ROOM
Creating a virtual hotel brand.
GOAL
Enable a new hotel experience leveraging individual independent hotel rooms.
MY ROLE
• Co-founder, product
• UX, brand design, guest experience
• Creative direction, interior
• Sales, fundraising, operations
RESULTS
• Improved hotel partner ratings from an average baseline of 2.5 stars to 4.2 stars
• Live in 6 cities, 10, over 20 ROOMs
• 500+ nights booked
• Brought new business model in market
In 2017, I founded ROOM—a virtual hotel brand for the American independent hotel market. ROOM curates the best affordable independent hotels and upgrades individual rooms. We enhance important customer touchpoints like linens, bedding, bath products, and refreshments, then resell the ROOMs as an upgraded offering.
Vision
Our vision with ROOM is to build a travel ecosystem where guests can find a clean, comfortable, technologically advanced ROOM nearly anywhere.
I directed the design of a modular interior that can be deployed on any floor plan.
Customers will be able to easily book ROOMs and completely bypass the check-in process with smart lock integration and digital identity management.
Iterating the path forward
Before building fully connected hotel ROOMs, we first had to establish product-market fit. I designed and sourced an engineering firm to build an MVP iOS app as proof-of-concept.
We also pivoted to a very low capex Refresh model that has resulted in a significant amount of traction in 6 California cities. Guests get a hand-picked hotel that is best in class plus important upgraded touchpoints like linens, bedding, toiletries, and snacks.
