While recent downturns in the economy have caused challenges for those in the hotel industry, one Los-Angeles based tech company is providing solutions that it believes could help aid in the recovery of the hospitality market. Through its app, Jurny aims to provide hotels across the globe with seamless, touchless experiences, making hotel stays easier and more efficient for guests and hotel owners alike.
“We had a very specific goal to disrupt the hospitality industry,” David Phillips, co-founder and president of Jurny, said. “…Today’s consumers are very savvy, they know what they want. Technology has allowed for a world of seamlessness and ease when experiencing whatever product you’re experiencing. Whether it’s calling a personal driver on Uber, whether it’s streaming entertainment anytime, anywhere from your phone with Netflix, or ordering food from your smartphone. It’s all super easy, trying to remove the impediment between the consumer and the experience, and we wanted to do the same type of thing in the hospitality space.”
Since its founding in 2017, Jurny has aimed to offer hotel accommodations in a way that is accessible and easy for both hotel owners and guests. Through its app, guests are able to book, check-in and check-out of their hotels. In partner properties, guests also have access to touchless, automated features, which has proven to be beneficial amid COVID-19 concerns, Phillips said.
“We sought out to create technology and build automation around providing a very seamless experience for travelers, where they can see what’s around them in real time on their app, book on demand, have access on demand, never have to talk to anybody, almost the ease of staying at their own home but they’re traveling around the world,” he said.
While based in Los Angeles, Phillips said the techcentric aspect of the company has allowed them to work in markets across the globe. Currently, the company manages 635 hotel units in approximately 30 hotels. Current markets include Dallas; Nashville; South Beach Miami; Panama; the United Kingdom; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Manhattan.
“We were somewhat opportunistic on which markets and what clients we’ve met through networking, who have a need for this service. When COVID-19 hit, [the company] kind of took a life of its own because all of a sudden, there was an instant need for tech automation, not having to see anybody, not having to appear in a lobby, getting your own little space and also hotels needing to adopt automation,” he said.
While launching into a lot of these markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, Phillips explained the global expansion has been both beneficial to the business as well as to hotels looking to bounce back after national and local lockdown regulations.
“By building this technology, we’re able to offer management service where we remove the fixed cost associated with running the hotel and we create much better margins, and so they needed that through COVID-19, because revenue plummeted for the whole industry. If you can improve on the margin, you can potentially stay open and profitable so that kind of guided us into these new markets and the demand that naturally kind of progressed in these markets,” Phillips said.
Most recently, the company has expanded into Manhattan with its revitalization of the Blue Moon hotel. Located at 100 Orchard Street, the 22-unit hotel is owned by developer and artist Randy Settenbrino, whose art is featured throughout the property. While keeping the historical aspects and art the same, Jurny has implemented new features at the space, including keyless entry, new furnishings and other smart technology implemented throughout.
“If you have a unique design and you have something that stands out and has a boutique feel that is different from standard, when you’re on a booking platform – like AirBnb or Booking.com or expedia – you compete directly, and whatever unit looks better is going to get booked. It levels the playing field,” Phillips said.
He continued, “…We didn’t want to lose the art that [Settenbrino] created over the years and we actually thought it was perfect because the mesh of tech and seamlessness, which is experiential value, and then the artistic, which is the feeling you get when you stay there value. You marry the two, and that’s the ultimate product in our opinion.”
Looking ahead, Phillips said Jurny hopes to continue its expansion efforts by diving further into the company’s existing markets. While founded in Los Angeles, the company currently has not expanded efforts out West. However, this is also a likely next step for the company, Phillips said.
“Every time we do get into a new market, because we have those historicals, we have a very strong proof set for those markets, so we like to grow heavily more into that market,” he said. “We have a lot of deals coming live in New York over the next six months, Miami as well, we’re aggressively growing into Miami and Nashville. We’d like to be on the West Coast. We’re pretty close to finalizing some things in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, some of the main pillar markets in the US. It is a true tech offering so anyone who has a need we are able to service that market because of the technology we built. We want to make sure that’s available to everybody.”
