Cloud-based platform RoomCentral gives the power of hotel bookings back to the property owners

While the consumer has several options and technology solutions that make hotel booking and travel easier, Atul Prabhu and Rupam Mazumdar, Founders of RoomCentral believe the business side has to catch up. RoomCentral is a cloud-based booking engine designed specifically for small and medium-sized properties.

It was evolved out of the duo's vision to streamline the hospitality and transportation industry for greater efficiency, profitability and simplified operations.

Built out it need for transparency

The platform empowers hotel owners by providing them all features and functionality needed to drive increased sales and customer satisfaction. Atul explains, "It allows properties to sell, manage and distribute their room inventory in real-time by unifying all the property's functions on a single, easy-to-use interface."

The duo identified a genuine need for technology to benefit smaller property owners; a system which can help them manage their bookings efficiently.

Technology and workings

Owned and operated by Bengaluru-based Hostra Systems Pvt. Ltd, RoomCentral features an automated real-time booking engine with an integrated room inventory and it helps enable bookings via your website. What it essentially does is sync the room inventory with the online booking engines, property management and OTAs in real-time.

The front desk integration gives an occupancy chart that determines the hotel reservations, walk-ins and check-ins at any point in time. The platform has a single-screen integration that gives a bird’s view of the hotel activities.

Funding and team

The team received its first round of funding of USD two million from angel investor Karanpal Singh, who has several years of experience in the hospitality sector and owns hotels in Delhi, Goa, and Orissa. Karanpal says, "I have been in the hospitality sector for several years now and was looking to explore the technology travel space, and I found the right partners to do so at RoomCentral."

RoomCentral is currently looking to grow and set a firm footprint in the Indian market and will be targeting the global market as well soon. Atul adds that the early adopter clients have also been instrumental in helping them perfect their offering through valuable feedback.

"We want to be an active player in the hospitality and transport industry. We believe that rooms as real estate and transport are the two key verticals of the sector and we want to build technology that makes an impact across the sector," says Atul. The team wants to scale and add more value to the property owners of different sizes and across geographies.

The market space

 According to hotelsmarketing, Google is eyeing the space of online hotel bookings. The cloud-based booking platform Djubo saw a minority stake from the Ibibo Group. The space for OTAs and booking engines is getting competitive on a global scale. In 2013, their bookies represented close to 13 per cent of the global travel market and 38 per cent of the global online market. Similar players in the field include RoomKey and HotelQuickly.

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