September 22, 2025 • 26 mins
What if you could design the perfect hotel room—not on paper, but by testing it in real life with 200 real guests? In this episode, Asli Kutlucan, CEO of TFE Hotels Europe, reveals how her team built a “lab hotel” in Berlin to reimagine hospitality from the ground up.
This episode is tailored for experienced hoteliers, executives, and owners who want to stay ahead of shifting guest expectations, leverage new technology, and explore strategies that balance innovation with operational efficiency.
Takeaways:
- Inside the Lab Hotel: Learn how TFE turned a redundant retail space into a living R&D hub, where design, tech, and guest behavior are tested in real time.
- Guest Experience Platform (GXP): Hear how TFE built a scalable tech stack that eliminates admin work for staff while delivering a more intuitive, guest-driven journey.
- Surprising Innovations: Discover unexpected experiments like “upgrade boxes,” where guests can rent add-ons like Nespresso machines or hair straighteners by phone—transforming upsells into a frictionless, tech-enabled experience.
Don’t miss future conversations with the leaders shaping hotel innovation. Subscribe to Hotel Tech Insider, share this episode with your peers, and stay tuned for more strategies to build the next generation of hospitality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the task management, guest requests, and
(00:02):
all that are in one snapshot ina very user friendly version
rather than the same.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Today, we're speaking with Asla Kublakhan, the CEO of
TFE Hotels Europe. Asla has hadan impressive thirty five year
career in the hotel industry. Wedig into the strategy behind
this tech forward brand,including the company's Test
Hotel, where they studied thebehavior of 200 real guests to
build a totally optimized hotelroom of the future. Let's dive
(00:44):
in. Thank you so much, Asla, forjoining us here on the podcast.
To kick things off, I would lovefor you to introduce yourself
and tell us a bit about yourrole and your company.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Thanks, Adrian. So happy to be joining you today.
Thank you for having me. Yeah,I'm CEO of TFE Hotels Europe and
our company has almost 80 hotelsacross 10 countries under 10
brands. However, in Europe, weare known with our Adena Hotels
brand, which we have about 22 ofthem here across The UK,
(01:23):
Denmark, Germany, Austria, andSwitzerland.
And we are basically a extendedstay hotel specialist here,
especially with the Adena brand,but back in Australia and New
Zealand, whereas our mother shipis, we are also very famous with
our luxury hotel and heritagehotel brands as well. So we are
(01:46):
looking to grow our business intwo folds in the coming years
here, both in Europe as well asin Australia.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Great. Well, thanks for the intro. I want to get
right into the conversationbecause I know you have a bunch
of really interestinginitiatives happening. I would
love to dig into the lab hotelfirst. So I've heard a bit about
this, would love for you to giveus some context, explain what is
this concept, what are youhoping to achieve, and how has
(02:14):
it been going?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yes, for me as well, the most exciting thing we've
been doing. Now, Adena is afantastic brand. We've been
around for decades. Everybodyknows us. Everybody trusts this
brand.
But it is a four star, four starplus brand with its own brand
standard. So we know we arecontinuously growing this brand,
but the opportunities in themarkets and the key cities in
(02:39):
Europe or Australia and NewZealand are becoming less and
less available for new builds orbig conversions. But what's
becoming available these days isthe redundant retail and office
spaces, right? So people sort ofshopping habits are changed and
also office habits are changingand changed already since COVID.
(03:01):
So we are now seeing in themarkets, the key markets, big
office buildings or retailbuildings that several floors
are vacant.
And we're trying to come up witha concept that we can be a
solution with a brand that wecan fill up those floors with a
accommodation alternative andcreate that whole under the same
maybe different variety ofofferings for the owner of the
(03:24):
building. So whilst we werethinking about this, we looked
for an efficient design, fullytech enabled, and soulful
hospitality. These were thethree pillars for us that how
and what we're going to do andhow can we create this. And
while we're thinking throughthis, we find that we're going
(03:46):
to create a concept that caneasily be fitted out anywhere.
And also that can has the fulltech capabilities from a guest
journey as well as thecolleagues, our employee
journey.
So rather than creating aconcept based on a paper and
maybe go to a basement andcreate a mock up room as we say,
(04:08):
we decided that we're going tocreate a lab, a better hotel
perhaps you can call it. And forthis purpose, we found a very
suitable location here in Berlinin a retail space that
previously was a bridal shop aswell as next to it a
hairdresser. So we took overthis retail space and got it
(04:28):
out. We selected three designersto do different rooms for us and
we kept it very simple. We havethree room categories, small,
medium, and large.
But what we wanted to make itsure that this wasn't going to
be a budget brand, right? So thedesign, it has to be design led.
And also the other importantpoint for us was that every
(04:49):
material or as much as thematerials we use are sustainable
because what we are trying toachieve is to give a second
lease of life to the space thatare redundant, is not good for
the economy and not good for theenvironment. So for that, we
really needed a creativeapproach. So we get our
designers and we startconverting this retail space to
(05:10):
a mini hotel.
