“One of the key things we learned is we’re no longer just selling rooms as a hotel,” Reinier Bunnik, Operations Director at Zoku, told us. “We’re selling time and square meters, and this is where we had the opportunity to provide what we call ‘hybrid hospitality.’” Zoku is a fascinating story of hospitality provided for the growing population of globetrotting professionals, digital nomads, and remote workers. Opened in 2016, the Dutch brand invented a new category in the hotel industry with its home-office hybrid concept, Zoku Loft. The brand aims to support the future of work with its multipurpose business facilities that allow employees to connect while working from anywhere. The concept, which goes beyond the standard hotel goal of “putting heads in bed”, has won numerous awards and received glowing reviews from guests for its vibrant Social Spaces, sustainability initiatives, and unique community that facilitates connections between residents and locals. Reinier knows something about that globetrotting life himself, having lived on three continents and worked at everything from 3-star hotels to 5-star resorts. “I think I'm probably a good example of a hospitality nomad,” he laughed. “One of the greatest things about hospitality is that you can throw a dart on the global map and you can probably work there. This industry certainly provides the greatest adventures and stories to tell in the bar at night.”
Building for growth
While the Zoku brand started with incredible design, savvy operators like Reinier understand it takes more than a cool concept to build a thriving brand. There must be systems behind the scenes that allow you to deliver on the promise of your brand experience. And they need to do that in a way that helps you grow.
“When you’re a young company you end up with a bunch of systems and tools because someone along the way thought it was a good idea, but it often turns out to be a house of cards,” Reinier observed. “We needed a core, integrated technology stack that would sustain the growth and scalability of our brand.”
Without systems that interacted with each other, reporting on performance was challenging. “At some point, you have to evaluate if things are working or not. You can’t just be happy-go-lucky and hope things work out.”
With big plans for growth ahead, Reinier realized the infrastructure they had was not going to support the business they wanted to build. Specifically, their technology needed an upgrade to help them realize their goal of selling time and space instead of just traditional rooms.
The need for better technology
A core piece of technology for hospitality businesses is the Point of Sale (POS) solution.
“POSs tend to specialize either in the restaurant world or the hotel world,” Reinier noted. “But what we have with our WorkLofts and co-working with a breakfast, lunch, and dinner operation - required something else. Zoku is a staff-light concept, so I couldn't have multiple people serving each of our terraces.”
In this fast-moving, complex operation, ease of updating inventory was important. “When we run out of something we need to update it quickly because people are ordering via QR code.”
Running an operation in multiple countries with a global customer base also required technology that supported that. “Taxes are different across the globe, and not every system can support this properly,” Reinier shared as an example. “I needed something that could translate between currencies and taxes to give me a real-time report on all assets and locations.”
