EUROPE – Okanda, a new business set up by international hoteliers, could lead to a doubling of occupancy of the hotels’ meeting rooms, thanks to its online, real-time, central reservation system.
Dirk Führer (pictured), CEO of Okanda, who was previously Chief Commercial Officer of the SteigenbergerHotel Group, said: “We are excited about the unveiling of our revolutionary system and we know from first-hand experience that hoteliers will be liberated from a time-consuming and frustrating process.
“Okanda removes a lot of the antiquated barriers encountered when booking a small meeting room, such as long-winded request for proposals, and equally helps hoteliers increase occupancy and build incremental revenue in a traditionally difficult to manage area.
“Furthermore, Okanda frees up resources and broadens hoteliers’ meeting inventory to not only better serve their existing customers, but also to attract new ones.”
The aim behind Okanda, according to Führer, is to increase the occupancy of meeting rooms from 30 per cent to 60 per cent, boosting thousands of hotels’ profitability and, at the same time, streamlining the time-consuming booking process for customers.
The business, which has raised over £1m in seed funding, is to launch later this year in the UK and Germany before seeking to expand further into international territories.
Hoteliers interested can pre-register for the service through the pre-launch page www.okanda.com.
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