What do online translations have in common with short-term booking? Meet BedBooking and their idea for international expansion!

BedBooking is a mobile reservation calendar for people who offer short-term lease in small facilities such as inns or apartments. Our solution simplifies the process of managing bookings using dedicated mobile applications. BedBooking is used by people offering accommodation all over the world. Currently, as of November 2018, the system supports 15 language versions.

1. Where did you get the idea for such a service? How did the company start?

Our relationship with travelling dates back to 2003, when as RST Software House, we developed dedicated software for travel agencies and tour operators (under the NetTur brand).

After years of being apart from the travel industry, a space was available in the strategy of our mother company (RST Software House) for executing our own start-ups. Once again we joined the industry in which we had large experience.

The idea for BedBooking, being a mobile Property Management System (PMS), resulted from a market analysis where many companies operate developing large and complex systems that are expensive to maintain. As compared to such companies, we focused on facilities that were not hotels and which do not usually feature an actual reception desk. In such businesses, the telephone is used as the reception desk and it is the first point of contact with the customer. This is how the idea for the mobile application with a booking calendar was created.

2. How was the service developed towards internationality/multilingualism? Where did the need come from and why did you choose such languages?

Mobile applications available in Google Play and the App Store are the foundation of our business. The above services were designed by us to lead developers towards such activities as adding application descriptions in different languages.
We may say that the first step towards multilingualism of the system was suggested by Google Play and the App Store. Translated application descriptions attracted international users who requested the need for adding native language versions.

3. What challenges do you face with handling such a large number of language versions of your service? It is worth noting cultural differences, expectations of the customers of a given market (the German customer will differ from the Polish one, etc.).

Users expect from us that we will communicate with them in their native language. This results from the fact that we deliver business software where understanding the method of functioning and simplicity of use are key. Wishing to compete with software offered in a given country, we must deliver a native language version.

Another challenge is handling translations on an on-going basis. This shows the process of building new features in the system in a perfect way, which have to be additionally handled in terms of all the supported languages in the process of development.

4. Can you tell us more about the process/workflow for implementing a new language version?

The process of implementing and maintaining language versions evolved as BedBooking was developed. The first language versions were implemented manually. Currently, the entire process is automated using dedicated tools.

5. Do you plan further expansion onto global markets? If so, which languages do you take into account any why?

Currently, in November 2018, we support 15 language versions in BedBooking. Of course, this number was not achieved in one day. We have been adding new languages systematically for the last few years.

Please note that our activities are based on organic traffic which is why we have to wait form several to over ten months for financial effects of such implementations. This is a valuable piece of information when creating business plans focused on scaling with the use of different language versions.

When it comes to languages, we plan to add Greek. Greece was listed due to the popularity of this tourist region with a huge accommodation offer.

6. Tell us a few tips for young companies wishing to take over the world. 🙂

We are a good piece of evidence that supporting multiple native language versions is one of the elements of business scaling. If we could turn back the time, we would make this decision already at the initial stage of developing the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of our start-up.

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Marek Hrycak

In 2004 -2017 I was associated with RST Software Masters. I started with a regular employee job and was promoted later on to become project manager and then the branch director. In the meantime, I worked on creating BedBooking, where I am currently the product owner / product manager.

www.bed-booking.com

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