CheKin: Software to manage vacation rentals

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Antonio Bustamante and his sister Elena managed - and continue to do so - a company with 20 accommodations in Seville “and we saw that the process of key delivery and reception of guests occupied 40% of our time, and we did not necessarily offer them a better experience" Antonio says when he remembers how the origins of CheKin were, one of the 50 Spanish startups that are part of our fourth Entrepreneurs List.

Especially tedious was all the bureaucratic part they had to do. "Hence we decided to offer a 100% software solution that was able to integrate with any booking platform or with any hotel lock or reception."

FIREPROOF

Together with Carlos Lagares and Eric Sánchez, Bustamante created a landing page with an explanatory video. “We launched it to 4,000 potential customers through a mailing and obtained 200 records and the first payments, even without having the product. This helped us to validate the market need. Once we had the first version of the product ready, we worked inbound marketing a lot and with that, we got 4,000 paid accommodations in the first 10 months of activity," emphasizes this entrepreneur.

They were 'officially' launched to the market in March 2018. "We focus on both end users (tourism accommodation managers) and software companies that include our solution integrated in their product natively," says Bustamante, who says that " There was no 100% software company focused on the check-in process specifically. Yes there were hardware solutions, companies that solve the legal part, but we understood that there was an opportunity to solve each of the stages in the check-in process and offer the solution to the industry, both tourist accommodation and companies of software."

DIGITALIZE RECEPTIONS

CheKin, which won the fourth edition of RED INNprende, the business accelerator of the Cruzcampo Foundation, specializes in digitizing the reception of guests in tourist accommodation.

"We move the traditional reception of a hotel, in which the guest goes to perform bureaucratic processes and collect the key, to the guest's mobile. With our solution, the guest has more freedom, information and a better experience. The idea is to digitize the keys in the client's mobile phone and that this is the center of interaction during their trip. We offer a tool with the accommodation that offers more satisfaction to its customers, has a direct communication channel and has real-time information on everything that happens in your accommodation," emphasizes Bustamante.

REACH NEW MARKETS

The company is already present in Spain, Italy and Portugal and works to implement its solution in new markets such as Colombia, Croatia or the United States, among others. "We want to consolidate ourselves as the standard in the tourism industry as a technological solution for the reception of guests in tourist accommodation, solving and improving communication with the guest, the bureaucratic process, the identification of the guest and access to housing."

For these plans, CheKin, which until now has had the support of Encomenda and several business angels, in addition to Enisa, the Minerva and Desafía acceleration program (formerly Spain Tech Center), is in talks with Spanish and European funds to close an investment round that allows you to improve your technology and reach new markets.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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