Today we have selected David Glineur to take his interview. He is CEO and Founder of Misterbooking.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
Thank you for asking. We are all doing well. We developed a Hotel Management Solution (HMS), also called Property Management System (PMS). Our business continued its growth during the Coronavirus crisis. Hoteliers still needed software to manage their properties. Even if they didn’t receive bookings (only during the first lockdown, for the others, most of the hotels remained open), hotels needed software to manage their pages on OTA, communicate with travelers, do the accounting, and more…
Tell us about you, your career, how did you found or joined this company?
I founded this company 18 years ago! Before becoming the CEO of Misterbooking, I was graduated from the University of Strasbourg, receiving a Degree in Economics and Social Sciences. Then, I spent several years in the tourism industry dealing with travel and tour operations. There, I discovered the issues related to the planning of activities.
In 2000, I created my first software: an effective solution for planning and booking management for boats and hotels. That is how Misterbooking started.
How does your company innovate?
Misterbooking was the first cloud-based booking management software in France in 2003. The software itself was a huge innovation in the Hospitality market, and we have never stopped to innovate since that day. We analyze the hotel needs and the new hospitality trends to decide what to create next in our PMS. It can be a new module or a better version of existing features.
Our innovations come from our 1,200 clients too. They use our solution every day and give us ideas to improve the PMS.
How did the Coronavirus pandemic affect your business, and how are you coping?
The pandemic affects our business in a good way. During the lockdowns, hotels had fewer reservations and more time. Moreover, they needed to reduce their costs and increase their digitalization to comfort their clients to come back. Misterbooking is a modern and scalable property management system that has supported hotels in their digitalization and development for 18 years.
We have noticed as many requests for our solution and our expertise as before if it is not more.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
All our team has been able to work remotely during the pandemic. But some of them had to stop working to take care of their children, family, or health. We worked with a reduced team. I had to choose between our future projects: which module was a priority and which one was put on standby. We want to launch every development to satisfy our clients, but we prioritized during the pandemic.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate into this crisis?
Misterbooking provides a cloud-based PMS with a native Channel Manager and Booking Engine for hotels. Our cloud-based solution helped us and our clients navigate this crisis because we could use the software everywhere, every time, and every device. All we needed was an Internet connexion. Before the crisis, we provided tools for our CRM in the cloud and made our online demonstrations anyway.
We continued to work in the same way during the crisis but in different locations. Everything worked fine for the team and the clients, and it still does today!
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
We provide an all-in-one solution with many features and modules and we don’t have one kind of competitor because Misterbooking can’t be put into just one category. As we have as many competitors as we have modules, and they are different in each country. We stay in the game by creating a new module to help hoteliers digitalize their property each year.
In 2020, we developed a module that offers hotel clients an online pre-check-in and an online client area to follow their reservations. This year, we created a module about payment automation and banking interface to secure the hotel business and guarantee payments.
Your final thoughts
I think that the hospitality market is in a very good trend of technology and innovation. Misterbooking helps hoteliers to follow this trend with modern, ergonomic, and efficient hotel tools. Let’s continue this way!
- Spokesperson: David Glineur
- Company: Misterbooking
- Website link: https://www.misterbooking.net/en/
