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Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today, we're going to try and pull back the curtain

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a bit on hospitality tech.

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It's often a really closed off world. Lots of jargon.

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Definitely is.

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But before we dive in, just a quick word about the folks who helped make this

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possible.

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We're supported today by Safe Server.

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Great partner.

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Yeah, they support digital transformation. And importantly, for today's topic, they

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actually provide hosting for software just like the platform we're about to discuss.

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So if you're looking at your digital setup, check them out at www.safeserver.de.

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Good resource.

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OK, so let's get into this. If you're listening, you're the learner.

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You probably know that specialized software, the kind you need for running a hotel

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or maybe a clinic or even a factory, it's often proprietary, right?

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Expensive.

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It locks you right in.

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Exactly. Locks you into a vendor.

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So what happens when the hospitality industry, which is so reliant on, you know,

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real time inventory, customer data?

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What happens when it bumps up against a powerful free open source alternative?

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Well, that's kind of the big shift we're looking at today, isn't it?

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Running a hotel or even a small chain, it's incredibly complex.

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You've got inventory pricing that changes constantly, loyalty programs,

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distributing rooms across, I don't know, dozens of websites.

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Yeah, it's a lot.

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Historically, the proprietary hotel management systems, they held all the power and

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charged, well, pretty substantial licensing fees every year.

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Right. So our mission today is really to explore this thing called QLaps.

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It's a completely free and open source solution for hotel operations, reservations,

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the whole package.

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And we're not just listing features. We want to really dissect the strategic shift

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this represents.

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We need to get what QLaps core parts are the PMS, booking engine, channel manager.

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And this is key, why moving this stuff to open source really changes the game for

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hotel owners.

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Absolutely. It's a fundamental change of the business model.

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So let's define the playground here.

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Sources describe QLaps as like the ultimate starter kit, a one-stop solution for

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hotel businesses.

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Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

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It's the full digital toolkit you need to get a hotel business online, show off the

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property and manage every single booking yourself.

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Exactly. And I think to really get its value, you have to look at the three sort of

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foundational pillars it gives you, all integrated right from the start.

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OK, break those down for us.

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So pillar number one, the property management system, the PMS, this is really the

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operational brain of the hotel.

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Its main job, reduce manual work, it organizes all the internal stuff, check ins,

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check outs, who gets which room, tracking reservations.

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For the hotelier, this is all about efficiency, cutting down on errors in the day

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to day.

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And that function alone, I mean, in the old proprietary world, that could cost a

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medium size hotel, what, five, $10,000 a year just in licensing.

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Easily, sometimes more.

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So by just getting rid of that cost, QLaps completely changes the ownership cost

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calculation.

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It basically becomes hosting and maybe optional support.

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That's a huge shift strategically.

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It really is.

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Then the second pillar focuses on bringing in the money, the booking engine.

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Right, the customer facing part.

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Exactly, this is the smooth online portal that sits right on the hotel's own

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website.

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Its goal is simple, make booking as easy as possible for the guest.

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Why is that so important?

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Because it maximizes direct bookings.

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And direct bookings are almost always way more profitable for the hotel than bookings

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coming through third party sites, you know, the OTAs.

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Gotcha, less commission paid out.

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And the third pillar.

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The third is the foundation for all that, the Attractive Hotel website.

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Pull-ups isn't just like background software.

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It helps you build the actual website, the face of your brand.

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Ah, so it includes website building tools too?

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Yes, integrating that booking engine seamlessly.

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And what's really impressive is the scope.

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We're not just talking about someone with a tiny B&B, although it works for that

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too.

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This system is built to handle everything from small independent places up to

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potentially

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big hotel chains, apartments, vacation rentals.

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So it scales.

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It's designed to grow with the business, absolutely.

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OK, let's step a bit deeper into that operational brain you mentioned, the PMS.

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Right, the PMS.

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When you look inside, you see how QLaps really tackles those tough efficiency

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problems.

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It's all about streamlining processes so the staff can focus more on the guests and

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less

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on just entering data manually.

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Makes sense.

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Now, here's where things get really strategic, I think, for how hotels actually

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operate today.

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Your own website, that's great, but it's only one piece, right?

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Absolutely, just one channel.

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You have to be visible everywhere else, Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, all those big

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players.

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And that is the critical challenge.

