Interview with Patricia Rosselló, CEO & Founder Roibos
Roibos is a distribution marketplace that connects the hotel directly with B2B operators and agencies, efficiently and without intermediaries.
This is the first in a series of interviews dedicated to getting to know our partners and collaborators better; companies whose applications and technological tools are integrated into our platform. From here we continue to build bridges between technology and the hotel sector; commercial relationships, learning and collaboration to continue growing both at company and sector level.
We started by talking to Patricia Rosselló, a professional with a long career and experience who undertook with her own vision of the business to create Roibos, a company that has revolutionised B2B hotel distribution. Roibos is a distribution marketplace that connects hotels directly with B2B operators and agencies, efficiently and without intermediaries.
How does it work?
Roibos is a B2B marketplace that allows all types of hotels to connect directly and without intermediaries with a large number of travel operators (OTAs, wholesalers, retailers, tour operators...). The platform allows content and prices to be uploaded via channel manager or manually, adapting to the expectations of large hotels and chains as well as independent hotels and small accommodations. Roibos only provides the platform where they can connect, a highway between hotels and operators, through which the rates set by the hotel arrive exactly the same to the agencies without adding any markup.
"What does each party bring to me?" Patricia Rosselló asked herself and from the answer Roibos was born "we decided to create a marketplace imitating Amazon where hotels and travel operators talk to each other and decide how they want to collaborate".
"We provide the technology for these two points to connect without manipulating, influencing or interfering in the rates, finally, it is the hotelier who decides who to transact with and what commission to give to each agency. We give a lot of information to the agencies about the hotels: their salesperson, the operations manager, billing... and to the hotels about the agencies: B2B, B2C, OTA's, which markets they work in, their contact person...".
Thanks to this technology, hotels have the freedom to close markets by nationality with different rates in each case if they wish; "we create a distribution dashboard so that it is the hotelier who decides who to work with and under what conditions".
Roibos was born from the need to bring the parties, hotels and agencies, closer together in a global world on a platform where the different players meet. "If you are an agency, you can see the hotels that are willing to transact with you and pay them directly. If you are a hotel, you discover what distribution there is in the world and what value it can bring to your accommodation".
What advantages does the integration with Roibos provide to the hotelier?
First of all, the hotelier saves on management: uploading, mapping,... The Roibos development team faced a major technical challenge to provide access to a worldwide distribution network in a single upload. "We have developed a very innovative tool on a par with booking.com at the time," says Rosselló. The difference with this B2C distribution giant is that the transactional model is different, Roibos does not manipulate rates, it simply facilitates this connectivity highway between agencies and hotels. "A combination between amazon and booking, without imposition, which speeds up contracting between agencies and hotels, reducing costs".
The integration with Roibos has 0 implementation cost, the hotelier only pays according to success: cost per room night.
"Having your hotel live on our platform can take between 15 and 20 minutes, a little longer if it is done through a channel manager", Patricia tells us. From here, each booking is secured with a virtual credit card and the payment is automated two days before the booking.
Everything that is automation will allow the reception and revenue management team to dedicate more time to improving customer relations, upselling or improving profitability.
In short, the integration of a hotel with Roibos allows you to improve diversification, reduce time and expenses, have security when charging, increase bookings and control distribution to the maximum.
How has the arrival of COVID19 influenced your career?
Roibos went live on 17 March 2020, three days after the declaration of the state of emergency.
"The pandemic has been a trigger for digitalisation, the fact that we were born in the pandemic has given us a push. This hotel needs to open up to the world, agencies need to hire, we are locked up, how do we do it: there is Roibos".
Patricia Rosselló explains what it was like to create a company and be born into a pandemic, working remotely from the beginning. This allowed them to listen more to the hotelier and as a result of this closer relationship, their tool adapted to the needs of both hoteliers and agencies. "The final product is very user-friendly, the result of this communication, a real challenge for the team," Rosselló confesses.
How does Roibos contribute to the digitisation of the hotel sector?
"Hunger makes wit; everyone, almost by obligation, has gone digital", Rosselló says when she talks about technology and hotels. According to her, the increase in apps is very positive for the sector and will make it cheaper for hoteliers to make decisions. Surrounding yourself with technology is important, but it is even more important to do it well.
"Getting advice, setting a strategy and choosing the apps that will help you in that strategic plan. Finally, training is essential to equip hotel staff with all the skills they will need to manage this technology".
Roibos is a tool that is compatible with many others, perfect for fitting in with any strategy.
Direct sales vs. distribution:
For Roibos it is necessary to open the focus on this aspect, "diversifying is the key, we must bet on the direct market, on our brand, but it is clear that we do not reach everything, marketing is very expensive; if there are companies that are willing to invest on my behalf with our customers, why not use them?". Roibos ' bet is to combine direct sales with B2B distribution much cheaper than booking.com, with its 0 cost tool it is easy to try and it opens a very wide market that perhaps the hotelier alone cannot reach.
Challenges for 2022:
For Roibos 2021 has been the year of what they have called evangelising, creating a niche in the sector, making this new technology known. Once they have earned a place in the market, the time has come to lay the foundations not only with independent hotels but also with national and international chains and to position the brand not so much as a start-up but as a consolidated model in B2B distribution that provides value to their hotel clients.
GuestPro maintains a close relationship with Roibos, with whom we are collaborating in the celebration of HotelTech Summit events in different parts of the country. We believe it is a very useful tool for our clients that they can easily integrate with our advice and with which they can directly connect their hotel with B2B operators and agencies, efficiently and without intermediaries, adding value to their brand and their business.
