December 2, 2024 • 29 mins
What if you could manage 100 hotel receptions with just two staff members? In this episode, Kahraman Yigit, co-founder and CEO of Olive Living, reveals how innovative technology is reshaping the hospitality landscape and enhancing the human touch in service.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover how Olive Living transitioned from co-living to a tech-driven hotel operator, leveraging AI and video conferencing to streamline operations and improve guest experiences.
- Learn about the unique implementation of remote reception management, allowing a single team to oversee multiple properties, significantly reducing operational costs while maintaining high service standards.
- Explore the integration of AI-enabled analytics for real-time sentiment analysis, enabling hoteliers to proactively address guest needs and elevate service quality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a nutshell, now our tech stack is evolving to
(00:03):
become a remote digitaloperator, which we are on a
mission to first disruptourselves from a hands on
traditional hotel operations tobecome a fully digital, fully
remote AI enabled hoteloperator.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
On this episode, we're speaking with Karaman
Yeet, the co founder and CEO ofOlive Living. Karaman explains
how Olive's focus on tech allowsthem to uphold tighter brand
standards even as theirportfolio grows. And despite
software taking more and moretasks off of his staff's plates,
technology can actually enhancethe human nature of hospitality
(00:49):
rather than reduce it. Carmen,thank you so much for joining us
today. Before we get started, Iwould love a little bit of
background on your company, whatyou are doing there, and some
things that you're working on atthe moment.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sure. Thank you for having me on the show. Really
happy to be here and excited toshare our journey. So Olive
Living is a really young brandthat started as a coliving brand
in 2019 in India. And, actually,pandemic kind of pushed us in
directions to seize otheropportunities.
(01:27):
And in the pandemic, we saw anopportunity to take over
underperforming hotels, and wekind of did a pivot towards to
become a hotel hospitalitycompany. And after the first
wave, we saw that a lot ofhotels were shutting down. And
as being in co living and longstay business, you know,
(01:49):
everyone needs a roof over theirhead, even in a pandemic like
situation. So we said, you know,let's take over these buildings
today. We'll post them as longstay.
And, you know, when the shortstay business comes back, you
know, we'll slowly pivot tothat. So that's exactly what we
did, and we were able toactually capitalize on that
opportunity. And we started offin Bangalore. Now today, Olive
(02:11):
is in 5 cities in India with 65locations and growing. We have
3,000 keys under management, andwe operate in the economy
segment, where it's the mostunorganized segment in
hospitality in India, and it'sprobably one of the most
underserved.
So it's an immense opportunity,and, you know, obviously,
(02:34):
technology has played a reallycrucial role, just like how we
are on this podcast todaythrough video conferencing.
Video conferencing became partof our lives, and we saw that in
the pandemic, even educationalinstitutions adapted video
conferencing to educate studentsremotely. So that was one really
(02:55):
interesting factor, actually,which kind of inspired us to say
that, you know, if we are ableto educate people remotely
through this technology, I thinkwe might be able to check-in
people through this technologyas well. So, I mean, one fact
about Olive is, you know, wetook over many, many buildings
in the city center, and theseare mostly small properties. So
(03:16):
unlike the larger hotel brands,even if you hire one staff
extra, your operating expensereally shoots up drastically.
So, you know, you are operatingwith limited resources, with a
high pressure on prices at thatpoint. You really didn't have
too many people traveling. Youknow, who did we have? We had
defense, pharma, health care.Those kind of customers were
(03:39):
traveling, but, again, at quitedepressed rates.
So with that said, obviously,low key count is one pressure
than the low price was anotherpressure. And, also, social
distancing, hygiene, safety werecrucial factors. But on another
note, what we saw is that in asmall property, you have your
(04:01):
peak check-in, checkout hours,you know, in the morning and in
the evening, let's say. And atnight, you still have to man the
reception. You have one persondoing the job, and you have to
have one checker.
But quickly, we realized thatthese people were waiting for 1
or 2 guests who might come andwho might not come, and we saw
that was really inefficient.And, actually, our staff were
(04:23):
not being fulfilled by thiseither. So we partnered up with
Zoom, and we use a tool calledZoom Rooms. And then we have a
hardware partner, again, one ofZoom's subsidiaries called D10.
And with that, it's a 27 inchscreen device that we placed in
(04:43):
our reception, and then we setup a remote mission control,
which we call it in our HQ.
And it's a remote receptionsetup. So now with this tool, we
are actually able to zoom in toa 100 different receptions. And
so one person is able to lookover a 100 receptions.
Obviously, it's not possible tomanage 100 receptions from 1
(05:05):
station, but what we're seeingis about up to 12 receptions,
we're able to manage from asingle station. And, you know,
when you man that station with 2people and, normally, on the
ground, you would have about 24people manning those places.
So instead of 24 people, nowwe're able to be present in 12
receptions with only 2 people.So that really allowed us to
(05:29):
drive out incredible amounts ofefficiency and couple of things
that happened over here. So,obviously, every conversation
goes recorded. We're able tomonitor the customer sentiment
through the check-in, throughthe checkout process, where you
would have to have the managerlistening in on every
conversation, every word that issaid, how it's said, which is an
(05:49):
impossible task to do. So thatallowed us to have the really
high situational awareness onwhat was going on at the
reception.
And I think, you know, what'sreally cool about the fact is
that, you know, we are able todeploy our stuff globally
anywhere at 67% speed of light.You know, data travels in a
(06:12):
vacuum and fiber optic networksat that speed. So, you know,
that's how we're able to dothat. And, you know, we can
deploy them globally at thatspeed. Plus, we don't need a
plane ticket or a visa.
So, you know, we feel that thisallows us to actually not only
use it for our own purpose, butwe feel that the industry can
benefit from this. So it wasfirst video conferencing tool
(06:35):
that allowed us to manage thefront of the house in a remote
manner. And then on top of that,Bangalore is the Silicon Valley
of Asia, and it is the start upcapital in India. We have 7,000
start ups, and most of them aretech startups as well. So we're
very fortunate to have access tothese young, right, ambitious
(06:58):
minds who keep experimentingwith new tools.
