Opening new doorz

• With more than 3,200 hotels in its network in Southeast Asia, 500-backed hospitality company RedDoorz is now eyeing to expand to 8,000 in the next 3-4 years. To achieve this, the team is focusing on the region’s two most populous countries, Indonesia and the Philippines.
• In Indonesia, RedDoorz is banking on the increasing number of young travelers in the nation of more than 270 million people, while in the Philippines, Founder & CEO Amit Saberwal sees international tourism picking up thanks to the country’s efforts to transform public transportation.
• According to Amit, customers in emerging markets like Indonesia tend to make reservations at the last minute, unlike in developed countries where bookings are many months in advance. This means hotel owners in emerging economies need real-time solutions, such as RedDoorz’s proprietary system, which uses big data to predict demand and set room rates for member hotels. The system picks up demand signals including surges in traffic in real-time, so hotel owners can increase prices. Otherwise, hotels will suffer competitively.
• RedDoorz has also invested resources to boost customer loyalty, allowing them to reduce marketing budget and get customers to book directly on RedDoorz’s platform.
• Cost optimization and use of artificial intelligence for automation is helping the push for profitability — Amit revealed that RedDoorz is expected to breakeven by December this year.
• RedDoorz is targeting an IPO in 2027, and the team aims to build the largest hospitality company in Southeast Asia.
• Read the full interview on Nikkei Asia.