Olive Living CEO on the Future of Remote Hotel Management
In a nutshell, now our tech stack is evolving to become a remote digital operator, which we are on a mission to first disrupt ourselves from a hands on traditional hotel operations to become a fully digital, fully remote AI enabled hotel operator.
Speaker 2:From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider, a show about the future of hotels and the technology that powers them.
Speaker 3:On this episode, we're speaking with Karaman Yeet, the co founder and CEO of Olive Living. Karaman explains how Olive's focus on tech allows them to uphold tighter brand standards even as their portfolio grows. And despite software taking more and more tasks off of his staff's plates, technology can actually enhance the human nature of hospitality rather than reduce it. Carmen, thank you so much for joining us today. Before we get started, I would love a little bit of background on your company, what you are doing there, and some things that you're working on at the moment.
Speaker 1:Sure. Thank you for having me on the show. Really happy to be here and excited to share our journey. So Olive Living is a really young brand that started as a coliving brand in 2019 in India. And, actually, pandemic kind of pushed us in directions to seize other opportunities.
Speaker 1:And in the pandemic, we saw an opportunity to take over underperforming hotels, and we kind of did a pivot towards to become a hotel hospitality company. And after the first wave, we saw that a lot of hotels were shutting down. And as being in co living and long stay business, you know, everyone needs a roof over their head, even in a pandemic like situation. So we said, you know, let's take over these buildings today. We'll post them as long stay.
Speaker 1:And, you know, when the short stay business comes back, you know, we'll slowly pivot to that. So that's exactly what we did, and we were able to actually capitalize on that opportunity. And we started off in Bangalore. Now today, Olive is in 5 cities in India with 65 locations and growing. We have 3,000 keys under management, and we operate in the economy segment, where it's the most unorganized segment in hospitality in India, and it's probably one of the most underserved.
Speaker 1:So it's an immense opportunity, and, you know, obviously, technology has played a really crucial role, just like how we are on this podcast today through video conferencing. Video conferencing became part of our lives, and we saw that in the pandemic, even educational institutions adapted video conferencing to educate students remotely. So that was one really interesting factor, actually, which kind of inspired us to say that, you know, if we are able to educate people remotely through this technology, I think we might be able to check-in people through this technology as well. So, I mean, one fact about Olive is, you know, we took over many, many buildings in the city center, and these are mostly small properties. So unlike the larger hotel brands, even if you hire one staff extra, your operating expense really shoots up drastically.
Speaker 1:So, you know, you are operating with limited resources, with a high pressure on prices at that point. You really didn't have too many people traveling. You know, who did we have? We had defense, pharma, health care. Those kind of customers were traveling, but, again, at quite depressed rates.
Speaker 1:So with that said, obviously, low key count is one pressure than the low price was another pressure. And, also, social distancing, hygiene, safety were crucial factors. But on another note, what we saw is that in a small property, you have your peak check-in, checkout hours, you know, in the morning and in the evening, let's say. And at night, you still have to man the reception. You have one person doing the job, and you have to have one checker.
Speaker 1:But quickly, we realized that these people were waiting for 1 or 2 guests who might come and who might not come, and we saw that was really inefficient. And, actually, our staff were not being fulfilled by this either. So we partnered up with Zoom, and we use a tool called Zoom Rooms. And then we have a hardware partner, again, one of Zoom's subsidiaries called D10. And with that, it's a 27 inch screen device that we placed in our reception, and then we set up a remote mission control, which we call it in our HQ.
Speaker 1:And it's a remote reception setup. So now with this tool, we are actually able to zoom in to a 100 different receptions. And so one person is able to look over a 100 receptions. Obviously, it's not possible to manage 100 receptions from 1 station, but what we're seeing is about up to 12 receptions, we're able to manage from a single station. And, you know, when you man that station with 2 people and, normally, on the ground, you would have about 24 people manning those places.
Speaker 1:So instead of 24 people, now we're able to be present in 12 receptions with only 2 people. So that really allowed us to drive out incredible amounts of efficiency and couple of things that happened over here. So, obviously, every conversation goes recorded. We're able to monitor the customer sentiment through the check-in, through the checkout process, where you would have to have the manager listening in on every conversation, every word that is said, how it's said, which is an impossible task to do. So that allowed us to have the really high situational awareness on what was going on at the reception.