So every week, we look at 1 or 2new tools that are coming up,
and it's really exciting. So ontop of the front office,
tantalizing the front officewith video conferencing, we
partnered up with another AIenabled audio video analytics
(07:19):
company called Stacu, and theyhave a tool called Jarvis. And
we placed these AI enabledcameras in multiple locations,
actually, the mission criticallocations in the hotel, so which
is the entrance, the reception,the corridors, and some of the
common areas. And with that, Imean, you know, maybe it's not
(07:42):
really good practice to say thisout there to the customers, but,
Dubai police use the sametechnology for preventive
policing. Uttar Pradesh statesprison authority use it to
manage security in theirprisons.
But what it does is we have thehighest security detail, and,
you know, intrusion detection,left baggage, weapon detection,
(08:06):
fire detection, polling person.And then, you know, on the SOP
monitoring, for instance, now onthe corridors, all the
housekeeping, operatingprocedures, we are able to set a
rule saying that, let's say,Karaman needs to mop this area.
You mark it on the image with120 strokes between 1 or 2 PM
(08:27):
with a face mask on. It reportsthat. So let's say we can
measure if the SOPs are beingdone correctly on time.
We take staff attendance, withthis. But moreover, you're able
to let's say, you have 5housekeepers, and, you know,
each housekeeper is expected tohave 15,000 mobs a month, let's
say. And you're able to measurehow many mobs each person is
(08:51):
doing. So if one is doing10,000, then you know that
person is, not performing up tothe mark. So, you know, there's
no manager who's gonna be ableto monitor this and give you
this level of data.
So with that, we're able toreally deep dive into the
performance of our staff, what'shappening on-site, and this
(09:14):
allowed us to basically migratethe mid level management's
responsibility in operations toour centralized system. So, you
know, when you combine both ofthese tech tools, you have the
front of the house managedcentrally, remotely, and you
have back of the house, again,managed to a great extent with
(09:34):
artificial intelligence. So,obviously, it doesn't do a 100%
of the job. We have a samplecore team which we enable with
these tools, and with a handfulof people, we're able to do job
of many. So I think, you know,in a nutshell, now our tech
stack is evolving to become aremote digital operator, which
we are on a mission to firstdisrupt ourselves from a hands
(09:58):
on traditional hotel operationsto become a fully digital, fully
remote AI enabled hoteloperators.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I'm curious to learn a bit more about the check-in
experience. If you have just acouple of agents remotely
managing maybe 12 receptiondesks, is there a point where
guests on-site may be waiting ina queue if the remote agent is
already working with a differentguest? How does that process
(10:27):
work?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So at the moment, you know, now depends on the key
count. So, I mean, actually,what happened about 2 weeks ago
is one of our I mean, we've beenusing this same tech stack for
the past 3 years since 2021.And, you know, our guests are
accustomed with it. Our repeatcustomers are really well
versed. Even the new customersactually find it really unique,
(10:49):
so the reception from their endis great.
But what happens is if the keycount is larger, then we put 2
devices at the reception desk.So if one is busy, then the
other one can take it. I mean,normally, at a Forte Key
property, we only have oneperson to handle the check ins.
So if it was a manual operation,you don't have the second person
(11:10):
doing dual check ins at the sametime. So the moment we put 2
devices over there, even if wehave a second person who comes
in, we're able to check-in bothof them at the same time.
And, today, one station is ableto manage 12 receptions, but we
don't have one station,obviously. We have multiple
stations. And that is allowingus, just like a PBX line on the
phone, on a call center, if oneline is busy, then it jumps on
(11:34):
to the next one. And, you know,our staff centrally use a
central reservation system wherethey're able to switch back and
forth between properties on thePMS to see, you know, which
property, which guest came inand, you know, access the
inventory over there and, youknow, check or check out that.
Yeah.
So, you know, over there, whathappens is on-site, we are
(11:55):
actually able to increase thecapacity just by adding one
device, and it doesn't mean thatwe are doubling the cost. It's
just one extra hardware that weput over there, so we're able to
expand the capacity over there.And in back of the house, in our
central office, now we haven'treached that scale yet, but now
we're deploying even more so. Imean, initially, what we did is
(12:16):
we only start doing night shift.And now a couple of properties
we're managing 247 remotelybecause we see that, you know,
as great feedback.
It works. So with that said, nowthe more we scale, I think we're
gonna be able to get a betterunderstanding of the real
efficiency that we've been ableto drive off of this tech stack.
(12:38):
But, definitely, I think for theindustry, for properties with
small lower room counts, Ithink, you know, this is going
to become the norm. You know,disruption happens in pockets.
Only when it goes viral, peoplerealize that a disruption has
taken place.
So about 2 weeks ago, one of ourguests in one of our smallest
(13:00):
properties, actually, took apicture of our remote reception
at the check-in process, and sheposted online, and she has a
good follower base, and it wentviral. The virtual receptionist,
welcome guest in BangaloreHotel. So with that said, the
Internet got divided. You know,half of the crowd said, oh,
amazing innovation. You know,this is the future.
(13:22):
AI is here. Video conferencing.So half of the crowd was really
excited about it, and the otherhalf were not so excited. And,
you know, there's a lot offeedback on, you know,
hospitality is about humantouch, which we totally agree.
You know, hospitality is aboutempathy, human connection, and
the human touch.
So no matter how much weautomate, I think we don't want
(13:44):
to let go of that. Therefore,video conferencing allows us to
do that. I mean, you have manyhotel brands who are out there
who are high-tech, low touch.You just do mobile check-in, or
you come in, you check-inthrough a kiosk, or you check-in
on your app, and you can evenwalk to the room without
interacting with anyone. So, youknow, we have that capability,
(14:04):
but we didn't wanna do that.
