Izy Allows Hotel Owners to Provide "On-Demand" Services for Visitors

The digitization of services in the accommodation sector has almost covered upstream to downstream. Booking a room until the delivery of guest satisfaction can be done through a device. Precisely at this time the service within the hotel itself is often still conventional.

Izy is a startup that sees this gap as a business opportunity. This startup was founded in 2018 by three people, namely Gerry Mangentang, Mahesa Al Rasyid, and Gustaf Loho. Gerry who acts as CEO explained that Izy is a platform mobile concierge which helps the hotel in digitizing its services and increasing its revenue.

For example, there is a hotel that does not have its own restaurant, Izy will connect the hotel to nearby restaurants. As a result, hotel guests can still find food without leaving the room. This platform not only helps hotels in ordering food, it can also provide laundry services, room service, and others according to hotel needs.

"Our clients see Izy as a kind Gojek-his. Guest enters, stays check in to the hotel system and then they just order anything from there," explained Gerry to DailySocial.

business model

A total of 82 hotels are now using the Izy platform. The majority of these hotels live in Bali, the rest are scattered in Greater Jakarta, Medan, Balikpapan, and Samarinda. Most hotels that use Izy's services are hotels luxury & leisure. Gerry said that number would soon increase as they reached new agreements with a number of hotels.

Even so, Gerry said, his party was not exclusively targeting this segment. Because the Izy platform can be adapted to the needs of hotels in all classes.

The business model that Izy uses is a monthly subscription system. However, the system is also flexible because there are also those who use a combination system with flat rates or profit sharing. Graduate startups Gojek Xcelerate It believes it can get a large number of customers. Apart from the relatively slow adoption of hotel technology, it is also due to the large number of hotels and inns throughout Indonesia. In terms of competition, there are still few local competitors.

"Of market Indonesia is our competitors from all over the world. But that is also our advantage because the hotels that come with us prefer those from Indonesia," said Gerry.

Pandemic effect

The hospitality and accommodation industry has been one of the worst hit industries since the beginning affected by Covid-19, Izzy is no exception. Gerry admitted that Izy's income has fallen quite dramatically due to this pandemic.

But at the same time, the hotel's response rate in accepting Izy's invitation to join was much faster. The drive for efficiency and looking for new revenue streams forced hotels to look more quickly at Izy's solution. Even though according to Gerry, his party has stopped activities marketing to reduce company expenses.

Facing this famine situation, funding is one solution to prolong the breath. Izy also took that step. Gerry said they had just received seed funding from a number of investors for an undisclosed amount.

"The participants are Indigo Telkom, Arkblu Capital, and Accelerating Asia Ventures," he added.

Anticipate further

The exponentially increasing number of Covid-19 cases to date has clearly weighed on Izy. However, Gerry said that he had devised a new strategy to anticipate the worst situation, one of which was by pivot which is temporary.

Gerry admits the current situation requires them not to rely on hotels as their only source of income. Therefore, they plan to target modern retail outlets and residential settlements as new markets.

"We are an on demand platform, if with this retail we can be considered light e-commerce-lah, but for malls and retail. The focus will be on Jakarta, Bandung and Bali," concluded Gerry.