Handy targets 125,000 UK hotel rooms by 2018
Tink Labs, the developer of Handy, a smartphone device for hotel rooms, has announced today that it is on schedule to be in 125,000 hotel rooms in the UK by the end of the year.
The company is targeting one million hotel rooms around the world by the end of the year, with 500,000 in Europe.
Handy smartphones are customised for each hotel and provide free unlimited internet, local and international calls, speed dial to hotel services, and local emergency and essential travel information.
The company has already established partnerships with IHG, Sheraton, Novotel, Mercure, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, and is in hotels including the Ritz London, the Royal Lancaster London and Montcalm Royal London House. To date, Handy is available in 20 cities, being used by nearly 25% of London's hotels, and has been used by 12 million people.
Consumer usage has demonstrated that Handy extends the hotel service footprint and increases the use of hotel services, boosting incremental revenues by approximately 20% on average.
Tink Labs raised $125m (£100m) in its latest round of funding to expand globally, with investors including FIH Mobile, Sinovation Ventures and Cai Wensheng.
Ramesh Arora, managing director of the Montcalm hotel, added: "Having deployed handy across all of our hotels over the past six months, I'm happy to say that it's succeeded in both enhancing our guests' experience and unlocking new revenue opportunities for us. It's a virtuous cycle really - increased engagement begets better service, greater income, and ultimately a deeper understanding of how we can work best for our guests."
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