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Ready to take your travel experience to the next level? In this episode of "Hospitable," co-founders Roeland Verhamme and Jeroen Vaassen of ExpectMe reveal how their cutting-edge platform is revolutionizing hotel stays by allowing guests to select specific rooms based on personal preferences. Imagine choosing a room just like you would a seat on a plane – it’s a game-changer! We dive into the power of personalization in hospitality, the impact on guest satisfaction, and how hotels can unlock hidden revenue with this innovative approach. Whether you're a frequent traveler or a hotelier, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss!
Tune in, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments!
Timestamps
[00:03:58] Room selection in hospitality.
Tune in, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments!
Timestamps
[00:03:58] Room selection in hospitality.
[00:08:45] Guest experience and technology integration.
[00:11:00] Personalized guest experiences.
[00:14:20] Personalized hotel room selection.
[00:18:04] Unique travel experiences for guests.
[00:19:01] Room selection and guest preferences.
[00:23:36] Guest experience and hotel flexibility.
[00:25:44] Human connection in hospitality.
[00:30:01] Guest experience and room selection.
[00:34:39] Customer lifetime value in hospitality.
[00:37:11] Flexibility in hotel room selection.
[00:39:57] Guest experience in podcasting.
Quotes
00:01:08 - "You can create so much of a unique opportunity for the guest experience and the hotel that provide that guest experience."
00:04:43 - "That was a real anticlimax because I booked a room with a sea view... but that expectation was definitely not met."
00:09:07 - "I do think that also bringing somebody in that's not his whole career and whole life could also be super helpful by thinking about how do we build a better mousetrap."
00:10:55 - "I think that hotels, they can do such a great job by focusing more towards the experience that they can provide."
00:14:11 - "I love this idea that you can actually personalize that experience based on the city that you're in and the type of travel that you're doing."
00:16:02 - "I think if you think about the rigid room types, you're sort of forcing people to think in what makes sense for you as a hotel."
00:19:31 - "I want a different experience every time I go somewhere."
00:22:09 - "There's only one person that knows which room you really would like and that's you as a hotel guest yourself."
00:24:39 - "Even if some of those simple questions, that could have been a huge change in the guest experience taking into account."
00:27:11 - "We want to take the burden away from the hotel as well so that they can actually have time to spend with the guests on talking about how was your flight?"
00:28:36 - "That is something to pay attention to, right? And that does affect the guest experience."
00:31:07 - "For them it's a no-brainer because they all say, I mean, yeah, why am I not able to select my room? Yeah, that would be actually a really great experience."
00:34:03 - "I think that's such a unique, there's a uniqueness to this where this could really change how you experience the hotel."
00:35:58 - "I think we're just at the beginning, right? And I think to your point, we're obviously a startup, we're just getting warmed up."
00:38:51 - "We're omnivores. We love automation. We love process simplicity, right? That's the name of the game."
Connect
ExpectMe: https://expect-me.com/
Roeland Verhamme: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roelandverhamme/
Jeroen Vaassen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jvaassen/
Roeland Verhamme: https://www.instagram.com/roeland.verhamme/
Jeroen Vaassen: https://www.instagram.com/jvaassen/
Omniboost: https://omniboost.io/
Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Rob Napoli: https://www.robnapoli.com/
Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com
Creators & Guests
Host
Guest
What is Hospitable?
Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.
Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.
Hosted by Rob Napoli
00:00:00:01 - 00:00:01:01
Rob Napoli
Today is going to be a fun one.
00:00:01:06 - 00:00:06:02
Jeroen Vaassen
One of the things we've been used to is you book a room type and why not book a room?
00:00:06:08 - 00:00:08:18
Rob Napoli
How does that really translate into a guest experience?
00:00:08:24 - 00:00:16:18
Jeroen Vaassen
By focusing on the attributes or the preferences that the guest has. You can almost monetize each room.
00:00:16:20 - 00:00:23:01
Rob Napoli
You can really create kind of unique experiences that really open up a lot of doors and potentially new experiences, right?
00:00:23:06 - 00:00:29:09
Roeland Verhamme
Giving this opportunity for room selection prior to arrival already optimizes so many things. It's a different game.
00:00:29:13 - 00:00:31:24
Rob Napoli
Do you like noise? Do you not like noise?
00:00:32:01 - 00:00:32:24
Roeland Verhamme
Exactly.
00:00:33:01 - 00:00:45:21
Rob Napoli
I love this idea that you can actually personalize that experience based on the city that you're in. The type of travel that you're doing. Personalized selection and what you're willing to pay for, maybe a higher room, etc. is that kind of where that unlock potential comes from you?
00:00:45:23 - 00:01:02:04
Jeroen Vaassen
It might unlock things that you didn't know you today. You're maybe traveling for business or tomorrow you're traveling with your family, you're the same person, but you have complete different needs and there's different things you would be willing to pay for. And I think by knowing what you get up, that's an opportunity.
00:01:02:06 - 00:01:07:23
Rob Napoli
You can create so much of a unique opportunity for the guest experience and the hotel to provide that guest experience.
00:01:08:01 - 00:01:27:20
Jeroen Vaassen
It's not a fixed product that we sell. It's really a platform that's an enabler for both the hotels to use it the way they want and but also for the guests that because not every hotel is the same and not every guest is the same, right?
00:01:27:22 - 00:01:50:22
Rob Napoli
Hey, y'all, how are we doing? We are back for another episode of hospitable and today is going to be a fun one. We have, we're representing a couple different time zones from, New York City to Antwerp over and, in Europe, all the way out to Singapore with here on out in Singapore. So we got multiple time zones and multiple countries and continents represented on today's podcast.
00:01:50:22 - 00:02:06:14
Rob Napoli
And I'm excited to have the co-founders of a really cool hospitality tech company called ExpectMe, that, we're going to talk with today. So Roleand Verhamme who is the, CEO and Jeroen Vaassen the COO. Fellows, welcome to the show.
