STARTUP STAGE: Welcome Compass supplies customized visitor guidebooks at scale

Welcome Compass

Welcome Compass desires to assist holiday apartment hosts give visitors private consideration at scale thru AI-generated custom designed guidebooks.

Welcome Compass’s customized guides can come with area laws, native suggestions, check-in/check-out directions and extra.

What’s your 30-second pitch to buyers?

We’re a man-made intelligence-powered hospitality tech corporate enabling holiday apartment hosts to carry their visitor studies by way of offering custom designed guidebooks that function adapted suggestions. Our product empowers hosts to present visitors customized consideration at scale, leading to upper visitor pleasure and stepped forward host critiques and rankings.

Describe each the trade and generation sides of your startup.

We’re a SaaS corporate in quest of to strengthen the holiday/non permanent apartment enjoy for each visitors and hosts. We perceive the significance of personalization and the price it brings to the entire luck of a assets. Offering this sort of enjoy throughout a couple of listings and bookings will also be tricky and time eating for hosts. Welcome Compass allows hosts to simply curate and customise visitor studies, permitting them to take advantage of some great benefits of personalization with out the bulky effort. Our guidebooks act as devoted concierges for each and every visitor – they supply sensible details about the apartment assets in addition to adapted suggestions of eating places/actions within the surrounding house. The entire knowledge is well obtainable.

Welcome Compass makes use of AI to generate adapted guidebooks. We use visitor knowledge got thru a pre-arrival survey and reserving knowledge to generate a welcome message and customized suggestions. Along with custom designed suggestions, our guidebooks additionally include sensible details about the apartment assets similar to Wi-Fi passwords, laundry, check-in knowledge, and so forth. The guidebooks are intuitively arranged, permitting customers to browse simply. They are able to additionally make the most of our chat Q&A function to briefly and without difficulty get admission to any knowledge. Our guidebooks are internet based totally, which permits for simple sharing with all participants of a visitor birthday celebration and does no longer require downloading an app. Our host dashboard lets in hosts to view all in their long run, present and previous bookings in a single position and get admission to all visitor guidebooks.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Alternatives, Threats) research of the corporate.

Strengths: Our founding workforce has sturdy experience in hospitality and generation. Our product supplies an increased distinctive stage of personalization that we have got no longer noticed in some other competitor. The advantages received by way of the usage of our product will also be felt by way of each host and visitor.

Weaknesses: Despite the fact that we offer a novel guidebook this is distinct from our competition, the entire guidebook marketplace has pageant. A few of these guidebook choices are local to assets control techniques, which lowers their barrier to access.

Alternatives: Extra integrations with extra assets control techniques will permit customers to simply use Welcome Compass if they’re already subscribed to these techniques. We also are exploring collaboration and sponsorship alternatives from native eating places/actions to be featured in our guidebooks.

Threats: Local guidebook gear for Airbnb, VRBO, and so forth. and assets control techniques.

What are the shuttle ache issues you are attempting to relieve from each the client and the business point of view?

We imagine curated shuttle studies carry visitor pleasure and result in upper critiques and rankings for hosts. A customized visitor enjoy advantages all concerned. Prior to now, this sort of remedy used to be best to be had for massive scale operations with concierge provider to be had. With AI generation, we’re ready to digitize and automate a few of the ones concierge products and services, which allows smaller operations to supply this increased visitor remedy at scale. As a pioneer in AI hospitality tech, Welcome Compass is increasing the achieve of prime quality visitor studies.

So you have got the product, now how can you get numerous shoppers?

We’re ramping up advertising efforts to seek out and draw in new shoppers. Moreover, we’re running on integrations with assets control techniques to allow hosts to make use of our guidebooks thru their most popular machine. We also are running with assets managers overseeing a couple of homes. We’re assured those sure studies will result in natural referrals.

Let us know what procedure you’ve gotten long gone thru to ascertain a real want to your corporate and the scale of the addressable marketplace.

We carried out intensive analysis (interviews with hosts, web analysis, and so forth.) at the STR markets in the USA – location of maximum homes, reasonable occupancy charges, reasonable host ROI, tendencies on quantities of to be had homes, and so forth. Our findings confirmed that holiday apartment homes are in top call for and feature persistently generated income for hosts in recent times. Our analysis additionally published a requirement for direct bookings and repeat visitors, presenting a chance for a option to foster rapport between host and visitor. Within the generation area, we tested gear that hosts use to run their apartment homes and located a chance for guidebooks which are customized for visitors. With all of this data, we put in combination an evidence of idea and validated our hypotheses thru host interviews and beta checking out.

How and when will you’re making cash?