Speaker 1:And I think, you know, what's really cool about the fact is that, you know, we are able to deploy our stuff globally anywhere at 67% speed of light. You know, data travels in a vacuum and fiber optic networks at that speed. So, you know, that's how we're able to do that. And, you know, we can deploy them globally at that speed. Plus, we don't need a plane ticket or a visa.
Speaker 1:So, you know, we feel that this allows us to actually not only use it for our own purpose, but we feel that the industry can benefit from this. So it was first video conferencing tool that allowed us to manage the front of the house in a remote manner. And then on top of that, Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of Asia, and it is the start up capital in India. We have 7,000 start ups, and most of them are tech startups as well. So we're very fortunate to have access to these young, right, ambitious minds who keep experimenting with new tools.
Speaker 1:So every week, we look at 1 or 2 new tools that are coming up, and it's really exciting. So on top of the front office, tantalizing the front office with video conferencing, we partnered up with another AI enabled audio video analytics company called Stacu, and they have a tool called Jarvis. And we placed these AI enabled cameras in multiple locations, actually, the mission critical locations in the hotel, so which is the entrance, the reception, the corridors, and some of the common areas. And with that, I mean, you know, maybe it's not really good practice to say this out there to the customers, but, Dubai police use the same technology for preventive policing. Uttar Pradesh states prison authority use it to manage security in their prisons.
Speaker 1:But what it does is we have the highest security detail, and, you know, intrusion detection, left baggage, weapon detection, fire detection, polling person. And then, you know, on the SOP monitoring, for instance, now on the corridors, all the housekeeping, operating procedures, we are able to set a rule saying that, let's say, Karaman needs to mop this area. You mark it on the image with 120 strokes between 1 or 2 PM with a face mask on. It reports that. So let's say we can measure if the SOPs are being done correctly on time.
Speaker 1:We take staff attendance, with this. But moreover, you're able to let's say, you have 5 housekeepers, and, you know, each housekeeper is expected to have 15,000 mobs a month, let's say. And you're able to measure how many mobs each person is doing. So if one is doing 10,000, then you know that person is, not performing up to the mark. So, you know, there's no manager who's gonna be able to monitor this and give you this level of data.
Speaker 1:So with that, we're able to really deep dive into the performance of our staff, what's happening on-site, and this allowed us to basically migrate the mid level management's responsibility in operations to our centralized system. So, you know, when you combine both of these tech tools, you have the front of the house managed centrally, remotely, and you have back of the house, again, managed to a great extent with artificial intelligence. So, obviously, it doesn't do a 100% of the job. We have a sample core team which we enable with these tools, and with a handful of people, we're able to do job of many. So I think, you know, in a nutshell, now our tech stack is evolving to become a remote digital operator, which we are on a mission to first disrupt ourselves from a hands on traditional hotel operations to become a fully digital, fully remote AI enabled hotel operators.
Speaker 3:I'm curious to learn a bit more about the check-in experience. If you have just a couple of agents remotely managing maybe 12 reception desks, is there a point where guests on-site may be waiting in a queue if the remote agent is already working with a different guest? How does that process work?
Speaker 1:So at the moment, you know, now depends on the key count. So, I mean, actually, what happened about 2 weeks ago is one of our I mean, we've been using this same tech stack for the past 3 years since 2021. And, you know, our guests are accustomed with it. Our repeat customers are really well versed. Even the new customers actually find it really unique, so the reception from their end is great.
Speaker 1:But what happens is if the key count is larger, then we put 2 devices at the reception desk. So if one is busy, then the other one can take it. I mean, normally, at a Forte Key property, we only have one person to handle the check ins. So if it was a manual operation, you don't have the second person doing dual check ins at the same time. So the moment we put 2 devices over there, even if we have a second person who comes in, we're able to check-in both of them at the same time.
Speaker 1:And, today, one station is able to manage 12 receptions, but we don't have one station, obviously. We have multiple stations. And that is allowing us, just like a PBX line on the phone, on a call center, if one line is busy, then it jumps on to the next one. And, you know, our staff centrally use a central reservation system where they're able to switch back and forth between properties on the PMS to see, you know, which property, which guest came in and, you know, access the inventory over there and, you know, check or check out that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, you know, over there, what happens is on-site, we are actually able to increase the capacity just by adding one device, and it doesn't mean that we are doubling the cost. It's just one extra hardware that we put over there, so we're able to expand the capacity over there. And in back of the house, in our central office, now we haven't reached that scale yet, but now we're deploying even more so. I mean, initially, what we did is we only start doing night shift. And now a couple of properties we're managing 247 remotely because we see that, you know, as great feedback.
