Lobby Raises $2.2 Million to Expand its AI Booking Platform in the Travel Industry | News
From right to left: Alex Mugrauer (co-founder and Chief Product Officer), Romy Abbrederis (co-founder and Chief Executive Officer) and Muhammad Abdullah (co-founder and Chief Technical Officer)
Lobby has raised $2.2 million in funding from Founderful. As part of the investment, Pascal Mathis, co-founder of the venture capital firm and of GetYourGuide with extensive experience in scaling startups, will join Lobby’s Board of Directors.
Following the successful completion of the investment round, Lobby will be able to expand beyond the hospitality sector with the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), experiences and attractions, cruises and airlines verticals as key targets.
“Lobby tackles one of the most complex and valuable segments of travel: group bookings” – says Pascal Mathis, co-founder and partner of Founderful. “What stood out to us is their ability to go beyond superficial automation and run workflows across systems. The founding team’s travel experience helps build a solution that solves a real industry problem.”
“Founderful’s trust gives us even more strength to take Lobby to the next level: beyond the hospitality sector and into new vertical markets in the travel industry” – explains Romy Abbrederis, CEO and co-founder of Lobby. “With our engine, we help our customers automate processes previously considered too complex and unlock new levels of efficiency and revenue for them.”
A new standard for group bookings via AI
Lobby has developed an AI-driven platform to tackle one of the travel industry’s most persistent operational challenges: B2B and group bookings coming in via email, one of the most important sales channels for hotels, the MICE industry, transportation assets, as well as experience and activities. Group bookings are complex and slow to process due to manual workflows. At the same time, they are becoming increasingly relevant for travel providers, as they generate higher revenues than individual bookings.
Lobby’s solution automates the entire lifecycle of a group booking request, reducing response times by 75 percent and therefore increasing conversion rates by up to 15 percent, more accurate quotes and automated follow-ups on unanswered or rejected offers. The company’s AI platform can:
Understand booking intent and requirements in 100+ languages.
Check availability between systems
Validate contracts and negotiated terms
Select the right rates and pricing logic
Collect or manage assignments and inventory
Create customized quotes and RFPs for incoming requests
Follow up when offers are rejected or unanswered
Convert accepted offers into reservations or blocks in PMS
Manage changes, room lists and inquiries until arrival
Create contextual responses before staff approval or sending
Ensure payments are completed on time
Lobby converts incoming email requests into accurate bookings in 30 seconds and can manage scenarios such as group bookings of 300 rooms on multiple dates, including different room types, dinners, event spaces and ongoing changes, in seconds.
The solution easily integrates with Gmail, Outlook and PMS systems. New integrations take an average of four days, while the onboarding process takes a maximum of two days. During the implementation of the platform, customers can choose between full automation or a human-in-the-loop model so that quotes can be reviewed and approved by staff before being sent.
