The Facebook for Hoken ad sounds interesting: “Your side hustle needs a little less hustle. Build your empire with Hoken, the newest side hustle for trading hotel rooms.” Trading hotel rooms? Yes, apparently. Is Hoken legit, and is this a real possibility to make extra money?
Name: Hoken
Website: www.gohoken.com
Owners: Private (venture capital backed)
CEO: Tarek Daouk
What is Hoken?
Billing itself as the “StubHub for hotels”, Hoken is a hotel marketplace where you can book hotel rooms near popular events. You can then sell them (ostensibly for a profit) when demand and prices increase leading up to the event. Hoken raised $9,000,000 in a seed round in November 2022.
How Does Hoken Work?
On the Hoken website you can view hotel rooms that are available near upcoming events. The first option featured on their website at the time of this writing was a room at the Hilton Mexico City Airport during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which is having quite the effect on the economy.
You purchase the room, similar to how you would on any website. However, the room is then listed on your Roomfolio, and then you can resell the room reservation for a higher price than you paid.
What if My Room Doesn’t Sell?
There is a bit of a discrepancy here in their ad and website copy. The Facebook ad says that 95% of their rooms qualify for their Buyback Guarantee. The website copy says that 99% of the rooms qualify.
However, when I bought my room in Mexico City, the website said the purchase was non-refundable. I reached out to customer service to see if my reservation qualified for the Buyback Guarantee. They replied in about 24 hours that it did not. No explanation as to why not.
How to Sell Your Room on Hoken
Selling was very simple. Just click a few buttons. You have the option to set a bidding minimum price and a buy now price. You do have to enter your banking routing and account number for the proceeds to be sent to you within 5-10 business days. After buying my room on Hoken, I listed it for sale the next day. I thought it would take a while, but it sold overnight.
How I Made $92.50 in 31 Hours on Hoken (+115%)
The Facebook ad that brought Hoken to my attention included a promo code for $100 off your first trade. (The code is hokentraders.) The first few times I tried to make the purchase, it didn’t go through for some reason. I tried again later and it worked. I made a reservation for the Hilton Mexico City Airport hotel. The list price was $150 for a king room. I got the room for $50 after using the $100 coupon, plus $30.24 for taxes – a total of $80.24.
I had started writing this review and the verdict was still out whether Hoken was a legitimate website or just another scam. I chose to try to sell my room, thinking it could take some time to sell, if it sold at all. I chose to list the room back on their site for just $150 – the list price at my time of purchase. It sold overnight. Hoken took 5% of the proceeds as their fee, so I ended up with $172.74.
Now about 15 hours later, the rooms are listed for even higher. In hindsight, I should have listed my room for more money. However, I was eager to see if Hoken was the real deal or not so I could finish this review.
Is Hoken a Scam?
Simply put, Hoken is not a scam. It is a legitimate company that allows you to buy hotel reservation and then sell them if your plans change or if you see an opportunity to sell the reservation at a higher price. It is not clear to me why my room was not eligible for the Buyback Guarantee – I think possibly because I used the Hoken coupon code hokentraders.
While Hoken is not a scam, that doesn’t guarantee that you will make money. If you pay too much for your room in the first place, you might not be able to resell it on the resale market. That said, you could probably take a partial loss by listing it for less that you paid instead of losing all of your money.
Conclusion
Hoken is a legitimate marketplace for buying a selling hotel rooms near sought-after events like concerts and the Super Bowl. You can use the reservation for yourself or try to resell for a profit (or possible loss, if your purchase doesn’t qualify for the Buyback Guarantee.)
Does Hoken live up to it’s billing as the StubHub of hotel rooms? That remains to be seen. Is Hoken a legitimate side hustle – or as their ad says – something to replace your side hustle? You might be able to flip a few rooms per month, but I don’t see it as a daily thing similar to stock day trading or swing trading.
Have you tried Hoken or do you have any questions? Please comment below and join the discussion.