Jumia's hotel & flight marketplace has announced that booking for four and five-star hotels peaked during the just concluded Black Friday which ran between November 2nd and November 30th, 2018.

The Managing Director of Jumia’s hotel & flight marketplace, Omolara Adagunodo made this announcement during a press conference held at Krispy Kreme, Victoria Island, Lagos, to review the outgoing year and to disclose the plans for 2019.

“We recorded over 50% increase in 4 & 5-star booking during Black Friday because we crashed the prices by almost 80% and overall booking grew by 20% year on year compared to black Friday 2017", Adagunodo said.

Speaking on the performance of flight for the year under review, Adagunodo said: "There was a 300% growth in flight business because we innovated and partnered with the likes of Amadeus, Kiwi.com and Air Peace among others. I must also mention that we have the Best Available Rates as we hit 61% in BAR for 2018."

For corporate booking, the managing director said: “We established a robust corporate team fully dedicated to our corporate clientele and I can tell you that corporate bookings and transactions increased by 50%. Despite this, it has not stopped us from pushing retail sales."

Looking forward to the upcoming year, Adagundo disclosed the marketplace is planning to work on value-added services to drive value for the growing clientele, seal key partnerships to drive online and offline sales and offer a full bouquet of travel solutions to include cruises, visas, concierge and ground transport.