And I think, you know, goingforward, we still want to retain
that element in there. Andanother thing that I'd like to
add on top of the videoconferencing layer that we have,
now we've been experimentingwith a lot of the AI note
takers. I'm sure you would haveseen in some of the other Zoom
(14:24):
com Zoom meetings that you mighthave had, and new ones are
coming out every day. So we'reseeing disruption happening
everywhere. They're gettingdisrupted.
So, I mean, we used to useFirefly notetaker, and then we
came across readai, which givesyou a sentiment analysis. It can
create action points out ofthat. So, I mean, you have while
there as the video conferencing,then you have the AI note taker
(14:47):
and the sentiment analysis tool.And now we're integrating that
with a productivity tool like aTrello where you're able to
create action points out ofthat. So I think, you know, the
vision, what we are seeing isyou know, I was at a conference
just earlier this week, and, youknow, I was talking on the
similar lines that usuallybooking reviews or, let's say,
(15:10):
you know, your online reviews onthe OTAs or on Google or any of
these platforms is end of theservice.
And most of the time, hotels getto understand that whether they
did a good job or a bad job oncethat review is left. And,
usually, we react to that, andthat is just damage control. I
mean, service is over. No matterwhat you do, you know, it's
(15:31):
really hard to turn that around.It's too late.
It's either post for a negativeexperience. So now imagine this.
You're checking in. So now whatwe are working on today is these
tools are working independently.So let's say you make your
booking.
You get the bookingconfirmation. Welcome to Olive
Hotel. Here's your bookingvoucher. And then the moment you
(15:52):
come in, you start interactingwith us at the reception desk.
The video conferencing deviceobviously captures all the
conversation that's going on inthere, and you're able to do
sentiment analysis in a livemanner.
And then once you check-in, yougo to your room, and then over
there, we have we work with acompany called Mobigest. Again,
(16:13):
it's a young company, which webasically integrated all of the
communication with the hotelthrough just a QR code. Once you
scan that, you can order roomservice, raise a complaint,
raise a ticket. Anything youneed, that can be done over
there. And, obviously, you know,if it's a water bottle, it needs
to be delivered in under 10minutes.
If it's a light bulb broken, itneeds to be replaced. So, I
(16:34):
mean, everything has these SLAs.And I think the whole tech stack
is giving us an opportunity. Sonow we're building a data lake
where all the information fromall these tools gets compiled
into one pool or, like, theysay, and then we're constantly
able to analyze that. So theidea is if we are saying no to
(16:56):
something, if they ask forsomething and we said, we can't
do it or we don't have it or,you know, something that went
wrong, At that point, we canissue an action point saying
that, okay.
Send a fruit basket. Send abottle of wine or, you know,
send the manager to speak withthe guest or let's change the
room or you know, I think thesetools are really giving us an
(17:18):
opportunity to really elevatethe guest experience. And I
think, you know, a lot of peoplesay that, you know, automation,
as I was saying, is about humanconnection. Where is this going?
But I feel that all of thesetools are enabling us to focus
on what's important, and what'simportant is the guest journey.
(17:40):
I mean, I think it's giving us alot more free time to focus on
the more important aspects andwhere we can pass on the mundane
tasks, the back of the houseoperations communication
management, all that to thesystem where, you know, we can
actually elevate the level ofservice that we are able to
(18:00):
provide to the customer.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Can you tell me a bit about how all of your on-site
software works with this data?Like, is your PMS connected, for
instance? And would you get somesentiment analysis from a chat
that the guest had with thereception. Is that sentiment
then connected to thereservation in your PMS so that
(18:24):
you can see, is this a repeatguest? And where did they book?
And how long are they staying?Like, that sort of information.
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That is in the making. Obviously, you know, the
privacy laws, the GDPRcompliance is one area where we
are really sensitive about. So,obviously, our AI enabled video
analytics does capture does havefacial recognition. So just to
give an example, you know, wewhitelist and black this people.
(18:54):
So all of our stuff iswhitelisted.
So at the moment, they are inthe camera's view. Their
attendance gets recorded so weknow who's worked how long or
how much, but that's obviouslyour stuff. So now with the
guest, today, these tools areworking independently. That is
one thing where we are workingon to connect this. So, I mean,
for instance, the guestexperience tool is obviously
(19:17):
connected to our PMS.
But today, the videoconferencing tool, the sentiment
analysis is not linked to thePMS yet, or the action points
that we create out of that arenot linked yet. But these are
some of the gaps that we arebridging currently. And I think,
you know, we do have all thetech tools to realize this in
(19:37):
the coming months. This is awork in progress. I mean, I
think what we did just recentlytoday, our virtual receptionist
went viral.
We have been working on ourpatent application for systems
and methods for remote hotelmanagement. So that got filed in
the US on October 7th. So now weare investing and, you know,
(19:59):
building this overarching systemwhere we are able to do exactly
that. And I think that is what'sreally exciting because the
moment we do that, we know thatwe're not gonna miss anything.
And as long as we have theresources to react to that
issue, whereas it can beanything, I think, you know, we
can really elevate the servicelevel.
(20:22):
So we're in a technologicalrevolution in Andrew Carnegie's
times in early 20th century. Youknow, machines replace manual
labor. But today, we are seeingthat, you know, artificial
intelligence tools are basicallyI would say replacing enhancing
the human capability to such anextent. We are able to replace
(20:44):
the mundane tasks with AI, and,you know, it's allowing us to
look at more the, you know,human required tasks, which I
think hospitality is all about.So I think, you know, to make
the long story short and toanswer your question, not yet to
an extent, but every day isprogressing.
