Skift Take
The hospitality industry is a hotbed for tech startups and Neon is win-win in that it provides a customer-facing service while giving hotel managers a way to track guests' needs and employee performance.
Hotel phones are becoming obsolete as many travelers carry one or more smartphones which they use to order take-out, call loved ones, or set an alarm without touching the bedside phone.
Neon is taking the opportunity to drive the evolution of the hotel concierge. The service connects guests’ smartphones with hotels’ front desks and guests via a series of requests and provides back-end data so property managers and owners can see how quickly guests’ needs are being met.
How It Works
When guests arrive at a hotel, the front desk sends them a text with their room number and a sign-in code for the mobile website. Guests can then use the site to request anything from towels to toiletries to tech help. The real-time system immediately sends the request to the front desk where employees can indicate that they’ve started the task.
There is also a chat function that lets guests pester employees with the details of their request.
Property managers and owners of multiple properties can view data including the average guest request rating, the average request completion time, and individual employee metrics on guest satisfaction and completion time.
Managers can also create new request types and reorder lists according to a hotel’s unique selling points. For example, a manager at a DoubleTree Hotel might add a request for chocolate chip cookie deliveries.
The First Step
Neon launched two weeks ago, and the software is currently installed in one Ramada hotel with another 23 hotels in the pipeline. The software is white-labeled so the website reflects each hotel brand’s logo and colors.
The team of five has raised $135,000 in a seed round and is now fundraising a second $750,000 round now.
Watch how the app works below:
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Tags: big data, room service
Photo credit: An example request screen of Neon's hotel concierge app. NEON / Placeit by Breezi