TST: How did you come up with the idea?

Luka Berger, CEO: In 2012 I decided to get a summer job in the USA. I was a housekeeper in one of the hotels in Yellowstone National Park. While working there, I realised that the staff organisation was a mess and all I could see was time and money wasted. I figured that there had to be a solution but there wasn't, at least not a complete one. After I got back from my summer job, I explained my experience to Aljaž. We had started a company for IT solutions before my departure to USA, which was brilliant because we had a starting point. We brainstormed a little and Facility was born. The first version of the app had little functionality but after presenting it to a few hoteliers and, together with our first clients, we developed the app that we now have. After two years of development, which is ongoing, we now offer it as a product.

TST: What is the main purpose of your app?

Luka Berger: Our app is meant to simplify and organise workflow in hotels. Whether it is a hotel with 50 rooms or 500 rooms, Facility works. It connects every department in the hotel and makes the communication between the staff effortless and effective. If the hotel still uses paper notes for assigning tasks, it means they can now forget about them. If there's inventory loss, it will decrease. A hotel with 250 rooms can save up to 200 man hours per month with this easy to use application where everything you need to know is just a click away.

TST: What is your assessment of the potential market?

Luka Berger: At the moment we are present in 100 hotels in Slovenia, Croatia and Portugal. This year, we will enter five new countries - Austria, Germany, Italy, Serbia and the UK. Our goal is to reach at least 1,000 hotels. We offer a complete solution and the hoteliers we have met are really responsive and positively surprised about the solution we offer. We have some competition, for example there are some housekeeping apps, but for us, that is just one of the modules we offer. Our advantage in the hospitality industry is that we offer you a complete solution, covering all departments in a hotel.

TST: What is the investment necessary for the realisation of your project and what kind of funding are you looking for?

Luka Berger: At the moment we need investment to enter the global market. As we stated previously, we are entering five countries this year and there are a lot more to go. In 2015 we received angel investments which turned out to be really efficient - and since then we've entered two markets and increased the presence of the Facility app from 10 hotels to 100. So, at the moment, we are looking for venture capital which would enable us to upscale globally and contribute to the whole hospitality industry.

TST: Why is your solution special and different from the existing solutions?

Luka Berger: Facility is different because it is a complete solution for the entire hotel management process - from housekeeping, reception, maintenance to the manager of the hotel. With Facility we are following our three key pillars :

1. Knowledge
We are the most specialised with the most specialised product in the field of hotel operations. Our knowledge is from our own experiences gained while working in the hospitality industry and from developing Facility together with our clients. There are two perspectives of our solution - the management and the employee. We know how to satisfy them both perfectly.

2. Simplicity
Every solution is as good as the users who adopt it. The learning curve for Facility is less than one day, even if the employees are completely new to smart device technology. How can we achieve that? We have worked their work and understand their needs. Fast simplicity.

3. Completeness
A solution is not complete if it leaves parts of the problem to other solutions, which is why Facility aims to cover the operational needs of all hotel employees. In this way, no phone calls, paper or other communicational tools, other than Facility, are needed. This can be achieved only by combining knowledge and simplicity.