Speaker 1:It works. So with that said, now the more we scale, I think we're gonna be able to get a better understanding of the real efficiency that we've been able to drive off of this tech stack. But, definitely, I think for the industry, for properties with small lower room counts, I think, you know, this is going to become the norm. You know, disruption happens in pockets. Only when it goes viral, people realize that a disruption has taken place.
Speaker 1:So about 2 weeks ago, one of our guests in one of our smallest properties, actually, took a picture of our remote reception at the check-in process, and she posted online, and she has a good follower base, and it went viral. The virtual receptionist, welcome guest in Bangalore Hotel. So with that said, the Internet got divided. You know, half of the crowd said, oh, amazing innovation. You know, this is the future.
Speaker 1:AI is here. Video conferencing. So half of the crowd was really excited about it, and the other half were not so excited. And, you know, there's a lot of feedback on, you know, hospitality is about human touch, which we totally agree. You know, hospitality is about empathy, human connection, and the human touch.
Speaker 1:So no matter how much we automate, I think we don't want to let go of that. Therefore, video conferencing allows us to do that. I mean, you have many hotel brands who are out there who are high-tech, low touch. You just do mobile check-in, or you come in, you check-in through a kiosk, or you check-in on your app, and you can even walk to the room without interacting with anyone. So, you know, we have that capability, but we didn't wanna do that.
Speaker 1:And I think, you know, going forward, we still want to retain that element in there. And another thing that I'd like to add on top of the video conferencing layer that we have, now we've been experimenting with a lot of the AI note takers. I'm sure you would have seen in some of the other Zoom com Zoom meetings that you might have had, and new ones are coming out every day. So we're seeing disruption happening everywhere. They're getting disrupted.
Speaker 1:So, I mean, we used to use Firefly notetaker, and then we came across readai, which gives you a sentiment analysis. It can create action points out of that. So, I mean, you have while there as the video conferencing, then you have the AI note taker and the sentiment analysis tool. And now we're integrating that with a productivity tool like a Trello where you're able to create action points out of that. So I think, you know, the vision, what we are seeing is you know, I was at a conference just earlier this week, and, you know, I was talking on the similar lines that usually booking reviews or, let's say, you know, your online reviews on the OTAs or on Google or any of these platforms is end of the service.
Speaker 1:And most of the time, hotels get to understand that whether they did a good job or a bad job once that review is left. And, usually, we react to that, and that is just damage control. I mean, service is over. No matter what you do, you know, it's really hard to turn that around. It's too late.
Speaker 1:It's either post for a negative experience. So now imagine this. You're checking in. So now what we are working on today is these tools are working independently. So let's say you make your booking.
Speaker 1:You get the booking confirmation. Welcome to Olive Hotel. Here's your booking voucher. And then the moment you come in, you start interacting with us at the reception desk. The video conferencing device obviously captures all the conversation that's going on in there, and you're able to do sentiment analysis in a live manner.
Speaker 1:And then once you check-in, you go to your room, and then over there, we have we work with a company called Mobigest. Again, it's a young company, which we basically integrated all of the communication with the hotel through just a QR code. Once you scan that, you can order room service, raise a complaint, raise a ticket. Anything you need, that can be done over there. And, obviously, you know, if it's a water bottle, it needs to be delivered in under 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:If it's a light bulb broken, it needs to be replaced. So, I mean, everything has these SLAs. And I think the whole tech stack is giving us an opportunity. So now we're building a data lake where all the information from all these tools gets compiled into one pool or, like, they say, and then we're constantly able to analyze that. So the idea is if we are saying no to something, if they ask for something and we said, we can't do it or we don't have it or, you know, something that went wrong, At that point, we can issue an action point saying that, okay.