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Managing your room inventory, your rates across maybe dozens of these online travel

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agencies,

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these OTAs, in real time, it's notoriously difficult.

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Yeah, I can imagine.

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If you mess up, you either sell rooms you don't actually have that's overbooking, a

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disaster, or you show you're full when you actually have empty rooms and you just

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lose

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money.

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Okay, so that brings us to the channel manager.

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This sounds like a really big deal in QLaps.

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It is.

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It's huge.

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It's built to manage and sync the hotel's rates and inventory automatically across

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all

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those different OTAs.

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But let me push back a bit here.

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If this whole thing is free and open source, how reliable can that channel manager

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be?

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I mean, Expedia, Booking.com, they change their systems, their APIs constantly.

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How does a community project keep up?

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That needs real time, secure integration.

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That's a really fair question.

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And the answer ties into, well, a couple of things.

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The strength of the open source community, which we'll touch on more, but also the

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role

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of the main developer behind it, Webcool.

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Okay.

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Unlike maybe a small proprietary company that might struggle to keep pace, open

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source can

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potentially tap into developers worldwide.

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But you're right.

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Core Stability often relies on the main driving entity ensuring those connections

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are maintained.

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So Webcool plays a key role there.

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They do.

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But the fundamental so what of the channel manager is preventing those really

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costly

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mistakes.

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That real time sync cuts down on overbooking nightmares and makes sure you're

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selling rooms

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everywhere you possibly can.

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It's really about de-risking operations.

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And the system goes beyond just rooms, right?

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QLAP seems to offer ways to expand the business model too.

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Yeah, definitely.

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They have integrated tools for managing, say, an associated restaurant.

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So restaurant management features, even POS point of sale systems, that helps turn

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the

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whole property into one unified business.

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Okay, that's pretty comprehensive.

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And then there's something really ambitious, the marketplace solution.

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What's that?

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This is, well, it's a big shift.

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It lets a hotel owner turn their own website into a marketplace for multiple

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properties.

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Wait, like their own mini Expedia?

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Sort of.

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They can invite other local hotel owners, maybe smaller B&Bs, to list their

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properties

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on the main QLOP site.

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And the site owner then earns a commission on those bookings.

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Wow.

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Okay.

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That moves you from just running your hotel to running a booking platform.

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Exactly.

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It's a different business model entirely.

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And they even support building a dedicated mobile booking app for your hotel, which

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helps

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with customer loyalty and direct bookings.

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So all this power, the POS, the marketplace idea, the crucial channel manager, it

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all

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hinges on the core system being flexible.

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Right.

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Absolutely.

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It goes back to the beauty of its foundation being open source.

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Right.

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Because it's open source, the features aren't set in stone.

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You can expand it using add-ons.

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Hoteliers can tweak it for their specific needs, maybe even pay someone to build

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custom

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features.

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Precisely.

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And just look at the kinds of add-ons available.

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They clearly target both what modern guests expect and those operational headaches

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hotels

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face.

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Like what?

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Give us some examples.

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On the guest side, you see things like a hotel virtual tour add-on lets people

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really see

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the place online.

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There's a reward system for building loyalty with points, practical stuff too, like

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online

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check-in to make arrival faster.

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Saves time at the front desk.

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Yeah.

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And then operationally, there's a housekeeping module.

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Helps manage daily cleaning tasks, maintenance schedules, much better than clipboards,

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right?

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Definitely.

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And of course, essential things like secure payments, they have add-ons for PayPal,

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checkout,

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and likely others, making transactions safe and easy.

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And what about the less glamorous stuff, like compliance?

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Good point.

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They address that too.

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There are specific add-ons for GDPR compliance, which is crucial if you have

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European guests

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protecting customer data, and also tools for SEO optimization.

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Ah, so helping the hotel's own website rank higher in search results.

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Exactly.

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Boosting that direct traffic, hopefully pulling some business away from the OTAs.

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Okay.

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So a listener who's maybe a bit technical or thinking about actually setting this

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up,

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what's under the hood, what does it run on?

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Let's try and keep it simple, though.

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Sure.

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The main code is mostly PHP.

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That's a really common web language, makes up over 80 percent of it, so lots of

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developers

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know it.

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Okay, familiar tech.

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Yeah.

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It needs a pretty standard modern web server setup, specifically PHP versions 8.1

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up to

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8.4, and a MySQL database version 5.7 up to 8.4.

