While other accommodation options like short-term rental (e.g.: Airbnb) have become extremely popular, hotels are still a huge business globally. In 2023, the hotel and resort industry market size worldwide reached 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, showing an increase over the previous year. Global hotel occupancy rates have also sgrown over the last years, rebounding back to pre-pandemic levels.

When looking closer towards independent hotels and small hotel groups, around 40% of US hotels are independent (not part of a hotel chain) versus 77% in the EU. There are close to 3.5 independent hotels for every chain property in Europe, considering properties with 25 rooms or more.

While ExpectMe offers great added value for all kinds of hotels and segments, it focuses primarily on independent hotels and small hotel groups with more than 50 rooms/property. This segment represents a significant market opportunity, comprising many properties seeking to optimize their operations and enhance guest experiences.

The company's strategy is to use this market potential for quick adoption and make the platform even more robust, in order to onboard larger hotel groups globally.

ExpectMe's go-to-market strategy revolves around internal sales, building strong partnerships and leveraging channel sales to reach its target audience effectively.

Partnerships
By forming strategic alliances with key players in the hospitality industry, such as property management system (PMS) providers, Revenue Management System (RMS) providers, Guest communication tools, and technology integrators, it aims to expand its market reach and establish itself as a trusted solution provider.

Through these partnerships, it can integrate its offerings seamlessly into existing hotel management systems, making it easier for hoteliers to adopt the solution without disrupting their current workflows. Additionally, collaborating with these providers enables ExpectMe to tap into its vast customer base and drive revenues and guest satisfaction for its partner hotels.

Channel Sales
The channel sales approach involves working closely with resellers, marketplaces, and distributors who have extensive networks and expertise in the hospitality sector. By empowering these channel partners with comprehensive content, training materials, and support, they enable them to effectively promote and sell the product to their client base, thereby accelerating its market penetration.

Marketing & Direct Sales
In addition to forging partnerships, ExpectMe also employs targeted marketing strategies to raise awareness and generate demand for its platform. This includes digital marketing campaigns, participation in industry events and trade shows, and targeted outreach to prospective customers through LinkedIn messaging, email marketing, and direct sales efforts.

Furthermore, it recognizes the importance of providing exceptional customer support to differentiate itself in the market. By offering responsive and personalized support services, ExpectMe aims to build long-term relationships with its customers and ensure their satisfaction with its product.

Over the past few years, other companies offering room selection have emerged, which only shows the great value and potential of this type of experience for the hotel industry.

A significant difference between ExpectMe and its competitors is that ExpectMe is a standalone product exclusively focused on this offering, making it the best solution for hotels to incorporate room selection into their tech stack.

ExpectMe's advantage is that it offers full 2-way integration with the core systems that hotels use, ensuring that no operational tasks need to be performed. Second, their deep industry knowledge and experience of the ExpectMe team have allowed them to design a platform that provides the flexibility to address operational challenges and the revenue management capabilities to monetize them.

Looking at ExpectMe's competitors, they started from a different angle. AeroGuest is an all-in-one hotel app where hotels can activate a room selection functionality during the online check-in flow. Another company called Hotelverse focuses mainly on the direct booking stage, where they create a digital twin of the property.

Finally, there is the large hotel chain Hilton, which also provides this capability. They use it as a perk to encourage their loyalty members. Using the Hilton Honors-app, guests can select their room 48 hours before arrival. This is only offered to loyalty members and guests need to install the app to take advantage of this benefit.

As technology continues to move at a rapid pace, hotels must be capable of adjusting to this new way of life and adapting to meet trends. Millennial travelers (the most technologically literate generation), are gaining more and more spending power. As such, they expect these types of personalization and experiences to be incorporated into their guest journey. 

Technology can help provide a state-of-the-art hotel experience, improve service, increase retention levels, save money, and help boost revenue and direct bookings. These advances can help hoteliers beat the competition and attract new guests.