00:02:06:24 - 00:02:09:16
Jeroen Vaassen
Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks a lot.
00:02:09:18 - 00:02:24:12
Rob Napoli
So, you know, we were talking, and I've had the opportunity to meet you here at a couple different times this week. You know Omniboost is looking at a package to expansion, and we've had a few chats, but, Roeland we got to meet for the first time a couple weeks ago, and we had a lot of fun chatting.
00:02:24:12 - 00:02:42:18
Rob Napoli
I think we were supposed to, like, do an intro call for 15 to 20 minutes, and ended up rambling on for about an hour on all kinds of things, hospitality. But, you know, and we were talking about ExpectMe. I was really, excited about what you guys are, what y'all are doing, right? ExpectMe is the ultimate hotel experience software.
00:02:42:18 - 00:03:04:08
Rob Napoli
And so this room selection platform that unlocks hidden revenue evaluates guest satisfaction, support staff efficiency. And he drew inspiration from personalized seed selection models of various, industries like theater, right. When you go to the movie theater or like, flying, when you can actually pick your seats and upgrade seats and things like that, that nature.
00:03:04:08 - 00:03:26:12
Rob Napoli
And so you create this unique solution tailored to its unique requirements of hospitality, and you built it into a platform. So, you know, let's start there. I was wildly excited about this. And I was thinking, you know, let's we'll talk later on the show, like generationally, like, how does this scaling we look at, you know, business travel to leisure travel to, high end hospitality.
00:03:26:12 - 00:03:40:20
Rob Napoli
So what was the let me take me back, how the two of you meet and how did this idea come about? Because you both have deep hospitality experience. Somebody Roeland start. How did you two meet again like, where did this come from and how did this collaboration happen to start the company?
00:03:40:22 - 00:04:07:21
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah. Well, no. Okay. Cool. And obviously I'm already happy to hear it. There's also so excited at the by the room selection within the hotel industry. Now looking back at my own, experience, as you mentioned, I've my background within working in hotels myself. More from the operational point of view. So, I started my career, years ago, starting behind the reception desk and then moving on.
00:04:07:21 - 00:04:34:00
Roeland Verhamme
But I always had a passion for hospitality. And at some point, when I scheduled a road trip with my wife to Italy, I booked some amazing hotels. And if you are having a background in hotel industry, you will always book direct because you know that the commission fees from third party websites. But the thing is, so, you know, at some point I was looking for hotels to stay at during the trip.
00:04:34:01 - 00:04:53:12
Roeland Verhamme
I made the necessary bookings and I was really looking forward, you know, to do those stays and the experiences. And, at some point it was time for us to leave on our holiday. And after a couple of hours driving, we arrived to that first hotel. They did an amazing check in. Quick, smooth.
00:04:53:12 - 00:05:11:19
Roeland Verhamme
We received the drink, you know, to become ease and we were guided by the receptionist to our hotel room. And then when she opened the door, that was a real anticlimax, because I booked a room with a sea view. And on the images, front, it looked great. So there was a certain expectation created towards me as a hotel guest.
00:05:11:21 - 00:05:35:08
Roeland Verhamme
But yeah, that expectation was definitely not met because multiple reasons and the things you inside of your hotel room, you always have that floor plan. So I was looking at it and I see from here, you know, if I would have been able to see this up front, I could have selected the room that meets my own preferences, and I would have been more than able to pay for it because we are so used to seat selection in other industries like you.
00:05:35:10 - 00:06:00:20
Roeland Verhamme
Like you mentioned this. Well, so that was actually the start of the ideation of ExpectMe. But I have my background within the operational side of hotels and you know, like jumping on this journey, I knew that I needed to have strong people, helping me to, to build this and to, yeah, to follow, you know, the ambition to make sure that room selection becomes common practice within the industry.
00:06:00:20 - 00:06:26:17
Roeland Verhamme
And, one of our co-founders was not in this call is, Frank, who is our CTO. I think it's a friend of mine for quite some years. And, then we actually started with, building an advisory board with some, experts within the hotel industry. And one of them actually introduced me to Jeroen, and that's how I started.
00:06:27:01 - 00:06:37:01
Roeland Verhamme
get to know about Jeroen. And I will let him explain about his background. And, then there, how things moved, moves forward.
00:06:37:03 - 00:06:51:10
Rob Napoli
Yeah. So Jeroen. Yeah. You know, explain me a little bit how you got into this, crazy journey because your background is super deep as well, working in, the hotel space than some other startup. So. Yeah. Excited to hear your story.
00:06:51:12 - 00:07:31:20
Jeroen Vaassen
Yeah. So. Absolutely. So as you said, I mean, my background is also hotels. I worked for Starwood for many, many years. It's where I grew up and I got groomed, mostly into revenue management. And my last role with them was here in, in Singapore, leading revenue management for Asia Pacific. And then at one stage, I moved on and went to more entrepreneurial roots, work with hospitality companies, and others with other brands, those big international brands and some smaller independent hotels and really enjoyed the other life that was outside the big hotel chains, and some of the technology, opportunities that were there.
00:07:31:20 - 00:07:33:22
Jeroen Vaassen
And when we got introduced.
00:07:33:22 - 00:07:52:18
Jeroen Vaassen
I was. You know, originally wanting to or was intention to come under an advisory board. And I think I was, you know, had a bit of a strong opinion about certain things. So that grew alongside. Well, if you had an opinion, why don't you join us and we can do it together and think that's where we got started.
00:07:52:20 - 00:08:19:23
Jeroen Vaassen
And I think it works very well because we come from different backgrounds. Right? I mean, he comes from a pure operational background. I'm more from the commercial and strategic side. We worked in chains in independent hotels and together with Frank, who comes more from a technology fact, he doesn't necessarily have an a background in hospitality, but he understand the technical side of things, to help us build things that actually work and a stable platforms and all that kind of fun stuff.
