7 Start Ups That Are Revolutionizing The Hotel Industry
New ideas and new startups – this happens every single day all over the world, and the hotel industry isn’t immune to changes in the landscape.
Some of these benefit you, the property owner, while others serve the customer and are created to help them save time and money.
In this article, we look at seven startups that are revolutionizing the hotel industry, how you do business, and how customers travel.
#1: Go Moment
This startup took the hotel concierge industry and shook it up. Go Moment is the world’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) hotel concierge, and it’s powered by IBM.
Their AI, Ivy, is always on and ready to help your guests. She engages them in real time through text messaging, so you don’t have to.
She can also intuitively identify unhappy guests and alert you so you can turn things around. This ultimately can keep negative reviews off the internet where they have a big impact on your bottom line. You can consider Ivy a buffer between your guests and any negative reviews that may land online. This helps you land more customers and increase revenue.
She can welcome guests and answer a myriad of questions for you, and if she doesn’t know the answer, she can turn it over to your front desk staff. Ivy also helps you increase your revenue by offering guests late checkout for a fee.
#2: Hopper
This is a mobile-only travel app that also uses artificial intelligence to analyze billions of prices. The app can tell guests if they should reserve a room now or wait.
By predicting prices, consumers can book hotels at just the right time and save up to 40%. This is sure to have an impact on your property, so it’s something you want to watch.
#3: Alice
If you’re ultra busy and are looking for a way to make life easier for your hotels operations, Alice may be the answer.
Alice provides a single system for guests, front-of-house staff, and back-of-house staff to communicate and track requests. With Expedia as an investor, you can bet this system is going to get the software right.
What does Alice mean for you? It means a guests can send a text message to ask for more pillows or a wake-up call, and it goes to just the right team member at your hotel.
#4: Hotel Tonight
This app provides a benefit for you and your customers.
When users are in the app, they can find inexpensive hotel rooms at the last minute. In addition, customers can “gift” a room to someone else. And in a nod to social media, users can use “Snap Your Stay” and snap, edit and upload shots of their hotel rooms for credits ranging from $5-$10.
For you this means your hotel has an immediate online social media visual presence through the photos of your customers.
What’s more, when you partner with Hotel Tonight, you can book last minute rooms and achieve maximum occupancy. You’ll find you gain last minute travelers and those with some flexibility, too. This ultimately drives more revenue to your hotel in last minute bookings.
#5: Away
While not an active member of the hotel industry, we mention this one because it’s a startup that’s on an upward trajectory in that it has raised well over $50 million to drive its growth.
Away is a travel accessories brand, and it sells high-end “smart” luggage direct to your customers at a low price.
This company believes anyone can go anywhere and travel is an integral part of life. Away wants people to make connections, and those travel connections will involve a hotel along the route.
They also believe in making a difference, so they immediately partnered with Peace Direct before they sold a single suitcase.
They claim to make everything a traveler needs during his or her travels, including the perfect suitcase. Their luggage meets real needs. They say it solves a traveler’s problems with premium luggage.
Many of your customers like this luggage for the optional ejectable (for security) batteries that can change any phone up to five times.
Expect to see many of these suitcases grace your lobby floor.
#6: Koridor
While your customers can choose the exact seat, they want on an airplane and the exact car they’d like to rent, up until now, they haven’t been able to digitally choose the exact hotel room they’d like to stay in.
Yet, many of your guests would greatly appreciate this kind of service.
The Atlanta-based startup, Koridor, lets customers pick a hotel room like a seat on an airplane. How do they do this? They partner with properties like yours.
This partnership allows your guests to physically see inside your rooms and pick the exact one they want rather than just choosing based on the view or bed size.
Your customers can see a 360-degree virtual tour of the room and see all the amenities before choosing. Koridor is already operating in big cities, so look for expansion soon.
Because of this choice, your customers will have a superior experience. The MyRoom platform through Koridor puts control in the hands of your guests and helps them to create their own hotel experience, just how they like it.
Your guests are empowered, and you are creating positive memories in the minds of your guests well in advance of their stay.
This in turn enhances their overall experience, improves loyalty, and nearly ensures repeat business, assuming your room meets their needs.
Final Thoughts
Startups are revolutionizing the hotel industry with benefits for both you and your customers.
Many of these startups will help you increase your revenue, reduce your costs by using artificial intelligence, increase your efficiency, and most importantly, they’ll improve your customer experience.
An improved customer experience means more loyal hotel guests who leave positive reviews online, share their stays on social media, and tell their friends about your property. (tweet this)
Looking to showcase your hotel? At Hotel Propeller, we build functional, beautiful websites that highlight your hotel to help you stand out in the crowd. You’ll find everything you need to attract guests to your website and compel visitors to make a reservation. Take a look at our showcase and contact us today.
Images: Manuel Moreno and Toomas Tartes on Unsplash
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