Question Everything If You Want To Stand Out (Our Story With Guest Communication Technology) - Roman Pedan, Kasa

Josiah: In this episode, you're going to hear the story of a technology trend that was sweeping hospitality, how Roman Pedan and his team at Kasa questioned that, and what they ended up doing. What they ended up doing may not necessarily be the best for your hotel business, but I want you to hear Roman explain his thinking because the approach of questioning everything and going back to the basics, your core mission as a hospitality business, is something I think we all can benefit from. 

Roman: So at the highest level, what we do, who we are - we're a manager for owners of properties, whether they be hotel style properties, boutique hotels, ranging from this property, we have properties smaller than this, but this property is 12 rooms, we have properties as small as six rooms, all the way up to 250 plus room properties. We're a property manager hired to deliver income to the bottom line to the owner and maximize that for the owner. We deliver a great experience to the guest with the ultimate objective of delivering a good RevPAR index and a strong flow through to the owner through that great experience. The question then is, what tools are at our disposal to maximize that bottom line for the owner, increase margin, deliver better RevPAR, etc.? There are many tools at our disposal.

Josiah: Well, if I could jump in there, just because I appreciate that context because there's a lot of tools. I heard a lot of design thinking around how do you deliver an outcome that guests love and is profitable, right? So it's not that you're trying to invent a tech startup. It seems that it is a tool supporting the school of being high-tech and high-touch and solving both consumer and owner problems.

Roman: Yeah. And I think technology is often an end in itself. We were building technology just to build technology because that is what we should do. For us, technology was a way to solve a problem for guests and owners alike. And it was one of the ways. We have technology on its own. when not paired with the right operating approach, it won't succeed. And so technology for us is paired with our operations, an understanding of what guests like and don't like to deliver that stay. An example, you would think for a technology company, the default would be that guests use us through an app, right? We actually made an intentional choice not to build or require a downloadable app for the guests. Why? How could a technology company not have an app? And every other company in our sector, the first thing they touted was like, we're the, you know, look at our app, like, it's like, really, there's a couple of years ago when you were starting, right? This is everybody. And we were like, I was sort of embarrassed. But even in a way that I was also proud of, if that makes sense, like I was, I was embarrassed, because of course, you have an app, that's the obvious. But when you talk to guests and ask them, do you want to be required to download an app for that property when you book a stay with a property for the first time? You will hear a resounding like to access the property. No, like that is a bug, not a feature. That is friction for me as a guest. Obviously, when building an app, you have to support iOS and Android. And there are a lot of other things we can build. And so, it is expensive to build and maintain an app, and when you do it, the guest hates it. At least on their first stay. After they're staying with you, and their second stay. And maybe their third. But once they're staying with you, you know, on their tenth and twentieth stays, they want that more seamless experience. Instead, we built a web app that feels like an app, but you can access it through Safari, Chrome, or your phone browser. We chose text as the most prominent medium of communication because that's the natural communication for a guest with a friend or with a host. And so we thought that would be very familiar with guests. Again, that was through conversations with guests and through testing quickly a few different approaches. Upon booking, you will be texted a pre-arrival checklist, which is a web app in which you upload your ID and your selfie, and it sidesteps the requirement for a front desk. And on the day of arrival, you'll be texted your arrival instructions, which include your codes, and the Wi-Fi, and you can text the same number that you text us back on versus that we text you from, which is a subtle point, but if you think about how you interact with maybe I'm just picking I'm picking on them because I just flew united with United, they texted me from a random four-digit number I called some 800 number a different 800 number called me when I was on the phone with them I was texting them, but the person on the phone didn't know that I was texting them That is not how you build a relationship with a person. Why are you texting to a different number than they're texting you from? By the way, Hilton has different numbers for every property, but it's one. It should be one organism. And so, we have one phone number. It's 650-451-3444 across every single property that we text you from. You text us to that same number. Automated messages go from that number. You call that number. We call you from that number. It's a real phone number. If you save it as you would save a friend's number. What allows us to build a relationship with the guests over time as they travel to different locations is a familiarity with how we approach hospitality. And if you call us how it works on the back end and you're texting us, it's all in one timeline. The history of every communication that you've ever had with Casa is in one simple to-look-at timeline, and it allows us to build more and more context, create more cohesiveness, and give you this magical feeling, which should be the way that you experience every brand, that over time you're like building a relationship with a host, with hopefully a Hall of Fame host.