Startups raising millions of dollars in funding. Expanding like crazy. Plans to expand to 20 cities in a month.
We are not new to these.
However, what startups fail to realize is that having presence in multiple cities or growing 50% month on month is not enough to turn their startup into a real business in the long term. Customer experience matters. That’s why Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world.
Being an ardent believer in the startup ecosystem, I decided to book a hotel using one of the startups in the hotel booking space, Stayzilla, when I had to plan a sudden trip from Bangalore to Chennai.
Everything was good. Stayzilla had a comprehensive network of affiliated hotels. They had key criteria as filters. It was also “appeared” cheaper than oyorooms. Most importantly, I was looking for 24 hour check-in as we needed the room from 8 AM Saturday morning to 9 PM Sunday night.
I zeroed in on a hotel and booked my stay. The marketing copy on the website was impressive and promised concierge. It assures “end to end travel assistance”. I had also clearly mentioned my requirement of the early check-in and late checkout during the booking process.
The order went through when I booked at night. After an hour or so, I receive a call from them saying that my booking was not confirmed since the hotel did not have vacant rooms.
I was surprised because normally hotel bookings are made based on available inventory. I never had an issue when I booked through the bigger portals like booking.com.
Since I was too tired and I had already gone to bed as I had an early train to catch the next morning, I agreed to their alternate suggestion.
My booking went through again. However, this time, they did not take upfront payment. I was asked to pay the entire money to the hotel during check-in. The amount quoted was around Rs 1500 for the duration of the stay.
The problem started on Sunday morning at around 8 AM. The hotel guy started banging on the door to let us know that the booking time was over and we need to vacate. This came as a shock to me as I had made a booking till 9 PM for the same day.
I showed the hotel management my booking email and they said the amount quoted was for one day and since our total time in the hotel was more than 24 hours, we need to pay one more day’s rent.
I tried to call the Stayzilla helpline multiple times. Every time I was promised a resolution. However, nothing happened. After 3 hours of arguing and waiting for the Stayzilla call (which never came), we had to vacate the place.
I had to walk around the rest of the day with my luggage. This was even more frustrating as I had to be in the hospital OP waiting area where my luggage caused inconvenience to a lot of patients.
My suggestions to Stayzilla from a user’s point of view
- Please do not accept bookings when you were not sure of the availability of rooms. This makes it extremely difficult to plan short term stays with Stayzilla- especially business travels
- The website copy and the actual experience differs a lot. For e.g. your website says concierge service. However, I was not offered any help even after repeated calls to the customer care and promises of quick call backs
- Please look at customer requirements very clearly. When I specifically said 8 AM to 9 PM, I should have received the quote for the entire stay duration
- I received the refund for my first order after 4 days. It would have been nice if I got an intimation from your end that this was processed. Most banks do not send alerts for small amounts that get credited to the bank account
- Give a quote when booking is made. I am sure somewhere there was a fine print stating the cost would be additional for more than 24 hour occupancy. But since I mentioned my requirements and you offer concierge service, I assume what you quote me is the final amount
The surprising part is, a few days later, I received an email claiming 100% money back if the experience is not to my liking. I responded to the email 13 days ago and still haven’t heard back from them.
Customer experience matters. Rather than trying to expand too fast, ensure the current markets you are in are well served before moving to the rest.
This is not a one-off case in my experience. Too many growth startups face this issue. Maybe VCs, before deciding to fund companies millions of dollars in subsequent rounds, should look at current customer satisfaction as a key metric.
UPDATE: Stayzilla reached out to me. We discussed ways in which users would be comfortable using Stayzilla and what Stayzilla can do to improve the customer experience. Willing to give them another try.
About me: I am the co-founder of LeadFerry, an all-in-one marketing platform. You can connect with me over LinkedIn or Twitter.