Join us for an insightful conversation with Rodrigo Perez Garofalo, founder of Zerf Tech, live from a hospitality tech conference.
In this episode, Rodrigo explores how Zerf Tech is revolutionizing hotel operations by serving as an external IT department and optimizing direct booking channels. He also introduces an AI-powered search tool designed to enhance guest interactions and engagement on hotel websites.
Key topics include:
- Zerf Tech's mission to simplify technology integration for hotels
- The importance of direct channels for hotels and brand control
- A case study on doubling conversion rates through A/B testing
- Innovative AI-powered search technology for personalized hotel recommendations
- Advice for hoteliers looking to integrate advanced technology solutions
Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn page.
The Modern Hotelier is produced, edited, and published by Make More Media: https://makemore.media/
Episode Links
Rodrigo Perez Garofalo
David Millili
Steve Carran
Steve on LinkedIn
The Modern Hotelier
Transcript
Automatic Transcription - please excuse any errors
Steve: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier, coming to you live from Hitech. I'm joined by my good friend, Rodrigo Perez Garofalo from Zurf. Thanks for joining me, Rodrigo. How are you doing, man?
Rodrigo: I love it. I'm all the way from Argentina. First time in high tech. So first time, first time here.
What are your first impressions? I mean, I feel, I've been to other conference like WTM and it's like much bigger, much more. I feel like this is more family, more small, but there's still big though. Lots of. Like good network opportunities. People are really open. People are very friendly. Yeah.
Steve: And drinks are always
Rodrigo: flowing. Yeah, that's true.
Steve: That's for sure. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rodrigo: You live in Argentina, correct? I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yeah. That's where we have our company base. We travel a lot to here. Yeah. To visit clients and everything, but yeah
Steve: That's a little bit of, uh, why I'm here and why I come here.
Expanding into the U S a little bit more. So could you tell us, by telling us a little bit more about ZURF and the vision that drives the hospitality industry? Yeah, for sure. So
Rodrigo: like ZURF, we're basically, you know, you probably know how difficult it is to like build, manage and integrate technology in the hotel operations.
So we make it easy for hotels by being their IT department. Okay. So they figure out their tech stack. We make all the integrations they need. And we're currently working a lot on developing their direct channels. Okay. So improving, optimizing with a lot of focus on the UX and the booking journey. Sure.
And then. We came into hospitality kind of by like accident because we landed three clients there and we found it such a great space to work in because hotels are trying to serve their guests and give them a great experience. And we're trying to do the same on the digital space. So every touch point you get with the, with the guests, we're trying to make it as good as possible.
So it has the same level as, uh, the property you have or the hotel you have.
A lot of the clients we work with, we found like the pattern, they all were struggling with technology. So we were like, okay, there's, there might be something here to work on. And like, they have so many ideas, so many projects they want to push on and tools that they want to implement, but sometimes they don't have like the people to do it, like developers and IT team, except you're like a branded hotel.
Sure. But that's where we come in, we, we, we try to be like that glue that binds everything together and basically makes the hotelier's childhood. Easy. Like they don't have to be thinking about technology all the time. It has to flow. It has to be a part, but it doesn't have to be the focus. Focus should be to serve the guests, to, um, Increase that guest
Steve: experience, right? That's their job. And now I love that because we talk about that and we don't want technology to inhibit the guest experience or be a distraction because we just wanted to help the people, help the guests and then let the staff kind of. Make the experience. Do their thing. Exactly. Do their thing.
Rodrigo: That's their thing.
And yeah, we feel like our goal is that, our vision is that, to free hoteliers to make their, their operations as best as they can.
Steve: Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell me about a hotel that decided to utilize ZUR Fentanyl? Kind of their Fed success story or kind of the benefits that they saw.
Rodrigo: Yeah.
Steve: So I'll
Rodrigo: mention a little bit about the direct optimization, direct channel optimization, and I think the best case study we have is from a resort.
We started working with them on like a really technical project, like technology migration, and by talking with them and like different stakeholders, we realized they had a problem, like on their direct channel, they were spending lots of money marketing, nobody was booking. So LodgIQ 08, not that much guest satisfaction and we were like, okay, we might be able to help.
Well, let's try to figure something out and we'll get back to you. So we started reviewing all like their website, the initiatives that we're doing. And we came up with a list of improvements we can make. We implemented some analytics tools so we can actually see what was working, what was not working. So making some dashboards for them.
And then we started experimenting. So experimenting was like, okay, we'll do a little small change on the website. We, we do 50 percent of the traffic to the new version, 50 percent to the old version. So CWatch performs this, and we run about like 30 experiments of them. Wow! You did 30 A B tests with them?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy man, how? In a span of two months, and they double conversion rates on the website. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doubled?
Steve: Yeah.
Rodrigo: In how long?
Steve: In two months. Two months, they doubled their conversions? Yeah. So why do you think direct channels are so important to hotels? Like, how did this benefit them? Yeah,
Rodrigo: I guess like we started working, it was our first like, uh, project with a direct channels, honestly. And I seen a lot of people like trashing on OTAs and saying like, Oh, so much commission is a pain to win model, which is true in a way it's very true. But I feel like those kinds of companies got us to where we are now here.
Yeah. Like the guests expecting something really high bar when they're booking. Sure. But I think that. That got us here where we are now, but it's not going to get hotels to where they want to go right at the end of the day. And I feel like building your, your direct channel is a great asset because first of all, you have to showcase your brand and you get to show all of, all of what your hotel is about and what your values are and show your properties in the best light you can.