And while we were doing this, ofcourse, our second biggest
objective was that over the lasteight, ten years, we had
wonderful prop tech guys cominginto our industry with their
fantastic concepts, followingthe Airbnb concept and building
these really interesting brandsthat are technology led. And we
(05:32):
wanted to be the firsthospitality hotelier coming into
the game, bringing the full techstack and how can we create
still a full soulful hospitalitywith tech enabled. So we start
working with different partnersand we decided to go into a
journey with Like Magic as ourmiddleware. These guys have
(05:56):
created a solution that issuperbly adaptable. It has open
API and can interface anythingand everything and super user
friendly.
So we start building while we'rebuilding the concept as a lab
hotel, the full tech stack aswell. And eventually we decided
to brand this concept Moment,like, you know, Moment in Your
(06:17):
Love. And by the time we werecoming to sort of finishing the
construction and the tech stackand implementation and
everything, we decided thatwe're going to go out on our
social media and recruit testguests. So we opened
applications, we had about 900people from all around the world
apply to be our test guests. Andwe basically chose them based on
(06:41):
their sort of demographics andtheir travel habits and
etcetera.
So we picked 200 of our testguests whom arrived around
March, 2024. And sort of we hadthem with us sort of April and
May and they had some tasksduring the day for about thirty
minutes. We asked differentquestions at different times. We
(07:05):
asked questions about the tech.We asked questions about such as
take a picture and send and postonto platform, where did you
unpack your suitcase or wheredid you unpack your toiletry bag
and what do think about this,thumbs up, thumbs down, heart,
etc.
So by the end of that two monthstrial, we had unbelievable
amount of data that we crunchedthrough. We took all the
(07:28):
feedbacks and both physically inthe building but also from a
tech perspective as well. So weclosed it during June 2024 and
did all the adjustments that wecan do. And from July 1, we
reopened to public as our newbrand and continued operating as
our better hotel under theMoment brand. And we are only
(07:53):
sort of you can only book it viaour direct website or via
Airbnb.
And the reason why we chose anAirbnb to be the only platform
we are marketing or sellingrooms is because the Airbnb gets
our most tech savvy customers.Know, from the beginnings of the
Airbnb, they're used to not tosee someone, meet someone and
(08:14):
opening doors either byinstructions or some keys and
etc. So without having to talkto someone. And so far, we are
now being open to public morethan one year. We are constantly
evaluating, constantly readingthe reviews and talking to our
guests.
So I saw that in February, wealso shut down again for two
(08:35):
weeks to just do some moreadjustments based on the
feedbacks. Because it's a betterhotel, we can do that. We
constantly want to receive thefeedback on the tech, on the
product and test somethingdifferent. Currently, we're
testing some chatbots for the AIchatbots for the guest inquiries
and etc. So it is our mostexciting project so far is over
(08:58):
the past year to create thisbrand, but more importantly,
being able to actually build thelab and test that lab both with
the test guests but now with thelive guests.
Now while we were doing this onthe tech stack for this brand,
we took a partner Lightmagic'scapabilities and with our
colleagues in Australia, webuilt a separate tech stack for
(09:19):
our five star hotels and fourstar hotels. So we have the
Adena core brand is more fourstar and A by Adena, which is
our sort of more elevated fivestar product. And around the
same time when we were doing thelab, building the lab in Berlin,
our colleagues in Australia hasrolled out the test properties
with that new tech stack whereeverything was new from POS to
(09:43):
PMS, payments, the revenuemanagement, etcetera. So then
we've been testing this new techstack, which is full guest
journey that can be done via thetechnology and the employee
journey also that had much moreuser interface. And more
importantly, this tech stackespecially was eliminating
(10:04):
amount of administrative timefor our teams so that our teams
actually can spend quality timewith our guests.
So on the back of a year, alittle bit over a year testing,
we made some different versionsof it. We changed, we test
different other add ons. And nowwe decided that it's on its good
(10:25):
form, we call it GXP, GuestExperience Platform. And we're
now rolling out globally acrossall of our properties here in
Europe and Australia. As westart rolling out, we are
already talking about what isthe GxP two point zero.
Because with technology today,the moment you roll out your
product, you already need to beready to think through the two
(10:49):
point zero or the next versionof it because the technology is
changing so rapidly and theguest expectations, their
journey expectations changes sorapidly. So we are really,
really already at the tablethinking with our full
technology teams, our revenueteams, our marketing teams,
everyone huddled up and thinkingabout, okay, what is the next
(11:12):
two point zero version of thislooks like? And in the meantime,
we also signed our first realsize properties for our new
brand, Moment. We are the finalphase in Hamburg and Berlin. So
we are really looking forward toin the coming year to start
building our first full size,when I say full size, more than
six room because the nav is thesix room moment brands as well,
(11:34):
then carry on rolling that out.
And while we're doing that,always we are constantly
evaluating how we are sort ofdoing with our tech stack.
