.svg "Horizontal Logo (1)")
Meet Apaleo, Breezeway's newest integration partner! The Apaleo and Breezeway integration provides real-time updates on property and room status, reservation information, and other API-informed operational updates. We connected with the Director of Growth at Apaleo, Thibault Gence, to get a deep dive into what makes the company unique, how the tool will change the hospitality industry, and how Breezeway users can get started.
Tell us about Apaleo - Who you are and your visions for the hospitality industry.
Apaleo is a Munich-based scale-up founded in 2017 by more than 10 co-founders which makes it already unique!
Our vision is to transform the hospitality experience from the inside out with an open technology platform and state-of-the-art APIs that accelerates innovation. In simple words, we’re redefining what a property management system does for accommodation businesses by focusing on providing scalable and flexible platforms alongside a Plug&Play marketplace (Apaleo Store). This allows operators to easily connect the apps they need, like Breezeway, for their specific concepts as well as easily integrate their custom and proprietary applications.
Our long-term goal is that any hospitality business out there never has to be frustrated or limited by their software.
Guest service has always been core to the hospitality industry. How do you think this trend continues to evolve and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead?
Indeed, our industry has always been at the forefront and a benchmark when it comes to service quality but has started lagging behind as soon as service had to be paired with technology. Guest expectations have drastically changed in recent years and phygital industries like banking or retail have raised the bar extremely high when hospitality stopped moving for some time.
Travelers’ status quo will continue to evolve and be more and more demanding when it comes to seamless experiences and self-service options. With the new bread of technology players out there as well as the rising realization that in-house tech teams can be a great competitive advantage, hospitality businesses have a huge opportunity to catch up and reinvent themselves and their concepts. Some companies have already done it with the likes of Limehome or Numa, and even household brands like Soho House with their new motel concept Mollie’s or Vienna House’s CEO, Rupert Simoner with Vagabond Club.
How many different tools and technologies does Apaleo integrate with? Why do you think managers have expanded their technology stack in recent years?
Generations are changing and the people reaching management positions have a different skill set as well as understanding when it comes to technology. Their career paths are also different from what they were decades ago, not always coming for hospitality. They know that the good use of software can be a critical factor in any business’s success.
That was, and remains, one of the core pillars when building Apaleo. We don’t want to build an all-in-one system because we’ve seen them collapse in the past and put their customers in difficult positions. You can’t do everything perfectly. That’s why easy and free connectivity to our APIs is at the heart of what we do and it’s been proving to work with more than 150 applications joining our store and tens of custom applications built by our customers.
What makes the Breezeway - Apaleo integration special? How can professional managers use the integration to optimize their day-to-day work?
>Breezeway in itself is already special for providing an intuitive user interface and extensive functionality set! What makes the integration special is real-time transfer thanks to Apaleo’s web hooks which means the API is driven by events rather than requests. Everything that happens in Apaleo is directly sent to Breezeway (and the other way around when relevant, like room status updates) which enables operators to be extremely efficient. Professionals can optimize their day-to-day work by providing one place, Breezeway, for all operational staff like housekeeping and maintenance teams to do their work without looking into Apaleo, and for front desk and reservation teams to have updates in Apaleo without consulting Breezeway.
How can Apaleo help hoteliers deliver a better guest experience, and why is this important?
Apaleo supports a better guest experience by providing best-in-class integrations to many 3rd party applications which directly or indirectly impact the guest experience. In the Apaleo Store, operators can find guest journey applications to automate check-in payment & checkout, directly enhancing the experience at reception, collaboration tools like Breezeway to streamline processes and therefore give staff more time to take care of guests, omnichannel messaging apps to enable customers to communicate on their preferred channel and many other tools to make the stay more enjoyable for customers.
How can a hospitality operator get up and running with Apaleo?
One of our mottos at Apaleo is self-service meaning, operators should not have to wait for a sales or implementation team to see and try the product or go live with a new property. To try the platform, they can just create an account and either start creating their first property, rooms & rates or add sample data to just play around. To go live, they can just do that on their own which is own of our key differentiators. Obviously, our teams are more than happy to discuss their specific challenges and needs over a call.
Lastly, what's one key takeaway people should know about Apaleo, and where can they go to learn more
Leading edge & forward-thinking operators run on Apaleo to have maximum flexibility. Check out some of the cool companies that have built their technology stack on Apaleo to maximize efficiencies or create the most advanced digital guest journeys.
Visit our integration page to learn more about how Breezeway and Apaleo work together.