Exclusive Interview Raj Sahu, Founder & CEO, sysotel.ai

The Indian hospitality industry is recovering after the fatal waves of the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, mid-size hotel owners are still finding it difficult to attract the right customers. This is where sysotel.ai, an Odisha-based start-up is stepping in. Raj Sahu, Founder & CEO, sysotel.ai tells Outlook Business how his company is trying to address the problem systematically with the help of advanced technologies, helping the unorganized hotel sector achieve better pricing, based on demand-supply dynamics. Edited excerpts from the interview

What's your proposition to the mid-scale hotel owners Is there a defined growth trajectory in revenues that hotel owners register on using your platform

sysotel.ai&rsquos proposition is to increase the topline of hotel owners by 15-20% by automating revenue and yield management. Our platform offers 15-20% reduction in customer acquisition cost by implementing Alternate Supply Channels. Overall, mid-scale hotels stand to gain around 25-30% on their gross operational profits by using our technology.

What challenges do mid-size hoteliers encounter in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) ecosystem

The biggest challenge for mid-size hoteliers today is selling the right room to the right customer at the right price and at the right time. sysotel.ai is systematically addressing this with the help of deep technology that decreases volatility in room pricing. We do it by providing real-time data insights on customer demand to hoteliers on a seamless, single-sign-on platform.

How many hotels are currently part of your platform How many do you plan to onboard by end of 2023

Currently, over 1500 hotels use our platform. Through our B2B channel, we are working on a strategic partnership with an Australia-based PMS company, which should open up another 8,500 hotels across the world by the end of 2023. Our marquee hotel clients include Sterling Holidays, Urbanpod (India&rsquos only POD Chain) and Jungle Lodges to name a few.

Who is your competitor in India How do you differentiate your services from others

The automation that we provide to our clients has currently no absolute competition as of now. There are some companies like IDeaS / Duetto / Automize / Pace Revenue / OTA insight and RoomPriceGenie, but all of these are based outside of India and work in silos. But these companies do not work with mid-scale hotels. The only competition that offers services close to our offerings is OYO rooms, but the business model of OYO is capital intensive and is completely different from us. In a bid to scale our business, sysotel.ai has kept its architecture as agile as possible by building micro-services that would enable a third party to integrate with our system seamlessly.

What was sysotel.ai's revenue in FY 21-22 What is your revenue target for FY 23-24 Please share details of how you plan to achieve it.

For FY 22, we had revenue of Rs 1.3 million, for FY 23, we are going to close with a revenue of Rs 7.5 million, while for next financial year (FY24) we are projecting revenue growth to Rs 90 million. We plan to achieve this by offering zero deployment cost and acquiring 5,000 hotels with a monthly recurring cost of $20 (Rs 1500) per hotel.

Are you planning to raise capital to keep pace with sysotel.ai&rsquos growth plans Please share details, also adding how you plan to manage this in a funding winter that is impacted by rising interest rates, growing inflation and global recessionary trends.

sysotel.ai has robust plans to engage hoteliers to build sustainable revenue channels for them. We are working closely with unorganized and small hoteliers in remote parts of the country with an inventory of as small as two-room homestays. We help these small hotel owners distribute their inventory to a global audience. Through this, we are not just expanding our business to the small towns of the country but also adding to the strength of small communities. Our product is making an impact on the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid by deploying zero-cost solutions. sysotel.ai aims to disrupt the hotel technology space by offering low-cost solutions to transform businesses. As far as funding winter is concerned, we aim to wither it by offering all our stakeholders sustainable and incremental returns. We aim to grow at 10-12x year-on-year with a TAM (total addressable market) of over $18.36 billion (global).

RELATED sysotel.ai Hospitality's Pathbreaking Platform