And I think, you know, oncewe're able to say that, you
(21:05):
know, we have this 100% of thejourney mapped under, you know,
one ticket, and, you know, howwas that sentiment throughout,
and, you know, how did we act onthat? I think that is really
exciting and is in the days tocome.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Do you feel like your tech stack right now is pretty
stabilized, or do you have somevendors on your wish list or
types of software that you'replanning to implement in the
near future?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You know, at this moment, it is pretty much
stabilized, I would say. Youknow, no one is perfect. So for
instance, our PMS is great, butare we using a 100% of the
features? No. Does all themobile check-in or the guest
experience or, you know, acentralized dashboard, you know,
are all these tools at best?
(21:53):
Not really. We're it's alwaysimproving. We're always adding
on it. I mean, that that's justone example. So I think but,
it's stabilized, and we areseeing that our partners are
developing further.
I think, you know, today, someof the things that the hotel is
probably not using is theproductivity tools. I mean, now
we've been testing multipletools that are out there. I
(22:13):
think I saw one tool which isquite interesting, and it kind
of it resonate with me. So Duvhas acquired this new AI enabled
guest experience company, and,you know, I'm looking forward to
getting my hands on it, starttesting it. So I think,
definitely, that seemsinteresting.
(22:34):
I mean, you have the traditionaltools that are out there, which
are doing, you know, pretty muchwhat the other tools are doing
as well. I think, you know, theones who are trying to break
ground, ones who are trying topave a new way, I think are
quite interesting. So I thinkthe way it's looking is that we
are seeing some guest experiencetools which are growing. They're
(22:56):
adding the check-in process.They're adding more elements of
the customer journey.
So I can see them following inthe similar footsteps as we're
going as well, you know, becausewe are going to remote or a
digital operator from one route.But I can see some of these
companies are naturally evolvinginto the same point with a
(23:21):
different point of entry. So Ithink can't remember the exact
name, but it's a company thatthey bought just recently. I
think that is quite exact. Thatis the one at this moment.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I want to shift gears slightly. Can you tell me a bit
about 1 or 2 of Olive's topbusiness objectives? What are
you working toward in the nextyear or 2?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So at this moment, you know, we are doing couple of
international brand partnershipsthat are in the making. So, you
know, we have our own set ofbrands, but we feel that, you
know, there are multiple I mean,you have all the big brands in
the hospitality space, butalready present in India. And,
you know, we're pushing Olive asa brand agnostic hotel operator.
(24:05):
So, you know, with the groundpresence that we have, we feel
that we're in a strong positionto become a local business
development and operatingpartners for some of these
brands in the similar space. Sowith that said, I think, you
know, soon you'll be able topublicly talk about this, but
we're working on someinternational brand partnerships
(24:27):
that has been keeping us busy,and it's really exciting.
I mean, today, India is one ofthe most underserved markets. We
have a population of1,400,000,000. Just to put it in
context, Dubai alone has morehotel branded hotel rooms than
India both. So it's crazy. Sotoday, Bangalore has about
(24:48):
18,000 branded rooms.
Mumbai daily each have about,again, you know, 15 to 20,000.
Hyderabad has 8,000. I mean,this should be much, much more.
So we feel that, as well aslocal brands, there's a huge
opportunity for internationalbrands in this space as well.
And as I said, you know, it'sthe most undersupplied market in
(25:10):
the world, and it's the fastestgrowing economy.
So it's an immense opportunity.So I think, you know, the coming
years is really bright,especially for hospitality. I
mean, we are seeing reallydouble digit tremendous growth
both in the branded and theunbranded space. So I think that
is the 2 big things that we arefocused on working at this
(25:31):
moment.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
One thing I'm always curious to hear about, you
mentioned you're doing a lot oftesting and trying different
software or different ways ofadjusting your operations. How
do you gather feedback fromemployees or from guests? And
how do you analyze that feedbackto understand if what you're
doing has positive impact or ifyou need to go back and rethink
(25:55):
how you're doing something?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So, I mean, multiple ways, obviously. I mean, now
with the virtual reception,virtual check-in, you know, we
were really curious about whatpeople thought. So it is part of
our SOPs that our remotereceptionists do ask. Sir, how
was your experience, madam? Howwas your experience with virtual
check-in?
So we do get real feedback, livefeedback on that. Obviously,
(26:18):
when they're giving the feedbackin person, they kind of
sometimes hold back. But thenagain, the guest experience app
that we use, inside the roomover there has the feedback
tool. Again, we do collectfeedback on that. And at the
checkout, again, we do haveanother tablet where it's a yes.
Satisfaction survey, basically.We do have the checkout, and,
(26:40):
obviously, the online travelagents and the online platform
reviews is another tool. So as Iwas saying, you know, these are
at different stages of thecustomer journey, and, you know,
feedback is our feature. So it'sreally valuable for us,
positive, negative. You know, wesee what is going right, what is
not doing so well.
(27:01):
So, you know, that allows us tocapture feedback at different
levels.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Last question before we wrap up. I am curious to hear
if there's anything that youbelieve about technology that
you feel your peers orcompetitors might disagree with.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
As I said, when our post vitals, it got divided, and
a lot of people are saying that,oh, you know, hospitality is
about empathy, human touch, and,you know, what is this? So I
disagree over there, or we havea a different opinion. We feel
that human connection can beenhanced with technology, not
reduced. So I think, you know, alot of industry peers do feel
(27:42):
that, you know, 5 starhospitality, when you have a
manpower to room ratio of 2 or 3people per room, Obviously, it's
a different level ofhospitality, but we feel that
technology and advancements inAI, automation, these kind of
things are going to enhance thelevel of hospitality that we're
gonna be able to provide. Soit's not gonna degrade the level
(28:05):
of service that we're giving.
I think, you know, it can reallyenhance the level of service,
the personalized service that wecan provide and actually
surprise our guests, you know,with a big smile on their faces.
So I'm not saying that noteveryone disagrees with this,
but, you know, there's a goodportion where we're seeing that
kind of feedback. But as I said,our firsthand experience is
(28:27):
really positive, and I think,you know, soon most of these,
tools are going to become commonpractice across the industry.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing
your experience. I really lookforward to watching Olive
continue to grow. I wish you allthe best in the future.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
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
(29:11):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time.