Then you also have the customer retention, which everybody knows that. It's easier to get a recurring customers than getting a new one. So if somebody books direct, they already have like a relationship with you and you can seamlessly get them into like your, your loyalty program. You can then market to them like without that much friction, because, uh, getting, uh, an email from a company you booked through a third party is like.
And then the last one, which I think is really important too, is like the health of the business. Because if, if you have like 80 percent of your occupancy coming from OTAs and they decide to make a change all of a sudden. You're in trouble. And then you lose like 30 percent of your business. That's going to mean layoffs.
That's going to mean a lot of pain.
Steve: So as we've seen on the trade show for us, there are a lot of different tech companies here, right? What sets Zurf apart from, you know, the rest of these companies and really makes you stand out in the hospitality industry?
Rodrigo: I feel like we, we do a really great job. To every single day working with hoteliers.
So we will become a part of their team in a way like we get all the requirements from them. And then we work from there feel like, uh, obviously being a SAS company or a tech vendor, sometimes you implement the solution. And maybe give some support, but they're not going to help you connect you to your, like, CRS or PMS, or build a holistic dashboard.
So that's where we, we kind of come in. We try to solve the biggest problems for hotels. Not only implement you a new tool or something shiny, uh, or whatever they want, but trying to really solve a problem and think about ideas and brainstorm with them. And like I said, I feel like sometimes. They don't have that, that technology part on the company and that's, that's where I feel we shine.
Steve: yeah. Wait, one thing that I love is I feel like a lot of companies in this industry, they'll put the product in and then when something goes wrong or they need support, it's kind of hard to get a hold of them. You seem like you are like focused on people from the get go and making sure that not only the staff is in a better place, but also creating that better experience as well.
Rodrigo: Yeah, for sure. That's like, That's exactly what we love to do. We, we all come from like a product background and technology background. So we're all about like the experience digitally, but also like the guest experience and how it
Steve: feels on the, on the hotel. Yeah, absolutely. What are some innovative technologies that Zurf introduced recently and how has that really transformed the guest experience?
Rodrigo: Yeah, so the service we're doing the most right now is, uh, direct channel optimization, but as I said, we're tech people. So we like to experiment and build small products and stuff. So, and it's funny, we launched a product and then one of the biggest hotel chains launched exactly the same. And we were like, no, man, this is so bad, but it was crazy.
So we built an, uh, a, AI powered search. Uh, for, um, really big hotel chains and like short term rentals, like Airbnb and stuff. Sure. So you basically, you have like your natural language. You said, for example, I want to go with my wife to Croatia and have a pool and lots of greens. Yeah. So the algorithm is going to try to match you to a property that's like that.
And it's going to give you like a percentage of, wow, like the match you have. And if you don't have a Croatia, you can also like. It may appear like, okay, this property is in Montenegro. Yeah. It's still on the Dalmatian coast and it has a pool, green, and it's cheaper than the usual. So it's going to give you like a sales pitch of the property.
It's going to try to fit as much as it can with what you want. And for them, it increased like the engagement of visitors to the website for 43%. So 43 percent more people on the website were interacting. Wow. And before.
Steve: Going away. So, yeah, that's crazy. I would love to go to a site and it's like, Hey, I want to go to Argentina.
Tell me where this is where my qualifications, here's my price point. Just give me a hotel. It's been
Rodrigo: done a lot for like trip planning, but not really for accommodation. Sure. And he said, I feel it's a way. Easier model to, to, to do. And we're also trying to like give it for free for companies so they can try it for a bit and get some case studies.
So yeah, it's, uh, that's one of the,
Steve: the first one that comes to mind. That's awesome. So what advice would you have to hoteliers or hotels that are looking to integrate a more advanced ZURF. There's this phrase, I don't know who said it.
Rodrigo: Everybody says ZURF. Einstein said it, but nobody knows in the internet nowadays, but he, he said something like if I had an hour to save the planet, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about the solution.
It's great. So like whenever, um, people usually jump to the solution space really fast, because I feel it has less uncertainty. You're like looking for vendors, looking for tools and stuff. And when you're actually trying to understand a problem, you feel like you're not working. You're just thinking, you're just thinking, uh, try to talk to people and understand it.
But I feel like that's where the real impact is, because those projects where you only think about solutions are usually deemed to fail. And even if you, like, I always recommend go talk to your guests, go talk to your staff. Understand what they're struggling with every single day. What's their biggest pain point?
What, what are they missing? And, and that's, I feel like the, the best advice I can give because. You can even find a solution that's not tech. It's going to be cheaper and you're not going to have as much headaches with it. Right. And even if you need technology for it, you're going to be much more informed of what you need, what the requirements are, what the costs are.
So I think you're going to be better off and that's. That's my small piece of
Steve: advice. That's some good advice. That's some good advice. So Rodrigo, this was awesome. Thank you for joining me. How can people get a hold of you and find out more about Zurf Tech? For sure.
Rodrigo: Uh, you can find me on LinkedIn. We also have our website, Zerf.
Tech, Z E R F. Tech, and we're actually opening up two slots for next few, for our conversion optimization. So if anybody's interested in that, hit me on LinkedIn. And we'll have a talk and try to help them. Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you so much for having me.
Steve: Thank you. It's been a blast. Thank you for joining us.