Our pricing is tiered in response to the choice of homes {that a} host manages. We provide two pricing choices for subscriptions – per month or discounted annual. We now have a variety of shoppers lately the usage of our products and services.

What are the backgrounds and former achievements of the founding workforce?

Derrick Showers (head of generation) has over a decade of tech experience together with enjoy on the Walt Disney Corporate, amongst others.

Andrew Lukas (head of product) has spent the final 15 years serving to legacy firms together with the Walt Disney Corporate and a variety of Fortune 500 firms.

James Yick (head of industrial building) has a mixed skilled background in promoting, advertising and tech the place he has held management roles in customer support, account control and product.

How have you ever addressed variety and inclusion inside of your enterprise?

We strongly worth variety and inclusion and all 3 folks had been a part of variety, fairness and inclusion efforts at huge firms. Being a small startup of best 3 other people has no longer but necessitated instating formalized practices, however we undoubtedly plan to take action as we amplify.

What is been essentially the most tricky a part of founding the trade up to now?

Founding Welcome Compass has been an ideal finding out enjoy for all folks. One of the most demanding situations that we have got confronted are construction relationships and rapport with the quick time period apartment group, bootstrapping the trade without a outdoor investment and prioritizing function building in the case of the calls for of our consumer base.

Usually, shuttle startups face a reasonably tricky time making an have an effect on – so why are you going to be one of the vital fortunate ones?

We imagine that we stand proud of our pageant as a result of our product is exclusive. Different guidebooks basically supply knowledge this is explicit to the valuables itself – door codes, Wi-Fi passwords, and so forth. Our guidebooks center of attention at the visitors and supply a personalized effect that they’re much more likely to keep in mind. Moreover, we harness the rising and evolving energy of AI generation, which we imagine can have a big have an effect on at the shuttle business and past. We plan to develop with AI generation and proceed to conform our choices as AI develops. 

A yr from now, what state do you suppose your startup can be in?

We are hoping to have a gentle buyer base that continues to develop. We additionally hope to use learnings from our studies at huge a success hospitality and tech firms to our trade, appearing the holiday/brief time period apartment group some great benefits of personalization at scale.

What’s your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, rising and staying personal, and so forth.)

Going public, getting bought and staying personal are all choices for the longer term. If we’re lucky sufficient to achieve some degree the place we should make a decision on one, we can evaluation at the moment. We undoubtedly wish to continue to grow and notice the place Welcome Compass can move.

Welcome Compass

Welcome Compass desires to assist holiday apartment hosts give visitors private consideration at scale thru AI-generated custom designed guidebooks.

Welcome Compass’s customized guides can come with area laws, native suggestions, check-in/check-out directions and extra.

What’s your 30-second pitch to buyers?

We’re a man-made intelligence-powered hospitality tech corporate enabling holiday apartment hosts to carry their visitor studies by way of offering custom designed guidebooks that function adapted suggestions. Our product empowers hosts to present visitors customized consideration at scale, leading to upper visitor pleasure and stepped forward host critiques and rankings.

Describe each the trade and generation sides of your startup.

We’re a SaaS corporate in quest of to strengthen the holiday/non permanent apartment enjoy for each visitors and hosts. We perceive the significance of personalization and the price it brings to the entire luck of a assets. Offering this sort of enjoy throughout a couple of listings and bookings will also be tricky and time eating for hosts. Welcome Compass allows hosts to simply curate and customise visitor studies, permitting them to take advantage of some great benefits of personalization with out the bulky effort. Our guidebooks act as devoted concierges for each and every visitor – they supply sensible details about the apartment assets in addition to adapted suggestions of eating places/actions within the surrounding house. The entire knowledge is well obtainable.

Welcome Compass makes use of AI to generate adapted guidebooks. We use visitor knowledge got thru a pre-arrival survey and reserving knowledge to generate a welcome message and customized suggestions. Along with custom designed suggestions, our guidebooks additionally include sensible details about the apartment assets similar to Wi-Fi passwords, laundry, check-in knowledge, and so forth. The guidebooks are intuitively arranged, permitting customers to browse simply. They are able to additionally make the most of our chat Q&A function to briefly and without difficulty get admission to any knowledge. Our guidebooks are internet based totally, which permits for simple sharing with all participants of a visitor birthday celebration and does no longer require downloading an app. Our host dashboard lets in hosts to view all in their long run, present and previous bookings in a single position and get admission to all visitor guidebooks.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Alternatives, Threats) research of the corporate.

Strengths: Our founding workforce has sturdy experience in hospitality and generation. Our product supplies an increased distinctive stage of personalization that we have got no longer noticed in some other competitor. The advantages received by way of the usage of our product will also be felt by way of each host and visitor.

