For many people, picking up the phone and contacting room service is an annoying task. Nevertheless, it's not that big of a deal, and this falls mostly in the "first world" type of problems. Thankfully, you can always rely on the hotel industry to smoothen things out for you even when it comes to these minor tasks. This time, the hotel industry is bringing in the guns from the technology sector.
AavGo is a startup that aims to eliminate the need for calling room service. AavGo's proposed solution is to integrate iPads into a hotel so the guests can communicate with the hotel staff directly. With such an ingenious solution, there's no need to call for room service or take a trip to the front desk.
The app has officially been launched in 5 hotel brands. However, this was not the first time AavGo contributed to the hotel industry. Before AavGo launched this solution, its app was already being used in hotels with the purpose of helping hotel staff communicate with each other.
With this new launch from AavGo, hotel guests of Hotel Strata, Row Hotel, and other partner hotels will be able to request for cleaning, maintenance, toothpaste or food without picking up the phone.
Mrunal Desai, the co-founder of AavGo, stated that the company's goal with the recent launch is to eliminate the need to go to the front desk. If the guests are in need of any kind of hotel service, they just need to push a few buttons in the provided tablet.
For hotels that are interested in partnering with AavGo, there's no need to purchase expensive equipment other than a router for WiFi; which is something that most hotels already have. However, AavGo isn’t the only player in the field.
ALICE is a competitor of AavGo, and both have similar apps and services. ALICE is already integrated into some hotel chains such as Nylo Hotels, Sixty Hotels, and Triumph Hotels. In January, ALICE raised $9.5 million in a series of funding rounds. ALICE's funding was led by Expedia, which greatly helped the funding endeavors of the company - the company has raised a total of $13 million!
While AavGo and ALICE are very similar, Desai explained why his company’s service is different. For one, AavGo has a broader range of target hotels and not just boutique hotels. Also, Desai added that AavGo provides each room with an in-room tablet.
As of the moment, AavGo charges the partnering hotel $5 per room monthly. AavGo's main goal is to go live in more than 50 hotels. However, AavGo has bigger goals for the following years. Specifically, they are aiming for their service to be present in more than 500 hotels by the end of 2018. A few months ago, AavGo's startup funding round closed and the company raised around $1 million.
