, and redefine travel, discovery and fun. What is it? In a short time, at hotels.ng, we have overhauled the entire hotel booking and travel system in Nigeria, swapping cumbersomeness for ease, reliability and efficiency. In a move aimed at creating an even richer experience for our users and tourists within Nigeria, we have created something special, something novel and fun – spots.ng, a product that aggregates all the fascinating and fun spots in Nigeria, provides comprehensive reviews, exact directions to the spots, and a list of nearby hotels where you can rest. With spots.ng, you only need to say where you want to go – a museum or restaurant in Lagos, the Erin Ijesha waterfall, a polo club or nightclubs in Abuja, somewhere in Calabar, and in an instant, you have it; a list of fascinating spots that best fit your query. Also, a comprehensive review that provides you with all the information that you will need such as directions, safety level, age limits (where they exist), and other such details is made available at no cost. Finally, we link you to great hotels nearby that will fit your bill no matter your preferences. Before now, no one was doing it, so we had to. We want you to make your destination choices with zero hassles, we want you to focus on having fun, and we want you to sink in a hotel bed at the end of the day with a big smile on your face. The design The entire product was designed to deliver a great user experience. It’s simple, easy, intuitive, and built with elegance and minimalism as the design core. It’s a true reflection of the parent company’s ethos and commitment to lean and design oriented efficiency. The idea spark Back in December, 2015, hotels.ng’s growth team came up with the idea of creating more value for hotels.ng users, for Nigerians who want to travel within Nigeria, and tourists from other countries. This led to the design of the skeletal framework for spots.ng that was eventually picked up by our in-house developers and some of the developers from our Remote-Internship-Programme. By November 2016, the final product was ready and made available to the public on spots.ng. Challenges As in the creation of all things beautiful, the design of spots.ng had its challenges but in Neo the CTO’s words, “we were lucky to have a beautiful team that turned the main challenge into the most exciting part of the entire building process.” The team had to aggregate, and assess cool spots across Nigeria, travelling long distances in some cases, and comprehensively logging in required data necessary for a seamless user experience. Our edge At spots.ng, our execution is unique in that we provide local solutions to our users, suggest spots and places of interest that we personally curate and aggregate in a bid towards delivering the maximum travel experience with a rich local flavour while linking users to hidden spots that were before now barely accessible. Spots.ng also relies on its parent company, hotels.ng to provide hotel bookings and lodgings at a discounted rate to tourists and users who discover and experience Nigeria through their platform. No one else offers these services to the Nigerian user or to tourists coming into Nigeria. The future We anticipate that the use of this free product, spots.ng, grows exponentially and that it becomes a user favourite. In the weeks that follow, we shall monitor user behaviour and suggestions, and keep improving the product to achieve premium user satisfaction. Other features such as choosing a spot based on your mood are also in the works, and soon an app will be available for download across all platforms. Also, enhancements are being made to develop a system where we can crowdsource the aggregation of more cool spots throughout Nigeria in a way that doesn’t sacrifice quality for quantity. In a nutshell With spots.ng we sought to create a simple and viable solution to fulfil the tourist’s needs, giving them more spots to choose from, a safe and fun experience, and a robust support system. Spots.ng will make the world even better connected, showing Nigeria’s hidden gems to the world, opening up locations that have no business being obscure, and more importantly, giving the tourist control and the power to decide how they want to discover a city, town or location of interest in a way that is unique to them and different from the norm. We do not want our users to enjoy only the famous tourist attractions, we want them to truly live in the moment, breathe the local air, discover local delights, enjoy local food, and have a more fascinating experience discovering their locations of interest at their own pace and off their own inclination through a platform that prioritises their safety, and complementary travel and lodging support. Spots.ng is only the first release of a product that will grow to be even more robust while maintaining its signature simplicity and elegance on the outside. We will grow to meet our users’ growing desires, adapt to their needs, and always be propelled by the need to create a wholesome, fun, and fascinating travel experience. We are redefining travel, discovery, and fun, and making all the cool spots available at your fingertips. Wouldn’t you rather travel the spots.ng way?