easyHotel adopts new open hospitality platform Apaleo to help fuel future growth

European value hotel operator easyHotel has successfully launched a new property management system by Apaleo across its business. The chain, with offices in London, Paris and the Hague, has plans to open many new hotels over the next few years, and has transformed its property management technology to help it achieve that goal.

The hotel chain has become one of a growing number of hospitality providers to switch from legacy property management software (PMS) to more flexible, API-led platforms. These allow operators to add on any number of specialist applications rather than being tied to a single vendor. API applications are often household names that focus on performing one function extremely well.

easyHotel has adopted the API-first, open hospitality platform Apaleo, and says two of the main reasons for the decision were the flexibility it offers and the fact it is enterprise-ready, which means new sites can be onboarded much faster — something that will be key to the brand’s expansion.

The low-carbon operator intends to capitalise on the widespread awareness of the ‘easy’ brand with continued growth across Europe — from Italy, where it currently has no presence, to Spain and France, where it sees capacity for between 10 and 15 new locations. Its existing network of over 40 hotels spans 32 cities in 11 European countries.

Louis Poisson, COO of easyHotel, commented: “Switching out our technology has been a big change but a necessary one to help aid our quick growth across Europe.” “We needed a very robust PMS and we now have a tech stack that is evolving dramatically all the time, with Apaleo at its foundation. It has fundamentally altered how we interact with customers, train staff, and manage all areas of our operations.”

“It’s also very stable and customisable. This means that, when it comes to scaling, every migration and onboarding is seamless, whether it’s a new property or an existing operator we have acquired. An API-led platform gives us a foundation on which we build things on top, such as finance and e-commerce.”

Following successful pilots in strategic locations, it has taken easyHotel just seven months to migrate 4,000 rooms onto Apaleo, performing up to three site migrations per week. This has already resulted in a better guest experience, happier staff and reduced check-in time, which has dropped from an average of approximately four minutes to under two minutes.

easyHotel targets city centre locations with good transport links, close to leisure and business districts. It is flexible in its approach, and incorporates sites that are new build, existing hotels or office conversions, which could be either freehold, leasehold or franchises. The company boasts the highest gross operating profit per square metre in the value hospitality category, and has just launched a new room that emits 20% less carbon than the competition over a 10-year lifecycle.

Philip von Ditfurth, Founder of Apaleo, commented: “The leadership team at easyHotel is targeting rapid growth, and the business needs an enterprise-ready platform that isn’t going to slow them down. By enabling customisation at scale, Apaleo is perfectly suited to high-growth hospitality businesses such as this. Switching a hotel to a new property management platform in only a few hours would have been unheard of several years ago, and it’s this sort of user-friendly and efficient approach that reinforces how API-first platforms put the needs of operators first compared to suite solutions.”