INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Jurny, Inc. | October 04, 2021
Jurny, Inc., the hospitality tech company powering operations and modern guest experiences for some of the world's most exceptional independent hotel brands, vacation and short-term rental (STR) properties, announced it raised an additional $9.5M in capital, in a round led by Mucker Capital. In part, the funds are being utilized to accelerate the global expansion of its latest product offering, Jurny Virtual.
The new offering provides a simplified, fully-connected tech stack by seamlessly integrating and connecting most major channel management (CMS), point of sale (POS), room management (RMS), facility management (FMS), marketing and smart home tech solutions in one, easy-to-navigate operator dashboard.
"Our mission is to help small- to medium-sized operators and hotel owners access a premium ecosystem that offers the benefit of economies of scale, not yet available to even some of the world's largest hotel chains, Jurny Virtual is revolutionizing the industry by providing a premier service at a much lower cost, including time, without requiring an upfront investment."
said Luca Zambello, Co-Founder and CEO at Jurny
"Operators using Jurny's best-in-class tech are seeing, on average, a 20% increase in revenue, 50% decrease in overhead costs and 2x net operating income (NOI) within the first 30 days of implementation," said Erik Rannala, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Mucker Capital. "These numbers are unmatched in the industry and illustrate that Jurny and its customers are positioned to dominate the global hotel, short-term and vacation rental management market."
Jurny Virtual provides hotel owners and property managers with a comprehensive solution to automate and streamline operations. In addition to the tech stack, Jurny provides additional services like 24/7 inquiry support and virtual concierge, access control, guest screening, review management, accounting and more - all easily accessible for owners in a single location to manage their entire operations.
"The unpredictable global events that unfolded over the past 18 months have undoubtedly changed the travel landscape forever, leaving in its wake an unprecedented number of property owners and operators struggling to recover losses and grappling with the complexities of change in the marketplace," said David Phillips, Co-Founder and President at Jurny. "Designed to help independent lodging operators and management companies navigate the shifting market demands, Jurny Virtual provides a single, affordable and easy-to-implement solution for the tools and technology required to compete and thrive in today's rapidly evolving environment."
The Jurny management team is composed of hospitality industry veterans and tech insiders, including former executives of Melia Hotels International, Eurostars Hotels, The Chateau Marmont Hotel and Galeno Group. Its investment team and board of advisors include former senior management from eBay, Intel Corp., Sun Microsystems, Mattel and TripAdvisor. Jurny is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices around the world.
The company's vertically integrated model is designed to address redundancies, reduce overhead and increase profits for stakeholders. In the past year, Jurny has more than doubled the number of units under its platform with a growing presence in major cities across the globe.
About Jurny
Jurny is a hospitality tech company founded for operators, by operators. The company offers SaaS and hardware solutions for hotel owners and property managers designed to accommodate the modern traveler. From design to implementation, Jurny's one-stop solution enables an industry-first true automated experience from check-in to check-out for both guests and hosts, resulting in flawless operations and increased profits. Jurny is pioneering the next generation of tech-first, on-demand hospitality.
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Microsoft | August 09, 2020
Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has partnered with Microsoft to further streamline data-driven services offered to stakeholders. The move will also enhance the e-learning platform for the Dubai College of Tourism (DCT) and adopt an innovative approach towards showcasing the city as a must-visit destination.
The wide scope of collaboration between Dubai Tourism and Microsoft is largely based on leveraging the Azure cloud platform, which provides a range of services from computing to networking, databases to analytics, and artificial intelligence designed to help organisations run their digital systems and processes more efficiently. Dubai Tourism's goal is to create a strong data analytics platform on the cloud that will help it share valuable business insights via online dashboards to facilitate managerial decision-making and to constantly update public and private stakeholders with critical industry-related information.
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Hawaii Tourism Authority | May 19, 2020
Hawaii officials are implementing new measures, from the airport to accommodations, to crack down on scofflaws.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority launched a media campaign telling prospective visitors to stay home until the Islands are ready for them.
According to an HTA report submitted to the Hawaii Senate Committee on Covid-19, roughly 70% of the hotels contacted agreed to participate in the initiative.
