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have you tried to actually contact the head office for the specific hotel chains? for example, instead of going to a local Hilton and talking to general manager

by _ud4a 15y ago

have you tried to actually contact the head office for the specific hotel chains? for example, instead of going to a local Hilton and talking to general manager, why not try to get a meeting with someone at the Hilton's head office? i'm not sure how the hotel industry works, but i was under the impression that heado ffice sets certain policies and standards. so if you speak with someone there and they like your idea, they may agree to do a pilot run in one or two hotels and collect some feedback. if the feedback is good then they'll push it across all hotels. on a side note, is it just me or is logo on the main page a bit pixelated on the top of the letters?

erydo 15y ago
You're right that Hilton in particular is very centrally controlled. Other large franchises have more flexibility. (Starwood is a bit more flexible, for example). One of the reasons we've been reluctant to go straight for the top is that, as a new startup, we don't have a lot of credibility yet. We think the odds of one of the headquarters giving the go-ahead at this point is low enough that it would be a distraction to focus on them. There's also the situation, down the road, that a corporate decision-maker recalls us as "We already decided not to use their software. Don't remember why." making it hard to move upward organically. Those fears could be entirely unfounded, though. We are slowly accumulating some references to get us in touch with those corporate-level people, though. Once we have those personal referrals, we'll have a better shot.
meow 15y ago
I second this opinion. Since you are seeing a lot of friction in finishing up a sale, you should make sure that closing one results in maximum benefit. Regarding pricing, I don't think a single price is such a good idea for the same reason that enterprise software sales men give different quotes to different clients - it takes a lot of time and effort to close deals and different clients see different level of value in your product.

by _ud4a 15y ago

erydo 15y ago

You're right that Hilton in particular is very centrally controlled. Other large franchises have more flexibility. (Starwood is a bit more flexible, for example). One of the reasons we've been reluctant to go straight for the top is that, as a new startup, we don't have a lot of credibility yet. We think the odds of one of the headquarters giving the go-ahead at this point is low enough that it would be a distraction to focus on them. There's also the situation, down the road, that a corporate decision-maker recalls us as "We already decided not to use their software. Don't remember why." making it hard to move upward organically. Those fears could be entirely unfounded, though. We are slowly accumulating some references to get us in touch with those corporate-level people, though. Once we have those personal referrals, we'll have a better shot.

meow 15y ago

I second this opinion. Since you are seeing a lot of friction in finishing up a sale, you should make sure that closing one results in maximum benefit. Regarding pricing, I don't think a single price is such a good idea for the same reason that enterprise software sales men give different quotes to different clients - it takes a lot of time and effort to close deals and different clients see different level of value in your product.