Free for an evening and don’t know what to do? Try some of these nightlife apps to discover what’s exciting in your part of town.
It’s a rainy evening in Galway (Ireland), just perfect to lounge in a hotel room in pyjamas and watch television that’s what most of us out of towners think. The locals, however, believe otherwise, and are on the streets and pubs doing what they do best — singing. dancing drinking and party-ing. Thankfully, a handy app tells us it would be plain boring to sit at home when one of the biggest parties is happen-ing at one of the neighbour-hood pubs. So, off we go, in the pouring rain, wrapped in trendy rain gear, waterproof mascaras et al. Now, if only all tourists were aware of this app, their evenings wouldn’t have been wasted. This is true of most cities. Unless, of course, you are a local or have friends, there’s little you can do to find out what’s happening where.
You might ask around and hear of an “amazing event”, but when you land there, after taking cabs and shelling out for the entry, chances are that the event may be a dud. So, to help you out of such disasters and give you a fair idea of what’s happening around town, there are a host of new apps that list everything worthwhile. To create a buzz about all things food and nightlife re-lated, Pavan Kripalani started Buzzinga in March this year. Tying up with around 85 pubs, restaurants and hotels in the city, the app sends out notifications and alerts about upcoming dos, offers and dis-counts. The users find the meal deals especially useful. There’s always something to surprise them… how about unlimited sushi for just Rs. 1,000? While service providers can key in their announcements on the app, Pavan checks the content for relevancy before approving any. As someone who is always out and about, the young entrepreneur says he’s often noticed clients flocking to their favourite hangouts out of loyalty and turning a blind eye to other deserving places. He’s attempting to change that with Buzzinga, one pub at a time. “My app keeps users in-formed about events in ad-vance. So it’s like a weekly planner,” he says. It’s got a feature titled Buzz In that tells you how popular an event is by looking at the number of people attending it.
Everybody loves a good deal, and based on that principle, Hemant Jain started IIappitoo in August last year. “The idea was to create the largest mobile platform for aggregating real-time Happy Hours offers and deals at restaurants and pubs. Having tasted success, we realised that the restaurants and nightclubs had more to offer and patrons had more to look forward to. We considered this as a big opportunity, as back then, there was no app dedicated to recommending the perfect nightlife experiences to users, based on their choice, mood and location. The different experience cards are listed as happy Hours, Special Offers, Bank Offers, Theme Nights, Dance Places, Romantic Places, Quarter Joints, Dinner Buffets, Mid-Night Buffets and After hour places.
The app is now available across 16 cities, including Chennai, Delhi. Pune, Goa, Mumbai, Kolkata among others. The latest to join this band-wagon, Lektrify that launched in Chennai. Banga-lore and Hyderabad too offers mood-based recommendations.
Depending on whether the user is in the mood for sports or just wants a relaxed evening, it suggests places with relevant music and ambience. Satheesh Narasimhan, who co-founded the app along with Robin Bhowmik, says, “Those in the 20-30 age bracket make the most of the app. But lately, there are takers in the 40 and above age group, marking a 30 per cent usage among them.”
This platform allows restaurant and bar managers to connect with their clients and build a rapport. The consumers get to rate events and gigs and post their comments. Pavan also plans to incorporate the wellness segment that includes spas, salons and gyms,. and gradually include other cities as well on Buzzinga. Currently available on Android, Buzzinga has had around 250 downloads so far and will be on iOS within a fortnight.
