Munich Startup: For those who don’t know you, please tell us in a few sentences what Hotelbird does.
Juan A. Sanmiguel: Hi, my name is Juan, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Hotelbird. With Hotelbird, we're digitizing the hotel industry and making the guest journey easier than ever. Our technology allows hoteliers to digitize repetitive and time-consuming reception tasks. With our products, guests can check in and out conveniently and contactlessly, complete their registration forms digitally, open their room doors with their smartphone, and pay their bills at the end of their stay via mobile. We're the digital reception for every host!
Munich Startup: The coronavirus crisis has hit the hotel industry hard. How have you fared?
Juan A. Sanmiguel: The hotel industry is in a deep crisis. This is painfully evident in the numerous temporary or permanent closures of hotels. At the moment, it is difficult to predict how the hotel industry will continue, given the ongoing restrictions and travel warnings. The hotel industry is still suffering from a massive decline in guest numbers.
Nevertheless, we have managed to increase demand for our digital solutions during these difficult times. There are several reasons for this. Hoteliers are now being called upon more than ever to switch to a contactless, hygienic check-in/out process to guarantee their guests a safe stay. With our products, this can be implemented quickly and easily. Furthermore, the crisis has put hotels under enormous cost pressure. They must drastically reduce their expenses to remain competitive. Here, too, we can make a significant contribution to cost savings.
With persistently high operating costs and low capacity utilization, the market is truly demanding digitalization. We are sensing a profound mindset shift in the industry. While digital services at the reception desk were still nice to have, they have now become a must-have changed. This is also demonstrated by the current funding program "Digital Now," which the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy recently launched. Small and medium-sized enterprises will receive government grants of up to 50,000 euros to support their investments in digital technologies. This is a great opportunity and also an important signal for the hotel industry in Germany. The sector is experiencing a turning point. Hotels should use the government financial aid to make their hotel future-proof and to digitize with the help of the funding. We will provide them with expert support from the application stage through to the payout. As the European market leader in digital check-in/out services, we see it as our obligation to advance our industry and support hotels in their digitalization process.
“Extreme situations make us think”
Munich Startup: A good quarter of a year before the outbreak of the crisis, you still have a Financing round with 3.5 million euros Looking back, how important was this financial injection for Hotelbird?
Juan A. Sanmiguel: The support of our investors was and remains enormously important for our company and our continued growth. This financial injection has given us security, especially in these turbulent times. For example, we were able to strengthen our team with new, experienced employees.
Naturally, no company or startup considered the possibility of a pandemic in their budget planning. As a result, some well-known startups in the tourism industry struggled with serious liquidity problems or were unable to close new financing rounds during the crisis. The uncertain situation led most investors to withdraw and initially observe market developments. For us, completing the seed financing meant that we didn't have to worry about management liquidity, but could focus fully on crisis management.
Looking back, liquidity is of course an important factor, but even more important are the investors who supported us with their expertise and experience during these difficult times. They were always able to provide us with professional advice and support us in successfully overcoming the crisis and emerging from it stronger.
Extreme situations like these always give us food for thought. During the crisis, we realized which partners and investors we can truly rely on. Together with our investors Apeiron, BayBG, Bitstone Capital, and Hannoverfinanz, we form a strong team that sets us apart from other market participants.
Munich Startup: With digitalization solutions like yours, hotel stays are becoming somewhat less personal—guests check in themselves and contact with hotel staff is reduced. In your opinion, is something culturally lost with technological advances?
Juan A. Sanmiguel: We strongly disagree. Hotel stays remain, or rather, become, even more personal than before! Our technology enables hoteliers to offer far better service than with a traditional reception desk. Staff can finally focus on their guests again and simply leave repetitive, error-prone, and costly reception tasks to technology. Long queues at check-in and stressful guest conversations are a thing of the past. Our solutions simplify day-to-day operations and guarantee hotels a new level of planning security. If you look at airlines, car sharing, or table reservations, it's clear to everyone how digitalization is freeing up everyday tasks in today's fast-paced lives from tedious tasks.
And the digitalization of these complex processes is just the beginning. Our technology opens up many more possibilities. For example, the interfaces we've developed enable us to generate a vast amount of data. We analyze and evaluate this data using intelligent methods to get to know our users better. Hotels can thus offer a much better and more personalized service because we've learned from user behavior.
In this respect, digital check-in/out is just the beginning of a long and exciting journey. We are excited to be able to help shape the digital future of the hotel industry!
Hotelbird aims to “expand its market leadership in Europe”
Munich Startup: What are your next plans?
Juan A. Sanmiguel: The list of our plans and objectives is indeed very long. First, we want to further expand our market leadership in Europe in the area of digital check-in/out. We're well on our way to achieving this.
Until now, our focus has been primarily on chain hotels. Major brands such as Achat Hotels, Best Western, Deutsche Hospitality, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Lindner Hotels, and Novum Hospitality speak volumes. We aim to further expand our market standing with additional framework agreements with major hotel chains. We also want to tap into the new market of independent hotels with a new, simple, and affordable product package.
We are pleased to announce that we will soon be able to deliver the first series of our self-service terminal to all customers who pre-ordered it. We sold out completely within a few weeks. At the same time, we are currently producing a new series of the self-service terminal, which is a simple yet elegant and cost-effective way for hoteliers to offer contactless and digital check-in.
What drives us is the continuous improvement of our product and the constant discovery of new ways to make the customer journey for hotel guests even easier and more enjoyable. This also includes continuously expanding our team and strengthening it with experienced specialists and managers.
And because that's not enough, we want to internationalize Hotelbird. This will open another exciting chapter for us. The door to internationalization is our product listing as an official "Digital Check-in/out Partner" with the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). With our product listing with IHG, we are excited to open up additional markets and expand our market leadership in Europe.