What's the feedback from a guestjourney perspective? What's the
feedback from our colleagues,from our employees feedback? And
we're just going to constantlycarry on growing this tech
stacks in line with whatexpectations are today.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
There's so much to unpack there. Can you walk me
through the guest journey from atechnology perspective? So from
booking through checkout, whattypes of tech will the guests
interact with?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So basically the guest facing part of the tools
we are using is delivered byLikeMagic. So behind that, of
course, we have marketed offinterfacing products, right? So
it starts from our Sendai andour CRM product, you know, sort
of that's how we, before eventhis sort of book, that's how we
(12:31):
target. We have a program calledeClub. So that's targeted
marketing eClub to this is someform of a loyalty program, but
it's not a loyalty programbecause you know, for a loyalty
program to be successful, youneed huge amount of subscribers
and huge amount of inventory.
Right? So you have to be mindfulof your size and your scale. So
(12:53):
we wanted to do something andbenefit from that. So we come up
with eClub. Currently we haveabout a million subscriber and
about half a million activeusers.
So what we're doing is that it'sa recognition program and
engagement focus. So it uses theRFM algorithm. So it is
basically recency, frequency,and the monetary value tracking
(13:18):
from the CRM sender and we'reusing. So that sort of targeted
offers and that we send it toour guests. So that's one part
of the before they even sort ofstart booking with us.
Then from the booking onwards,when they book with us, then
there is a option to choose toconnect with us. Do they want
(13:40):
just email or do they preferWhatsApp and etcetera? And then
they also have the web based ontheir browser, our software
there, so they don't have todownload the app or anything
like that. So from there on,they can, first of all,
communicate, they can choose howthey want to communicate with
us. And if it's WhatsApp, thenwe take it from there and just
(14:02):
we have a direct communicationwith them with WhatsApp or
email, or they can requesteverything on the web browser
from pre completing and checkingin before arrival, asking for
either upgrades or car park orany other facilities.
And during their stay with us,they can basically do digital
(14:24):
ordering, of course, because wehave a lot of hotels with full
service in different operators.So for example, one of our test
hotel was the Eve in Sydney.This is one of our collection
brand that we opened towards theend of last year. And it's a
whole prisons where our hotelsits and there are different F
and B outlets and some belongsto hotel and some third party.
(14:47):
So they have the capability tobe ordering from all of those
outlets to room service orreserve a table and etcetera.
And so the digital ordering, useClairvak Q and for the
restaurant reservations,depending on the regions,
etcetera, is seven rooms andopen table. And while they stay
in, of course, as I say, thecommunication with the reception
(15:09):
or housekeeping or maintenanceis very streamlined. They can
request and ask anything or theycan report something without
talking to us and our teams ontheir interface. So this whole
thing, we're using interfaceinto Opera, which is the PMS
platform we use. But theemployee don't see the normal
Opera sort of the interface.
(15:30):
They see a personalizedinterface or the screen they see
platform where we have likemagic. So the task management,
guest requests and all that arein one snapshot in a very user
friendly version rather thanlet's say a PMS version of it.
So a employee can just look attheir tablet. So it's all in a
(15:52):
tablet or in iPad, even creditcard machine, we're using Adyen
for payments, all that attachedto that. So there's no need for
any desks or, you know, bigcomputers.
And our team members can seeeverything on the hotel going on
with which guest needs what,which guest that is arriving
completed what part of theirregistration or pre
(16:14):
registration. And you know, theycan just see everything in
there. So of course, when youhave that very live, very user
friendly interface, then thecommunication between the
employee and the team member andthe guest becomes much more
fluid. And that's also not justthe front desk, it's the
maintenance, it's thehousekeeping, it's the food and
(16:35):
beverage. So all you needed isthat bring that connectivity
that you had, you know, your PMStools running separately or FMB
tools running separately ormaintenance separately.
You bring in everyone togetherto see, you know, of course
everybody has different levelsof visibility of different
information, but everybody seespretty much the same thing about
(16:56):
the guests.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Going back to your test hotel, after receiving
feedback from the test guestsand now the real guests, you
made some modifications to theactual room. What were some of
those changes?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah. So some of them was that sort of the cupboards,
some of the cupboards where youneed to use your phone to open
and close. So we actually nowrelease them all and open it. So
that was part of the tech part.In some of the rooms, the shower
maybe didn't work the way weassume it will work.
So we just went and changed someof the floors in that room and
etcetera. In some of the room,because we have a mood lighting,
(17:35):
so you can choose the moodlighting. So we have very
high-tech lighting system. Andalso, obviously, because
everything is fully integrated,so sort of if you go out and
come back in, the lights come onas you come. Me and my other
half, we were one of the testguests, first test guests before
the real test guest comes in.
And I'm a morning person, so Iwas up about five and went out
(17:58):
to get some coffee, my otherhalf sleeping. And then
everything is dark, I quietlyleft the room, went out. And
then when I come back in, ofcourse, the room thought that I
left and I come back inforgetting that somebody's
sleeping. Whole room was in theroom. Didn't realize that
(18:19):
originally.
