Startup pitch: GTRIIP brings biometrics to hotel check-in [UPDATED]

Please describe your competition. There are no direct competitors today that does the exact same thing as what we do with Touch ID biometric authentication technology and the ability to check-in to a hotel kiosk wirelessly with no internet connection on traveller’s iPhone. We have patents pending on this solution. A similar solution we have seen is an Apple Watch with NFC technology that could open doors at SPG hotels by totally bypassing and automating the hotel lobby check-in process altogether. Our solution is unique and could be more compliant in certain countries since we are integrating a biometric technology into existing human driven manual check-in process. What is your revenue model and strategy for profitability? Once we reach a healthy number of hotels on board, at least 10 hotels this year, and 80 hotels by next year, we will see meaningful numbers as profits in our books. Since it takes only a few minutes to install our kiosk app on an iPad and acquire a hotel as a client via self-service, we foresee this scaling up exponentially at a global level with relatively little incremental expenses. What problem does the business solve? The idea of getting rid of paper documents itself is not new. We are solving similar problems we have solved by digitizing bank notes into digital banking platforms and online money transfers. GTRIIP is simply digitizing a different thing — our travel documents into a biometric key that is more secure. The benefits are:

• Smoother check-in experience for travellers by not having to take out the physical passport for subsequent visits to a hotel chain. If we think of it from another angle, many cinemas and airlines are already achieving this level of convenience by no longer checking the physical ticket. Some proof of booking or identification should be enough.
• Higher efficiency for hotel staff by not having to handle physical passports of the same guests twice.
• Heightened security and compliance via biometric identification.

How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?

We have actually started with very ambitious goals to position this solution into sectors such as immigration and check-point authorities at the airports, borders, etc. Due to the amount of red-tape required to execute that, we have decided to position this at a more scalable hotels and tourism industry first. We are also considering loyalty and membership points areas that requires even less red tape to deploy our solution. Why should people or companies use the business? A traditional fingerprint biometric system would cost more and take longer to set up. It would also raise privacy concerns to capture a guest’s biometric data in a hotel system in advance. GTRIIP avoids that by letting travellers manage their own biometric data in their own iPhone privately. GTRIIP requires little hardware (any iPad) or software (downloadable kiosk app, free, forever) expenses for a hotel to set this up. It takes less than 5 minutes, say for a 2 star hotel or a backpackers’ hostel, to download the kiosk app and get this running at their front desk. The benefits of having a additional biometric identification security for the hotel, and the convenience of not having to worry about the physical travel documents on subsequent stays for travellers far outweighs the costs for both hotels and the travellers. Many travellers already own an iPhone with Touch ID anyway, and the GTRIIP app is downloadable for free, forever. What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)? There is already a 3% referral commission on booking fee if you refer a friend to use GTRIIP app for room booking. Other than that, and a media launch with first batch of early adopter hotels that are already on board using our kiosk apps, we do not intend to make a hard sell to acquire more hotels or users aggressively. We will 100% focus on improving both the kiosk and user apps for next versions according to the product road map we have plus inputs from our user hotels, motels, hostels, and travellers. We will let the apps speak for themselves. Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome? By 2018, with more percentage of travellers carrying a biometric capable phone, we see ourselves becoming even more relevant as a highly scalable biometric authentication platform used by the hospitality industry worldwide. We also intend to branch out into other industries that face similar authentication challenges. For example, immigration, loyalty management, and club memberships. The rate of adoption for compatible biometric capable devices with our kiosks (only iPhone today) by travellers could be a challenge we have to overcome. What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?

There is always a balancing factor between compliance versus innovation in any industry. Innkeeper regulations in certain countries still require archiving of physical travel documents of the guests. Virtually everyone carries a smart phone today, and many with a biometric capability. We believe the biometric technology is mature enough, and sufficiently adopted today for the industry to take the next step, and take a leap of faith from physical travel documents which are less secure and efficient. What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why? We were inspired by startups like Facebook and WhatsApp. We are out there to solve real world problems, with ingenuous solutions that costs little to nothing by leveraging on infrastructures and technologies (such as smart phones) that are becoming cheaper and more relevant over time. Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup, and why? There are two kinds of partners we would be very happy to have. It could be the technology platform owners, such as Apple, or a biometric sensor manufacturer, since we have a valuable utilization of those sensors. We would also be happy to partner with the sales channels such Agoda, booking.com, or Airbnb who already has the huge collection of hotels or partnered venues on board, and could simply integrate our solution in as a biometric authentication layer. Describe your startup in three words. Biometric proximity authentication. Tnooz view:

NB: Fingerprint image courtesy Shutterstock.