techtalk.travel

We talk with Martin Reichenbach COO and Ulrich Pillau from apaleo. Founded in 2017, apaleo is a cloud-based open management platform for hospitality companies to manage their multiple properties, connect their apps, and run their daily operations. Third-party apps can be plugged into the system through a public, two-way API, allowing hotels to create their own software stack.

Martin is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Koncept Hotels. Based in Cologne Germany, Martin talks about his hotel operational past and what influenced him to open a predominately staff-less hotel utilising technology.

Chapters:

0:44 - Martin's Background

2:41 - Starting your hotel company

6:21 - Guests Expectations

9:53 - Technology Expectations

11:19 - Your tech partners

14:10 - Support expectations

16:41 - The Automation

19:08 - Inventory Management

20:07 - The Future

Ben is the founder and CEO of one of the hospitality industry's most dynamic and progressive tech startups. Impala allows third-party apps to connect to a property management software in minutes, using a clean, well-documented JSON API.

Chapters

0:37 - Ben's Backstory

3:33 - Changing Tactics

8:25 - Impala's Biggest Challenge

10:11 - Tech Provider Ratio

12:29 - Industry Tech Challenges

15:32 - Funding Allocation

16:38 - Competition

21:06 - Impala's Future

22:08 - Ben's Top 3 Tips

Brendan May is a well-known hotel technology evangelist and educator. With over 20 years of experience on both sides of the industry. Brendan talks about how he went from studying science to building a career in hotels. About his experience in the tech startup space and how an open market for integrations is critical for ongoing success for the tech side of our industry.

Chapters

1:15 - Background

7:40 - Hoteliers tech challenges today

10:59 - Hotel Res Bot

13:38 - Using tech to do crappy jobs

16:51 - Integrations

21:58 - Keep the model open

27:12 - Brendan's Top 3 Travel Peeves

Maarten, CRO at Revinate, based in Amsterdam talks with Daniel about the evolvement of technology impacting the hotel industry today and how it may influence future trends. Offering some great perspective for the hotelier in today's current tech landscape. 

Revinate provides hotels a comprehensive guest engagement platform to help them know and interact with their guests. 

Chapters

0:46 Maarten's Background

2:44 Key market issues

7:02 Company evolution

11:23 Advice to the hotelier

17:11 Industry evolution

21:44 The future and Revinate

Erik Tengen, Co-Founder at Oaky sat down with André Baljeu in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and spoke with him about his path from DJ and Poker player to starting a hotel tech company. 

Tune in to this podcast episode to hear about Eriks background, the challenge of fragmentation and integrations within the hotel technology space, how Oaky was founded, the different needs of hotel chains versus independent hotels, and more.

0:58 - Eriks background & how Oaky started 

6:10 - Building relationships 

7:30 - Getting integrated 

9:04 - Starting global 

12:06 - Different needs of independents and chains 

17:20 - Overcoming challenges 

19:08 - Finding new talent 

20:20 - Hotelschools addressing technology 

22:27 - Eriks entrepreneurial advice

More from Erik Tengen, Oaky:

In this episode, we talk with Sarah Fults, Vice President Distribution at MGM Resorts International and current sitting HEDNA President. 

As a hotelier, Sarah gives her perspective on her career journey, technology associated with her work and HEDNA's plans for the future.

Chapters

0:36 - Career Journey 

1:36 - Applying Hotel Technology Today 

2:54 - New Players in the Hotel Technology Landscape 

4:54 - Acceptance of AI & Blockchain 

7:09 - Distribution for an Independent Hotel

9:47 - President of HEDNA 

13:03 - HEDNA's Future 

18:11 - Advice to the Student seeking a career in the Hotel Industry

This episode features Yannis Moati, CEO and CoFounder of HotelsByDay.com. A website and mobile app offering hotels the opportunity to sell their rooms for day use as a way of increasing revenues.

Chapters

1:05 Why HotelsByDay.com?

3:47 What are the differentiators?

7:20 Your biggest challenge

9:07 Hotels top 3 questions

12:20 Why you and not the OTA's?

14:36 Biggest challenge as a start-up

17:28 Shark Tank Appearance

22:42 Acceptance by needed partners

24:47 Advice to the graduate

In this episode we talk with Mike Curtis. Mike is the Vice President of Engineering at Airbnb, he is responsible for delivering the simple, elegant way of matching people with the most interesting places in the world during their travels. Mike leads cross-functional teams dedicated to bolstering Airbnb’s growth while building trust between millions of hosts and guests around the globe. Prior to joining Airbnb, Mike served as a Director of Engineering at Facebook focused on user growth and engagement. Previously he was at Yahoo where he led the engineering team for Yahoo Mail.

Chapters:

0:45 Background

2:12 Robots replacing humans?

4:06 Airbnb's AI Strategy

7:29 Airbnb's Business Traveller Strategy

12:17 Future Direction

14:08 Blockchain Adoption & Future Competitors of Airbnb

15:07 Building the right product development team

16:13 What fascinates you about technology?

In season one's final episode we talk with none other than Erik Muñoz, CCO of Vertical Booking and long-time personal friend about changes in hotel tech over the last 20 years, data security, the next 5 years and other interesting topics.

Chapters:

1:31 Industry changes over the last 20 years

9:44 Evolution of Industry Technology

13:27 The Chinese Market & Traveller

15:06 Securing Data

20:57 On property tech experience

24:48 Erik's preferred search channels

26:17 Next 5 years in hotel tech

32:29 Advice to the graduating student