‘We’ve gone from a handful of customers to thousands’
AUTHORS Staff Reports
Scott Schaedle founded Franklin-based hotel asset management software company Quore in 2012.
Raised in a family with some hospitality industry experience, Schaedle offers a background — combined with his advertising and graphic design expertise — that has served him well. Today, Quore has about 30,000 users at more than 1,200 hotels.
The Post recently caught up with Schaedle for a quick chat.
Provide a brief overview of Quore.
Quore is a software that uses cloud-based technology and intuitive design to allow hotels of any size to manage every aspect of the guest experience — from maintenance to guest complaints. We have more than 50,000 users across the nation. Our customers are major hospitality groups that include Hampton Inn, Hilton, Comfort Inn, Aloft, Holiday Inn Express and Courtyard Marriott.
Why the name Quore? Seems unusual. When I first heard of your company, I almost unwittingly associated it with Quorn, the United Kingdom-based company that produces meat substitute grocery products.
I’m thrilled to say that you’re the only person who has confused Quore with fake meat — let’s hope it stays that way. Quore is the Italian word for “heart.” When our customers incorporate Quore into their daily operations, it becomes the heart of their hotel.
Quore is approaching its five-year anniversary. What have been some key achievements and what can we expect to see from the company in the next five years?
In five years, we’ve gone from a handful of customers to thousands. We’ve grown the team to 30 full-time employees, moved offices several times and added product features on a regular basis — all here in Nashville. Over the next five years, Quore will take on international customers, add new features and continue to hire top-notch talent. We have some very exciting plans in the works that will dramatically increase our user base.
Relatedly, what has been the single-most noteworthy disappointment or task you would have wanted to accomplish but have not had the time?
When you’re a small and nimble start-up, you have the luxury of making decisions and executing them on the fly. It was disappointing when I realized that as Quore grew from a start-up to a proper company, so did the quick execution of our ideas. Now, we must plan, research, and be patient enough to see new changes come to fruition.
What were you doing before Quore and how did you get the idea for the company? On that note, what need did you see in the hospitality industry that your company could fill?
I was raised in a family rooted in the hospitality industry and have a degree in graphic design. I was working as an engineer at a hotel here in Nashville when I realized the need for a solution to streamline hotel operations. The hospitality industry is not known for being early tech adopters. We — and most every other hotel at the time — operated from a paper-based system, leaving room for errors and a total lack of visibility into the big picture of the hotel. With Quore, hotel employees are equipped with mobile devices to do their day-to-day jobs. The data from Quore is then rolled up to management to tell the full story of the hotel, allowing them to make smarter decisions on behalf of their guests. The product was designed through a collaboration of hoteliers, designers and software developers, so it meets the needs of the end user and is graphically driven, unlike any other hospitality software solutions at the time.
You come from a family of local entrepreneurs. For example, your father, Rob, serves as the managing partner of Chartwell Hospitality, a well-known locally based developer of hotel buildings. Do you collaborate with your family members?
I come from a tight-knit family, and we are always asking each other for advice and learning from each other. We don’t collaborate with our businesses per se, but certainly do when it comes to general business practices and advice.
Nashville does not have a pool of tech talent as do, say, Raleigh and Austin. Why is this and how can the shortage be addressed?
Nashville is not a traditional tech hub, but I see it shifting. As the city grows in popularity, more businesses are drawn to Nashville, yielding more tech talent. The city has become an ecosystem of tech talent — which is dramatically different than it was just five years ago.
What are some of the hotel asset management software trends/challenges that you’re tracking?
The biggest trend we’re tracking is artificial intelligence, which opens the door for interesting guest experiences. Instead of downloading an app or texting, we’ll likely see more Alexa-type devices in hotel rooms because it’s an affordable solution and easy to install for large hotels. Another trend we’re seeing is the continued automation of the guest experience prior to arrival and during check-in, which affects multiple departments from housekeeping to the front desk.
A quick Google search reveals four to five companies that provide hotels with asset management software. There may be more. But if there is only a handful, is that an advantage or potential disadvantage to any one of the few companies (including Quore) that operate in this sector?
For us it’s an advantage because no one is doing what Quore is doing. We’ve seen some smaller companies that do one thing really well merge into larger ones and others being sold off. We’re always keeping an eye out for the new guys, and anticipate that this space will only become more crowded.
What is the most distinctive U.S. city for hotels, all things being relative?
New York. It’s obviously a huge travel hub, but also has a concentration of diverse hotels and several new hotel projects underway.