Portier Technologies, a white-label hotel concierge product which provides its hotel clients customisation and that had previously participated in the WiT Startup Pitch, recently published a report that was its pudding proof, so to speak. After eight months of activity at Banyan Tree Samui that focused on driving incremental value to the property essentially through putting a mobile phone with aggregated content in the hands of the guests, Portier was able to show the hotel an eight-fold Return On Investment.
According to its report, ancillary bookings grew healthily: in-villa bath treatments rose 433% in 2018, while cooking class bookings grew 127%.These specific areas alone contributed to over $200 in additional revenue per villa year on year compared to 2017.
We catch up with Portier’s co-founder Deniz Tekerek to find out where they are right now and what they have learnt so far.
1. Is Portier on track with its development as a company and business, vis-à-vis the initial business plans in 2016?
Absolutely. When we launched the solution in March 2017, the idea was to simply work with that single hotel for at least one year, so we could refine the product and then get our first paying clients, but instead, we became a paid-for product within 2017. Another target was to start working with hotels that are part of larger brands; we achieved that with Banyan Tree in Samui and with Marriott at the W Paris-Opera in 2018. We now have a pipeline of to-be-launched hotels that include both independents and branded hotels. Finally, we always wanted to create a solution that’s flexible enough to be launched in any location, without the need for localisation – in that sense, today, we are live in Brazil, France, Thailand and Vietnam – ultimately, the same product is serving these markets in parallel – something we are incredibly proud of.
2. What are some lessons already learnt in the last two years Portier has been in business?
The key lesson is actually quite pragmatic – do not import any hardware into your target countries! Initially, our platform was tied to specifically selected smartphones that we had to physically “manipulate” and they would have to be shipped to all target countries, adding a lot of pain with regards to operations and creating issues like freight forwarding – absolutely not our expertise. In late 2017, we shifted to a “kiosk-mode-based” approach, which simply allowed us to upload our software onto Samsung phones, without ever touching them. Since then, we have worked in close partnership with Samsung (especially via their Singapore office) and can now remain flexible in terms of models we use and which hardware we select for which country – there is ultimately no need for hardware operations or logistics at Portier.
3. What have been the hardest challenges and also the most promising ones?
The hardest challenge was also the most promising one – from the first day, we were competing with companies that had access to some great funding. However, this made us incredibly nimble and we focused on being efficient. Often, the key question was: “How can we achieve the same or better outcomes with a fraction of their budget?” This ultimately led to the above change of strategy with a “kiosk-mode” approach. What’s more, in search of bigger sales channels, we partnered with telcos to create even bigger efficiencies. Despite that, the best way to overcome this challenge was to do what competitors failed to do: focus on creating value for hoteliers. Whilst our competitors always looked at the value of the traveller rather than the hotel, we decided to not use the hotel as a springboard to access travellers. Instead, we wanted Portier to amplify their ability to serve guests, so we avoided any third party services that would actively draw guests’ attention away from ancillary services at the hotel. The outcome was that amazing result from Banyan Tree, where we helped a hotel overcome economic constraints by adding an incredible amount of incremental revenue.
4. With its business model, Portier has to strike up partnerships with both hotels and also local telco providers in the markets it wants to penetrate. What has been more difficult to do?
To be fair, that’s always different based on geography and brand guidelines. We incentivise our whole supply chain in such a way, that telco conversations become arguably easy, as they see a clear benefit. Hotels are often a little sensitive when it comes to technology, but once they understand that our solution won’t have a negative impact on more sensitive issues and is actually designed to drive more traffic to the hotel brand, the conversation gets easy.
5. How many hotels is in the client list currently?
We are live at 12 hotels, but the pipeline of hotels that will soon be launching with us stretches to beyond 20, and we expect a number closer to 40-50 by the end of the year, with 2020 being seen as the “big year” with exponential growth.
6. Speaking to hotels in Asia, what have been your observations about their business climate and how do you have feel Portier can (and has already) contribute?
It depends on the country. In Vietnam, everything seems to be exciting, and I think that goes for almost any industry. As a result, hotels want to quickly catch-up in terms of amenities and cost discussions are less price-sensitive. In Thailand, a far more mature hotel market, we have already shown an incredible amount of value that we bring to hotels there, so we ride a wave of positive reputation and contribute by enabling hoteliers to drive more on-site revenues, so they can better compete with further hotels popping up and with alternatives like Airbnb becoming more mature in the local area. We understand that margins in countries like Thailand can be tight, so the solution is geared for driving more traffic to the hotel itself, something Banyan Tree Samui profited from.
7. Moving forward, which markets is Portier most geared up for at this point and which are the next ones it is interested to go after?
Due to the flexibility of our platform, we don’t have to make strict decisions on this front, but without a doubt, Asia is key! Beyond what we’ve done so far in the region, our longer-term interest is strong in up-and-coming markets like Cambodia, but our more immediate attention in terms of expansion is set on the likes of Hong Kong, Macau and China.
8. Give me your thoughts on the role and importance of customisation/personalisation in today’s economy.
It’s certainly a lot more important today than it used to be. It’s one of the things we’ve been able to benefit from. For example, some of our chat features enable a direct connection between guests and the hotel staff members who service their rooms, so this enables guests to ask for things like room cleaning to be done at their personal convenience. In a more general sense, any type of consumption, especially in travel, is ultimately becoming more personalised – we want experiences to be special, and that only happens if we don’t necessarily talk about simply visiting the Eiffel Tower, but visiting a private area at the Eiffel Tower around the sunset hour, sipping on the most exclusive champagne of the region. For many, that’s worth talking about. Intriguingly, hotels and their concierges used to be known for this arguably extreme level of personalisation – at Portier, we want them to get back to that, powered by our platform.
9. Can you give me a snapshot of where Portier is at with funding?
We have been bootstrapping for the majority of our journey, with institutional funding coming in from Plug and Play’s Silicon Valley office and from SOSV in China. We are now raising for a larger round of $1.5M to push for more growth and to further align the platform to more revenue streams in the hospitality sector (e.g. casinos).
