Skip to main content

Home/ Hospitality Technology/ Group items tagged #ITinvestment

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
sbarr011

Expedia Leads $26 Million Alice Investment in Hotel Tech Push - Skift - 0 views

skift.com/...-investment-in-hotel-tech-push

#hoteltechnology #ITinvestment #hospitalitytechnology

shared by sbarr011 on 06 Jul 18 - No Cached
  • Alice, a startup that sells operations software to hotels, has raised $26 million in a Series B funding round led by online travel giant Expedia.
  • Expedia’s interest in Alice suggests that the online travel company is curious about possibly providing more back-end software services for the hotels that use it to market and distribute their inventory globally.
  • The company “is now at a completely different level,” when it comes to putting into place a set of tools that are broad and comprehensive and that are responsive to what hotels have said their needs are, he claimed.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • A key part of Alice’s system is its ability to let guests, front-of-house workers, and back-of-house staff communicate and track requests. For instance, a guest request via a text message for, say, more linens, can be conveyed to the right worker using Alice, the company said.
  • It now processes more than 50,000 requests a week, up from the 10,000-a-week pace it had a year ago. The company anticipates hotels will handle more than two million requests on its platform over the next year.
  • Alice has more than doubled its count of hotel clients this year.
  • It has since evolved into software that aims to provide the first unified platform for a hotel to run its entire back-end operations, such as housekeeping and customer service communication.
  • Expedia officially began to market a series of new tools for hoteliers that it has been adding to its extranet for suppliers since 2015 under the name Expedia Powered Technology. Tools include help with revenue management and messaging with guests.
  • There are other hotel tech brands that offer software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that overlap with what Alice’s platform provides, such as the housekeeping-focused services of Amadeus Hospitality’s HotSOS. Other potential players in the market include Sabre Hospitality Solutions and Oracle Hospitality.
  • Expedia’s suite of data analytics tools includes a free service that aims to help hotels set their rates to command the most revenue and Expedia’s first meetings-and-events booking tool to help hotels automate requests for proposals — which today is still, largely, a manual process.
  • Priceline Group has, since 2015, been investing in business services for its hotel partners under the BookingSuite brand. The tools include revenue management software and digital marketing help for a property’s own branded website.
  • Trivago, the hotel metasearch brand that is backed by Expedia (but operates independently), is also offering hotel services, such as for revenue management and hotel management (like Base7booking).
  • sbarr011 on 06 Jul 18
     
    Alice, a relatively new start-up which sells operations software to hotels, had a significant investment from Expedia in the previous round of funding. Alice has become a software that provides "the first unified platform for a hotel to run its entire back end operations, such as housekeeping and customer service communication". The system allows guests to send a text message with a request for more pillows or towels, for example, which will be directed to the proper the hotel employee department. Customers can track their requests and both the front and back of house staff can receive communications from guest requests. This IT platform has seen 5 times the amount of requests being generated. Also, the platform has partnered with double the number of hotels and they project more than two million requests will be communicated through this software in a year. Expedia is the largest shareholder in Alice currently. Alice suggests that this is because Expedia could be more interested in "more back-end software services for the hotels that use it to market and distribute their inventory globally." Expedia currently markets tools such as revenue management under the name Expedia Powered Technology to hoteliers. Expedia also offers meetings and events booking tools for hotels. Priceline, which is a competitor to Expedia, also has invested in tools and services that include revenue management software for their hotel partners. Trivago is also offering these services. Alice believes that the size of the market will allow for many other companies to work in this space, and is even open to partnering with other firms to expand. Alice also plans to expand their own business and add personnel with the new funds.
1 - 1 of 1
Showing 20▼ items per page