So don't wait until tomorrow totry something new.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Do you
Speaker 2 (29:22):
know a hotelier who would be great to feature on
this show, or do you think thatyour story would bring a lot of
value to our audience? Reach outto me directly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
In a nutshell, now our tech stack is evolving to
(00:03):
become a remote digitaloperator, which we are on a
mission to first disruptourselves from a hands on
traditional hotel operations tobecome a fully digital, fully
remote AI enabled hoteloperator.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
On this episode, we're speaking with Karaman
Yeet, the co founder and CEO ofOlive Living. Karaman explains
how Olive's focus on tech allowsthem to uphold tighter brand
standards even as theirportfolio grows. And despite
software taking more and moretasks off of his staff's plates,
technology can actually enhancethe human nature of hospitality
(00:49):
rather than reduce it. Carmen,thank you so much for joining us
today. Before we get started, Iwould love a little bit of
background on your company, whatyou are doing there, and some
things that you're working on atthe moment.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sure. Thank you for having me on the show. Really
happy to be here and excited toshare our journey. So Olive
Living is a really young brandthat started as a coliving brand
in 2019 in India. And, actually,pandemic kind of pushed us in
directions to seize otheropportunities.
(01:27):
And in the pandemic, we saw anopportunity to take over
underperforming hotels, and wekind of did a pivot towards to
become a hotel hospitalitycompany. And after the first
wave, we saw that a lot ofhotels were shutting down. And
as being in co living and longstay business, you know,
(01:49):
everyone needs a roof over theirhead, even in a pandemic like
situation. So we said, you know,let's take over these buildings
today. We'll post them as longstay.
And, you know, when the shortstay business comes back, you
know, we'll slowly pivot tothat. So that's exactly what we
did, and we were able toactually capitalize on that
opportunity. And we started offin Bangalore. Now today, Olive
(02:11):
is in 5 cities in India with 65locations and growing. We have
3,000 keys under management, andwe operate in the economy
segment, where it's the mostunorganized segment in
hospitality in India, and it'sprobably one of the most
underserved.
So it's an immense opportunity,and, you know, obviously,
(02:34):
technology has played a reallycrucial role, just like how we
are on this podcast todaythrough video conferencing.
Video conferencing became partof our lives, and we saw that in
the pandemic, even educationalinstitutions adapted video
conferencing to educate studentsremotely. So that was one really
(02:55):
interesting factor, actually,which kind of inspired us to say
that, you know, if we are ableto educate people remotely
through this technology, I thinkwe might be able to check-in
people through this technologyas well. So, I mean, one fact
about Olive is, you know, wetook over many, many buildings
in the city center, and theseare mostly small properties. So
(03:16):
unlike the larger hotel brands,even if you hire one staff
extra, your operating expensereally shoots up drastically.
So, you know, you are operatingwith limited resources, with a
high pressure on prices at thatpoint. You really didn't have
too many people traveling. Youknow, who did we have? We had
defense, pharma, health care.Those kind of customers were
(03:39):
traveling, but, again, at quitedepressed rates.
So with that said, obviously,low key count is one pressure
than the low price was anotherpressure. And, also, social
distancing, hygiene, safety werecrucial factors. But on another
note, what we saw is that in asmall property, you have your
(04:01):
peak check-in, checkout hours,you know, in the morning and in
the evening, let's say. And atnight, you still have to man the
reception. You have one persondoing the job, and you have to
have one checker.
But quickly, we realized thatthese people were waiting for 1
or 2 guests who might come andwho might not come, and we saw
that was really inefficient.And, actually, our staff were
(04:23):
not being fulfilled by thiseither. So we partnered up with
Zoom, and we use a tool calledZoom Rooms. And then we have a
hardware partner, again, one ofZoom's subsidiaries called D10.
And with that, it's a 27 inchscreen device that we placed in
(04:43):
our reception, and then we setup a remote mission control,
which we call it in our HQ.
And it's a remote receptionsetup. So now with this tool, we
are actually able to zoom in toa 100 different receptions. And
so one person is able to lookover a 100 receptions.
Obviously, it's not possible tomanage 100 receptions from 1
(05:05):
station, but what we're seeingis about up to 12 receptions,
we're able to manage from asingle station. And, you know,
when you man that station with 2people and, normally, on the
ground, you would have about 24people manning those places.
So instead of 24 people, nowwe're able to be present in 12
receptions with only 2 people.So that really allowed us to
(05:29):
drive out incredible amounts ofefficiency and couple of things
that happened over here. So,obviously, every conversation
goes recorded. We're able tomonitor the customer sentiment
through the check-in, throughthe checkout process, where you
would have to have the managerlistening in on every
conversation, every word that issaid, how it's said, which is an
(05:49):
impossible task to do. So thatallowed us to have the really
high situational awareness onwhat was going on at the
reception.
And I think, you know, what'sreally cool about the fact is
that, you know, we are able todeploy our stuff globally
anywhere at 67% speed of light.You know, data travels in a
(06:12):
vacuum and fiber optic networksat that speed. So, you know,
that's how we're able to dothat. And, you know, we can
deploy them globally at thatspeed. Plus, we don't need a
plane ticket or a visa.
So, you know, we feel that thisallows us to actually not only
use it for our own purpose, butwe feel that the industry can
benefit from this. So it wasfirst video conferencing tool
(06:35):
that allowed us to manage thefront of the house in a remote
manner. And then on top of that,Bangalore is the Silicon Valley
of Asia, and it is the start upcapital in India. We have 7,000
start ups, and most of them aretech startups as well. So we're
very fortunate to have access tothese young, right, ambitious
(06:58):
minds who keep experimentingwith new tools.
