Roovook, a startup that provides sales automation solutions for hotels and convention spaces, announced on the 7th that it has attracted Series A investment from Hyundai Investment Partners and LA-based VC Strong Ventures. The investment amount was not disclosed. Industry insiders say that through this investment, Roovook has laid the foundation for expanding its position in the B2B (Business to Business)-based reservation solution market.
Lubook is a company that has focused on digitizing the analog structure of the event space and room reservation market targeting B2B group customers. In the past, companies and event planners had to manually receive individual estimates from hotels or banquet halls by phone, email, fax, etc., but Lubook has dramatically shortened the sales process by easily creating estimates online using EMS (Event & Sales Management Solution) and allowing space to be viewed in advance with VR content. Lubook services are already being used in about 70 places, including global chain hotels such as Marriott, InterContinental IHG, and Accor, mainly in the Seoul area, as well as fine dining restaurant 'Smith & Wollensky', famous for its lunch auction with Warren Buffett.
In addition, the market has cited room availability management, price volatility, and communication complexity as the reasons why the digital transformation of the group reservation market has not progressed quickly. By structuring this complex process as SaaS (Software as a Service), Lubook is improving demand forecasting and sales efficiency for hotels and providing a one-click reservation experience for customers.
“Lubook has accurately identified a niche in the B2B travel and event industry and is rapidly penetrating the market with its SaaS-based solution,” said Lee Jun-byeong, manager of Hyundai Investment Partners, which led this investment.
Meanwhile, Roovook, which has been operating the 'Roovook Venue Network' that integrates banquet halls and event spaces, has expanded the group room reservation function of hotels and resorts online through the new platform 'Roovook Group Bookings'. The platform provides the function to handle group reservations of 10 rooms or more or long-term stays, which is a market area that most OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) are currently not properly handling.
“B2B reservations in the MICE industry and group travel market are still largely offline-based,” said a Lubuk official. “Lubuk Group Bookings will play a role in resolving the chronic inefficiencies in this market.”
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