We program, of course, thelighting and according to that
and the different sensors in theroom that knowing somebody is
still in the room sleeping andetcetera. So quite a few of
those things. And as I say thatother thing is that one of our
team members now during the day,so just nobody feels lonely, And
a few of other things. There wastemperature related stuff but
(18:41):
some more physical stuff that wewanted to change. But you know,
there wasn't massive amount butyou know, all that little things
that are coming through becauseeverybody's behavior is
different.
I don't think many couples thatone of them actually get up that
early and leaves the room tohunt for a coffee and come back
in. So yeah, we are constantlymonitoring those, as I said, and
(19:05):
we've made those changes. Look,I think we probably will look to
see if there was any others.Currently we've been analyzing
all the Airbnb feedbacks becausethat's the beauty about Airbnb
as well. Quite high percentageof Airbnb guests leaves real
comments, which is super usefulfor us.
So we constantly picking up fromthere, you know, sort of this,
(19:28):
oh, would have been good if theyhad also this kind of a comment.
And if we can make that change,we're certainly doing that
change. And we had somecomplaints, as I say, that it
took a little bit longer thanexpected to reply to a guest
question. And then when we startanalyzing all the guest
questions is naturally realizedmost of them are repetitive. So
(19:50):
that's where we then went intonow implementing a chatbot to
sort of can reply to easyquestions that are sort of
within that, you know, AI sortof questions.
Then our employees who wasanswering that then they only
left to answer with thequestions that are a bit more
challenging or someone reallydoes need help and we act on it.
(20:12):
So that kind of little tweaks weare doing in the product. We
also actually had something veryinteresting. We're trying to
keep the rooms as, how should Isay, as clutter free as
possible. And therefore we buildwhat we call the upgrade boxes.
Okay? So on the public area inthe corridor, you have these
(20:33):
boxes, they're called upgradeboxes. And basically you don't
have a bathrobe in your room ora hair dryer or a hair curler or
a straightener or a travelprinter. So on your phone, it's
like, okay, I'd like to have abathrobe and slippers. It's not
everybody's thing.
(20:53):
And so they can then go toupgrade because they can see on
their phone what we have and andwhat is available on the upgrade
boxes. They can reserve for aday. So they can rent it
basically for a day or a week orwhatever their duration. And
then basically they can go tothe upgrade box and choose that
box will open, they will haveit, it's already charged to
(21:16):
their account and then they canuse that as long as they rent it
for. So then you're only alsopaying for the things that you
need.
Yeah? But this also allows us todo that extra things like how
many hotels you will turn upthat they may have a hair curler
or hair straightener or a travelprinter, you know, things like
(21:39):
that. We have Nespresso machinesthat are very high end grind and
sensor machines in the upgradebox as well. So things like that
we are testing and so far we'relooking at the feedbacks and
things if the guest raises, oh,I wish there was this and that
in the upgrade book. So we aretesting different things and
getting those feedbacks as well.
(21:59):
So it's really the best part ofmy job. Don't tell the
infertisa. I love reading andengaging with teams and guests
at this brand because I neverhad this privilege before. I
don't think anyone ever had it.I mean, I was a franchisee most
of my life.
And of course, I worked with allthe big brands and build and run
(22:19):
their hotels. But we always had,you know, sort of you get the
brand book and then brandstandards, that's what you do,
right? So having thisopportunity, I mean, that also I
must, you know, shout out forour board and our shareholders.
They, on the back of, you know,COVID and etcetera, to support
(22:40):
such a project and investmentfor us to go and build this
thing and test it, that alsoshows their sort of vision and
their sort of open mindedness,which is why I joined the
company. So yeah, it is a greatfun and look, are, as I said, I
think it's going to biggestlearning going to come from the
(23:01):
one we open, the first one weopen that has substantial amount
of rooms, But I feel verycomfortable.
I can visualize what that firstone from a product and
technology perspective going tolook like. I can visualize it
because we've been living withthis, you know. Because there's
some of the things that we maybehad a feedback and we couldn't
(23:23):
change now or we will it wouldhave been a very expensive
experience if we have discoveredthose on the first real project
when you invest $50.60,€70,000,000. So on that sense,
that's also been super usefulfor us.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, we've talked a lot about technology, guest
experience, doing things in anew and different way. I'm
curious to hear based on yourcareer in the industry and your
role currently, what do youthink are one or two qualities
or characteristics someoneshould have in order to be
successful as a hotelier?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
People. They have to love people. I mean, if you're
not passionate about people, andwhen I say people, it's just
anyone, employees and guests,you have to be passionate about
people. You have to love themliterally. It's so important
because everything you're doingis about people literally.
You know, if you talk to someonewho works in the manufacturing,
(24:23):
it's a different thing. It'smachines probably. But for us
it's just to love people, that'sthe first and the foremost. And
of course, if you want to besuccessful in hospitality, you
really need to have servicemindset. The service mindset to
your, again, to your teams, yourto a corporation, and the
(24:44):
service mindset to your guests.
