This is new series of 'Ask the CEO' where we interview CEOs of disruptive travel startups. Enjoy the season 3...
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Brad Gerstner (@altcap), Founder and Chairman of Room 77, located in San Francisco, USA.
Continue reading "Ask the CEO (21) - Brad Gerstner - Room77" »
Congratulations to all of you who participated in the 2nd edition of 'Ask the CEO'.
You were about 140 people who voted on your favourite startup interviewed on HotelBlogs.
Travel Tripper, an innovation reservation system for hotels lead by Gautam Lulla has won the competition with 42% of votes.
Continue reading "Travel Tripper wins second edition of 'Ask the CEO'" »
We are wrapping up a series of 10 Ask the CEO interviews conducted in the last 12 months (I can't believe it took me a year).
Please reviews these interviews and place your vote on your favourite travel startups.
You can review what their CEO told you about their venture.
Votes close on 29 May at midnight. The winner will get a free banner on HotelBlogs for 3 months.
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Sam Shank from HotelTonight located in San Francisco, USA. It is the second time Sam participates in this serie of CEO interviews. He was interviewed back in 2009 with his company DealBase.
1. What problem (s) your company is trying to solve?
For consumers, we want to be a vital tool for when one needs a hotel
for that night. Traditionally this has involved a lot of phone calls
or walking up to the front desk. We replace that inefficient process
with our trademark 10-second hotel booking, to get people out of the
app, into their room and on with their day. For hotels, we fill rooms
that would otherwise go empty.
2. How did you finance your venture?
HotelTonight was started as a division of DealBase Corp who seed
funded it before spinning it off into a new entity. I also have
personally contributed funds to HotelTonight.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to join your adventure?
The best recruiting tool for an early-stage company is having a
product that is gaining traction and with a big enough vision to
provide for challenging projects. Early-stage equity, a great SF
office location and unlimited vacation time helps too.
4. Could you explain your revenue model
The app is free to consumers. Hotels pay us a commission on bookings.
I'm lucky to work with an incredible team which reduces negativity considerably. But when all else fails, I seek inspiration from Jack Daniels, but only after 7pm.
Then some trivial questions:
a/ Favourite hotel experience
HotelTonight launch party at the Ace New York
iPhone
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Safari
Extra questions:
What are the barriers to entry for a big OTA to do the same with their preferred hotel inventory?
We were emboldened when we looked at the big OTA's which we feel are
deficient in many ways. By building our product from the ground up
specifically for mobile, with no legacy systems or cumbersome business
models, we are excited to bring the category-defining product to the
market. We have an innovative roadmap that you will see us deploy this
year that will further distance ourselves from the pack.
How do you manage no shows? Do hotels are still entitled for one night
Because these are literally the last rooms within a hotel, we need to
guarantee the hotel will be paid for holding them for a guest. So, all
hotel bookings are non-refundable.
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Michael Madison from Menumodo located in San Francisco, USA.
1. What problem (s) your company is trying to solve?
With menumodo we have developed the first system that provides a custom-designed, fully hosted content management (CMS) tool, which allows restaurants to centrally manage and maintain their menus for display on their own web sites and for distribution. They can upload their existing documents or write menus online, customize the look and feel, and easily integrate them into their web sites and share with others – all without any technical skills required.
The project was inspired by our frustration over the difficulties of finding reliable menus online on restaurant and hotel web sites. Once we started researching and digging into the details, it became apparent that while restaurants recognized the importance of menus (most try to show them in some form online) they were lacking adequate tools to do so easily.
We also realized that hotels in particular would benefit from promoting their restaurants to their web site visitors and guests, and recognizing that they could use this approach to improve the presentation and availability of information in other areas, e.g. room service, group and catering menus, concierge information, we decided to provide a solution.
Today’s Internet users want information - immediately, up to date and complete, and menumodo helps restaurants and hotels respond to these demands.
2. How did you finance your venture?
Menumodo is privately owned, and so far we have financed the project ourselves. We took a smart and incremental approach to building the system (see 37 Signals), and we are licensing some core software. Going forward we may consider raising funds to accelerate growth.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to join your adventure?
Our core team is small, and all development work has been outsourced. Finding the right technology and the right development partners have been the greatest challenges in our adventure.
4. Could you explain your revenue model
Restaurants subscribe on an annual basis. The launch price $300 per restaurant. Custom pricing is available for hotels with multiple outlets or restaurant groups.
As a service to restaurants, and to make the product more attractive, we are building a distribution network of third party web sites (reservations, listings, guides, etc.), who will display menus hosted by us. They may also pay for customized displays.
