ALICE is a
hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, ...
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
company based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
The company produces an eponymous operations platform that allows hotel guests to use an app on their smartphones to request services from hotel management.
Guests can use both the ALICE app and SMS on their smartphones to request services such as restaurant reservations, taxi accommodations, room service, maintenance work, and other items and services.
ALICE's largest investor is
Expedia
Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacation packages. Expedia.com was launched on ...
which led a $9.5 million funding round in 2016 and a $26 million funding round in 2017.
History
ALICE was founded in 2013 by Justin Effron (
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
), Alexander Shashou (
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
), and Dmitry Koltunov (
CTO).
Effron (a former equity analyst at
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...
) and Shashou (a member of a
UK hotelier family and former employee at
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...
)
devised the idea for ALICE while traveling in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and recognizing the communication difficulties different hotel departments commonly experienced. The two spent 9 months researching the hospitality industry, interviewing around 500 hotel managers and employees during that time. This led to the foundation of ALICE in 2013.
Koltunov, who previously helped build the back end trading management system for a hedge fund, spearheaded the technological aspects of the platform.
The name of the company is an acronym for "A Life-Improving Customer Experience." The name also pays homage to the maid character,
Alice Nelson
File:The Brady Bunch.jpg, 300px, Characters of ''The Brady Bunch'' (Mouse over to identify)
rect 0 0 105 79 #Marcia Brady, Marcia Brady
rect 108 0 211 79 #Carol Brady, Carol Brady
rect 216 0 320 79 #Greg Brady, Greg Brady
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, from ''
The Brady Bunch
''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired five seasons from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three gir ...
''. By 2014, the company counted the Atlantic Hotel in
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it ...
, the Hutton Hotel in
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, and the Setai in
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...
among their clients.
Its first headquarters was located in
Union Square, Manhattan
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, United States, located where Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway and Bowery, the former Bowery Road – now Park Avenue, Fourth Avenue – c ...
.
In February 2015, ALICE received $3 million in seed funding from an investment group that included
Seamless co-founders Jason Finger, Todd Arky, and Paul Applebaum;
Tishman Realty; 645 Ventures; and the founder of Neuehouse. The company had originally sought $750,000 in funding but bumped it up after demand increased. At the time of the announcement, ALICE's clients included
Shangri-La's Hotel Jen, The Gansevoort Group, Standard Hotels, Bespoke Hotels, and Sixty Hotel Group.
In June 2015, ALICE launched an updated version of the platform with real-time translation technology. The technology allowed guests to communicate with hotel staff via the app regardless of any language barrier.
In December 2015, Expedia announced that it had invested in ALICE, but details of the deal remained confidential.
The following month, ALICE relocated its headquarters from Union Square to
Herald Square
Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...
.
Later in January, ALICE announced that they had received $9.5 million in funding from Expedia. The funding round also featured 645 Ventures, Neuehouse founders, and Laconia.
Additional funding came from Expedia in 2017 when it led a $26 million funding round, becoming the company's majority shareholder. In 2017, ALICE also acquired its competitor GoConcierge.
In April 2020, during the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, ALICE developed and released a software called ''COVID-19 Checklists Software'' designed to help
hoteliers
A hotel manager, hotelier, or lodging manager is a person who manages the operation of a hotel, motel, resort, or other lodging-related establishment. Management of a hotel operation includes, but is not limited to: management of hotel staff, b ...
with tools to streamline operations and communications. It tracks progress and provides reports for hoteliers.
Products
ALICE's primary product is a
workflow management system
A workflow management system (WfMS or WFMS) provides an infrastructure for the set-up, performance, and monitoring of a defined sequence of tasks arranged as a workflow application.
International standards
There are several international standard ...
that is used by Front of House and Back of House staff to dispatch, track and execute all requests and communication. The product is used as an organizational tool for hotel management as it provides them with the ability to schedule, record, and recall data on a single platform. It allows multiple hotel departments and systems to communicate directly through the platform while also offering management the ability to monitor the life cycle of any given task.
The platform also has a guest services module that allows hotel guests to communicate with hotel staff using either a
white-label or ALICE-branded app on their smartphone.
The app allows guests to request services and items from hotel staff
and has been described as a "digital
concierge
A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives and helps guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the e ...
."
Room service, maid service, dinner reservations, taxi accommodations, spa reservations, item requests, maintenance service, and more can be scheduled or requested via ALICE's app.
The platform also uses web and
SMS
Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...
options to allow for broader communication between guests and staff.
A 2015 update to the platform added real-time language translation, as well.
The platform works on an
SaaS
Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...
pricing model in which hotels to pay a monthly fee for the service.
ALICE is also looking to expand the product into workspaces and residential units
given its strength in package management and digital concierge capabilities often utilized in both multifamily real estate in addition to hospitality.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://actabl.com/alice/
Hospitality companies established in 2013
Technology companies based in New York City