And as long as you have thesetwo, then the rest is pretty
easy. What we do is really it'smuch easier than building
spaceships or building cars. Itdoes require passion, passion
for people and passion forservice. And the rest is quite
easy to learn.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Asla. It was really
great chatting with you. I lovedhearing about all the
interesting things you'reworking on and I wish you the
best in opening the first realmoment hotel. I hope it goes
smoothly.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Thank you very much, Adrian. Thank you for having me.
It was lovely talking to you.And hopefully, if you're in
Berlin, ever come and I'll showyou the lab.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Sounds great. I would love to see it.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(25:52):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(26:16):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
So the task management, guest requests, and
(00:02):
all that are in one snapshot ina very user friendly version
rather than the same.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Today, we're speaking with Asla Kublakhan, the CEO of
TFE Hotels Europe. Asla has hadan impressive thirty five year
career in the hotel industry. Wedig into the strategy behind
this tech forward brand,including the company's Test
Hotel, where they studied thebehavior of 200 real guests to
build a totally optimized hotelroom of the future. Let's dive
(00:44):
in. Thank you so much, Asla, forjoining us here on the podcast.
To kick things off, I would lovefor you to introduce yourself
and tell us a bit about yourrole and your company.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Thanks, Adrian. So happy to be joining you today.
Thank you for having me. Yeah,I'm CEO of TFE Hotels Europe and
our company has almost 80 hotelsacross 10 countries under 10
brands. However, in Europe, weare known with our Adena Hotels
brand, which we have about 22 ofthem here across The UK,
(01:23):
Denmark, Germany, Austria, andSwitzerland.
And we are basically a extendedstay hotel specialist here,
especially with the Adena brand,but back in Australia and New
Zealand, whereas our mother shipis, we are also very famous with
our luxury hotel and heritagehotel brands as well. So we are
(01:46):
looking to grow our business intwo folds in the coming years
here, both in Europe as well asin Australia.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Great. Well, thanks for the intro. I want to get
right into the conversationbecause I know you have a bunch
of really interestinginitiatives happening. I would
love to dig into the lab hotelfirst. So I've heard a bit about
this, would love for you to giveus some context, explain what is
this concept, what are youhoping to achieve, and how has
(02:14):
it been going?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yes, for me as well, the most exciting thing we've
been doing. Now, Adena is afantastic brand. We've been
around for decades. Everybodyknows us. Everybody trusts this
brand.
But it is a four star, four starplus brand with its own brand
standard. So we know we arecontinuously growing this brand,
but the opportunities in themarkets and the key cities in
(02:39):
Europe or Australia and NewZealand are becoming less and
less available for new builds orbig conversions. But what's
becoming available these days isthe redundant retail and office
spaces, right? So people sort ofshopping habits are changed and
also office habits are changingand changed already since COVID.
(03:01):
So we are now seeing in themarkets, the key markets, big
office buildings or retailbuildings that several floors
are vacant.
And we're trying to come up witha concept that we can be a
solution with a brand that wecan fill up those floors with a
accommodation alternative andcreate that whole under the same
maybe different variety ofofferings for the owner of the
(03:24):
building. So whilst we werethinking about this, we looked
for an efficient design, fullytech enabled, and soulful
hospitality. These were thethree pillars for us that how
and what we're going to do andhow can we create this. And
while we're thinking throughthis, we find that we're going
(03:46):
to create a concept that caneasily be fitted out anywhere.
And also that can has the fulltech capabilities from a guest
journey as well as thecolleagues, our employee
journey.
So rather than creating aconcept based on a paper and
maybe go to a basement andcreate a mock up room as we say,
(04:08):
we decided that we're going tocreate a lab, a better hotel
perhaps you can call it. And forthis purpose, we found a very
suitable location here in Berlinin a retail space that
previously was a bridal shop aswell as next to it a
hairdresser. So we took overthis retail space and got it
(04:28):
out. We selected three designersto do different rooms for us and
we kept it very simple. We havethree room categories, small,
medium, and large.
But what we wanted to make itsure that this wasn't going to
be a budget brand, right? So thedesign, it has to be design led.
And also the other importantpoint for us was that every
(04:49):
material or as much as thematerials we use are sustainable
because what we are trying toachieve is to give a second
lease of life to the space thatare redundant, is not good for
the economy and not good for theenvironment. So for that, we
really needed a creativeapproach. So we get our
designers and we startconverting this retail space to
(05:10):
a mini hotel.
And while we were doing this, ofcourse, our second biggest
objective was that over the lasteight, ten years, we had
wonderful prop tech guys cominginto our industry with their
fantastic concepts, followingthe Airbnb concept and building
these really interesting brandsthat are technology led. And we
(05:32):
wanted to be the firsthospitality hotelier coming into
the game, bringing the full techstack and how can we create
still a full soulful hospitalitywith tech enabled. So we start
working with different partnersand we decided to go into a
journey with Like Magic as ourmiddleware. These guys have
(05:56):
created a solution that issuperbly adaptable. It has open
API and can interface anythingand everything and super user
friendly.
