eChai Showcase : Class - A mobile hotel booking app
Today on eChai Showcase we are introducing an exciting Australian startup - Class - which is evolving the way the world books rooms by seamlessly connecting guests with premium experiences through mobile app. It's more like Uber for Hotels in Australia.
Here is the insightful and candid conversation with Sam Lee, Co-Founder, Class who recently migrated from England to Australia with the vision of creating his own startup. He has degrees in both Computer Science and Investment & Asset Management. Sam has worked in both the tech industry as a creative and the finance industry as a portfolio manager for an investment fund. Sam is the business lead of Class, focusing on customer development..
Join the conversation to ask any specific question to Sam. You can give your feedback and suggestions as well - it will certainly help Sam improve his product and get encouragement to do even better.
You can download the Class app from AppStore n give it a try. As of now it's operational in Australia only.
How did you come up with the idea of 'Class App’ ?
All 3 members of Team Class have previously been business travellers. We have all experienced the pains of booking hotels - having to search through 30 options, cross-reference the location of our meeting and the hotels on offer, fumble payment details and then having a bad experience because the room we got wasn’t like the picture on the website! We decided to create an app based booking platform offering what frequent travellers need as fast as possible.
What problem are you solving?
Convenience - At its very core, Class solves a problem with convenience and speed. In fact Class is the fastest hotel booking app in the world (sub 6 seconds). Even the current ‘fast’ hotel booking apps still require the user to scroll through a choice of 3-50 hotels. We only deal with the best CBD hotels and calculate a ‘fair City Price’ as the basis of our algorithm. By using our patented location sensitive system. We are able to determine the ‘perfect’ hotel for you within a number of seconds.
In addition, when travelling you are encouraged to join the various different loyalty schemes in order to get slight benefits. However you are then bound to stay with a particular chain of hotel. At Class we know that location is the primary variable in deciding what hotel to stay at. We seek to heighten the experience by offering our special package of upgrades, rewards and bonuses no matter what hotel you stay at. We believe everyone, from graduate to manager deserves to feel like a top CEO.
How does it work?
Class is the fastest and easiest way to reserve your perfect hotel room and enjoy an outstanding experience. Simply drop a pin on a map where you need to be (whether it be your office, meeting place or your favourite bar or restaurant) and our patented algorithm quickly chooses the perfect hotel at the perfect price… personalised just for you.
With its world-class technology, Class is able to laser focus on an exceptional experience for the user. And as an added bonus, special rewards are are awarded with EVERY single booking!
This includes…Room upgrades, Breakfast, Dinners at top restaurants, Free WiFi, Drinks, And even upgrades to the closest 5* hotel.
Class is committed to understanding the personal preferences of their customers and acting upon them. And while it’s true that hotel loyalty schemes are nothing new, hotel owners are almost always guessing what their customers really want. But Class isn't restricted to a physical hotel building or the in-house resturant. Which means they are able to send your favourite drink to your room (Johnnie Walker, please?) and buy you dinner at the number 1 rated Italian restaurant on Urban Spoon! Plus, it’s the first loyalty scheme where you collect rewards no matter which hotel you’re staying at, whether it’s your first booking or your 100th. Class is convinced that EVERYONE, from graduate to director, should feel like a top CEO while traveling.
Class is the only booking platform where the experience doesn't end once you’ve pressed the “book now button”… as it’s only just begun!
What is your target market?
Frequent travellers and city breaks.
What is your competitive advantage?
We are a lean and flexible startup with passionate founders. Our product has been created by frequent travellers for frequent travellers.
How much time did it take you from conceptualization of 'Class App' to actually launching it in the market ?
4 Months
Tell us more about your team?
Sam Lee - Recently migrated from England to Australia with the vision of creating his own startup. Degrees in both Computer Science and Investment & Asset Management. Sam has worked in both the tech industry as a creative and the finance industry as a portfolio manager for an investment fund. Sam is the business lead of Class, focusing on customer development.
