Started by Plamena Petkova and Todor Bobev in 2020, TouchMenu is a Bulgarian startup that aims to digitize the HoReCa industry. The company’s SaaS product digitizes the menus and other services of hotels, restaurants, and cafes providing the owners with an opportunity to deliver better customer experience to their clients, increase income volume and reduce expenses.
With 50+ customers, TouchMenu aims to expand its services on a regional level and conquer new markets. This includes Western Balkans, Central Europe, the DACH region, and the Middle East. New Vision 3, together with some business angels, will help the company in this process with a €370K investment.
With the fresh funds, TouchMenu plans an expansion of its team with people with a deep knowledge of the tourism and hospitality sector. The company has a fully functional module for communication between a hotel and its guests. The next step is delivering a module for the coordination and communication of different hotel departments. Building an event planning section and management module are also included in the future development plans of TouchMenu.
As a SaaS solution, the TouchMenu platform allows for seamless integration and customization for the needs and requirements of the customers. This grants hotel managers full access to the administrative panel of the platform and they can configure and manage any module according to their needs. After using the app, customers report an increase in the average value of a restaurant or room bill of 15-20%.
“Our thesis is that the use of modern technology in the hospitality industry is seriously lagging behind the tendency of digitizing every aspect of our lives. TouchMenu offers a range of digital services that improve the experience of hotel guests by better meeting their needs and wishes during their stay while at the same time effectively reducing hotels operating expenditures by optimizing their internal processes. The combination of an industry need, visionary founders, and market-proof technology convinced us to back the team in their journey to digitize the hotel industry,” Aleksandar Terziyski, Partner at New Vision 3, explains about the investment decision from the fund.
Born from the hardships of the pandemic
TouchMenu started as a software that will transform the menus of restaurants and make them digital. With the onset of the pandemic and the great effects of lockdowns, the founders realized a new and more interesting niche was emerging - hotels. In August 2020 the company focused all its efforts to deliver an all-in-one platform for hotels that many call “a digital concierge”.
Now, using the startup’s web app you can book any activity offered by the hotel - from a table in a restaurant to a spa day, and any group activity. All these features were brought to life based on the feedback provided by the clients of TouchMenu - hotel owners and managers.
Transforming the HoReCa industry
Together with the possibility to provide customers with their own digital concierge, other benefits that are highlighted by the hotels are optimization of the workforce, reducing paper use and paper waste, and better customer experience. As hotels can list all products, services, and activities they offer, guests are provided with all required tools for ordering, booking, paying, and submitting reviews and ratings.
By leveraging AI to track all customer activity in the application, TouchMenu allows hotels to better understand the needs and interests of their guests. Using this customer data provides a more clear picture of the ideal customer of hotels and guarantees a data-driven approach to taking management decisions. With the help of TouchMenu, managers have access to detailed statistics and reports about the guests' activity, tracking orders, upsells, and feedback.
With the help of TouchMenu, hotels can deliver unique and personalized customer experiences to guests. The platform allows customers to set their preferences for food, drinks and activities. Combining this feature with the information gathered from the customer’s activity on the platform, they get personalized recommendations about the food they can get, and the activities they might be interested in.
The company helps in the whole customer journey of a client’s vacation - including pre-stay and post-stay. TouchMenu provides various upselling opportunities as soon as guests book their stay at a hotel. Throughout their stay, guests can leave feedback and ratings, submit maintenance requests, or reach out to reception.
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