Treebo Hotels launches tablet app 'Bumblebee' for hotel partners

Bangalore-based chain of budget hotels Treebo Group announced the launch of a tablet-based property management system for their hotel partners 'Bumblebee', which will be used by property managers to manage all tasks related to hotel operations, including check-ins, check-outs, new reservations, room assignments, payments, fulfilling guest preferences, billing for food and beverages, laundry and others.

"In the budget segment you cannot afford highly-skilled manpower as it comes expensive. You therefore need to innovate using technology to simplify and hardwire tasks, and thereby reduce errors and time taken for completion. Bumblebee has been designed keeping this in mind. And that's why we built it on a tablet," said Co-founder and head of technology and products, Kadam Jeet Jain.

"This is the first-ever, stand-alone tablet app for hotel managers. And it is a big shift away from desktop based systems, which are often too complex and time consuming. This app helps us crash our check-in times, for example, to less than 3 minutes, when in traditional set-ups it would take 15-20 minutes. Besides, it also helps keep the hotel data safer as the system can be accessed from hotel premises only," added Kadam Jeet.

Treebo's move to replace desktops and pen-paper based system with tablets is also part of this larger trend of startups investing in supply-side technology in addition to consumer tech.

"You cannot offer good experience unless you remove inefficiencies at the hotel reception. This is where Treebo has done with Bumblebee. Traditionally, guest preferences like twin-beds, early check-in would get lost and forgotten. With Bumblebee they are prominently notified to the manager at the time of check-in," said Shailendra Khandelwal, one of Treebo's partner hotels.