So we start building while we'rebuilding the concept as a lab
hotel, the full tech stack aswell. And eventually we decided
to brand this concept Moment,like, you know, Moment in Your
(06:17):
Love. And by the time we werecoming to sort of finishing the
construction and the tech stackand implementation and
everything, we decided thatwe're going to go out on our
social media and recruit testguests. So we opened
applications, we had about 900people from all around the world
apply to be our test guests. Andwe basically chose them based on
(06:41):
their sort of demographics andtheir travel habits and
etcetera.
So we picked 200 of our testguests whom arrived around
March, 2024. And sort of we hadthem with us sort of April and
May and they had some tasksduring the day for about thirty
minutes. We asked differentquestions at different times. We
(07:05):
asked questions about the tech.We asked questions about such as
take a picture and send and postonto platform, where did you
unpack your suitcase or wheredid you unpack your toiletry bag
and what do think about this,thumbs up, thumbs down, heart,
etc.
So by the end of that two monthstrial, we had unbelievable
amount of data that we crunchedthrough. We took all the
(07:28):
feedbacks and both physically inthe building but also from a
tech perspective as well. So weclosed it during June 2024 and
did all the adjustments that wecan do. And from July 1, we
reopened to public as our newbrand and continued operating as
our better hotel under theMoment brand. And we are only
(07:53):
sort of you can only book it viaour direct website or via
Airbnb.
And the reason why we chose anAirbnb to be the only platform
we are marketing or sellingrooms is because the Airbnb gets
our most tech savvy customers.Know, from the beginnings of the
Airbnb, they're used to not tosee someone, meet someone and
(08:14):
opening doors either byinstructions or some keys and
etc. So without having to talkto someone. And so far, we are
now being open to public morethan one year. We are constantly
evaluating, constantly readingthe reviews and talking to our
guests.
So I saw that in February, wealso shut down again for two
(08:35):
weeks to just do some moreadjustments based on the
feedbacks. Because it's a betterhotel, we can do that. We
constantly want to receive thefeedback on the tech, on the
product and test somethingdifferent. Currently, we're
testing some chatbots for the AIchatbots for the guest inquiries
and etc. So it is our mostexciting project so far is over
(08:58):
the past year to create thisbrand, but more importantly,
being able to actually build thelab and test that lab both with
the test guests but now with thelive guests.
Now while we were doing this onthe tech stack for this brand,
we took a partner Lightmagic'scapabilities and with our
colleagues in Australia, webuilt a separate tech stack for
(09:19):
our five star hotels and fourstar hotels. So we have the
Adena core brand is more fourstar and A by Adena, which is
our sort of more elevated fivestar product. And around the
same time when we were doing thelab, building the lab in Berlin,
our colleagues in Australia hasrolled out the test properties
with that new tech stack whereeverything was new from POS to
(09:43):
PMS, payments, the revenuemanagement, etcetera. So then
we've been testing this new techstack, which is full guest
journey that can be done via thetechnology and the employee
journey also that had much moreuser interface. And more
importantly, this tech stackespecially was eliminating
(10:04):
amount of administrative timefor our teams so that our teams
actually can spend quality timewith our guests.
So on the back of a year, alittle bit over a year testing,
we made some different versionsof it. We changed, we test
different other add ons. And nowwe decided that it's on its good
(10:25):
form, we call it GXP, GuestExperience Platform. And we're
now rolling out globally acrossall of our properties here in
Europe and Australia. As westart rolling out, we are
already talking about what isthe GxP two point zero.
Because with technology today,the moment you roll out your
product, you already need to beready to think through the two
(10:49):
point zero or the next versionof it because the technology is
changing so rapidly and theguest expectations, their
journey expectations changes sorapidly. So we are really,
really already at the tablethinking with our full
technology teams, our revenueteams, our marketing teams,
everyone huddled up and thinkingabout, okay, what is the next
(11:12):
two point zero version of thislooks like? And in the meantime,
we also signed our first realsize properties for our new
brand, Moment. We are the finalphase in Hamburg and Berlin. So
we are really looking forward toin the coming year to start
building our first full size,when I say full size, more than
six room because the nav is thesix room moment brands as well,
(11:34):
then carry on rolling that out.
And while we're doing that,always we are constantly
evaluating how we are sort ofdoing with our tech stack.
What's the feedback from a guestjourney perspective? What's the
feedback from our colleagues,from our employees feedback? And
we're just going to constantlycarry on growing this tech
stacks in line with whatexpectations are today.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
There's so much to unpack there. Can you walk me
through the guest journey from atechnology perspective? So from
booking through checkout, whattypes of tech will the guests
interact with?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So basically the guest facing part of the tools
we are using is delivered byLikeMagic. So behind that, of
course, we have marketed offinterfacing products, right? So
it starts from our Sendai andour CRM product, you know, sort
of that's how we, before eventhis sort of book, that's how we
(12:31):
target. We have a program calledeClub. So that's targeted
marketing eClub to this is someform of a loyalty program, but
it's not a loyalty programbecause you know, for a loyalty
program to be successful, youneed huge amount of subscribers
and huge amount of inventory.