00:08:19:23 - 00:08:26:11
Jeroen Vaassen
So together, I think that was a really good, starting point and complement. Yeah. Skills.
00:08:26:13 - 00:08:50:15
Rob Napoli
Yeah question this is really interesting because both of you have deep backgrounds. One on the operational, one on the revenue management side. And you just mentioned that your CTO no hospitality background. And part of me thinks that that actually is a good thing. You know, if he has a great tech background but doesn't know traditional hospitality or isn't wasn't building because I do think that when we look at hospitality, there's a ton of technology, as you know, Omniboost connects, data unification platforms.
00:08:50:15 - 00:09:17:12
Rob Napoli
They work with all these technologies. And a lot of times they're built in similar ways. And obviously there's ways that you have to build things, to flow and fit. But I do think that also bringing somebody I know that's not that's not his whole career and whole life could also be super helpful by thinking about how do we build a better mousetrap when we're looking at doing something revolutionary in the sense of we always know how I book hotels and it's the same experience, whether you're booking direct or through an OTA.
00:09:17:12 - 00:09:33:17
Rob Napoli
And I love Roeland how you like, oh, I always booked directed You know, I'm kind of conflicted because half the time my books are directed half the my book OTA. Because more about best price, right. And so it's like, you know, sometimes, like I always want to a book direct. And I like that experience. Also, I'm a big I'm a points guy.
00:09:33:17 - 00:09:57:19
Rob Napoli
So airline travel points, I fly almost the same carrier every time because I want that status. I have status, you know, on a certain hotel brand as well, for that same reason, because I love getting to have that status and be able to use that. So I do think that affects the guest experience. And so sometimes if you go for best available versus going for that guest, it's that those points he does change the guest experience.
00:09:57:19 - 00:10:11:24
Rob Napoli
So talk to me about how does ExpectMe take that into account, knowing that's a unique room selection platform, that that one helps unlock hidden revenue. But from the guest experience, how does that really translate into a guest experience?
00:10:12:01 - 00:10:39:24
Roeland Verhamme
I think it's it's a very interesting topic, and it's a topic that, you know, the very having conversations about very frequently, because I think that nowadays, I mean, also make comparisons. And of course, it's also it's not only, you know, the third party website, but just in general. I mean, yeah, I also if you look towards competitors and as you mentioned, the loyalty status and I believe that you will have it with few I don't think it's going to be only with one, but probably you will have a few, have it with a few.
00:10:40:01 - 00:11:16:23
Roeland Verhamme
But I think the big impact is, of course, about the experienced guest. You know, competing against pricing is a very tough one. And I think that hotels they can do such a great job by focusing more towards the experience that they can provide. And I think that with I believe with what we are doing with ExpectMe, and delivering that, enhanced experience for the hotel guest, it can create a big shift, from a conversion perspective, but just from the overall experience, because it's not the case you're using.
00:11:16:23 - 00:11:36:09
Roeland Verhamme
ExpectMe that you only focus on the direct bookers, right? I mean, it's we have seen it with Hilton, for example, where they have, implemented room selection already for a couple of years where it works very well, but it's only for the loyalty members. You need to have the app installed. It's a strategy that they use.
00:11:36:09 - 00:12:07:07
Roeland Verhamme
And I definitely get it. But I think there's so much opportunity out there because from all the guests that are senior Hotel, you know, those loyalty members is quite a small margin or especially not the majority. While the opportunities of room selection, you know, can be pushed towards all of your guests, but you can definitely segment them between, giving other benefits towards the ones that are booked direct by giving it, for example, way more days or weeks, in advance.
00:12:07:07 - 00:12:26:22
Roeland Verhamme
So let them select the rooms, meaning that there's the biggest room availability. Play with that with different, prices. But definitely make sure that your website that you communicate from pay. If you booked direct it's you will have best available rate that you can that you will get the opportunity of, selecting your room prior to arrival.
00:12:26:24 - 00:12:47:17
Jeroen Vaassen
Yeah. And but maybe one thing to add and I think to your point, Rob, I mean with, with Frank, who doesn't come from hospitality, he doesn't he only challenged us from how to build it from a technical perspective, but also question some of the things that were very, you know, normal for us and the jargon that we used or we've been used to think a certain way.
00:12:47:19 - 00:13:10:14
Jeroen Vaassen
And he sometimes say like, why is that? Right? And so even on the operational side, we help us trigger that. And I think with the personalization as well, like one of the things we've been used to thinking in room types always you book a room type and why not book a room, right? And so I think we see people think now that they're working with ExpectMe think differently around, you know, like in the airlines.
00:13:10:14 - 00:13:40:17
Jeroen Vaassen
You book an economy, a premium economy and a business class. You have three types of sort of room types or seat types. And then you can, you know, you can sell every individual room at a price with the attributes, how far it is ahead, if it has an emergency exit, etc. And I think for us as well, you can see now that people are, you know, but by focusing on the attributes or the preferences that the guest has, you can almost monetize each room on its own.
00:13:40:23 - 00:14:04:23
Jeroen Vaassen
And you no longer constrained by room types. And, you know, in the extreme, I mean, there is obviously, you still do it on until a certain extent, but it helps hotels to think differently and to think differently about their revenue opportunities, but also to think about the guest preferences. And what would a guest like and what would they be willing to pay for?
00:14:05:00 - 00:14:11:17
Jeroen Vaassen
And that gives the opportunity both on the revenue side for the hotels, but also, empowering the guests to personalize their space.
00:14:11:19 - 00:14:28:18
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And I think that's kind of nicely leads me to my next question. But I'm a big fan of, you. And I know that some people love being on the top. Right. And there's kind of this, ground floor all the way up to top floor and the top floor, you have the penthouse, and the higher up you are the kind of more either status or whatever.
