Combine two favourite leisure activities - connecting with friends on Facebook and planning for holidays - and the result is backick.com, the first hotel booking website where friends help pay for your travel.

This first-of-its-kind online venture conceptualised in Singapore makes booking hotels a fun, social experience and uses Facebook Connect to enhance the discount-sharing feature.

The unique social reward scheme, which goes by the mantra ‘it pays to be popular’, encourages active and digital-savvy travellers to tap into their online community to maximise the amount of cash rewards (called “backicks”) earned.

backick.com puts the fun back into planning travel by providing the best deals at 80 per cent off normal rates, as well as competitive prices when using coupons and backicks, so travellers can spend less time comparing hotel prices and more time planning holidays.

Whenever travellers book any of the 100,000 hotels available worldwide on backick.com, they can immediately pass on discount coupons to their network of friends and earn backicks when these coupons are put towards hotel stays.

“Social influences and recommendations continue to have an impact on how and where we travel,” said Corrinne Koh, head of marketing, backick.com.

“As we become more digitally connected with our friends and families via social networks, backick.com’s altruistic model builds upon this trend, allowing users to leverage their online community in a fun and engaging way to earn rewards for future trips.

“And from a value perspective, our discount coupons and cash savings make backick.com one of the most competitively-priced hotel booking sites available.”

backick.com is backed by AirAsiaExpedia and the website is accessible globally in nine languages and 11 Asia Pacific currencies including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.