Marriott Hotels has unveiled the eight shortlisted start-ups for this year’s Testbed European accelerator programme.
The firms have been whittled down from around 150 submissions from 24 countries, and will now pitch their ideas to a panel of judges later this month.
Among the companies are Reward Technology – a UK start-up offering guests personalized communication and services based on the detection of their loyalty / room card, and Mymanu, another UK firm developing wireless earbuds which offer live translation in 37 languages.
Other ideas include Portugal-based HiJiffy, offering an AI-powered chatbot for the hospitality sector; New’ee – a French start-up which wirelessly turns furniture into speakers; and Optishower, a Portuguese firm developing smart meters to measure water and electricity consumption.
The panel – which includes The Gadget Show presenter Georgie Barrat and senior Marriott figures – will decide which of the start-ups will see their products piloted in a Marriott Hotel in Europe.
Marriott also highlighted a few insights from the application process:
- Travel apps and concierge services accounted for 33 per cent of applications this year
- Shareability was a recurring theme, with over half of travel apps based on social media and the ability to enable travelers to share their discoveries with others
- IOT (Internet of Things) and wearable tech featured in around 20 per cent of applications, compared to just 3 per cent last year