00:14:28:20 - 00:14:46:02
Rob Napoli
It's sometimes, you know, depending on where I'm at, I'm traveling for business. I sometimes like to be depending on what city or like, what experience. I sometimes like to be a little closer to being able to get in and out. Right. Because you're long days, you're at conferences. You know, sometimes those elevators can take forever when it stops on every floor, right?
00:14:46:02 - 00:15:07:23
Rob Napoli
Versus like when I'm definitely traveling for, you know, leisure. And I'm on holiday. I love the top floor, especially if I'm on a beach side or whatever getting, higher up. So you have better views when you wake up with the windows open type of thing. So I think that while you can maybe choose a room type, you never and you can sometimes put floor preferences, but you never know if you're going to get the floor that you want.
00:15:07:23 - 00:15:27:14
Rob Napoli
So having the ability to actually pick a floor and be like, hey, I'm going on holiday, like I'm going to a wedding in Italy here in a couple of weeks, actually, we're staying at an Airbnb because we have a big group of people, but we are looking at some hotels prior to and it's in Verona. It's like, well, yeah, Verona is going to be some place that I don't want to be higher up and, you know, have the windows open and have coffee on a balcony.
00:15:27:14 - 00:15:45:10
Rob Napoli
Right. And so I'd want a room with a balcony versus, you know, Berlin, you know, I want to be out and about as much as possible. And I want to be able to get, you know, in and out to, to go to the beer hall as quickly as possible. Right. And so I love this idea that you can actually personalize that experience based on the city that you're in and the type of travel that you're doing.
00:15:45:12 - 00:16:00:16
Rob Napoli
And you mentioned that it helps unlock revenue potential and unrealized revenue. Is this where you think a huge opportunity for unlocking revenue on the on the hotel side is in that kind of personalized selection and you know, what you're willing to pay for, maybe a higher room, etc., is that kind of where that unlock potential comes from Jeroen?
00:16:00:16 - 00:16:30:23
Jeroen Vaassen
Yeah, I think I think definitely I think if you think about the rigid room types, you're sort of forcing people to think in what makes sense for you as a hotel. And by sort of asking them about their preferences, like we do and then assign rooms towards that, you know, it might unlock things that you didn't know because you today you're maybe traveling for business or tomorrow you're traveling with your family, you're the same person, but you have complete different needs and there's different things you would be willing to pay for.
00:16:31:00 - 00:16:52:24
Jeroen Vaassen
And I think by knowing what you get up from that's an opportunity. And there's a lot of upselling tools out there. And we do that as well. Obviously you book a standard room, you know, will the platform, can invite you to, to book a higher room category if that's what you're willing, but not because it's a higher room category, but because it, it's sort of fits with your preferences.
00:16:53:01 - 00:17:16:22
Jeroen Vaassen
But we actually see it about, I think it's like 40% of all the rooms that get selected on the platform are rooms of the same room type that the guest originally booked. So it's not necessarily an upsell, but it is monetizing even within the same, room category. And that's an additional opportunity which you don't have with a traditional upselling or platform.
00:17:16:24 - 00:17:36:05
Jeroen Vaassen
And so I think that's where some opportunities come up. And it's a different way of looking at it. And I think the last one is that the room categories that you have in the PMS are generally for operational purposes, and for the original selling. But there even we have a long list of room types.
00:17:36:11 - 00:17:56:10
Jeroen Vaassen
Often you go to a website, you have to think about 10, 50 room times. And I don't know how many great plans. You could even reduce that because with us we actually see hotels and say, you know what, I have 50 standard rooms, but there's three that are slightly different. I don't really want to create another room type, but with us you can charge $5 more or €10 more, right?
00:17:56:12 - 00:18:08:04
Jeroen Vaassen
And that's where you can monetize that and you can create content for those, in a very simple way. And take advantage of those opportunities that you have. Yeah.
00:18:08:06 - 00:18:22:20
Rob Napoli
And I love that too, because like, when I travel for pleasure, like, you know, I always look for rooms the king size bed. Right. I have a king size bed at home. So when I'm traveling, when I'm out with my wife, like, we like to have a king size bed. It's that kind of, like, more consistent.
00:18:22:20 - 00:18:41:11
Rob Napoli
Feel like we're. So I'm traveling for work. Like I just need a bed. That could be a twin. It could be a queen. It could be a. You know, I don't necessarily care. It's just a I need a good sheets that a comfy pillow, right? To lay my head out when I'm traveling for work. And I do think that's also important where if you even customize those different travel experiences, because I do.
00:18:41:13 - 00:18:56:14
Rob Napoli
But I think it's exciting about this. And part of the reasons that I tend to stay at a specific hotel chain over another is that, you know, the experience you're getting when you walk into that hotel. The rooms are gonna be the same. You know what the amenities are? You know how to work. You know the technology that's in there.
00:18:56:16 - 00:19:22:08
Rob Napoli
You know, sometimes I go into more futuristic hotels, like I said, isn't, which I love, and it's like iPad, which is amazing thing. But you always forget. It's like, okay, I got iPad here instead of looking for the controller, right? Like little things like that that you have to kind of remember. So if you can kind of create that consistency where you can actually look at business versus leisure, or even when you're doing leisure travel, you can really create kind of unique experiences that really open up a lot of doors and potentially new experiences, right?
00:19:22:08 - 00:19:46:22
Rob Napoli
Thinking on the other side, if not the consistent traveler with a one that's really a thrill seeker. I want a different experience every time I go somewhere. I want to check out this new feature. I want to try this new thing, and I think those could be some really cool dynamics at play with the platform. That opens up just amazing wealth of opportunity for the guest to have a great experience, but also wealth of opportunity for the hotel to better streamline their operational efficiency for experiences.
