The Bulgarian SaaS company Roombre has embarked on a mission to help small and medium-sized accommodation property owners. The goal is to provide affordable and easy to use software that saves small properties time and money.
Why care about sustainability?
Since you are here, you probably love traveling. Whereas exploring new cultures and destinations is both fun and enriching (the best way to spend money, if you ask us!), it may put its strains on local environments.
From pushing locals outside touristy areas through unfair pay for accommodation owners and destroying local landscapes, we should be aware of the possible negative impacts of tourism. For instance, small islands like Thailand’s Koh Phi Phi Leh has seen around 5,000 visitors per day and this has affected the local nature (read more about it here and here.
Furthermore, tourists need to find a place to sleep. Choosing sustainable alternatives like small local owners, hostels, campsites, and caravans can make a huge difference for both the local people and landscapes.
” To me, guesthouses and campsites have way more advantages than any big hotel out there. First, campsite and guesthouse owners are in most cases local people meaning they are actively promoting the area they live in even without asking them. In short, exploring gets much easier.”, says Kostadin Nikolov, a passionate biker and writer, who`s proud to be part of Roombre`s team.
“The other reason why I prefer them over big hotels is because I like to support small businesses. Simply said, they need my money more than hotels do. Finally, campsites and guesthouses have this personal something that we all enjoy and crave for.”, he adds.
Supporting small property owners
Accommodation properties like campsites, hostels, apartments, guesthouses and small hotels experience difficulties managing their data, reservations, and finances in an effective way. Some of the main problems include keeping track of reservations, the exact financial statistics, as well as overbooking.
“Proper tracking of the financial flows is often being overlooked. Inadequate monitoring and management can lead to serious financial difficulties and even bankruptcy. Our software provides detailed financial data statistics and predictions. Thus, each owner can craft a data-backed financial plan for the next 6-9 months.”, explains Alexander Nenov, one of Roombre`s co-founders.
Furthermore, many owners struggle with the commissions they owe to third parties like large booking engines and travel agencies. For this reason, the solution offers an online booking option, allowing guests to make reservations directly through the accommodation properties` websites.
Pay only when making profits
“We started Roombre with the idea of being partners of the accommodation properties. We don`t want to be another intermediary who`s only focused on getting a piece of the revenue. That`s why we wanted to offer a fair payment model. Simply put, you pay as you go.”, comments the other co-founder of the company Bojidar Bonchev.
The service`s monthly fee depends on the number of reservations made per month. If the property has realized less than 50 bookings, the service is entirely free of charge. Each reservation over the free limit of 50 costs 0.99-euro cents. The more bookings the accommodations realize, the lower the price – it decreases in half to 0.49 cents.
“The idea is that if a tourist property has a strong financial month, they`ll be charged. If they’re not enough bookings for some reason (low season, for example), the property won`t be charged anything.”, explains Bonchev.
What`s next?
The company`s tech team plans to go a step further and introduce custom statistics tailored to the specific needs of each customer. The solution will evolve into an automated adviser– it will be able to consider external factors and come up with practical advice, solving the unique problems of each property.
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