ExpectMe launches and joins forces with the Apaleo Platform & PMS
Everyone knows the unpleasant feeling of arriving in a hotel room that does not meet your expectations. “With ExpectMe, we are eager to change that. You can choose your seats in the theatre or on the plane but choosing your individual room in a hotel is not yet possible. We are the first room selection and upselling platform of its kind in the market,” founder and CEO Roeland Verhamme proudly shares.
By empowering hotel guests to choose their room from a floor plan, ExpectMe creates added value for both the hotel guest and the hotel. Nowadays, hotels allocate rooms to their guests primarily based on operational needs. They have no tool to help in anticipating guests’ expectations by knowing their exact needs and requirements.
ExpectMe wants to offer a tool that puts the guest experience back in the center and allows hotels to focus on what they do best: offer the ultimate hospitality experience.
Apaleo: the first of many integrations
ExpectMe’s platform can easily integrate with all cloud-based hotel property management systems. Apaleo is the first because developers can create an account and access the sandbox environment instantly. Also, Apaleo maintains extensive developer documentation and has the unique API-first approach, which means that every data point is accessible via the open APIs.
After a year in development, co-founder and CTO Franks Smits is proud to have reached this milestone. “It gives me great pleasure to announce that apaleo is officially the first cloud-based hotel property management system to integrate with our platform. They have been a great partner in this journey.”
Thanks to its integration with apaleo, ExpectMe has now officially launched. In parallel, they are developing the integration with other cloud-based hotel property management systems to serve even more customers worldwide.
“It’s not a coincidence that industry innovators choose Apaleo to build their first integration. We’ve designed a core platform that incubates startups and connects them to technology-savvy hoteliers,” says Uli Pillau, co-founder of Apaleo. “It’s an honor for us to be a part of ExpectMe’s launch and provide these game-changing features to our users.”
Kickstarting through successful partnerships
The platform immediately caught the attention of potential investors after its establishment in 2021. A few months after its founding, ExpectMe participated in the prestigious accelerator program imec.istart.
After the successful participation in imec.istart, they gathered the necessary capital to develop the platform through crowdlending and grants. During the development process, they also started interesting partnerships with Flanders Investment & Trade, Business in Antwerp, and VLAIO. Alliances with only one goal in mind: establish growth.
Arrived in 2022, ExpectMe is now ready to conquer the hospitality market.
Global focus by design
Hospitality is a global business and it’s ExpectMe’s ambition to integrate with hotels internationally.
“In a few years, it should be the standard for travelers to have the freedom to select their individual hotel room, no matter where they go. This provides a great incremental revenue opportunity for hotels, or a way to reward their loyal guests and/or direct bookings,” says Jeroen Vaassen, Chief Revenue Officer.
To facilitate this, the platform is built in a classic “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) model with seamless integrations, where hotels pay a monthly fee based on their number of rooms.
Are you interested in offering a unique experience to your hotel guests?