July 27, 2022
27th July 2022⎟Paris - After announcing a EUR 2.1 million seed round in March 2022, Namastay is today launching its groundbreaking “one-click” direct booking engine on the market, starting with Paris-based Grand Pigalle Hotel.
Experimental Group’s 9th arrondissement property now offers its guests the opportunity to book and pay for a room in one click. By implementing a streamlined booking engine with a modern payment suite directly on hotels’ websites, Namastay will transform the booking experience for millions of hotel guests.
In 2021, 49% of online payments were made with digital wallets (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay) yet this payment method is almost non-existent in the hotel sector today. Namastay now enables hotel guests to book and pay online securely with Apple Pay, Google Pay or a credit card directly on the hotel website. The booking engine also includes a “pay now or pay later” feature that gives guests and hoteliers more flexibility while securing the reservation.
By optimising the booking and payment process, Namastay helps hoteliers dramatically improve their website’s conversion rate. Approximately 24% of website visitors abandon the checkout process if it requires the creation of an account and 17% drop out when the process takes too long. Namastay’s direct booking engine eliminates these frictions and improves the conversion rate of hotels’ websites by a factor of up to 10.
Direct bookings are crucial for hotels in a post-pandemic context. In 2020, OTAs (Online Travel Agents such as Expedia or Booking.com) captured roughly 64% of online bookings in Europe. Because OTAs charge commissions of up to 25% to hotels for each booking, hotels are eager to boost direct bookings on their website. In addition, direct booking is also hotel guests’ preferred booking channel as they value a closer relationship with the hotel and the guarantee of the best available price.
Mathilde Plegat (COO of Experimental Group) says: ”We’ve been looking for an elegant solution to improve our website conversion for years, without having to change our current infrastructure. At Experimental Group we pride ourselves on being pioneers in adopting the most advanced technologies to ultimately improve our guest experience, which very often starts online. Namastay helps us achieve our direct booking target whilst integrating seamlessly with our existing channel manager, PMS (Property Management System) and website.”
Frédéric Robles co-founder & CEO says: “We are very proud to implement Namastay in such a forward-looking and renowned international hotel group. By optimising the guest booking experience and facilitating hotels' access to modern online payment technologies, we aim to increase hotel margins by increasing conversion, improving customer loyalty, and decreasing dependency on OTAs and legacy providers.”
ABOUT NAMASTAY
Namastay is an early-stage startup founded by four technology and hospitality entrepreneurs: hotelier Romée de Goriainoff, Fintech founder Alain Falys, tech and hospitality investor Axel Wehr and former tech and antitrust lawyer Frédéric Robles.
Through its “one-click to your room” technology, the company enables hotels to offer the best direct booking experience to their guests on their own website. Namastay operates at the intersection of hospitality and fintech with the ambition to become the preferred online direct booking solution for hotels.