Speaker 1:Send a fruit basket. Send a bottle of wine or, you know, send the manager to speak with the guest or let's change the room or you know, I think these tools are really giving us an opportunity to really elevate the guest experience. And I think, you know, a lot of people say that, you know, automation, as I was saying, is about human connection. Where is this going? But I feel that all of these tools are enabling us to focus on what's important, and what's important is the guest journey.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think it's giving us a lot more free time to focus on the more important aspects and where we can pass on the mundane tasks, the back of the house operations communication management, all that to the system where, you know, we can actually elevate the level of service that we are able to provide to the customer.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me a bit about how all of your on-site software works with this data? Like, is your PMS connected, for instance? And would you get some sentiment analysis from a chat that the guest had with the reception. Is that sentiment then connected to the reservation in your PMS so that you can see, is this a repeat guest? And where did they book?
Speaker 3:And how long are they staying? Like, that sort of information. How does that work?
Speaker 1:That is in the making. Obviously, you know, the privacy laws, the GDPR compliance is one area where we are really sensitive about. So, obviously, our AI enabled video analytics does capture does have facial recognition. So just to give an example, you know, we whitelist and black this people. So all of our stuff is whitelisted.
Speaker 1:So at the moment, they are in the camera's view. Their attendance gets recorded so we know who's worked how long or how much, but that's obviously our stuff. So now with the guest, today, these tools are working independently. That is one thing where we are working on to connect this. So, I mean, for instance, the guest experience tool is obviously connected to our PMS.
Speaker 1:But today, the video conferencing tool, the sentiment analysis is not linked to the PMS yet, or the action points that we create out of that are not linked yet. But these are some of the gaps that we are bridging currently. And I think, you know, we do have all the tech tools to realize this in the coming months. This is a work in progress. I mean, I think what we did just recently today, our virtual receptionist went viral.
Speaker 1:We have been working on our patent application for systems and methods for remote hotel management. So that got filed in the US on October 7th. So now we are investing and, you know, building this overarching system where we are able to do exactly that. And I think that is what's really exciting because the moment we do that, we know that we're not gonna miss anything. And as long as we have the resources to react to that issue, whereas it can be anything, I think, you know, we can really elevate the service level.
Speaker 1:So we're in a technological revolution in Andrew Carnegie's times in early 20th century. You know, machines replace manual labor. But today, we are seeing that, you know, artificial intelligence tools are basically I would say replacing enhancing the human capability to such an extent. We are able to replace the mundane tasks with AI, and, you know, it's allowing us to look at more the, you know, human required tasks, which I think hospitality is all about. So I think, you know, to make the long story short and to answer your question, not yet to an extent, but every day is progressing.
Speaker 1:And I think, you know, once we're able to say that, you know, we have this 100% of the journey mapped under, you know, one ticket, and, you know, how was that sentiment throughout, and, you know, how did we act on that? I think that is really exciting and is in the days to come.
Speaker 3:Do you feel like your tech stack right now is pretty stabilized, or do you have some vendors on your wish list or types of software that you're planning to implement in the near future?
Speaker 1:You know, at this moment, it is pretty much stabilized, I would say. You know, no one is perfect. So for instance, our PMS is great, but are we using a 100% of the features? No. Does all the mobile check-in or the guest experience or, you know, a centralized dashboard, you know, are all these tools at best?
Speaker 1:Not really. We're it's always improving. We're always adding on it. I mean, that that's just one example. So I think but, it's stabilized, and we are seeing that our partners are developing further.
Speaker 1:I think, you know, today, some of the things that the hotel is probably not using is the productivity tools. I mean, now we've been testing multiple tools that are out there. I think I saw one tool which is quite interesting, and it kind of it resonate with me. So Duv has acquired this new AI enabled guest experience company, and, you know, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it, start testing it. So I think, definitely, that seems interesting.
Speaker 1:I mean, you have the traditional tools that are out there, which are doing, you know, pretty much what the other tools are doing as well. I think, you know, the ones who are trying to break ground, ones who are trying to pave a new way, I think are quite interesting. So I think the way it's looking is that we are seeing some guest experience tools which are growing. They're adding the check-in process. They're adding more elements of the customer journey.
Speaker 1:So I can see them following in the similar footsteps as we're going as well, you know, because we are going to remote or a digital operator from one route. But I can see some of these companies are naturally evolving into the same point with a different point of entry. So I think can't remember the exact name, but it's a company that they bought just recently. I think that is quite exact. That is the one at this moment.
Speaker 3:I want to shift gears slightly. Can you tell me a bit about 1 or 2 of Olive's top business objectives? What are you working toward in the next year or 2?