5. Who gives you inspiration when you feel down whilst leading your company?
Inspiration comes from the task ahead, from challenging input and conversations with new customers and industry folk – and from knowing that we have a product that can make a difference and solve a real issue.
Support comes from my wife and partner, Valerie. She keeps me on the straight and narrow.
Then some trivial questions:
a/ Favourite hotel experience
For two - Relais & Châteaux Le Mas Candille, Mougins, France, and for the family a villa in the Villa del Parco hotel at the Forte Village in Sardinia.
b/ Mac or PC?
PC only for testing IE… and that is nerve wrecking enough!
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Safari, Chrome and Firefox – now that Xmarks synchronizes them all it is easy to switch between them
d/ MP3 or CD?
iTunes all the way, including Apple TV
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
Not Twitter, maybe Facebook
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Corinna Witt (@econceptory) from E-Conceptory located in Berlin, Germany.
1. What problem (s) your company is trying to solve?
In short, e-conceptory is providing their wealth of experience in online marketing for hotels to offer web solutions and improve hotel online revenue.
Having spent 8 years in the UK working for Open World Ltd., an online agency promoting luxury hotels around the world, my client portfolio included many of the major brands such as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Small Luxury Hotels - to name but a few - as well as small independent properties. In 2007 I returned to Berlin, Germany to set up the e-commerce department and develop the e-commerce strategy for a young but fast growing hotel management company. With e-conceptory, which I founded 1.5 years ago, I now make my experience available to those hotel and travel companies who would like to wow their clients with a professional internet presence and generate more bookings by promoting their hotels through SEO, SEM, Email or Social Media Marketing.
Then some trivial questions:
a/ Favourite hotel experience
Bauers L'Hotel in Venice for the great location not far from San Marco, the excellent service - being greeted by your name by hotel staff when you only stayed for one night leaves a lasting impression - and above all for the hand-made chocolates in the room at arrival plus an out-of-this-world breakfast while watching the gondolas go by.
b/ Mac or PC?
Mac, since I want things to work as and when I need them to, without having to make too much of an effort.
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Firefox and Safari.
d/ MP3 or CD?
MP3.
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
Both. I use Facebook more frequently even though its usability needs improving. It's brilliant to keep in touch with friends around the world, though and becoming a very important marketing tool. For instance, I've developed a hotel booking interface last year called Hotel Facebooker, which connects hotel Facebook pages with their online booking engine.
Photo by Fotografa, Berlin
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Yann Ngongang (@yanntn) from GuestMob located in San Francisco, USA.
1. What problem (s) your company is trying to solve?
2. How did you finance your venture?
Initially we bootstrapped the company and are currently closing on a seed round.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to join you adventure?
Our problem is actually the reverse: how do we find the right people. Startups are not for everyone. Lots of people are interested, but we're looking for the true crazies out there, smart enough to think creatively, driven enough to get stuff done past midnight, and ambitious enough to solve a big problem. The strength, credibility and focus of the founding team and early investors does help too, I guess...
4. Could you explain your revenue model
Our revenue model is a merchant model for bookings executed on our platform which we call mob bookings.
5.Who gives you inspiration when you feel down whilst running your company
Entrepreneurs hear no a lot, and that can cause self-doubt (not necessarily 'being down'). So focusing on customers, on the customer value that we uniquely deliver helps clarify the mission.
Then some trivial questions:
a/ Favourite hotel experience
b/ Mac or PC?
10years ago I was an avid mac fan. Nowadays it's too commercial, too cultish, too trendy, too controlled.
So I'm a web guy.
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Sorry chrome...sometimes Safari.
d/ MP3 or CD?
Kindle....
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
Both are imperfect. Twitter is a glimpse of the future, however.
Wow. It's been a while since we haven't covered any new hot start ups in the travel space with our usual interview with their CEO.
This new one is pretty exciting as I am sure you will agree with me that their website is pretty slick and their idea very disruptive.
Today 'Ask the CEO' features Greg Marsh (@onefinestay) from Onefinestay located in London, UK.
1. What problem (s) your company is trying to solve?
onefinestay is a new type of accommodation for visitors to London. Guests get to live like a local by staying in the distinctive home of a real Londoner while the owner is out of town, while enjoying all the creature comforts of a hotel like 5* linen and fluffy towels. Owners get to earn an additional income with no hassle. It’s a new kind of service, so we gave it a new name: the unhotel.
2. How did you finance your venture?
To get the business off the ground we raised a small amount of money from friends and family. Since our launch we’ve been funded mostly by cashflow from operations.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to join you adventure?
