#049: Amazing Hospitality Isn’t Just Reserved for Five Star Hotels – Cloudbeds - a podcast by Shawn Walchef

Cloudbeds co-founder Adam Harris lost sleep so you could sleep better.

When you hear the name “Cloudbeds” you’re more likely to think of a Tempur-Pedic competitor than a tech startup.More so, when you think tech startup, you’re probably more likely to think Silicon Valley than San Diego.

Well, think again.Stopping by the Behind the Smoke podcast (now called Digital Hospitality) to talk with hosts Shawn Walchef and Derek Marso, Cloudbeds co-founder Adam Harris and his team are changing the narrative of the tech industry and the hospitality space in Southern California through the click of your smartphone.

Like most startups, it all began with a light bulb moment.“We started the idea of Cloudbeds in my condo back in 2012,” recalls Adam. “We had the idea to professionalize small independent hospitality. We've all stayed in a bed and breakfast and boutique hotels are my favorite place to stay. Still, a lot of times small business owners don't have the right tools to help them reach new guests. So, somewhere along the lines we were like, ‘Let's build a platform.’”

That platform of course is Cloudbeds. While the tech startup space is often sold as fast and sleek, Adam and his team decided to seduce a more dated space.

His approach?“Let's go into the most unsexy industry that hasn't changed in 25 years,” laughs Adam. “Let’s build something from the ground up so that we give these tools to, in spirit, make the world a little bit more welcome place.”

That is exactly what Adam and his team did: offer improved resources to the boutique hotel and bed and breakfast industry for better digital hospitality.So, at this point, you know who started Cloudbeds, why it was started and where it was founded. But just exactly what does Cloudbeds do?

We’ll let Adam handle that.“Cloudbeds is a connector into all the point of sales that we commonly use,” explains Adam. “AirBnB, HomeAway, Booking.com, Expedia, things like that. So, it doesn't matter where the guest is shopping, we're reaching real time inventory. Just like Amazon makes it easy to buy products anywhere in the world with the click of a button, we did the same thing on the hotel side. We've got about 202 employees and as of today, we’re in 31 countries around the world.”

The Amazon of finding a place to stay in 31 different countries? Maybe the idea was a little sexier than Adam gave it credit for.As alluded, the reach of Cloudbeds has made the company and its clientele international. As expected, this all came from investing in their staff.

“We're very focused on our employee,” Adam notes. “We love our staff. We invest in our staff because our formula is people first, customers second, business third. We take care of our employee. We invest in them. We give them the accountability, responsibility and empowerment to do well. They're going to take care of the customer naturally, and if they take care of the customer, they're going to take care of the business.”

Taking care of business is exactly what the Cloudbeds team does. Serving an international consumer requires the Cloudbeds staff to dive deep into the cultural norms and values of each area they serve around the world.“We have 31 countries,” begins Adam. “That's a lot of people. We think about the diversity of all those individuals and the cultural differences. We've had to retrain ourselves and our thought because we want that diversity -- that's what makes us special. It's really grounded us as individuals to be more inclusive and also have more of a global mindset.”

Going global did not happen overnight and it did not happen alone. While Adam has turned Cloudbeds into a large-scale operation with over 200 employees and international reach, it was built like any startup you see today.First with an idea and then with funding.

“Over a year, we raised $1 Million,” Adam says on early funding. “That’s a meaningful amount of money.”

Further episodes of Digital Hospitality: A Cali BBQ Media Podcast

Further podcasts by Shawn Walchef

Website of Shawn Walchef