Speaker 1:So at this moment, you know, we are doing couple of international brand partnerships that are in the making. So, you know, we have our own set of brands, but we feel that, you know, there are multiple I mean, you have all the big brands in the hospitality space, but already present in India. And, you know, we're pushing Olive as a brand agnostic hotel operator. So, you know, with the ground presence that we have, we feel that we're in a strong position to become a local business development and operating partners for some of these brands in the similar space. So with that said, I think, you know, soon you'll be able to publicly talk about this, but we're working on some international brand partnerships that has been keeping us busy, and it's really exciting.
Speaker 1:I mean, today, India is one of the most underserved markets. We have a population of 1,400,000,000. Just to put it in context, Dubai alone has more hotel branded hotel rooms than India both. So it's crazy. So today, Bangalore has about 18,000 branded rooms.
Speaker 1:Mumbai daily each have about, again, you know, 15 to 20,000. Hyderabad has 8,000. I mean, this should be much, much more. So we feel that, as well as local brands, there's a huge opportunity for international brands in this space as well. And as I said, you know, it's the most undersupplied market in the world, and it's the fastest growing economy.
Speaker 1:So it's an immense opportunity. So I think, you know, the coming years is really bright, especially for hospitality. I mean, we are seeing really double digit tremendous growth both in the branded and the unbranded space. So I think that is the 2 big things that we are focused on working at this moment.
Speaker 3:One thing I'm always curious to hear about, you mentioned you're doing a lot of testing and trying different software or different ways of adjusting your operations. How do you gather feedback from employees or from guests? And how do you analyze that feedback to understand if what you're doing has positive impact or if you need to go back and rethink how you're doing something?
Speaker 1:So, I mean, multiple ways, obviously. I mean, now with the virtual reception, virtual check-in, you know, we were really curious about what people thought. So it is part of our SOPs that our remote receptionists do ask. Sir, how was your experience, madam? How was your experience with virtual check-in?
Speaker 1:So we do get real feedback, live feedback on that. Obviously, when they're giving the feedback in person, they kind of sometimes hold back. But then again, the guest experience app that we use, inside the room over there has the feedback tool. Again, we do collect feedback on that. And at the checkout, again, we do have another tablet where it's a yes.
Speaker 1:Satisfaction survey, basically. We do have the checkout, and, obviously, the online travel agents and the online platform reviews is another tool. So as I was saying, you know, these are at different stages of the customer journey, and, you know, feedback is our feature. So it's really valuable for us, positive, negative. You know, we see what is going right, what is not doing so well.
Speaker 1:So, you know, that allows us to capture feedback at different levels.
Speaker 3:Last question before we wrap up. I am curious to hear if there's anything that you believe about technology that you feel your peers or competitors might disagree with.
Speaker 1:As I said, when our post vitals, it got divided, and a lot of people are saying that, oh, you know, hospitality is about empathy, human touch, and, you know, what is this? So I disagree over there, or we have a a different opinion. We feel that human connection can be enhanced with technology, not reduced. So I think, you know, a lot of industry peers do feel that, you know, 5 star hospitality, when you have a manpower to room ratio of 2 or 3 people per room, Obviously, it's a different level of hospitality, but we feel that technology and advancements in AI, automation, these kind of things are going to enhance the level of hospitality that we're gonna be able to provide. So it's not gonna degrade the level of service that we're giving.
Speaker 1:I think, you know, it can really enhance the level of service, the personalized service that we can provide and actually surprise our guests, you know, with a big smile on their faces. So I'm not saying that not everyone disagrees with this, but, you know, there's a good portion where we're seeing that kind of feedback. But as I said, our firsthand experience is really positive, and I think, you know, soon most of these, tools are going to become common practice across the industry.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing your experience. I really look forward to watching Olive continue to grow. I wish you all the best in the future.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:That's all for today's episode. Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider produced by hoteltechreport.com. Our goal with this podcast is to show you how the best in the business are leveraging technology to grow their properties and outperform the concept by using innovative digital tools and strategies. I encourage all of our listeners to go try at least one of these strategies or tools that you learned from today's episode. Successful digital transformation is all about consistent small experiments over a long period of time.
Speaker 2:So don't wait until tomorrow to try something new.
Speaker 1:Do you
Speaker 2:know a hotelier who would be great to feature on this show, or do you think that your story would bring a lot of value to our audience? Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn by searching for Jordan Hollander. For more episodes like this, follow Hotel Tech Insider on all major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
