Otamiser secures $3M to scale hotel booking

Belgium-based Otamiser has raised $3M for its software to improve positioning in search results on travel platforms like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb.

A ranking management solution aims to maximize the ranking of properties on OTAs, so they can leverage the OTAs to the maximum. By leveraging OTAs, hotels can squeeze the maximum bookings from a given channel.

Otamiser integrates with Cubilis (Stardekk) and Hostaway. Those are the ‘public’ integrations; the company has others more locally for individual customers.

The funding round is led by Pitchdrive VC, represented by Wim Derkinderen, Boris Bogaert, and Koen Christiaens. Other investors include Stijn Christiaens (Co-Founder Collibra), Jacob Quartier (Ex-Showpad Director of Finance and Operations), Peter van Praet (Founder Bavet), Viktor De Martealere (Hospitality House hotel chain), Lorenz Bogaert (Serial Founder of Netlog and StarApps), and the founders behind the Henchman project, Jorn Vanysacker and Gilles Mattelin. Additionally, brothers Anthony and Gregory De Clerck (Dovesco) are also supporting the initiative.

"We start from the core idea that ranking on platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb is crucial," says Founder and CEO Bart-Jan Leyts. "We like to compare it to Google and SEO. In the early days of Google, it was a success just to have a website. Nowadays, countless companies help you rank higher on Google. Otamiser does something similar, but for the booking sites market like Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia. Our automated solution helps hotels specifically improve their position on these travel platforms."

Otamiser capitalizes on the growth of booking sites like Booking.com and Airbnb. Hoteliers are now more dependent than ever on these platforms. "We see in reality that nearly three-quarters of all reservations come through travel platforms like Booking.com or Expedia," says Co-Founder and CRO Korneel Defauw. "Research shows that 75% of all bookings on these travel platforms go to the top 15 hotels. Good positioning can make or break a hotel's profit. What we do is place our clients in those coveted top positions. You wouldn't go to page 2, let alone page 5 of Google, would you?" adds Bart-Jan.

Without any external capital, the company has achieved an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of 1.8 million Euros and has quickly grown to a team of 32 employees worldwide. "We started bootstrapped in 2022 and have since realized significant growth, proving that our model works," continues Bart-Jan. "Now it's time to scale quickly. We found an ideal partner in Pitchdrive, who will fully support us in this endeavor," adds Korneel. "With their support, we can realize our vision and make our innovative solutions available worldwide. For us, it's simple: what we do works. Now it's time to accelerate with our dream team and our army of trusted and deeply involved advisors," says Korneel. Bart-Jan's ambitions are sky-high: "We want to roll out our solution to 100,000 units worldwide, preferably within two years. We want to seize this niche as quickly as possible." Currently, Otamiser facilitates 50,000 reservations weekly, and they aim to increase this to 500,000 weekly in the next two years.