The app was developed in six months and it has already earned 20,000 euros for its developers.
In the first six months of sales, Croatian mobile app InCheckIn recorded income of almost 20,000 euros and it already has more than a thousand paying users, reports Poslovni.hr on March 3, 2017.
One of major companies using InCheckIn app is Slovenian tour operator Kompas. Patrik Spagnolo, founder and director of InCheckIn, said that on Thursday they launched their app in Spain as well. “We participated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where we presented our startup. Expectations are high because Barcelona and its surroundings has more owners of small rental units than the whole Croatia”, said Spagnolo.
He added that, while waiting for the reaction of users in Spain, he has already had inquiries from the owner of a chain of hotels across Spain, the Netherlands and the United States, as well as from several Greek hotels. While many companies in Croatian tourism sector complain about chronic labour shortages, Spagnolo, who is himself a small rental apartment owner in Vodnjan, said he recognized a good business opportunity.
“I spent a lot of time copying data about my guests into the eVisitor system. Therefore, I developed a mobile application that allows the entire group of tourists to be registered in just a few seconds. I just have to photograph their ID cards or passports”, said Spognolo. He added that his system was first recognized by small rental apartment owners in Croatia. Without advertising, he managed to reach almost 2,000 users. Then he was joined by the Slovenian giant Kompas, which allowed its agents to quickly register a larger number of guests.
“That is what brought hotels to us. They receive waves of large groups of guests and our solution enables them to register their guests while they are on the bus riding to their destinations”, said Spognolo. He explained that their solution has been adapted to markets in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Great Britain, Malaysia and Singapore. “There are nine people in the team, and we have two investors. The investment is worth 100,000 euros. We are partners with MicroBLINK, whose technology we use to develop our app. Therefore, we expect further growth this year”, concluded Spagnolo.
