StayNTouch is a startup focusing on hotel property management systems (PMSs). Despite its relatively unglamorous (though vital) core product, the company has secured a fresh fund-raising round from some big backers.
The Washington, DC-based StayNTouch announced on Monday that it had raised $9.5 million in a new investment round, led by Concur's Perfect Trip Fund, and from Shiji, a Beijing-headquartered provider of IT and service tools for 10,000 hospitality businesses.
Also joining in the Series A round are Triangle Peak Partners, Stanford University, and Acceleprise.
Since its inception in 2013, StayNTouch has signed dozens of high profile properties in select cities in the US and Europe, such as the Fontainebleau Miami resort, Hotel Nikko San Francisco, MGM Resorts International, Thompson Chicago, Yotel Times Square, several Joie De Vivre Hotels, and the Great Wolf Resort in New England.
StayNTouch has struck partnerships with companies like SiteMinder, integrating its Rover PMS into SiteMinder's channel manager for hotels, via an API.
CEO Jos Schaap said the startup's cloud-based hotel PMS has a mobile-first approach for the tools used by hotel staff -- and for the interfaces used by guests, with data stored in the cloud.
StayNTouch’s Rover PMS is mobile-first for hotel staff, while its Zest tool enables guests to check themselves in and out, receive upgrade promotions or view their room bill, and access other services from their mobile devices via hotel-branded interfaces.
Front desk and housekeeping staffs get touch-optimized extensions of the PMS from any wifi-enabled touch device, including the ability to securely accept credit cards and encode guest room keys from any tablet.
Schaap was once executive vice president for hotel technology for Micros, in charge of both the engineering and the product teams that gave birth to the leading Micros Opera PMS. He's brought his experience from his long stint there to the new effort.
As part of the financing, Mike Eberhard, president of global distribution at Concur, and Kevin King, COO at Shiji, will join the StayNTouch board of directors.
King said in a statement:
“StayNTouch solutions focus on the guest journey and hotel operational efficiencies, allowing hotels to take immediate advantage of mobile solutions with their existing property management system.
We are confident that StayNTouch will bring hoteliers streamlined workflow management efficiencies, enabling better guest experience and increased revenues.”
Since software giant SAP’s $8.3 billion deal to purchase travel and expense platform Concur closed a year ago it wasn't clear if the Perfect Trip Fund would continue to assertively invest in travel companies. This investment could be viewed as restoring the fund's momentum.