UAE-based, award winning travel-tech start-up Hotel Data Cloud has secured $350,000 in seed funding. The funding comes from both local and international investors. The aim of the funding is to help support hotels re-engage with customers after the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re doing everything to ensure that hotels are equipped with the latest technology to get back on their feet, and are committed to doing our bit to support the travel and hospitality industry.” 

Gregor Amon, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Hotel Cloud Data

Hotel Data Cloud is a centralized global database for hotel content. It distributes hotels’ information and pictures across major travel websites, travel agent databases and points of sale. Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok co-founded the travel-tech startup in 2016.

How It Works

Hotels sell rooms through complex distribution networks. Their rooms and rates are available on hundreds of booking channels. However, hotels have no straightforward way to manage the information that is displayed about their property. Alternatively, booking channels sometime have no direct contracts. Instead, they get information from third party vendors such as bed banks and wholesalers which have no direct access to accurate and comprehensive hotel data & information that goes beyond pricing and availability. Hotel Data Cloud lets hotels independently control the narrative of their listings. Booking channels can access this content through a data feed. This allows them to provide detailed, consistent and reliable information to potential hotel guests. All connected channels are immediately updated, which eliminates hotels having to perform redundant manual updates. As a result, hotels increase visibility and the probability of bookings, while guests can make well informed decisions.

Coronavirus and the Hospitality Industry

The funding will accelerate the introduction of Hotel Data Cloud’s AI based recommendation engine. It is expecting to help the hotels regain momentum once the health crisis is over. It will help them reach a wider customer base, once people start traveling again. 

The new engine will enable hotels to showcase tailor-made offers, amenities and other important factors, according to each travelers’ needs and preferences. Hotel Data Cloud continuously updates customer profiles so customers are not inundated with irrelevant information. Instead, the engine filters all the information to arrive at an edited and curated selection of content that allows travelers to make informed decisions quickly. It is estimated that with this technology, the CTR (click through rate) across online bookings will increase by over 35%.

Gregor Amon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of HDC commented: “The travel and hospitality industry has taken a catastrophic hit and we need to work together to ensure a fast and effective recovery. We’re very proud of our investors, who believe in the vision of HDC and have stepped up to ensure that we are able to accelerate the introduction of AI and machine learning into our systems. We’re doing everything to ensure that hotels are equipped with the latest technology to get back on their feet, and are committed to doing our bit to support the travel and hospitality industry.” 

Hotel Data Cloud has a portfolio of over 11,400 hotels in 153 countries.