Why we're building StaySense for the travel industry

Our first introduction to the travel industry — professionally speaking — was through the founding of a Vacation Rental Management company in East Tennessee.

Like so many before us, we left previous lives in non-hospitality related careers to venture into this bold new horizon of hospitality management white-eyed and full of naive-optimism.

During our tenure as professional managers (we successfully exited the company in late 2016), we learned a lot of very valuable lessons about building a hospitality brand in this era of the industry.

Some lessons learned were unique to us and our company. By and large, however, we learned we were trying to solve a lot of the same problems that most other hospitality managers were also trying to solve over and over again.

More importantly, we learned that even for a company like ours — which was meeting or exceeding 100% Year-Over-Year growth every year we were in business — the unfortunate reality is that a few companies in the travel vertical ultimately hold most of the power.

Competitively speaking, most professionals — from independent vacation rental owners, to professional property managers, to hotel owners/managers — simply do not have access to the same great technology that helps the huge OTAs dominate the bookings game every single day.

We want to help close that gap.

The future of technology is Artificial Intelligence

If you follow technology news at all (and most likely, even if you don’t), it should be no surprise that the future of technology — all technology — is centered around Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

While technology in the hospitality industry has largely lagged other more mature markets, we understand intimately how frustrating it can be trying to find companies offering the same advanced tools many e-commerce brands like Amazon use daily in a package that is easy to use and custom tailored for the needs of a hospitality manager.

While some managers and owners definitely have the technical chops to achieve many advanced technological solutions for their companies, for most in our industry, implementing industry-leading AI-powered sales, marketing, and operational software solutions isn’t realistic.

This is why we’re building StaySense

Our mission at StaySense is to build the most technologically advanced machine learning and AI powered software tools available on the free-market — specifically and exclusively — for the Hospitality Industry.

Coupled with this mission is an overarching goal to make these tools incredibly accessible to hospitality managers — regardless of individual technological prowess or know-how.

If successful, we hope to equip managers large and small with the same great tools and software that some of the most sophisticated e-commerce businesses in the world like Amazon, HomeAway, AirBnb, Netflix, Facebook, & Google are utilizing today.

Our first two products are focused on helping managers recommend the right products, at the right time, for the right audience to boost critical sales as well as optimizing brand experiences where traditional A/B testing tools fall flat on lower-volume websites.

Our first public release will be some completely free tools — be sure to check back for updates or join the mailing list for notifications as they launch.

What’s next?

We’re excited about helping drive the future of software in the Hospitality Industry forward in a huge way and enabling the independent and professional manager to finally have the same tools to grow and market their business as the “big guys” do.

We’re currently running a very early private beta with select partners to put a final polish on the software before releasing it to the masses.

If you’re interested in getting early access when we start expanding our beta program, opt-in on our site today for early updates and announcements.

Stay tuned!

— David Angotti & Wes Melton / Co-Founders