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PROFILE

AI is now powering your guest experience.

Today, we meet Francois Gouelo and learn more about Enso Connect. 

What is Enso Connect?

Enso Connect is an AI-powered guest experience platform for vacation rentals and boutique hotels that helps personalize and monetize interactions all along the guest journey.

From upsells, guidebooks, smart lock-connected contactless check-in, white-labeled guest verification, AI-driven multi-channel messaging, and more, Enso Connect navigates guests through an effortless digital journey. With “If This Then That” capabilities the Enso Connect platform is highly configurable. We connect tools hospitality professionals love to simplify operations and boost profits at scale.

What was the inspiration behind this?

Enso Connect started as a student project at the University of Toronto, the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab.

We were tasked to come up with a solution to an entrepreneurial problem with a robotics focus. Equally loving travel and technology, and having experienced frustrations with Airbnbs, I chose to work with smart home devices. Around the same time, in February 2019, I went to Mont-Tremblant for a weekend ski-trip with friends. When we arrived at our Airbnb, the key was frozen under the doormat. We had to use lighters to melt the ice just to get inside. Once in, we struggled with a confusing heating system and couldn't reach our unresponsive host. After we left, the host contacted us nearly a week later, claiming we'd left a window open and turned off the heating, resulting in frozen pipes and $5,000 in damages.

This experience highlighted the need for smart devices, better communication, and a more responsible approach from homeowners. It inspired us to create a solution.

How else are you solving a problem?

Property managers need up to 10 pieces of software to run a well-rounded short-term rental business. This complicates operations as well as affects the experiences on the guests' side. Enso Connect is defragmenting the guest experience management for vacation rentals and boutique hotels, connecting best-in-class solutions under one platform.

Our users' favourite feature is the Boarding Pass. It's an AI-driven dynamic web-based guest app, a one-stop portal for travelers, leading them through the entire journey, from booking to checkout. This allows property managers to build smooth digital guest journeys and personalize interactions with customers before, during and after their stay.

What do the next 12 months look like?

Our vision is to build the future of guest interactions, allowing everyone, from individual Airbnb hosts to Fortune 500 hotels, to create communities of loyal guests, build a brand and generate more revenue.

We want travelers to book an “Enso-connected property” because they know they will get the convenience of a hotel, all while getting the experience factor of a vacation rental property.

To achieve this, over the next 12 months our team will concentrate on enhancing our product across three main areas:

• AI Unified Messaging to streamline communication and reduce costs

• Hospitality Upsells to increase revenue per guest

• The Boarding Pass App to improve the digital guest experience

What is a piece of advice you wish you had been given early on?

To achieve product market fit, you have to keep failing; whatever you think the solution is today, it’ll be different tomorrow.

Who are the Canadian companies you admire in your market?

Autohost - guest screening and verification

Hostaway - all-in-one vacation rental software

Jetstream (Leavetown) - finding the perfect local getaway in seconds

Lifty Life - vacation rentals in Western Canada

Angel Host - helping short-term rental managers out perform their market

Are you hiring?

We are! Check out our open roles here: https://ensoconnect.com/careers/ 

Interested in learning more about Enso Connect?

Francois will be presenting at our upcoming TechTO: Travel event on May 9. Make sure you’re on the list to meet and mingle with Francois and other leaders in the travel space in real life.

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