Launched in August 2014, HelloShift is a San Francisco-based startup that's aiming to be an enterprise collaboration tool for hotel operations similar to the fast-growing Slack.
HelloShift replaces antiquated communication mechanisms, such as handwritten logbooks, sticky notes, and walkie-talkies, with a social platform that gets communication in writing. It adds accountability and efficiency and works on mobile devices.
Here's a testimonial from Dimitar Stanev, a hotel manager for the boutique chain Personality Hotels Kensington Park.
"HelloShift saves me a lot of time because instead of combing through three logbooks I can see all communication on one screen from anywhere on my phone or computer.
Our staff is more accountable because I can see who created a task, who completed it, and what issues came up. I can track everything and communicate with our staff in real time."
A Q&A with CEO Sudheer Thakur:
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
My previous startup, Localyte, connected travelers to local experts. Our original inspiration was to connect guests to hotel staff.
When we looked into connecting guests to hotel staff, we found the hotel staff needed help communicating amongst themselves before they could communicate and help guests effectively. Thus, the idea for HelloShift was born.
There is an exciting new category of communication software being pioneered by companies like Slack (and Trello, Yammer etc.) that is not built for use by the shift-based workforce that hotels employ.
We’ve packaged the relevant features from these tools into a simplified interface optimized for the way shift-based businesses work, and accounting for the various skill levels of the workers.
With almost no training, low skilled employees such as front desk agents, housekeepers, and maintenance staff can share notes, create tasks, complete checklists, escalate issues to management, receive notifications, interact with guests and third-party applications.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
We have two full-time employees: the co-founders, CEO Sudheer Thakur and Ben Feldman, VP of product, have worked together for more than 10 years in a variety of startups including Localyte.
Funding arrangements?
HelloShift is self-funded and has paying customers. We plan to raise funds to grow the business faster.
Estimation of market size?
With half-a-million hotels worldwide, we see the market size at more than $1 billion.
Competition?
Improving guest experience is a big concern for hotels. Naturally a number of products like GuestWare, InGuest and HotSOS are trying to solve the problem.
No one is tackling the problem like us. HelloShift puts communication front and center.
Our competitors leave communication as an afterthought.
Their software consists of various modules: guest requests, task management, lost and found, guest callbacks, passalong logs, etc. that make users to drill down and fill out different types of single-purpose forms.
Information is siloed inside all of these modules, leading to ineffective communication. This approach also requires extensive, expensive training.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We are using a SaaS business model with a freemium plan.
Our free plan allows hotels to experience the benefits first hand. To supercharge our growth, we plan to engage hotel management companies looking to drive operational efficiency across their properties.
Later we plan to add brands.
What problem does the business solve?
Hotels are operation-oriented and communication is key for smooth operations. Ineffective communication causes an inferior guest experience, which results in reduced revenue.
Hotels operate 24/7 but hotel employees work in eight-hour shifts and are generally unavailable outside their shifts. Hotel communication needs to happen across shifts, departments, with guests, and 3rd parties.
Here is how it is done now:
a. For communication across shifts, hotels typically use a handwritten logbook called “redbook” or "passalong." Usually there are multiple logbooks for tracking lost and found items, guests waitlists, etc.
b. For communication across departments, hotels still use walkietalkies, hallway chatter, and print outs of task lists called “tracer reports."
c. For 3rd party interactions, staff frequently checks some common hotel mailbox or looks for data siloed inside various other apps.
d. For guests, it's either calling or visiting the front desk.
We have witnessed something profound happen when all this communication is available in an integrated hotelwide feed where the issues can be searched, tagged, commented, reassigned, and if needed, escalated.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
We started by solving the communication problem for hotel staff both across shifts and across departments.
In the process, we built a general purpose communication platform that is inspired by emerging communication innovator Slack. Very recently, we brought guests into the conversation and integrated with mailboxes and third party applications.
Why should people or companies use the business?
Guest experience is directly tied to revenue 70% of online reviews are directly correlated to service, good or bad.
There are a lot of things a hotel can not change (e.g., its location) but guest service is not one of them. Our software helps hotels provide superior guest experience leading to increased revenue.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition?
Like Slack, we believe our product is best understood by experiencing it first hand. HelloShift's free plan gives hotels an internal website and an online logbook.
The free product allows hotels to move all their information online, away from unreliable paper logbooks and binders, thus bringing visibility and accountability in their operations.
We've already engaged some property management groups and plan to directly contact more so we can acquire hotels efficiently. Hotelspecific conferences and tradeshows are also on the list.
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
Hotels are finally adopting cloud services and letting staff use smart phones. We hope to ride this trend.
In three years, we hope to replace paper logbooks in at least 10K hotels. With our free logbook, there is no excuse for hotels to be stuck in dark ages.
While the move from paper logbooks to online is inevitable, it requires behavior change. This is made more challenging as most hotels are operated oriented and not very strategic.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
Hotels are late adopters when it comes to technology. You'll frequently find the hotel employees instagramming on their mobile devices and then going back to work on a crufty PMS installed on an ancient, locked-down desktop.
Also, it's common to see hotel managers on TripAdvisor pleading ignorance about guest service issues.
In this connected world, there is no excuse why service related issues should go undetected until guests vent online. Guests want help and they should be heard while they are on site.
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're a typical product-focused Silicon Valley company, based in the San Francisco bay area. We are very customer focused we built our product while physically working out of a local hotel.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
TripAdvisor, Priceline, or Oracle.
Describe your startup in three words?
Slack for Hotels
Tnooz view:
As a user of Slack, I can vouch for its value as an enterprise communication tool. But I can't see Slack working well in large hotel operations. It's too unstructured.
HelloShift is a lightweight communications platform like Slack, but it provides the overlay of structure. It channels staff into talking about specific operational goals.
There's only a small learning curve, according to hotel manager testimonials. If true, and if this platform fulfills its promise of making hotel operations more efficient, it could become quite popular.