Munich Startup: Who are you and what does Hotellistat do? Please introduce yourselves!
Hotellistat: We are Philip Kuchelmeister, Sina Niedermaier and Tobias Haase.
Philip (36 years old) is the person who links the hotel industry with IT. After briefly studying aerospace, he pivoted to the hotel business. He most recently worked as Cluster Director of Revenue at Kempinski. Philip is in charge of Hotellistat’s strategic (technological) approach and structures optimized software development from the perspective of a hotelier.
Sina (44 years old) was Regional Director of Revenue at Kempinski for many years. After classic vocational training as a hotel professional, she completed her studies at Heidelberg Hotel Management School and then her MBA at Neoma Business School. At Kempinski, she supported openings, acquisitions and the regional strategy of the hotels. Sina takes care of consulting services for hotels using Hotellistat, the optimal design of the system as well as sales & marketing.
Tobias (37 years old) is a graduate computer scientist and data analyst from TU Munich with a focus on database systems and big data analysis. He has many years of experience in project management and software development and is in charge of technology and IT infrastructure.
Philip and Sina worked together at Kempinski for a long time, and Philip and Tobias met while at university. That is what led to an infamous meeting in a beer garden where the idea behind Hotellistat was born.
Hotels save time and costs
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Hotellistat: In the hotel business, there’s usually software for each different area. As a result, you have a myriad of different systems that aren’t interlinked, so you can never consolidate information across all systems. With Hotellistat, you have a system for all areas of digital market positioning and market analysis. With the innovative approach of an RMB system (revenue, market and business intelligence), hotels save time and costs. All areas such as revenue management, business intelligence, reputation management, social media and more are united in one single application. That makes constant jumping from one system to the next a thing of the past.
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Hotellistat: In this form, it actually is. There are various software providers that cover the individual areas of Hotellistat, but there isn’t any software yet that unites all of them in one.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Hotellistat:
1. In the beginning, we ran Hotellistat on the side in addition to our “normal” jobs. It quickly became clear that we had to decide if we were going to take the risk and quit to fully commit ourselves to Hotellistat.
2. Because we’re completely bootstrapped, the first three years in particular were extremely challenging and labor intensive. We obviously had to deal with both private and financial consequences for the company to grow.
3. The COVID-19 pandemic was also a major challenge for us in the beginning. It obviously had an impact on us too and we lost licenses after several hotels had to declare bankruptcy or simply never opened back up again. At the same time, this challenge also presented an opportunity.
Many hoteliers are already thinking about “post-COVID”
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Hotellistat: The trend towards digitization is obviously a tremendous help to us. COVID-19 is accelerating the process, because many hoteliers are already thinking about “post-COVID” and are investing in us. Fortunately, business is going very well and we’ve been able to grow. We now have approximately 200 hotels that have put their trust in us and have grown to a team of nine.
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
Hotellistat: It’s good, but the living conditions are very expensive (staff, rent, standard of living…).
Munich Startup: A trip to the seaside or to the mountains?
Hotellistat: Two tickets to the mountains please and one to the seaside!