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How Runtriz Is Powering Mobile Apps For Hotels, with Alonso Vargas

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Alonso Vargas, the CTO and co-founder of Runtriz (www.runtriz.com), a Los Angeles company which has been powering the mobile apps and experiences for Radisson, Best Western, a lot of boutique brands.

What does Runtriz do?

Alonso Vargas: What we do is we build hotel engagement platforms, for hotels and hotel brands, which they can easily white label as a mobile app as a digital experience for guests when they are going to a hotel, or arriving at a hotel, or interacting with a hotel.

How long have you been around for?

Alonso Vargas: We've been around for 12 years now. We've been working with a lot of the major hotel brands, like Radisson, Best Western, a lot of boutique brands, including in New York and here locally. We're going to be working with The Jeremy, which is a local hotel. We've been doing this for about 12 years.

Why would someone use your software, rather than go build their own?

Alonso Vargas: Good question. You know the biggest hotel brands, like Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott, build great digital experiences. However, they also have a big, in-house technical team. What we're able to do, is build that dream for smaller hotels who may not have the resources, they come to us, we bring all the disparate systems and data together, and we create a really great guest experience.

How did you end up building these apps?

Alonso Vargas: We knew there was a big market out there for digital content, especially as the iPhone came out. That's how long we've been around. It was just when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone. When apps came out, one of the really important things he said, was that web apps would be very important components of the iPhone experience. At that point, we had a platform that we had been building for restaurants to provide news, sports, weather, and stocks, and something you could see when you were sitting at the restaurant. We took that platform, and converted it to a web experience. We knew that would be the future of how people would be interacting with hotels, hospitality, and travel. That's when we got started into that business.

What was the hardest part of getting your business off the ground?

Alonso Vargas: We were starting our business just when the recession hit, and travel was one of the big things that was hit. We were at a lot of hotels out in Las Vegas as well, and a lot of them were cutting discretionary spending. So, out of that really came opportunity, because we really learned how to produce revenue for hotels and create operational excellence. Those things were really important in order to get out of that recession, in order for you to make money. That difficulty really became an opportunity.

As an entrepreneur, what's the biggest lesson you have learned?

Alonso Vargas: I think what is really important, is to stay calm, and have a 50,000 foot view of what's going on. Something you have really tough situations, and sometimes you have really great situations, but I think what's really important is that you keep on the vision, and stick to your vision. Doing that will really allow both your clients and your employees to really have loyalty in what you're doing. It's really important to me that you stick to your vision of what your company should be doing.

Thanks!