The competition for mobile-first, hotel booking apps has been heating up, with mobile set to account for a fifth of all online travel bookings this year.
In January, giant online travel agency Booking.com launched its Booking Now app, offering last-minute deals on hundreds of thousands of hotels worldwide.
That breadth of inventory is far more than what HotelTonight, the pioneer in this field, and other companies, such as Hot Hotels and Blink by Groupon, have to offer. Booking.com's marketing budget and existing communication channels with customers are also superior.
In this context, it may seem foolhardy to be launching a stand-alone same-day hotel booking app. But that's what Roomlia is doing with its app for Android and Apple devices.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Michael Reichartz and Jim Ferguson, who helped led Expedia's merchant hotel business from its beginning stages until it became a multi-billion dollar business it remains today.
Roomlia, which now has 18 employees, has launched a few innovations.
From a consumer's perspective, Roomlia stands out from rival products in two ways: its loyalty program and its user interface.
The loyalty program lets users earn a free stay at any Roomlia property after seven bookings through the app. No other same-day booking app has this type of reward, which goes across brands.
Hotels.com and Orbitz have reported significant gains by having brand-agnostic loyalty programs for their hotel sales. So the concept has support.
For hoteliers, Roomlia also offers innovations. It is the first app of its genre to debut with connectivity, ensuring a seamless experience for both travelers and hospitality partners.
Rather than have to use an extranet to upload rates and inventory daily, hotels can use channel managers, such as one from TravelClick, to manage their rates and inventory for Roomlia along with rates and inventory for 800 other online travel agencies.
In late March, Roomlia tied up with SiteMinder, letting hotels in the US provide rates and inventory via SiteMinder's two-way connection. SiteMinder claims to be the leading provider of online distribution and direct booking technology for hotels.
Such partnerships keep in mind a key point: Hotel staff are facing vendor fatigue, with dozens of computing systems they need to manage daily.
By integrating with the preferred systems of hotels, Roomlia makes itself an easier mobile distribution option to use.
As for the inventory size mismatch with brands like Booking.com and Hipmunk.com, more isn't always better, argues Roomlia.
Speed counts on mobile to win consumer favor. When behemoths like Booking.com try to bring the bulk of their inventory into their same-day booking apps, they face a trade-off of speed versus comprehensiveness.
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
My co-founder Jim Ferguson and I were confident that we could build a better user experience for consumers while simultaneously being industry-friendly and helping our hotel affiliates increase revenue and eliminate vacancy on their terms – this type of app didn’t exist yet as far as mobile booking was concerned.
With our rich background in the intersection of online booking and hospitality, as well as connections to an all-star team of developers, we knew we could design the best possible booking experience for both travelers and hotel partners.
Roomlia is currently available in leading U.S. destinations, such as New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando, with new hotels being added across the country every week.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
Founders: Michael Reichartz and Jim Ferguson
Team size: 14
Management roles: 4
Key Personnel: Michael Reichartz and Jim Ferguson
Funding arrangements?
When we first established Roomlia, we had funding interest from prominent names in the industry. Ultimately, we met with Remark Media, a digital media company focused on Millennials and based in Las Vegas, about an acquisition early on. We agreed for it to acquire us in May 2014.
Roomlia wanted to partner with Remark Media because it gave us the opportunity to not have to worry about raising capital, thus allowing us to focus solely on creating the best possible product and user experience.
Roomlia wouldn’t be in a position to move forward as quickly as it has if we didn’t have the opportunity to become a division under Remark Media.
Estimation of market size?
It depends on what metrics you look at and from which source.
There’s industry research that states 1 in 8 bookings to as many as 1 in 6 bookings are made from mobile devices.
At this point, it is indisputable that mobile will command more market share as users become increasingly comfortable doing transactions over their phones.
Competition?
Roomlia is most focused on building the strongest product and business that we can. We’ve got some great contemporaries with us in the space, but that’s not our focus right now.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
Roomlia generates revenue from the commission collected from our hotel affiliates. We believe that a commissionable model is friendlier and more sustainable for consumers and hotels.
What problem does the business solve?
Roomlia is dedicated to helping travelers book great hotel rooms at great rates with more flexibility than other instant booking apps in the market. We also offer the fastest, most seamless booking process available on mobile.
At the same time, Roomlia is assisting hotels to more efficiently fill their inventory in a manner that also allows them more flexibility, control, and a better back-end experience – ultimately empowering them to increase revenue.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
The initial idea evolved because we identified a void in the marketplace and a flawed, inefficient system: mobile apps existed for hotel booking, but many operated through drawn-out processes.
Other apps only offered top rates for same-day booking, which not only limits travelers’ options, but also poses logistical challenges for hotel affiliates.
Roomlia has set out to address these issues – and problem-solve in an ingenious way.
We offer the fastest booking process, the most industry-friendly hotel booking experience on mobile, and present great rates available for booking up to seven days from arrival.
Travelers can also choose to stay up to five nights. We were ahead of some of our competitors on this.
Why should people or companies use the business?
Roomlia benefits not only the user by creating a platform that empowers them to reserve a first-rate hotel at a great value, but we also benefit our hotel affiliates by assisting properties in reaching targeted and qualified guests and helping to fill unsold inventory.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition?
We certainly intend to make use of social media, but we are in discussions with strategic partners to not only generate but also create awareness for Roomlia and our hotel partners. Keep your eyes peeled!
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
We will spend the next several years expanding the number of destinations and hotels we offer. This will be dependent on our ability to continue to add more options for connectivity.
We already work with two connectivity solution providers and look to add several more before the start of 2015
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?
Our team writing code is truly amazing. They all come from a gaming background. So, our culture probably aligns more with a gaming studio than a travel company.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your start-up?
Roomlia was already acquired by Remark Media earlier this year, which has been great for us.
We’ve been able to focus on building an amazing product and growing the business at a much quicker rate than would have been possible otherwise.
Describe your start-up in three words?
Incredible opportunities ahead.
Tnooz view:
Roomlia's user interface is a plus. Its parent company, Remark Media, has a lot of data on the digital behavior of millennials.
The Roomlia app reflects some of those best practices with its Tinder-like swiping left and right for booking that is quite quick, once you've inputted your credit card information the first time.
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