So every week, we look at 1 or 2new tools that are coming up,
and it's really exciting. So ontop of the front office,
tantalizing the front officewith video conferencing, we
partnered up with another AIenabled audio video analytics
(07:19):
company called Stacu, and theyhave a tool called Jarvis. And
we placed these AI enabledcameras in multiple locations,
actually, the mission criticallocations in the hotel, so which
is the entrance, the reception,the corridors, and some of the
common areas. And with that, Imean, you know, maybe it's not
(07:42):
really good practice to say thisout there to the customers, but,
Dubai police use the sametechnology for preventive
policing. Uttar Pradesh statesprison authority use it to
manage security in theirprisons.
But what it does is we have thehighest security detail, and,
you know, intrusion detection,left baggage, weapon detection,
(08:06):
fire detection, polling person.And then, you know, on the SOP
monitoring, for instance, now onthe corridors, all the
housekeeping, operatingprocedures, we are able to set a
rule saying that, let's say,Karaman needs to mop this area.
You mark it on the image with120 strokes between 1 or 2 PM
(08:27):
with a face mask on. It reportsthat. So let's say we can
measure if the SOPs are beingdone correctly on time.
We take staff attendance, withthis. But moreover, you're able
to let's say, you have 5housekeepers, and, you know,
each housekeeper is expected tohave 15,000 mobs a month, let's
say. And you're able to measurehow many mobs each person is
(08:51):
doing. So if one is doing10,000, then you know that
person is, not performing up tothe mark. So, you know, there's
no manager who's gonna be ableto monitor this and give you
this level of data.
So with that, we're able toreally deep dive into the
performance of our staff, what'shappening on-site, and this
(09:14):
allowed us to basically migratethe mid level management's
responsibility in operations toour centralized system. So, you
know, when you combine both ofthese tech tools, you have the
front of the house managedcentrally, remotely, and you
have back of the house, again,managed to a great extent with
(09:34):
artificial intelligence. So,obviously, it doesn't do a 100%
of the job. We have a samplecore team which we enable with
these tools, and with a handfulof people, we're able to do job
of many. So I think, you know,in a nutshell, now our tech
stack is evolving to become aremote digital operator, which
we are on a mission to firstdisrupt ourselves from a hands
(09:58):
on traditional hotel operationsto become a fully digital, fully
remote AI enabled hoteloperators.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I'm curious to learn a bit more about the check-in
experience. If you have just acouple of agents remotely
managing maybe 12 receptiondesks, is there a point where
guests on-site may be waiting ina queue if the remote agent is
already working with a differentguest? How does that process
(10:27):
work?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So at the moment, you know, now depends on the key
count. So, I mean, actually,what happened about 2 weeks ago
is one of our I mean, we've beenusing this same tech stack for
the past 3 years since 2021.And, you know, our guests are
accustomed with it. Our repeatcustomers are really well
versed. Even the new customersactually find it really unique,
(10:49):
so the reception from their endis great.
But what happens is if the keycount is larger, then we put 2
devices at the reception desk.So if one is busy, then the
other one can take it. I mean,normally, at a Forte Key
property, we only have oneperson to handle the check ins.
So if it was a manual operation,you don't have the second person
(11:10):
doing dual check ins at the sametime. So the moment we put 2
devices over there, even if wehave a second person who comes
in, we're able to check-in bothof them at the same time.
And, today, one station is ableto manage 12 receptions, but we
don't have one station,obviously. We have multiple
stations. And that is allowingus, just like a PBX line on the
phone, on a call center, if oneline is busy, then it jumps on
(11:34):
to the next one. And, you know,our staff centrally use a
central reservation system wherethey're able to switch back and
forth between properties on thePMS to see, you know, which
property, which guest came inand, you know, access the
inventory over there and, youknow, check or check out that.
Yeah.
So, you know, over there, whathappens is on-site, we are
(11:55):
actually able to increase thecapacity just by adding one
device, and it doesn't mean thatwe are doubling the cost. It's
just one extra hardware that weput over there, so we're able to
expand the capacity over there.And in back of the house, in our
central office, now we haven'treached that scale yet, but now
we're deploying even more so. Imean, initially, what we did is
(12:16):
we only start doing night shift.And now a couple of properties
we're managing 247 remotelybecause we see that, you know,
as great feedback.
It works. So with that said, nowthe more we scale, I think we're
gonna be able to get a betterunderstanding of the real
efficiency that we've been ableto drive off of this tech stack.
(12:38):
But, definitely, I think for theindustry, for properties with
small lower room counts, Ithink, you know, this is going
to become the norm. You know,disruption happens in pockets.
Only when it goes viral, peoplerealize that a disruption has
taken place.
So about 2 weeks ago, one of ourguests in one of our smallest
(13:00):
properties, actually, took apicture of our remote reception
at the check-in process, and sheposted online, and she has a
good follower base, and it wentviral. The virtual receptionist,
welcome guest in BangaloreHotel. So with that said, the
Internet got divided. You know,half of the crowd said, oh,
amazing innovation. You know,this is the future.
(13:22):
AI is here. Video conferencing.So half of the crowd was really
excited about it, and the otherhalf were not so excited. And,
you know, there's a lot offeedback on, you know,
hospitality is about humantouch, which we totally agree.
You know, hospitality is aboutempathy, human connection, and
the human touch.
So no matter how much weautomate, I think we don't want
(13:44):
to let go of that. Therefore,video conferencing allows us to
do that. I mean, you have manyhotel brands who are out there
who are high-tech, low touch.You just do mobile check-in, or
you come in, you check-inthrough a kiosk, or you check-in
on your app, and you can evenwalk to the room without
interacting with anyone. So, youknow, we have that capability,
(14:04):
but we didn't wanna do that.
And I think, you know, goingforward, we still want to retain
that element in there. Andanother thing that I'd like to
add on top of the videoconferencing layer that we have,
now we've been experimentingwith a lot of the AI note
takers. I'm sure you would haveseen in some of the other Zoom
(14:24):
com Zoom meetings that you mighthave had, and new ones are
coming out every day. So we'reseeing disruption happening
everywhere. They're gettingdisrupted.