Weaknesses: Despite the fact that we offer a novel guidebook this is distinct from our competition, the entire guidebook marketplace has pageant. A few of these guidebook choices are local to assets control techniques, which lowers their barrier to access.

Alternatives: Extra integrations with extra assets control techniques will permit customers to simply use Welcome Compass if they’re already subscribed to these techniques. We also are exploring collaboration and sponsorship alternatives from native eating places/actions to be featured in our guidebooks.

Threats: Local guidebook gear for Airbnb, VRBO, and so forth. and assets control techniques.

What are the shuttle ache issues you are attempting to relieve from each the client and the business point of view?

We imagine curated shuttle studies carry visitor pleasure and result in upper critiques and rankings for hosts. A customized visitor enjoy advantages all concerned. Prior to now, this sort of remedy used to be best to be had for massive scale operations with concierge provider to be had. With AI generation, we’re ready to digitize and automate a few of the ones concierge products and services, which allows smaller operations to supply this increased visitor remedy at scale. As a pioneer in AI hospitality tech, Welcome Compass is increasing the achieve of prime quality visitor studies.

So you have got the product, now how can you get numerous shoppers?

We’re ramping up advertising efforts to seek out and draw in new shoppers. Moreover, we’re running on integrations with assets control techniques to allow hosts to make use of our guidebooks thru their most popular machine. We also are running with assets managers overseeing a couple of homes. We’re assured those sure studies will result in natural referrals.

Let us know what procedure you’ve gotten long gone thru to ascertain a real want to your corporate and the scale of the addressable marketplace.

We carried out intensive analysis (interviews with hosts, web analysis, and so forth.) at the STR markets in the USA – location of maximum homes, reasonable occupancy charges, reasonable host ROI, tendencies on quantities of to be had homes, and so forth. Our findings confirmed that holiday apartment homes are in top call for and feature persistently generated income for hosts in recent times. Our analysis additionally published a requirement for direct bookings and repeat visitors, presenting a chance for a option to foster rapport between host and visitor. Within the generation area, we tested gear that hosts use to run their apartment homes and located a chance for guidebooks which are customized for visitors. With all of this data, we put in combination an evidence of idea and validated our hypotheses thru host interviews and beta checking out.

How and when will you’re making cash?

Our pricing is tiered in response to the choice of homes {that a} host manages. We provide two pricing choices for subscriptions – per month or discounted annual. We now have a variety of shoppers lately the usage of our products and services.

What are the backgrounds and former achievements of the founding workforce?

Derrick Showers (head of generation) has over a decade of tech experience together with enjoy on the Walt Disney Corporate, amongst others.

Andrew Lukas (head of product) has spent the final 15 years serving to legacy firms together with the Walt Disney Corporate and a variety of Fortune 500 firms.

James Yick (head of industrial building) has a mixed skilled background in promoting, advertising and tech the place he has held management roles in customer support, account control and product.

How have you ever addressed variety and inclusion inside of your enterprise?

We strongly worth variety and inclusion and all 3 folks had been a part of variety, fairness and inclusion efforts at huge firms. Being a small startup of best 3 other people has no longer but necessitated instating formalized practices, however we undoubtedly plan to take action as we amplify.

What is been essentially the most tricky a part of founding the trade up to now?

Founding Welcome Compass has been an ideal finding out enjoy for all folks. One of the most demanding situations that we have got confronted are construction relationships and rapport with the quick time period apartment group, bootstrapping the trade without a outdoor investment and prioritizing function building in the case of the calls for of our consumer base.

Usually, shuttle startups face a reasonably tricky time making an have an effect on – so why are you going to be one of the vital fortunate ones?

We imagine that we stand proud of our pageant as a result of our product is exclusive. Different guidebooks basically supply knowledge this is explicit to the valuables itself – door codes, Wi-Fi passwords, and so forth. Our guidebooks center of attention at the visitors and supply a personalized effect that they’re much more likely to keep in mind. Moreover, we harness the rising and evolving energy of AI generation, which we imagine can have a big have an effect on at the shuttle business and past. We plan to develop with AI generation and proceed to conform our choices as AI develops. 

A yr from now, what state do you suppose your startup can be in?

We are hoping to have a gentle buyer base that continues to develop. We additionally hope to use learnings from our studies at huge a success hospitality and tech firms to our trade, appearing the holiday/brief time period apartment group some great benefits of personalization at scale.

What’s your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, rising and staying personal, and so forth.)

Going public, getting bought and staying personal are all choices for the longer term. If we’re lucky sufficient to achieve some degree the place we should make a decision on one, we can evaluation at the moment. We undoubtedly wish to continue to grow and notice the place Welcome Compass can move.