00:19:46:24 - 00:19:57:07
Rob Napoli
Right? Yeah. And what works and what doesn't, which I think is really cool. So I'm guessing there's a whole data piece to that data you're collecting on a business versus personal level and the travel time. Right?
00:19:57:09 - 00:20:18:01
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah, definitely. And you know, the thing is also with the different types of travelers and I mean, today, you know, if you look at ExpectMe in our portfolio hotels, we have those smaller boutique hotels, we have pure business hotels, we have luxury resort properties. So, you know, it's not that it works better for one than the other.
00:20:18:01 - 00:20:40:03
Roeland Verhamme
Sometimes just that strategies may me for. Right. But, you know, if you're doing a laser trip and you're on a holiday and you're at a resort property, I mean, yes, I mean, selecting your room, it's a different game because you're more focused towards the long time experience and the value and the you want to be close to the swimming pool or far away from the swimming pool or whatever.
00:20:40:05 - 00:20:41:02
Jeroen Vaassen
00:20:41:04 - 00:20:42:17
Rob Napoli
Do you like noise, do you not like noise?
00:20:42:17 - 00:21:07:10
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah, exactly. And you know so there are different, things that it's, that play a crucial role, but also with the business travelers, you know, it's exactly the same because then you're perhaps more, you know, folks towards your, your sleep. I mean, yeah, I mean, if you're not an easy sleeper, then probably you would like to have a very quiet room in most cases.
00:21:07:10 - 00:21:36:18
Roeland Verhamme
You know, there's room on the back side with perhaps the shitty view, but it's quite room. Yeah. And then away from the elevator, etc.. So there are different things that play a crucial role in that, selection process. But the reality is that just today, I mean, if you're doing the room selection nowadays, you know, there's an easy or manual process or an automatic process, it's always an impersonal, thing that happens.
00:21:36:18 - 00:21:53:05
Roeland Verhamme
It's all a system that is assigning rooms to play the tetris game for you eventually or it's on one, you know, doing it manually based on perhaps, you know, some comments that you left into the reservation or just what the person at that moment in time thinks that would be a good room for you.
00:21:53:06 - 00:22:14:22
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah, but there's only one person that knows. You know which room you really would like, and it's. Yeah, it's all delegates yourself. So giving this opportunity room selection prior to arrival already optimizes so many things. And, you know, the profitability as a whole because yes, it's upselling. So you can, guest you know, they will select a room that they truly want benefits from a high category.
00:22:14:22 - 00:22:32:08
Roeland Verhamme
They will go ahead and select a higher category. Yeah. But it's from the back, the same category. I mean, you know, yeah, it optimizes everything. And then on the final note is you know, also with, some loyalty, schemes in place, you know, if you're at a certain level, you're entitled for an upgrade.
00:22:32:08 - 00:22:52:04
Roeland Verhamme
And I had it during the recent trip, so I stayed at, one of the, chain properties. They did check in, and I received an upgrade, but, you know, like, actually, I hope that they would not have given me that upgrade because it was a room that I really didn't like. Not, you know, facing with the site that I would like to have.
00:22:52:04 - 00:23:11:22
Roeland Verhamme
There was also connecting door and, you know, I didn't like it then. It was a big it was a way bigger room than the one that I originally booked. So they give an upgrade away free of charge. While they could have sold that upgrade or upsell towards someone else, or sold that room in someone else and you know, so it's not it wasn't a win for anyone.
00:23:11:22 - 00:23:15:11
Roeland Verhamme
Not for me as a guest, not for them. Yeah, not for hotel sell.
00:23:15:11 - 00:23:32:05
Rob Napoli
But you make a point there because like thinking about seat selection sometimes. I love when they ask me if I want upgrades because sometimes I yes, I definitely want to upgrade. And sometimes I picked a seat for a specific reason for that flight. Right. And I'll say like, I don't want to get upgraded. And I think that's really important because yeah, it's nice to be upgraded.
00:23:32:05 - 00:23:51:03
Rob Napoli
It's nice to to feel that way in a loyalty position. But it is like, is this the right room that you really wanted? Maybe it's bigger, but does it have all the amenities you want. So like, you know, I was at a, I was traveling not too long ago and I said, this hotel lobby, beautiful room on the fifth floor, a great view, like it was exactly what we expected, what we wanted.
00:23:51:05 - 00:24:04:24
Rob Napoli
But what we didn't know is that they had a concert playing on the roof that set that Saturday night. So we are on the, fifth floor. And the concert was up on the sixth floor. So one floor above. And I can tell you that my wife and I didn't get to sleep in time for the concert got over at 2:30 a.m..
00:24:05:01 - 00:24:07:07
Rob Napoli
Luckily, we actually you got a free concert ticket.
00:24:07:07 - 00:24:08:23
Jeroen Vaassen
That's including the price.
00:24:08:23 - 00:24:26:17
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I mean, luckily, like, we record that, we went up there, you know, we got to catch the end of it and had a drink at the bar. And you know, we were there for to go out and we weren't like it wasn't like affecting us in a negative way. But what if we were with a family or what if we didn't want we wanted a quiet room and like that we were exhausted and we didn't know about that.
00:24:26:17 - 00:24:44:20
Rob Napoli
So even though that we got the room, we wanted none of the concerts there and even a notification, hey, you know, what are your preferences for quiet room? Fyi, there's a concert being played on Saturday night. Well, could potentially be loud in this room. Do you still want this room? Like, even it's a simple question. Is that could have been a huge change in the guest experience take into account.
00:24:45:01 - 00:25:02:23
Rob Napoli
So this is where I think this is why I got really excited when I learned about this, because I have so many of these experiences where those things happen. It's like, yes, I got the room I wanted, but then this thing happened or vice versa. Is I think this is where you can create so much of a unique opportunity for the guest experience and the hotel to provide that guest experience.