Right? So you have to be mindfulof your size and your scale. So
(12:53):
we wanted to do something andbenefit from that. So we come up
with eClub. Currently we haveabout a million subscriber and
about half a million activeusers.
So what we're doing is that it'sa recognition program and
engagement focus. So it uses theRFM algorithm. So it is
basically recency, frequency,and the monetary value tracking
(13:18):
from the CRM sender and we'reusing. So that sort of targeted
offers and that we send it toour guests. So that's one part
of the before they even sort ofstart booking with us.
Then from the booking onwards,when they book with us, then
there is a option to choose toconnect with us. Do they want
(13:40):
just email or do they preferWhatsApp and etcetera? And then
they also have the web based ontheir browser, our software
there, so they don't have todownload the app or anything
like that. So from there on,they can, first of all,
communicate, they can choose howthey want to communicate with
us. And if it's WhatsApp, thenwe take it from there and just
(14:02):
we have a direct communicationwith them with WhatsApp or
email, or they can requesteverything on the web browser
from pre completing and checkingin before arrival, asking for
either upgrades or car park orany other facilities.
And during their stay with us,they can basically do digital
(14:24):
ordering, of course, because wehave a lot of hotels with full
service in different operators.So for example, one of our test
hotel was the Eve in Sydney.This is one of our collection
brand that we opened towards theend of last year. And it's a
whole prisons where our hotelsits and there are different F
and B outlets and some belongsto hotel and some third party.
(14:47):
So they have the capability tobe ordering from all of those
outlets to room service orreserve a table and etcetera.
And so the digital ordering, useClairvak Q and for the
restaurant reservations,depending on the regions,
etcetera, is seven rooms andopen table. And while they stay
in, of course, as I say, thecommunication with the reception
(15:09):
or housekeeping or maintenanceis very streamlined. They can
request and ask anything or theycan report something without
talking to us and our teams ontheir interface. So this whole
thing, we're using interfaceinto Opera, which is the PMS
platform we use. But theemployee don't see the normal
Opera sort of the interface.
(15:30):
They see a personalizedinterface or the screen they see
platform where we have likemagic. So the task management,
guest requests and all that arein one snapshot in a very user
friendly version rather thanlet's say a PMS version of it.
So a employee can just look attheir tablet. So it's all in a
(15:52):
tablet or in iPad, even creditcard machine, we're using Adyen
for payments, all that attachedto that. So there's no need for
any desks or, you know, bigcomputers.
And our team members can seeeverything on the hotel going on
with which guest needs what,which guest that is arriving
completed what part of theirregistration or pre
(16:14):
registration. And you know, theycan just see everything in
there. So of course, when youhave that very live, very user
friendly interface, then thecommunication between the
employee and the team member andthe guest becomes much more
fluid. And that's also not justthe front desk, it's the
maintenance, it's thehousekeeping, it's the food and
(16:35):
beverage. So all you needed isthat bring that connectivity
that you had, you know, your PMStools running separately or FMB
tools running separately ormaintenance separately.
You bring in everyone togetherto see, you know, of course
everybody has different levelsof visibility of different
information, but everybody seespretty much the same thing about
(16:56):
the guests.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Going back to your test hotel, after receiving
feedback from the test guestsand now the real guests, you
made some modifications to theactual room. What were some of
those changes?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah. So some of them was that sort of the cupboards,
some of the cupboards where youneed to use your phone to open
and close. So we actually nowrelease them all and open it. So
that was part of the tech part.In some of the rooms, the shower
maybe didn't work the way weassume it will work.
So we just went and changed someof the floors in that room and
etcetera. In some of the room,because we have a mood lighting,
(17:35):
so you can choose the moodlighting. So we have very
high-tech lighting system. Andalso, obviously, because
everything is fully integrated,so sort of if you go out and
come back in, the lights come onas you come. Me and my other
half, we were one of the testguests, first test guests before
the real test guest comes in.
And I'm a morning person, so Iwas up about five and went out
(17:58):
to get some coffee, my otherhalf sleeping. And then
everything is dark, I quietlyleft the room, went out. And
then when I come back in, ofcourse, the room thought that I
left and I come back inforgetting that somebody's
sleeping. Whole room was in theroom. Didn't realize that
(18:19):
originally.
We program, of course, thelighting and according to that
and the different sensors in theroom that knowing somebody is
still in the room sleeping andetcetera. So quite a few of
those things. And as I say thatother thing is that one of our
team members now during the day,so just nobody feels lonely, And
a few of other things. There wastemperature related stuff but
(18:41):
some more physical stuff that wewanted to change. But you know,
there wasn't massive amount butyou know, all that little things
that are coming through becauseeverybody's behavior is
different.
