The Romanian IT developers that had the courage to compete with Oracle

Dan Paun (28) and Daniel Nita (29), two Romanian IT experts with a background in web development and mobile applications are developing an innovative property management system for hotels and other properties that can be operated straight from your smartphone. Information such as the number of reservations and the progress of cleaning services can be monitored in real time, the developers say. The app, which will be launched this autumn and promises to offer more and better functions than the current solution put on the market by IT giant Oracle.

What market need does Front Desk Pro meet? How did the idea to set up a startup to address it come about?

FrontDesk Pro is solving the need for an integrated management software solution in the hospitality industry. A hotel needs to be better connected to its customers, to its business partners, like the booking agencies, to its staff and also to the regulators. They use different software products to solve this and the worst part is that most of that software is outdated, it has that Windows 95 feel and looks. We started talking to many hotel owners, big and small, and this is what helped us decide to set up our company to address this problem.

How does Front Desk Pro work?

A property management software, Front Desk Pro performs key financial and organisational for properties, such as reservations – it integrates external points of sale and reservations management, guest reception – it schedules check in and check out operations, encoding of access cards, progress of cleaning activities, room management – it ensures the proper functioning of the property via alerts and notifications of the staff. The software also manages stocks and cleaning schedules and client communication. It integrates POS and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services and has advanced, customised reporting functions.

What makes the difference is the fact that the software is stored in cloud, and can be accessed from everywhere against a monthly fee. This reduces sharply the initial costs as well as the need for an IT infrastructure, which favours small property managers. Moreover, the software is intuitive and easy to use, and can adapt to the needs of the hotel.

What is the background of the founder (s)? And that of your team members?

We come from the software industry and worked together in the past 5 years in IT outsourcing, where we delivered similar projects to clients in Romania and the region. Our previous experience included, web development projects, mobile applications and large database development. We are also benefiting from the help of two advisors, industry veterans with decades of experience in running hotel operations in Romania.

What market(s) does Front Desk Pro target?

Front Desk Pro targets the small and medium hotels in Romania and the wider region (9 countries in total), that need an easy integrated, plug and play solution.

Who are your competitors?

Our main competitors are Oracle’s OPERA Micros and Mews Systems. What makes us different is the capability to conduct the entire hotel management using a smartphone and the advanced reporting system.

What are your biggest challenges and who gave you most support?

Our biggest challenge right now is to expand our team and hire the right talent to support our growth. Directly related to that, we are looking to raise our next round and are trying to find smart money to support us through the next stage in our evolution. In the development phase, most of the support that we have received came from Young Leaders Club. Front Desk Pro was part of their incubation program for startups.

In what stage of development is your start-up right now?

We are in private beta right now and we are testing our software with 5 different hotels. We plan to launch before the start of the summer season.

What are your plans for this year and for the future?

We are looking to raise USD 500.000 to build a bigger team and add more features to our product, but also to offer our clients the proper support. In terms of business development we plan to sign at least 15 clients this year, with at least 10,000 rooms. After two years of focus on the Romanian market alone, we plan to expand in the region, Bulgaria and Greece being our next two target markets.