So, I mean, we used to useFirefly notetaker, and then we
came across readai, which givesyou a sentiment analysis. It can
create action points out ofthat. So, I mean, you have while
there as the video conferencing,then you have the AI note taker
(14:47):
and the sentiment analysis tool.And now we're integrating that
with a productivity tool like aTrello where you're able to
create action points out ofthat. So I think, you know, the
vision, what we are seeing isyou know, I was at a conference
just earlier this week, and, youknow, I was talking on the
similar lines that usuallybooking reviews or, let's say,
(15:10):
you know, your online reviews onthe OTAs or on Google or any of
these platforms is end of theservice.
And most of the time, hotels getto understand that whether they
did a good job or a bad job oncethat review is left. And,
usually, we react to that, andthat is just damage control. I
mean, service is over. No matterwhat you do, you know, it's
(15:31):
really hard to turn that around.It's too late.
It's either post for a negativeexperience. So now imagine this.
You're checking in. So now whatwe are working on today is these
tools are working independently.So let's say you make your
booking.
You get the bookingconfirmation. Welcome to Olive
Hotel. Here's your bookingvoucher. And then the moment you
(15:52):
come in, you start interactingwith us at the reception desk.
The video conferencing deviceobviously captures all the
conversation that's going on inthere, and you're able to do
sentiment analysis in a livemanner.
And then once you check-in, yougo to your room, and then over
there, we have we work with acompany called Mobigest. Again,
(16:13):
it's a young company, which webasically integrated all of the
communication with the hotelthrough just a QR code. Once you
scan that, you can order roomservice, raise a complaint,
raise a ticket. Anything youneed, that can be done over
there. And, obviously, you know,if it's a water bottle, it needs
to be delivered in under 10minutes.
If it's a light bulb broken, itneeds to be replaced. So, I
(16:34):
mean, everything has these SLAs.And I think the whole tech stack
is giving us an opportunity. Sonow we're building a data lake
where all the information fromall these tools gets compiled
into one pool or, like, theysay, and then we're constantly
able to analyze that. So theidea is if we are saying no to
(16:56):
something, if they ask forsomething and we said, we can't
do it or we don't have it or,you know, something that went
wrong, At that point, we canissue an action point saying
that, okay.
Send a fruit basket. Send abottle of wine or, you know,
send the manager to speak withthe guest or let's change the
room or you know, I think thesetools are really giving us an
(17:18):
opportunity to really elevatethe guest experience. And I
think, you know, a lot of peoplesay that, you know, automation,
as I was saying, is about humanconnection. Where is this going?
But I feel that all of thesetools are enabling us to focus
on what's important, and what'simportant is the guest journey.
(17:40):
I mean, I think it's giving us alot more free time to focus on
the more important aspects andwhere we can pass on the mundane
tasks, the back of the houseoperations communication
management, all that to thesystem where, you know, we can
actually elevate the level ofservice that we are able to
(18:00):
provide to the customer.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Can you tell me a bit about how all of your on-site
software works with this data?Like, is your PMS connected, for
instance? And would you get somesentiment analysis from a chat
that the guest had with thereception. Is that sentiment
then connected to thereservation in your PMS so that
(18:24):
you can see, is this a repeatguest? And where did they book?
And how long are they staying?Like, that sort of information.
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That is in the making. Obviously, you know, the
privacy laws, the GDPRcompliance is one area where we
are really sensitive about. So,obviously, our AI enabled video
analytics does capture does havefacial recognition. So just to
give an example, you know, wewhitelist and black this people.
(18:54):
So all of our stuff iswhitelisted.
So at the moment, they are inthe camera's view. Their
attendance gets recorded so weknow who's worked how long or
how much, but that's obviouslyour stuff. So now with the
guest, today, these tools areworking independently. That is
one thing where we are workingon to connect this. So, I mean,
for instance, the guestexperience tool is obviously
(19:17):
connected to our PMS.
But today, the videoconferencing tool, the sentiment
analysis is not linked to thePMS yet, or the action points
that we create out of that arenot linked yet. But these are
some of the gaps that we arebridging currently. And I think,
you know, we do have all thetech tools to realize this in
(19:37):
the coming months. This is awork in progress. I mean, I
think what we did just recentlytoday, our virtual receptionist
went viral.
We have been working on ourpatent application for systems
and methods for remote hotelmanagement. So that got filed in
the US on October 7th. So now weare investing and, you know,
(19:59):
building this overarching systemwhere we are able to do exactly
that. And I think that is what'sreally exciting because the
moment we do that, we know thatwe're not gonna miss anything.
And as long as we have theresources to react to that
issue, whereas it can beanything, I think, you know, we
can really elevate the servicelevel.
(20:22):
So we're in a technologicalrevolution in Andrew Carnegie's
times in early 20th century. Youknow, machines replace manual
labor. But today, we are seeingthat, you know, artificial
intelligence tools are basicallyI would say replacing enhancing
the human capability to such anextent. We are able to replace
(20:44):
the mundane tasks with AI, and,you know, it's allowing us to
look at more the, you know,human required tasks, which I
think hospitality is all about.So I think, you know, to make
the long story short and toanswer your question, not yet to
an extent, but every day isprogressing.
And I think, you know, oncewe're able to say that, you
(21:05):
know, we have this 100% of thejourney mapped under, you know,
one ticket, and, you know, howwas that sentiment throughout,
and, you know, how did we act onthat? I think that is really
exciting and is in the days tocome.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Do you feel like your tech stack right now is pretty
stabilized, or do you have somevendors on your wish list or
types of software that you'replanning to implement in the
near future?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You know, at this moment, it is pretty much
stabilized, I would say. Youknow, no one is perfect. So for
instance, our PMS is great, butare we using a 100% of the
features? No. Does all themobile check-in or the guest
experience or, you know, acentralized dashboard, you know,
are all these tools at best?
