24 Apr 2018

Hotelchamp builds out platform for hotels through third-party services

Hotel booking specialist Hotelchamp is planning to make more third-party services available to clients through its platform.

The Amsterdam-based company works with hotels to help them increase their direct online bookings from consumers and to improve the customer service offered to travellers during the online process.

The company, which was set up in 2015, has just integrated a range of technology services to its platform, including hotel rates intelligence from OTA Insight, guest feedback specialist TrustYou, reviews analyst Customer Alliance, LiveChat and HotJar, which specialises in web and mobile site visitor analytics.

Hotelchamp CEO Kristian Valk told tnooz that accessing so many different tools individually was “time-consuming” for hoteliers and they wanted to bring together a range of data and analytical platforms under “one suite”.

“Hoteliers are using other technology solutions for different parts of the customer journey,” he said. “But it’s very fragmented so that’s why we launched this integration of these other technology solutions on our platform to create a one-suite solution.

“This will help to drive more direct revenue, create better guest relationships and give more insight into guests and potential guests.”

Hotelchamp, which employs 65 people in the Netherlands, currently has around 1,500 major hotels as clients across more than 50 countries.

“We are pretty much covering the whole spectrum of hotels. From day one, we have been working with both chains and independent hotels, including luxury brands and regional groups that have joined us.”

Clients include companies such as Apex Hotels, Como Hotels and Resorts, Dorsett and Dusit Thani in Dubai.

Valk said clients’ reaction to the integration of other technology services on the Hotelchamp platform had been very positive.

“They love it – many of them have told us it’s just what they needed. They are already giving us suggestions about different parts of the IT stack.”

Valk says Hotelchamp is “growing very fast” but there is “no need at this stage to raise more money”. The company received €2.25 million in new funding in August 2017, taking the total raised so far to €4 million.

“We’re in good shape. We will continue to grow as rapidly as we are doing. Growth has already been going tremendously and this is the big next step.”