Have you ever asked yourself why you can't pick a hotel room the way you pick an airline seat, a rental car or a seat in a movie theater, concert or play?
Atlanta startup Koridor wants to catch hotels up with the rest of the travel industry and allow guests to pick their hotel rooms after establishing a reservation, according to CEO Larry Hall. With partnered hotels, Koridor will give guests the option to physically see and pick the exact room they want in a hotel, rather than just selecting a room based on view or bed-size.
"So when a guest is browsing a hotel, they can see a virtual tour of that room, they can see three dimensional imagery, they can see 360-degree views of the room or well-done still shots," he said.
On Thursday, Koridor announced the launch of MyRoom platform, which provides software to hotels that provide floor plans, immersive imagery, room view and detailed features to guests for a personalized visit.
With MyRoom, guests can select not only how close they want to be to the elevators or an ice machine, but whether they would prefer amenities offered in certain rooms, such as a fireplace, oversized closet, a double-size sink and more, Hall said.
"What we do in our application is expose the guest to those additional features," he said.
Hall---whose experience includes running a number of venture backed startups---was approached to launch Koridor, originally founded in an Istanbul, Turkey incubator, in the United States and chose Atlanta as its home. He said Atlanta has a strong presence in the hotel industry and a thriving startup community that would benefit Koridor.
"This is a great town for us to put a company like Koridor," he said.
Companies such as Leading Hotels of the World and iconic Washington, D.C. lodging The Hay-Adams are just a few of Koridor's clients, Hall said. The initial hotels Koridor has partnered with are not in Atlanta, he said, but the company hopes to start pairing with local properties in the third quarter of this year.
"The first properties we’re bringing up are in Washington, D.C., New York City and Palm Springs," he said.
Once Koridor partners with a hotel, the company digitizes the venue's floorplans for the guests and provides media of the actual hotel rooms for each customizable option, whether through a virtual tour, 3D imagery or professional stills, Hall said. Guests will receive an email after booking a hotel room to select which of the booking options they would prefer.
"Once they pick that room, we send that back to the assistants at the property to block the room off," he said.