(21:53):
Not really. We're it's alwaysimproving. We're always adding
on it. I mean, that that's justone example. So I think but,
it's stabilized, and we areseeing that our partners are
developing further.
I think, you know, today, someof the things that the hotel is
probably not using is theproductivity tools. I mean, now
we've been testing multipletools that are out there. I
(22:13):
think I saw one tool which isquite interesting, and it kind
of it resonate with me. So Duvhas acquired this new AI enabled
guest experience company, and,you know, I'm looking forward to
getting my hands on it, starttesting it. So I think,
definitely, that seemsinteresting.
(22:34):
I mean, you have the traditionaltools that are out there, which
are doing, you know, pretty muchwhat the other tools are doing
as well. I think, you know, theones who are trying to break
ground, ones who are trying topave a new way, I think are
quite interesting. So I thinkthe way it's looking is that we
are seeing some guest experiencetools which are growing. They're
(22:56):
adding the check-in process.They're adding more elements of
the customer journey.
So I can see them following inthe similar footsteps as we're
going as well, you know, becausewe are going to remote or a
digital operator from one route.But I can see some of these
companies are naturally evolvinginto the same point with a
(23:21):
different point of entry. So Ithink can't remember the exact
name, but it's a company thatthey bought just recently. I
think that is quite exact. Thatis the one at this moment.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I want to shift gears slightly. Can you tell me a bit
about 1 or 2 of Olive's topbusiness objectives? What are
you working toward in the nextyear or 2?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So at this moment, you know, we are doing couple of
international brand partnershipsthat are in the making. So, you
know, we have our own set ofbrands, but we feel that, you
know, there are multiple I mean,you have all the big brands in
the hospitality space, butalready present in India. And,
you know, we're pushing Olive asa brand agnostic hotel operator.
(24:05):
So, you know, with the groundpresence that we have, we feel
that we're in a strong positionto become a local business
development and operatingpartners for some of these
brands in the similar space. Sowith that said, I think, you
know, soon you'll be able topublicly talk about this, but
we're working on someinternational brand partnerships
(24:27):
that has been keeping us busy,and it's really exciting.
I mean, today, India is one ofthe most underserved markets. We
have a population of1,400,000,000. Just to put it in
context, Dubai alone has morehotel branded hotel rooms than
India both. So it's crazy. Sotoday, Bangalore has about
(24:48):
18,000 branded rooms.
Mumbai daily each have about,again, you know, 15 to 20,000.
Hyderabad has 8,000. I mean,this should be much, much more.
So we feel that, as well aslocal brands, there's a huge
opportunity for internationalbrands in this space as well.
And as I said, you know, it'sthe most undersupplied market in
(25:10):
the world, and it's the fastestgrowing economy.
So it's an immense opportunity.So I think, you know, the coming
years is really bright,especially for hospitality. I
mean, we are seeing reallydouble digit tremendous growth
both in the branded and theunbranded space. So I think that
is the 2 big things that we arefocused on working at this
(25:31):
moment.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
One thing I'm always curious to hear about, you
mentioned you're doing a lot oftesting and trying different
software or different ways ofadjusting your operations. How
do you gather feedback fromemployees or from guests? And
how do you analyze that feedbackto understand if what you're
doing has positive impact or ifyou need to go back and rethink
(25:55):
how you're doing something?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So, I mean, multiple ways, obviously. I mean, now
with the virtual reception,virtual check-in, you know, we
were really curious about whatpeople thought. So it is part of
our SOPs that our remotereceptionists do ask. Sir, how
was your experience, madam? Howwas your experience with virtual
check-in?
So we do get real feedback, livefeedback on that. Obviously,
(26:18):
when they're giving the feedbackin person, they kind of
sometimes hold back. But thenagain, the guest experience app
that we use, inside the roomover there has the feedback
tool. Again, we do collectfeedback on that. And at the
checkout, again, we do haveanother tablet where it's a yes.
Satisfaction survey, basically.We do have the checkout, and,
(26:40):
obviously, the online travelagents and the online platform
reviews is another tool. So as Iwas saying, you know, these are
at different stages of thecustomer journey, and, you know,
feedback is our feature. So it'sreally valuable for us,
positive, negative. You know, wesee what is going right, what is
not doing so well.
(27:01):
So, you know, that allows us tocapture feedback at different
levels.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Last question before we wrap up. I am curious to hear
if there's anything that youbelieve about technology that
you feel your peers orcompetitors might disagree with.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
As I said, when our post vitals, it got divided, and
a lot of people are saying that,oh, you know, hospitality is
about empathy, human touch, and,you know, what is this? So I
disagree over there, or we havea a different opinion. We feel
that human connection can beenhanced with technology, not
reduced. So I think, you know, alot of industry peers do feel
(27:42):
that, you know, 5 starhospitality, when you have a
manpower to room ratio of 2 or 3people per room, Obviously, it's
a different level ofhospitality, but we feel that
technology and advancements inAI, automation, these kind of
things are going to enhance thelevel of hospitality that we're
gonna be able to provide. Soit's not gonna degrade the level
(28:05):
of service that we're giving.
I think, you know, it can reallyenhance the level of service,
the personalized service that wecan provide and actually
surprise our guests, you know,with a big smile on their faces.
So I'm not saying that noteveryone disagrees with this,
but, you know, there's a goodportion where we're seeing that
kind of feedback. But as I said,our firsthand experience is
(28:27):
really positive, and I think,you know, soon most of these,
tools are going to become commonpractice across the industry.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing
your experience. I really lookforward to watching Olive
continue to grow. I wish you allthe best in the future.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
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
(29:11):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time.
So don't wait until tomorrow totry something new.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Do you
Speaker 2 (29:22):
know a hotelier who would be great to feature on
this show, or do you think thatyour story would bring a lot of
value to our audience? Reach outto me directly on LinkedIn by
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