00:25:03:00 - 00:25:20:22
Jeroen Vaassen
Yeah. And I think that's the beauty as well, the flexibility of the platform. Right. It's really it's not a fixed product that we sell. It's really a platform that's an enabler for both the hotels to use it the way they want. And, you know, for all the right reasons for the different types of hotels and types of guests, they will use it in a different way, but also for the guests.
00:25:20:22 - 00:25:43:15
Jeroen Vaassen
That is then, as you said, empowered to select something that they're really interested in and not but somebody assumes that they're interested in, right. So I think that's we see lots of different types of customers and who not mentioned a few, and they're all using it in a different way. Some really charged the money. Some it's actually give it away for free because they see it as a benefit to their guests.
00:25:43:15 - 00:26:12:00
Jeroen Vaassen
Some do it differently for direct bookers versus others. I mean, there's so many different ways. And I think that's the beauty of it because not every hotel is the same and not every guest is the same. Right. So and I think with that as well, we focus a lot on the automation as well. I think you briefly mentioned that, earlier as well, but also to, not just to think about the hotel revenue and, and the guest satisfaction, but also automation of processes where it helps the staff.
00:26:12:00 - 00:26:35:06
Jeroen Vaassen
Right? I mean, let's work to manually assign rooms, less complaints that you need to do with less rooms because they want a different room, etc. And so we really focus on building a very deep integration with the premises so that we see the availability of each individual room, which is again different than most of the channel managers and stuff like that, that still focus on room types.
00:26:35:08 - 00:27:06:03
Jeroen Vaassen
But also when somebody books on our platform, it is guaranteed to the guest they know it's room 302. They get that confirmation and we assign it directly in the PMS assign the room. We lock the room depending on the PMS. We put all the booking info in. We're not automating the billing process as well. So that even front desk, if they do charge, for the room selection or any of the other additional services that we can also offer, like a bottle of champagne or etc that it gets automatically assigned and paid.
00:27:06:03 - 00:27:23:01
Jeroen Vaassen
So I think that component as well is that, you know, we want to take the burden away from the hotel as well so that they can actually have time to spend with the guest. Talking about how was your flight, how is what can we do for you? Do you want to, you know, do you want something in the room?
00:27:23:01 - 00:27:45:03
Jeroen Vaassen
Do you want to wake up, call tomorrow, whatever it is to provide that human connection. When the guest comes into hotel and they don't spend an hour behind a computer trying to complete everything. So I think, you know that creating that human connection on that level as well, to really focus on, delivering service and that hospitality experience that the guest is looking for.
00:27:45:06 - 00:27:59:04
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I think that's really unique because you can put in things like, oh, I'm here for, anniversary trip or like, I'm not always going to put in my birthday's coming up. But if it's like, hey, Rob, I see that your birthday is tomorrow. You know, thanks for being a guest. And, you know, you you've been here multiple times.
00:27:59:06 - 00:28:14:19
Rob Napoli
You know, we went ahead and put a bottle of champagne in your room or whatever, you know, I mean, like, little things like that and on the back end. Or you can actually say hotel staff. Hey, here's a couple of things for this room that's happened in the past. Or here's something that they mentioned. You might want to be able to provide them for guest satisfaction.
00:28:14:19 - 00:28:28:24
Rob Napoli
Like you could also like tip off and make that really easy for them to be able to do. Oh, boom. And this is, say for their settings as like, you know, their preferences. Right. So you're not basically saying, hey, you're on. It's your birthday tomorrow. I put a bottle of champagne here as like
00:28:29:01 - 00:28:45:13
Rob Napoli
Rob I don't drink right. Like, you know what I mean? Like those kind of things where that is something to pay attention to. Right. And that is, that does affect the guest experience. I really love that you share that. And I think that's a really cool piece. And I'm going to kind of transition because you have some really interesting stats on the website.
00:28:45:15 - 00:29:07:04
Rob Napoli
Right? 34% of airline passengers pay select their seat. 73% of hotel guests indicate they would love to select an individual room. When we look at that and we look at digital natives and we all live and die by our cell phone, right? And the things that we could do with it, how do you think that it that this affects that experience from a digital native versus maybe a non-digital native?
00:29:07:04 - 00:29:24:23
Rob Napoli
Do you do you notice that there are early adopters like, talk to me about these kind of things and where that actually affects and where do you see this growing? Is it more on a business side, personal side, like how does this come to be or how do you see this affecting? When we look at some hotels, some people want that just old school guest experience style.
00:29:24:24 - 00:29:30:02
Rob Napoli
Right. So how do you kind of manage that or is it built for one and not the other? Talk to you about that a little bit.
00:29:30:04 - 00:29:51:04
Jeroen Vaassen
I think maybe to pick it up. I think first of all, the early adopters are also first of all from the hotels. Right. So the type of hotels that pick this up are hotels with a little bit more of, you know, being open minded, wanting to do things differently. And I think that goes a little bit with the type of hotels as well and the customers that go there.
00:29:51:04 - 00:30:10:16
Jeroen Vaassen
So I think that sort of goes hand in hand. As we keep growing, we start seeing a little bit, like we said, some more luxury resorts have maybe a little bit more traditional. And so, you know, I think it starts, in my opinion, with the hotels and how they embrace it and how they communicate it to the guests.
00:30:10:18 - 00:30:41:10
Jeroen Vaassen
But we've actually seen quite a even spread in, you know, in the pick up in the conversions. I think there's some differences between and as I said, some hotels give it away for free and some let people pay for it. But, you know, we see a decent like for people that ask to pay, like 25%, currently 25 to 30% of the of the guest, actually, you know, booked the rooms on from starting to search through to booking.
00:30:41:12 - 00:30:58:12
Jeroen Vaassen
So, that's sort of in line with what we saw for the airline industry. And so I think those trends sort of go hand in hand. And I think as people get more familiar with it and, know that it's even a possibility that number might even increase. Yeah, I love that Yeah.
