It’s starting all over again. I’ve always loved new beginnings—January, Mondays, the starting whistle of a football game. There’s something about a fresh start that’s always filled with hope. Hope for a better year, a better us, and maybe even a better world. This January, the latter feels very much needed.
But new beginnings also come with a gentle reminder that yesterday was a different game, just as tomorrow will be. And it’s in this constant evolution that we find the opportunity to grow, improve, and build something meaningful.
This time, I want to share some thoughts about what we believe will bring us closer to being the best version of ourselves—and, in doing so, help make things better for all our partner hotels.
Big plans for the year ahead
As we step into 2025, our focus is on making this year one of constant improvement—both for us and for our partner hotels. Our roadmap is filled with exciting developments aimed at simplifying operations, enhancing guest experiences, and unlocking new revenue opportunities.
We will continue our strong focus on our event management system, with a commitment to turning it into a leading solution for event and group management. We aim to extend its core from a purely operational, transactional system into a holistic solution encompassing guest relations, digital organiser tools, and enhanced guest interactions. If you missed it, we have outlined our vision in this blog article. Currently in development or planning are exciting advanced CRM features such as sales pipelines, statuses, and email integration, which will enable hotels to manage their sales pipeline and guest relationships directly within our unified platform. On the operational side, we are introducing support for composite meeting rooms, allowing advanced booking of spaces which can be split and sold as separate combinations. And there’s more to come later this year—stay tuned for some pleasant surprises.
When it comes to our property management system, our development team is tirelessly balancing innovative new features with functionality and usability improvements. Early in 2025, we anticipate the certification of our direct connection to one of the world's largest OTAs, helping our partner hotels improve their presence and automate processes beyond standard channel managers--so stay tuned for almost imminent announcements. As part of our ongoing user interface overhaul, we are revamping reservation screens and will continue enhancing usability and capabilities throughout the year. We are also planning improvements in handling daily bookings, early check-ins, and late check-outs. These advancements are always driven by your feedback—our greatest source of inspiration -- so you will be writing the list of improvements together with us.
Since facilitating new revenue opportunities through technology has become one of our core values, we will continue down this path. Following the introduction of attribute-based selling (ABS) upsells within online check-in in late 2024, we are now working on an activity booking engine. This will enable bookers to reserve time-based activities such as spa treatments, restaurant tables, bike rentals, yoga classes, or sports facilities—either alongside their accommodation or as standalone bookings. This feature will not only help generate additional revenue as both upsells to accommodation and as a standalone selling opportunity but also enhance the guest experience by offering a more holistic journey.
Exciting changes are also planned for our customer success management processes in the second quarter. We will introduce a new structure, including personal success managers for selected hotel partners and improved shared success management processes for the rest.
And a little about what's already done in January
Our development team didn’t wait long to release the first system update of the year. Packed with more than 35 new features and improvements, one of the highlights is the new rooming list upload feature. It may not sound like the most exciting update at first, but it’s a real game-changer for those extensively working with groups. Instead of requiring clients to follow strict formatting rules—or having reservation agents spend valuable time reformatting the received lists —our new tool allows seamless imports from various formats, including Excel, text files, PDFs, and even screenshots of the lists. When I first saw it, I had that same joyful feeling as when I first played with a new toy—whether it was my first smartphone, a Nintendo Switch, or even a Rubik’s Cube long ago.
Team news
A few days ago, we had a touching moment as we bid farewell to Ivan, who has been with us for an incredible 19 years, 11 months, and 16 days. Ivan first joined us right after graduating from drama school, and we initially wondered how he would fit into the world of hotel software. For almost two decades however he had been nothing less than a star in delivering exceptional support with passion and dedication. As he moves on for a fresh start after a sabbatical we thank him from the bottom of our hearts and wish him success in his next roles in other performances that deserve a star actor like himself.
In the opposite direction, we are delighted to welcome Kim Thomas Staahl as our new sales director for Norway. We are so happy to have him onboard and confident that he will play a key role in our expansion plans in the Nordics.
So, we are looking forward to an exciting year ahead, and we hope you are too.
January, as always, is just the beginning.
Yours truly,
Krasimir
-1.jpg)