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And it's on common web servers, Apache, Minjinx, even Microsoft, Isis.

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So standard stuff for most web hosting providers.

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Generally, yes.

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And getting it installed is flexible, too.

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There's the usual step-by-step guide, or for people using newer tech like

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containers, there's

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a Docker image available.

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You just pull WebGulps, Docker, and it simplifies deployment quite a bit.

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Docker makes things easier, for sure.

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Okay, so that operational freedom, the ability to change the code, choose your own

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hosting,

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that's all guaranteed by the license, right?

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You mentioned open source.

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Exactly.

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The operating system uses the OSL 3.0 license, open software license.

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Some extra modules use AFL 3.0.

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What does OSL 3.0 actually mean for a hotel owner, in plain English?

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It's really important.

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OSL 3.0 is what's called a copy left license.

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It means the software is free to use, modify, share.

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But critically, if you make significant improvements or changes to the core code

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and distribute

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them, you generally have to share those changes back with the community under the

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same license.

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So it keeps improvements open, prevents someone from taking it private again.

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That's the idea.

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It fosters ongoing collaboration and ensures the core stays free and open.

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It legally protects that community development model.

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And let's clarify who's behind this.

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You mentioned Webcool.

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It's a community project, but they seem to be the main drivers.

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Yeah.

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Webcool initiated it and are the primary developers and maintainers.

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This is actually a pretty common and effective model in open source.

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You get the benefits of open source, the cost savings, the flexibility, the

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community input.

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But you also have a dedicated company ensuring stability, providing direction, and

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offering

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professional services around it.

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Best of both worlds, really.

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OK.

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That makes sense.

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And the community aspect seems strong.

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Very.

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If you look at GitHub, where the code lives, the numbers are impressive.

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Over 10,200 stars, 660 forks.

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That's not just a small side project.

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That indicates significant interest and real-world use from developers who are

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invested in it.

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That kind of scale needs good security practices, though.

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Going back to my earlier point about reliability, especially with payments and

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guest data involved.

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Absolutely critical.

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And the sources show they have a clear process for this.

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If anyone finds a security issue, a vulnerability, they're instructed not to post

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it publicly.

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Right.

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That would be bad.

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Very.

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Instead, they report it privately via a specific email address, support, at clopes.com.

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This gives the developer his time to fix it before malicious actors can exploit it.

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Stand responsible disclosure policy.

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Okay, good.

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And that addresses that common fear, right?

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If it's open source, am I just left on my own if something breaks?

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Exactly.

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And that's just not the reality here.

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Because Webcool's involved, they offer comprehensive support options.

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You can get cloud hosting directly from them if you want, audit and optimization

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services

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to fine tune performance, tailored training, even 247 support plans.

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So you can get enterprise level support if you need it.

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You can.

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You just don't have to pay mandatory enterprise license fees just to use the core

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software.

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You pay for the services you actually need.

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Okay, let's wrap this up.

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Can you summarize the core takeaway for our listeners?

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Sure.

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I think the main thing is that Qlabs is way more than just free software.

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It's a complete integrated ecosystem for hotels.

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It gives you the PMS, the booking engine, the channel manager, and the website

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platform

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all working together.

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All the key pieces.

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Right.

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The strategic value, the real game changer, is that it lets businesses big or small

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slash

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those proprietary software costs actually own their own data, streamline how they

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run things,

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and customize their system in ways that are often impossible or incredibly

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expensive in

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the traditional hotel tech world.

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Right.

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Owning your data, owning your platform.

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That feels key.

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Okay, so here's the provocative final thought we want to leave you with today.

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If free, community-driven software built mainly on common tech like PHP and

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protected by these

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open licenses, if that can handle the incredibly complex, high-stakes job of

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running hotel

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reservations and operations, potentially even for large chains, well what other

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really specialized,

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really expensive business offer sectors are just waiting to be disrupted by similar

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open

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source solutions?

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Good question.

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It suggests the open source model isn't just about saving a few bucks.

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It might be about fundamentally taking back control of your business infrastructure.

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A powerful thought.

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Okay, that's our deep dive for today.

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We do want to thank our sponsor again, SafeSurfer.

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They support digital transformation and, as we mentioned, provide hosting for

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software

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like QLabs.

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You can find out more about how they can help your digital journey at www.safesurfer.de.

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Check them out.

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Until next time, keep digging, keep learning.