00:30:58:14 - 00:31:20:15
Roeland Verhamme
And obviously, you know, there's a there's a big difference if you make it if you're providing as a paid solution or, you know, if you're giving it away for free and really focus on the experience. But that's where you know, that segmentation comes in the picture. Because, I mean, whenever we talk with people that travel very often, for them it's a no brainer because they all say, yeah, I mean, yeah, why am I not able to select my room?
00:31:20:15 - 00:31:49:21
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah, that would be actually like a really great experience. So using that tool, you know to provide this experience towards your most loyal guests and then, yes, perhaps you're giving it away for free. Of course, there's always that upselling opportunity, you know, you let them select the room, but you give me that they will do an upsell towards a higher category room that you're doing that's a revenue generation or that you're providing, additional revenues by packages, etc..
00:31:49:23 - 00:32:13:05
Roeland Verhamme
So, you know, you're really driving revenue, and optimizing the guest experience and apart from that is a great way to boost the direct booking conversion. Yes. You know, if especially if you communicate about it. But then on the other hand, also, you know, from a segmentation of if you look at from the generations. Yeah, Gen Z is obviously in they're very tech savvy and on their mobiles.
00:32:13:05 - 00:32:38:05
Roeland Verhamme
But I mean, and I'm quite sure that it will resonate with a lot of people, you know, between us, but also with the audience. So, I mean, if you're if you're with your parents, I mean, it's almost a frustration how often that they're on their mobile. Yeah. Doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, it's even more, you know, I have two kids, you know, they're more on, you know, mobile devices than my kids are.
00:32:38:07 - 00:32:59:01
Roeland Verhamme
So, you know, they definitely understand me and how it works. And they, they really, figure it out. And apart from that, and it also comes with them, you know, respond in some way with the flexibility and also the quick comparison between, you know myself coming from the hotel industry yet and Frank, you know, not at all from the hotel backgrounds.
00:32:59:01 - 00:33:28:02
Roeland Verhamme
So if you look at the, you know, when we designed ExpectMe. I mean, they're very similar functionalities in our platform like you will find in Google Maps, for example, you know, to navigate, which also creates like a very, sense of understanding from, you know, how they need to search for that room and then, you know, like a slide bar to, see the difference between the room list and the floor plan, etc..
00:33:28:02 - 00:33:44:01
Roeland Verhamme
So, so from a design perspective, of course, it's also, quite important to take into account, and of course, always, you know, keep improving the platform, keep looking towards data, things that work, that don't work, improving the platform, moving forward,
00:33:44:03 - 00:33:48:19
Jeroen Vaassen
I was afraid Roeland was going to compare me with my great house and thought it was a.
00:33:48:21 - 00:33:57:03
Jeroen Vaassen
I am happy didn't mention that, but I took a step further. I was keeping you say no, I love that.
00:33:57:03 - 00:34:17:23
Rob Napoli
I mean, I think that's such a unique there's a uniqueness to this where this could really change. I experience the hotel. Right. And I think what cool things is what if you're looking at a hotel you really want to stay, but they don't have the room available. Right. And what's the negative side effect of that. There's a kind of a pro and a cons that one.
00:34:17:23 - 00:34:38:09
Rob Napoli
If you, look for a different hotel with that or I really want to say this hotel, but maybe because my selection is unavailable maybe they offer me a discount code to still say, hey, no, this isn't the room you prefer. We're willing to give you 10% off or a meal credit to have a nice meal on us at the hotel, the nice hotel restaurant so you can still come here.
00:34:38:09 - 00:34:57:15
Rob Napoli
So creating LTV for that customer, right. So even if the options aren't there, there's ways to incentivize us to still keep the LTV at that hotel because you know, the experience you're getting there. Maybe it's not all the things you wanted, but you can filter in these other things that open up, revenue opportunities. And this is where I think, yeah, a big missed opportunity is and that's it's hard work.
00:34:57:15 - 00:35:15:16
Rob Napoli
A hotel and know what you're getting all the time, right, whether it's through a OTA or not. And so I think this is where you can create some unique opportunities as well for LTV of your customer to bring multiple trips back to a hotel experience. But it's a chain with the same hotel, and I love that you guys are getting more into the resort spaces too.
00:35:15:17 - 00:35:33:08
Rob Napoli
I think that's where you can really do some damage in a good way, where all the experiences and putting together those preferences of what could be an upsell, not just within the platform. What can the hotel do, the upsell. So, hey, we got this far. Here's all the data we can give you. Now, you could maybe craft us.
00:35:33:08 - 00:35:54:14
Rob Napoli
You know, we look at these resorts, sometimes you have to sit through like they make you kind of sit through like a mandatory 30 minute upsell for a timeshare to meet with the concierge, to then go through your options for the whole week while you're there. It's like, But I'm in Paradise. The last thing I want to do is spend 30 minutes hotel, trying to sell the timeshare before I get book in, like my experiences for the week, right?
00:35:54:16 - 00:36:06:20
Rob Napoli
So do you think this is where those simple things can open up ways to really show that you care about the guest experience, but also provide a better experience and, and open up opportunities for LTV.
00:36:06:22 - 00:36:28:18
Jeroen Vaassen
I think we're just at the beginning. Right. And I think to your point, this is like we're obviously a startup. We're just getting warmed up, right? We have a ton of ideas and things where we want to bring this, but this is potentially something that we want to make this, sort of, a standard in-hospital that this is something that you think about just booking your room instead of your room type.
00:36:28:18 - 00:36:47:15
Jeroen Vaassen
And, and there's tons of other things and opportunities that it's gonna unlock. And I think we're at the beginning of that. And, you know, we're certainly not going to stop here. As I said, we have a huge backlog of things we want to build, but, you know, we can't do it all at once. So we'll, keep building and keep providing new opportunities and see where that leads us.