I don't think many couples thatone of them actually get up that
early and leaves the room tohunt for a coffee and come back
in. So yeah, we are constantlymonitoring those, as I said, and
(19:05):
we've made those changes. Look,I think we probably will look to
see if there was any others.Currently we've been analyzing
all the Airbnb feedbacks becausethat's the beauty about Airbnb
as well. Quite high percentageof Airbnb guests leaves real
comments, which is super usefulfor us.
So we constantly picking up fromthere, you know, sort of this,
(19:28):
oh, would have been good if theyhad also this kind of a comment.
And if we can make that change,we're certainly doing that
change. And we had somecomplaints, as I say, that it
took a little bit longer thanexpected to reply to a guest
question. And then when we startanalyzing all the guest
questions is naturally realizedmost of them are repetitive. So
(19:50):
that's where we then went intonow implementing a chatbot to
sort of can reply to easyquestions that are sort of
within that, you know, AI sortof questions.
Then our employees who wasanswering that then they only
left to answer with thequestions that are a bit more
challenging or someone reallydoes need help and we act on it.
(20:12):
So that kind of little tweaks weare doing in the product. We
also actually had something veryinteresting. We're trying to
keep the rooms as, how should Isay, as clutter free as
possible. And therefore we buildwhat we call the upgrade boxes.
Okay? So on the public area inthe corridor, you have these
(20:33):
boxes, they're called upgradeboxes. And basically you don't
have a bathrobe in your room ora hair dryer or a hair curler or
a straightener or a travelprinter. So on your phone, it's
like, okay, I'd like to have abathrobe and slippers. It's not
everybody's thing.
(20:53):
And so they can then go toupgrade because they can see on
their phone what we have and andwhat is available on the upgrade
boxes. They can reserve for aday. So they can rent it
basically for a day or a week orwhatever their duration. And
then basically they can go tothe upgrade box and choose that
box will open, they will haveit, it's already charged to
(21:16):
their account and then they canuse that as long as they rent it
for. So then you're only alsopaying for the things that you
need.
Yeah? But this also allows us todo that extra things like how
many hotels you will turn upthat they may have a hair curler
or hair straightener or a travelprinter, you know, things like
(21:39):
that. We have Nespresso machinesthat are very high end grind and
sensor machines in the upgradebox as well. So things like that
we are testing and so far we'relooking at the feedbacks and
things if the guest raises, oh,I wish there was this and that
in the upgrade book. So we aretesting different things and
getting those feedbacks as well.
(21:59):
So it's really the best part ofmy job. Don't tell the
infertisa. I love reading andengaging with teams and guests
at this brand because I neverhad this privilege before. I
don't think anyone ever had it.I mean, I was a franchisee most
of my life.
And of course, I worked with allthe big brands and build and run
(22:19):
their hotels. But we always had,you know, sort of you get the
brand book and then brandstandards, that's what you do,
right? So having thisopportunity, I mean, that also I
must, you know, shout out forour board and our shareholders.
They, on the back of, you know,COVID and etcetera, to support
(22:40):
such a project and investmentfor us to go and build this
thing and test it, that alsoshows their sort of vision and
their sort of open mindedness,which is why I joined the
company. So yeah, it is a greatfun and look, are, as I said, I
think it's going to biggestlearning going to come from the
(23:01):
one we open, the first one weopen that has substantial amount
of rooms, But I feel verycomfortable.
I can visualize what that firstone from a product and
technology perspective going tolook like. I can visualize it
because we've been living withthis, you know. Because there's
some of the things that we maybehad a feedback and we couldn't
(23:23):
change now or we will it wouldhave been a very expensive
experience if we have discoveredthose on the first real project
when you invest $50.60,€70,000,000. So on that sense,
that's also been super usefulfor us.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, we've talked a lot about technology, guest
experience, doing things in anew and different way. I'm
curious to hear based on yourcareer in the industry and your
role currently, what do youthink are one or two qualities
or characteristics someoneshould have in order to be
successful as a hotelier?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
People. They have to love people. I mean, if you're
not passionate about people, andwhen I say people, it's just
anyone, employees and guests,you have to be passionate about
people. You have to love themliterally. It's so important
because everything you're doingis about people literally.
You know, if you talk to someonewho works in the manufacturing,
(24:23):
it's a different thing. It'smachines probably. But for us
it's just to love people, that'sthe first and the foremost. And
of course, if you want to besuccessful in hospitality, you
really need to have servicemindset. The service mindset to
your, again, to your teams, yourto a corporation, and the
(24:44):
service mindset to your guests.
And as long as you have thesetwo, then the rest is pretty
easy. What we do is really it'smuch easier than building
spaceships or building cars. Itdoes require passion, passion
for people and passion forservice. And the rest is quite
easy to learn.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Asla. It was really
great chatting with you. I lovedhearing about all the
interesting things you'reworking on and I wish you the
best in opening the first realmoment hotel. I hope it goes
smoothly.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Thank you very much, Adrian. Thank you for having me.
It was lovely talking to you.And hopefully, if you're in
Berlin, ever come and I'll showyou the lab.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Sounds great. I would love to see it.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(25:52):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(26:16):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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