Sky is the limit: How high can RoomRaccoon fly with their cloud-based hotel management software?

Who says romance is dead? Tech-entrepreneur Tymen van Dyl noticed his girlfriend spent more time dealing with paperwork in their hotel than she did with him. So he decided to solve her – and his – problem by creating software to do that work for her. 

It became ‘the most complete’ hotel management software available, and their SaaS company, RoomRaccoon, is rapidly growing worldwide.

Hotel management software for the new generation

RoomRaccoon offers hotel management software for independently operating hotels. Their cloud-based software helps hotels to automate the booking and check-in process, as well as payments, accounting and managing housekeeping. It also provides ways to grow hotel revenue, for instance, with a website builder and automated upsell feature. The company was founded in 2017 and recently moved its headquarters from Breda in The Netherlands to South Africa.

Van Dyl founded RoomRaccoon out of personal frustration. In 2014, his partner and RoomRaccoon co-founder Nadja Buckenberger got to own ‘the prettiest hotel’ in the Dutch city of Breda. A dream came true. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, remembers Van Dyl. “I got annoyed that I never saw my girlfriend again. When all guests were in bed, she had to do the administration. Processing new bookings and updating the schedule. It was crazy how much handwork that involved.”

Digitising the hotel business

That manual labour rubbed Van Dyl the wrong way. During his tech career, he built systems to automate processes. “I was annoyed that everything had to be done the old-fashioned way. Especially since it was costing me my quality time with my girlfriend.”

So they searched for a hotel management system that fit their needs, only to find none. “I picked up the phone and called ten other hotels”, says Van Dyl. “You run a hotel to create value for your guests, not to toil away over paperwork. But all hotels I called worked in the same way. And they accepted their faith.”

Cheeky problem solvers

So Van Dyl decided to turn his grievances into a project. “We figured The Netherlands had around 5,000 independently operating hotels, many of which are probably well behind on digitisation. So we could make a difference. Moreover, the combination of our skills was ideal.” So after his day job, Van Dyl would join his girlfriend in the hotel to work on an MVP.

The software would be called RoomRaccoon. “It is a quirky name, but it works for us”, says Van Dyl. “Raccoons are intelligent problem solvers, like our system. But they are also a bit cheeky. We’re a disruptor of legacy systems, so we recognise ourselves in the animal’s boldness.”

‘How high can it fly?’

In 2017, the raccoon was ready for an official launch. “We had a dream start”, Van Dyl remembers. “The day we launched, we also won the audience award in a large hospitality innovation show. Half a year later, we had a hundred hotels running our software.” 

That’s when ambition started to creep in, Van Dyl says. “I wanted to see how high this rocket could fly. How it would work in other countries.” So he decided to quit his other activities, hire developers and make an international growth plan.

Bootstrapping their way up

Van Dyl decided to bootstrap his company and is doing so until this day. “We instantly created the revenue we needed to continue growing.” He quickly found he needed teams across the border to service those markets fully. The product started to evolve as a result of its growth. 

“We started as a low-entry system for small hotels like ours. Throughout the years, we took a bottom-up approach to work our way through the market. Now we can offer value for mid-tier hotels with up to a hundred rooms. For smaller hotels, the system is too powerful now. We are a complete hotel management system regarding tools and functionality. That is also a part of growing a SaaS product. Making choices considering the service level.”

Effects of COVID

Despite the rapid growth, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. As expected, the roughly two years where COVID shut down the tourism industry were tough for RoomRaccoon. “We wanted to triple our revenue. But instead, we lost a quarter of our client base. But, at the same time, it made our team so much stronger, and we still managed to grow by 80 per cent in 2020 and doubled our team in size,” says Van Dyl.

The situation had a silver lining for RoomRaccoon. “Many hotels took the opportunity to digitise their business. We can make a difference for them. Some of our competitors also had to downsize, and we were able to bring in that available talent.”

Lessons from Rise by Techleap.nl

After the world re-opened, it was also time for RoomRaccoon to accelerate its growth. Joining Rise by Techleap.nl was the next step to take. “We were honoured to be selected. Coming from Breda, we’re on an island in the Dutch startup and scaleup scene, but being a part of a community of people dealing with the same stuff in their own way is valuable. It’s amazing to have so much knowledge in one place.”

Van Dyl went home with a long list of learnings, he says. Essential lessons about HR, operations or research in user behaviour. “There were certain gaps in our organisation. By talking with other people, you gain that important insight.”

RoomRaccoon’s long roadmap

Now, the goal for Van Dyl is more evident than ever. His company will become the global leader. 

“We’re going to accelerate what we’re doing. Build our brand, the organisation and the trust from clients in so many countries that there’s no global competitor that can do a better job. We may not become the biggest worldwide, but we will be the world’s most valued and appreciated hotel management software. We have a long roadmap full of ideas and will always stick to our vision.”