Mark Robinson - A talented programmer is a permanent resident in Australia. Mark has a degree in Computer Science from Queens University in Belfast and has previously built applications for banks. One of Marks systems allowed the trade of over $1bn in one day. Mark is the technical lead of the team and primary developer.
Adrian Stone - Successful businessman and angel investor. Adrian setup the AngelCube Accelerator in Melbourne to support up and coming entrepreneurs. In addition to AngelCube, Adrian has also personally invested in over 30 Australian startups. Adrian has come on-board as a full time member of the Class team working on strategy and design.
Class Lads Story
In a smoking blaze of taco filled banter, Mark and Sam discovered they had a mutual love of exercise, creative thinking and fine Mexican beer. They also realized that even though Mark became a programmer and Sam an investment manager, they both had degrees in Computer Science and it made sense to team-up to leverage their individual skillsets.
But due to visa restrictions, they were unsuccessful in securing the work they were looking for. So in an act of desperate rebellion they decided to find a way of creating their own jobs instead! So two weeks after meeting, the lads applied for AngelCube, which is a Melbourne based startup incubator program. It helps driven entrepreneurs expand and brainstorm their ideas whilst learning from top mentors in the area. AngelCube was founded by “The Godfather” of Melbourne startups, Adrian Stone and now includes over 40 influential mentors such as…Bevan Clark and Guy King (Retail Me Not), Susan Wu (Stripe), And Anthony Mittelmark (Venture Logic).
Much to their elated surprise, their ‘off the cuff’ and banterful application was accepted and following a pitch session, was inducted into AngelCube ’14.
And after an intense 13-week program with many hypothesis disproven and ‘back to the whiteboard’ sessions, the lads struck up the ingenious idea of Class. The basic concept was “a personal hotel concierge in your pocket”. The idea impressed and attracted the attention of investor Adrian Stone. So after gaining a new co-founder, the Class team started building the worlds fastest hotel booking app that featured a unique personalised experience especially designed for the user. And it’s this personal touch that has made it the “must have”, of frequent travellers who are looking for the ultimate hassle free Hotel accommodation experience.
What is your technology stack?
Well we originally focused on Android development because of the quick turnaround with releases. We thought it would help us learn quicker and to understand our customers better but interestingly, Sam spent 2 weeks at the airport face-to-face with our customers and only saw a single Android phone in all of his time there! From that point it was pretty conclusive that our target market was on iOS. We spent the next 2 weeks rebuilding that app for iOS, without ANY prior knowledge of iOS development and it worked! We were able to get the app out. We use Parse for our backend so that we could focus on app development and it allowed us to get such a quick turnaround. That’s as far as our tech stack goes at the minute, because we’re mobile only we don’t really need to have a dedicated website other than a basic landing page. We keep things simple.
How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?
Most startups launch their company sat in front of their computer. At Class we do stuff differently. We are literally launching ourselves…out of a plane! Our CTO (who also happens to be terrified of heights) is jumping out of a plane this week and will attempt to book a hotel during free fall. We aim to showcase the easy, speed and type of daredevil that will use Class
What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?
The long term vision for Class is to create a trusted company known for delivering an excellent experience through the efficiencies of the app, quality hand-curated hotel partners and a loyalty scheme that goes above and beyond the customer expectations. We want our customers to be able to book their next hotel in less than 6 seconds with the confidence that it will be close to where they need to be and knowing they will have a great experience. We want the to be able to check-in to their room via the app. So that when they arrive at the hotel they sail past the queue to collect their keys. And when they get to their room maybe we’ve given them a bonus bottle of champagne or a complementary upgrade. We believe everyone deserves to feel like a top CEO.
What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?
Class is available in the App Store now, and they offer a $51 discount for first time users that sign up from their website (http://Class.travel). This includes the ability to earn unlimited credit by sharing with friends and family.
Team Class with Angel Investor - Adrian Stone.
Team Class pitching at Investors Meet at Sydney
