Face-to-face: Aditya Sanghi, co-founder & CEO of hotelogix.com
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How can Hotelogix help small- to medium-sized hotels manage their properties?
Small- to medium-sized hotels have a dire need to enhance the guest experience by mechanizing tasks. They have to ensure that they’re connected to multiple channels in real-time, to operate reliably without the risk of double bookings. It’s also important to ensure that they use tools that help them increase productivity. The only solution is a cloud-based PMS that does all of these things, and also offers dynamic pricing and price recommendation tools to improve productivity. Additionally, taking quick business decisions on various operations is important and real-time actionable reports help entrepreneurs do that. Hotelogix even provides review automation with TripAdvisor via Review Express, to ensure that managers make the most of happy guests!
Hotelogix gets small hotels on to the cloud, which is a new way of thinking for most hoteliers. How do you help hoteliers get their head around this concept?
Cloud-based solutions like Hotelogix eliminate the complexity of having IT infrastructure around, and enable hotel managers to concentrate just on their property. Legacy systems are incapable of doing any real-time online distribution. Cloud-based data centres like Amazon AWS are robust and secure. Data is backed up every minute, offering companies a reliable environment that’s much safer than what they can provide in-house. Essentially, I say to them that if they believe their money is safer in banks then on similar lines, their data is more secure with databanks. Hoteliers love the ability to manage their operations from anywhere and stay connected with their business all the time.
What is the success rate of Hotelogix?
Hotelogix recognises the need to be global – that’s why we decided to set up an inside sales team and began reaching out to the markets with online marketing approach. Our conversion rates for individuals taking free trials and then converting to customers is quite high – we emphasise on a smooth, non-intrusive trial experience. We also have worked towards making it really quick for them to begin the trial and hoteliers can now get started in under a minute. We clock close to 10% conversions in matured markets like the UK and the US and upto 5% in South East Asia and South America.
What has been the reaction of the UK market to Hotelogix and who do you have on board in this market?
Hotel owners in the UK evaluate their choices quite comprehensively. They particularly like the rate management and distribution control facilities offered from a single point. The industry here is quite competitive and has revenue management practices which are widely used, even among SMEs. They like Hotelogix for that capability and the fact that we offer 24×7 support. Our multi-property management is also highly appreciated here. On the whole, the market here appreciates Hotelogix for its comprehensive cloud-based solution, and the affordable price. We have some very happy customers in the UK that include the Bespoke Hotels, Carlton Hotel, Sefton Park Hotel, Southcliff Hotel, Kingsland Hotel and Peymans Hotel.
What are your goals for growing your business in the UK market and why?
We’re very optimistic and are excited about the British market. We’ve had discussions with UKTI to support us in while entering the country with our operational presence. Being a regular exhibitor at WTM London for the last 4 years, we’ve always had a close affiliation with the country. In fact, our only PR company is from the UK as well! Britain is our gateway to Europe and we would want to ensure that we are addressing all concerns of the hoteliers. A market that has apartments, hotels, independents, boutiques, and B&Bs running so professionally is one of the best places for us.
What is the potential to grow your client base globally – what are the challenges and opportunities?
All SMEs, roughly 6+ million businesses, will be switching over to a cloud-based PMS in the next 5 or so years. Legacy PMSs will seize to exist in this segment. This shift will be driven by the growth of mid- to small-segment travel, internationally and domestically. Hotelogix is the only mature, global cloud PMS. We already support eight languages – English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Thai, Arabic and now Turkish. While we target at least 1% of market share in this segment, the challenges will be numerous – fighting out the local players, regionalising strategies, regionalising the product and also ensuring we support them effectively as we grow. Making sure we get our mobile strategy right is also critical in our growth as like many other thought leaders, we also feel that everything in the coming years will shrink into the mobile. Hotelogix is shortly releasing its front-desk app on mobile, and we will look to stay at the top of our game.
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