I think you have to be a bit crazy to join a start-up—especially one as ambitious as onefinestay. There are certainly easier ways to earn a living. But there’s no other job that will challenge you more or give you more of a chance for progression and personal development. For people with that rare combination of drive, practical intelligence, curiosity and empathy, there’s literally nothing like it.
As for what attracts people to onefinestay, I think it’s partly the culture and partly the vision. The founding team defines the culture, and I was amazingly fortunate in my co-founders Tim Davey and Demetrios Zoppos. As for the vision, we want to see unhotels in every world city. That means there’s far too much to do, and never enough time.
4. Could you explain your revenue model
Guests pay to stay in the homes of our hosts, and also for services during their stay. Prices range from £150 to £500 a night. We aim to deliver our hosts a net income equivalent to the long let rental value of their home.
5.Who gives you inspiration when you feel down whilst running your company
Positive comments from guests when we delight them, the warmth and trust of our hosts, and the talent, wit and wisdom of the onefinestay team.
We’ve been particularly pleased by how supportive our guests have been since we launched. They’re our biggest advocates and our strongest ambassadors. It tells me that there’s a real market for what we’re offering, which is a big motivator.
a/ Favourite hotel experience
Unhotel, surely? No hotel ever compares to the experience of staying in a real person’s home!
b/ Mac or PC?
PC. Function over form.
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Chrome.
d/ MP3 or CD?
MP3.
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
Facebook.
Today 'Ask the CEO'
features Juha Huttunen (@juhah)
from TripSay located
in Helsinki, Finland.
1. What problem (s) your company is
trying to solve?
We're solving the problem of too much anonymous information on the web
problem. Tips, recommendation, reviews etc. are most valuable when you
understand who has given it and in what context. Otherwise it'll take
you a lot of work to find out if a certain city, place, hotel, etc. is
really good for you or not. We're bringing profiling and Amazon-like
recommendations to travel. It's an ever growing travel guide
personalized for you.
2. How did you finance your venture?
We got a small seedround plus some governmental R&D funding along
the way. Now were looking for a series A investor.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to
join
you adventure?
We haven't grown too much and employ a team of six people. We took our time with recruiting and hired people having several recommendations from people we knew plus who demonstrated a suitable startup attitude. Perhaps not that coincidentally these people wanted to work on a new product that has a chance of being something big instead of the safe but somewhat boring consultation work. Thus it wasn't really that hard to attract them to join once we found the right people.
4. Could you explain your revenue model
We will make money through leads and commissions from travel vendors using our highly detailed profiling and collaborative filtering algorithms. We also sell services on the site, first of which is our new hotel search http://www.tripsay.com/hotels/ that has gotten a lot of great feedback from our customers.
a/ Favourite hotel experience
I'm not really a hotel person, often I go on vacation without a
reservation and just book something on the way depending on where I end
up. On business trips as a startup I book the cheapest hotel I can find
so no great experiences there either. I'd have many good stories about
bad hotels though. :)
b/ Mac or PC?
PC at work, Mac at home
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Firefox
d/ MP3 or CD?
MP3
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
Facebook
Today 'Ask the CEO'
features Sally Broom (@tripbod)
from Tripbod located
in Lancaster, United Kingdom.
1. What problem (s) your company is
trying to solve? (quick snapshot of the
company)
Lack of access to independent, reliable local information when planning a trip. We solve this by connecting travellers to trusted local experts – ‘Tripbods’. Travellers can ask us anything, from what to do on a wet day in the Lake District to ways of travelling overland through Jordan.
2. How did you finance your venture?
Personal savings and then seed capital from Chelwood Capital late 2009.
3. In a difficult climate of uncertainty, how do you attract talents to
join
you adventure?
We offer our suppliers something very valuable which often helps them to grow their own businesses. we work closely with our Tripbods and give them a trusted platform on which to preset themselves as local travel experts. Plus they get paid for sharing their local knowledge with travelers.
4. Could you explain your revenue model
Travellers pay to connect with a local Tripbod in their destination. Prices go from £16 for a 4-day trip plan to £150 for a 6-month trip plan. At least half of that money goes directly to the Tripbod
5. Who gives you inspiration when you feel down whilst leading your
company?
The Tripbods. Each one is uniquely inspiring and reminds me of why we’re doing this – to promote great local people and places, protect local cultures, support independent travellers and bring great people together.
a/ Favourite hotel experience
There is a
wonderful little hotel on the island of Mjlet in
Croatia, just off the coast at Dubrovnik. The hotel isn’t especially
upmarket but the rooms all overlook a stunning sea view and the
people/surroundings
are lovely.
b/ Mac or PC?
PC
c/ Explorer or Firefox?
Firefox
d/ MP3 or CD?
MP3
e/ Twitter or Facebook?
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