On March 15, Gov. David Ige publicly pleaded for visitors to postpone their Hawaii vacations and business trips and followed up a few days later with the quarantine measure. Since mid-March, the majority of hotels have closed, vacation rentals have been ordered to halt operations, beach activities have been extremely limited, and all but essential businesses have shuttered.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority launched a media campaign telling prospective visitors to stay home until the Islands are ready for them, and the agency, through the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, has been funding return flights for visitors who are not able to quarantine.
Still, like party guests who can't read the room and overstay their welcome, people keep arriving in Hawaii despite the quarantine order and the best efforts of multiple state agencies to discourage travel to the Aloha State.
From March 26, when the quarantine went into effect, through April 30, an average of 125 visitors arrived in Hawaii airports each day -- a far cry from the 30,000 daily arrivals at normal times, but concerning for state officials, who would prefer zero arrivals. Although Ige has extended the quarantine order through June 30, visitation ticked up when the calendar turned from April to May. Through the first 10 days of the month, an average of 233 visitors have landed daily.
Reports of quarantine violators are flooding in, and now the state is looking to bolster its methods to guarantee compliance, including a newly launched system designed to help monitor the movement of hotel guests.
Despite these efforts at the airports, we have been receiving consistent reports from members of the public
~ Mayor Kirk Caldwell the Hawaii Senate Special Committee on Covid-19
"They have observed, through social media or in person, travelers blatantly violating the quarantine orders.
"This is particularly frustrating for members of the public who are complying with the stay-at-home/stay-safe declarations imposed by the state and county in good faith. All the while, watching others flaunt their noncompliance with complete disregard for not only our laws but the health concerns behind these laws. Disturbingly, we have also received reports the City and County of Honolulu have avoided addressing these public concerns of noncompliance with regularity."
Spurred by demands for tighter enforcement, the HTA has been contacting the 91 hotels that have remained open during the crisis, some of which are housing medical personnel, National Guard and other essential workers, to sign them up for a "single-use key" program. Hotel guests would be given room keys that work only once. If they leave the room after entry, they would need to contact the front desk to access the room again.
According to an HTA report submitted to the Hawaii Senate Committee on Covid-19, roughly 70% of the hotels contacted agreed to participate in the initiative, with more than 20 properties yet to be reached. Four hotels had declined to participate as of May 9, at least one because it uses hard keys that cannot be programmed. One gave no explanation and another argued that its "apartment-style" accommodations precluded it from participating. Management at the Grand Naniloa Hotel on Hawaii Island said it could not currently comply with the program because state officials are failing to notify them of guests subject to quarantine prior to their check-in and they are short-staffed while housing National Guard members and local residents.
The state attorney general's office told the Senate committee on April 24 that it is also examining the legality and viability of other enforcement methods, including designated quarantine sites, ankle bracelets, facial recognition and GPS tracking.
The Department of Transportation and HTA have been working together to monitor arrivals, but the process has proven challenging. After deplaning, passengers' contact information and address while in Hawaii is verified while they also undergo a medical screening including temperature check. Recently, the state has added new questions to an agricultural form all arrivals fill out to glean more information about each passenger, including nature of the visit and expected departure date.
In a two-week period from mid-April to the end of the month, after the DOT stepped up enforcement, 27 visitors were forced to leave Hawaii for quarantine violations or lacking proper lodging and 330 arrivals were referred to law enforcement, according to a May 2 update to the Senate committee.
The hotels are notified of guests subject to quarantine, and both at the airport and the hotel, visitors are asked to fill out forms in which they acknowledge they are aware of the quarantine, which means they can only leave their room for "medical emergencies or to seek medical care" with no access to fitness centers, restaurants or other public areas.
State employees have been calling new arrivals to do spot check-ins to confirm compliance with the quarantine, but during a May 7 meeting of the Senate Covid-19 committee, officials acknowledged most of the contact numbers are for mobile phones and physical checks may be needed.
Quarantine violators are subject to arrest, a $5,000 fine and imprisonment for up to a year. While some visitors have been arrested, brought before a judge and sent home, the flow of arrivals continues.
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