00:36:47:15 - 00:37:00:16
Jeroen Vaassen
Yeah, I'm sure we're going to learn as well along the way of, of people that give us ideas and inspiration. And, you know, change the way that that we do business and or how we've done it for many, many years. Right? Yeah.
00:37:00:18 - 00:37:11:00
Roeland Verhamme
But I also want to, you know, just to add on to this one and also to what you mentioned to Rob is I mean, you know, like.
00:37:11:02 - 00:37:36:18
Roeland Verhamme
The fact that, you know, that you and I have that experience working within our hotels you know, made make such a big difference, especially also in the fact that, you know, yes, we focus towards personalization for hotels but definitely also, you know, for the hotels and that's really so flexible that they can really build it, you know, towards their liking and what they think is the best strategy.
00:37:36:18 - 00:37:59:14
Roeland Verhamme
And then that's also linked to the flexibility that the platform provides. Because I know how it is, you know, to play the digital game, to do the room delegation and each property is different. And also the segments are different, you know, looking towards a business model, probably they will, allow the room selection a couple of days prior to arrival.
00:37:59:16 - 00:38:21:05
Roeland Verhamme
This will not make any sense towards, resort properties, you know, because they have a way longer length of stay. Also know when the booking is made etc. so they can, you know, provide it's weeks or even months prior to their arrival. And it's important that the platform ExpectMe that it provides that flexibility towards the hotel so that they can really decide from.
00:38:21:05 - 00:38:50:12
Roeland Verhamme
Yes room selection. It is a great way. It's such a great that it's value for our guests. What would be the best scenario for our specific, property, you know, to embrace this, in and everything, you know, it makes a circle around, right, with personalization, flexibility and automation with PMS integrations to make it work, to make it fully automated. Which is, in our opinion, so crucial.
00:38:50:14 - 00:39:14:17
Rob Napoli
Absolutely. You know, we're Omniboost we love automation. We love, you know, process simplicity, right. That's the name of the game. So I think that's really cool. And I love that there's so much that could be done. Right. And you're at the beginning stages and you're building out and there's so many lessons to learn. I think there's going to be a fun learning lesson, and I'm looking forward to bringing you all back on in a year or two and seeing how it's evolved and talking about next evolution of this technology.
00:39:14:17 - 00:39:25:10
Rob Napoli
Maybe when I'm out in Singapore you know, so that's good that expanding there. We can we can meet up and then Roeland I love Antwerp. So, you know, I'll be in your hut soon
00:39:25:11 - 00:39:27:21
Roeland Verhamme
So definitely I love New York as well.
00:39:27:21 - 00:39:29:07
Rob Napoli
So I mean yeah.
00:39:29:09 - 00:39:31:00
Jeroen Vaassen
You know we can come there as well that's fine.
00:39:31:01 - 00:39:46:05
Rob Napoli
I mean, you know, it's always open. I'll take you out for some great beers and some great bars. So, you know, this is a lot of fun to do it. And I know we could talk for, hours on this stuff because you both are so passionate about building this. We only have so much time today.
00:39:46:05 - 00:39:57:23
Rob Napoli
So if anyone wants to get in touch with you or learn more about ExpectMe and what they can do. Where can they find you? What's the best way to get in touch with you all to learn more?
00:39:58:00 - 00:40:14:19
Jeroen Vaassen
Well, I think first of all, our website. Right. ExpectMe.com is, is where they can find. And I'm sure you can you can put the links in the show notes or whatever. Or reach out, find us on, on LinkedIn, find us on, any of those platforms and get in touch.
00:40:14:19 - 00:40:22:00
Jeroen Vaassen
We're, happy to talk to you and see where we can help you. Yeah. With your guest experiences.
00:40:22:02 - 00:40:35:19
Rob Napoli
Absolutely. I'll make sure to put the both of your LinkedIn and the website in this show notes So they gotta do is click that little button, pull it up, and you'll have a direct link to get in touch. And, make sure that it's easy for them to reach out to you.
00:40:35:21 - 00:40:47:19
Roeland Verhamme
Yeah, yeah. That's good. We are very reachable. So, I'm always happy to have a chat and experience how I room selection can help, all of your properties. And I want to move forward
00:40:47:21 - 00:40:51:09
Jeroen Vaassen
With the different time zones for sort of 24/7 coverage
00:40:51:09 - 00:40:53:03
Rob Napoli
Will say you got you got to kind of.
00:40:53:05 - 00:40:54:07
Jeroen Vaassen
Pick it up. Yeah.
00:40:54:09 - 00:41:11:19
Rob Napoli
So awesome. Well hey Roeland , Jeroen. I appreciate the both of you coming on a lot of fun and I appreciate I know it's afternoon for one evening going into late evening for another as we look at it across the world. I appreciate you both making time. Had a lot of fun talking about, you know, this space and what we can do and really a guest experience.
00:41:11:19 - 00:41:16:20
Rob Napoli
Something I'm passionate about. So I appreciate you for letting me wrap it up with you, and chop it up.
00:41:16:22 - 00:41:18:22
Jeroen Vaassen
Thanks a lot Rob thanks your time as well.
00:41:18:24 - 00:41:38:11
Rob Napoli
Of course. And for all the listeners out there, I promise you, when these guys, when these guys say they're available, they're very available, they love to talk this stuff. So reach out if it's something that you're interested in. And until next time, make sure that, as you're listening to the podcast, be a tier one like subscribe, rate review, do all the things help share this.
00:41:38:13 - 00:41:50:05
Rob Napoli
With the community. And if you want to be on the podcast or, you know, have a guest or topics that you want us to cover, please drop us a line. All my information is also in the show notes and that is it for this episode of hospitable. And until next time, be well.