We had the opportunity to interview Yannis Moati, CEO and founder of HotelsByDay, the premier provider of day-stay hotel spaces in the U.S.
 

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and HotelsByDay?
A: My name is Yannis Moati. I was born in Tunisia, a peaceful and enlightened country in North Africa, from a French father and an Italian mother. History was the main thread of my childhood, where everywhere I went and everything I touched while growing up had a deep connection with the past. It set the stage to my professional life, where while on summer breaks from college, I worked as a tour guide in Italy, France and Spain, mostly for American tourists.

Without giving away too much of my age, I can safely say that I am a 20 year veteran of planning travel arrangements in Europe, before setting my current specialty in promoting flexible stays: hotel rooms for a few hours, all available on HotelsByDay.com.

I was a travel agent before launching HotelsByDay back in early 2015. I identified the opportunity when I was faced with an increasing number of travellers that wanted flexibility in their hotel stays, and I simply could not have any from our long-standing partners. Hence, I decided to do something about it.

More info on this topic is listed in the Q&A section of our latest crowdfunding campaign.

Q: How did you get the idea for Hotels by Day?
A: Customer wanted it. Someone had to do it.
 

Q: How did you get your company out there into the industry? 
A: First, I assembled a founding team. We worked feverishly in building a business plan. We got seed funding, then we launched the company with massive amounts of PR. Which lead us within 12 months on the Shark Tank show, and the rest is history.
 

Q: What makes your company different from others in your space?  
A: Most other Online Travel Agents (or OTAs) sell commoditized overnight stays, which give you no flexibility whatsoever in possibly checking-in earlier than 3pm, and checking out the next day later than 11am. If every flights were landing and taking off at 12 noon, then there would be no need for our flexible hotel booking service.
 

Q: What is the main benefit that your company provides to the travel world?
A: We give our B2B partners a set of protocols and technology for them to monetize idle rooms and add flexibility to their check-in/check-out procedures. Then we top it off by being the marketing engine that converts guests towards that particular service.
 

Q: What was the final push that lead you to take the risk to create your own company? 
A: Seeing that multiple startups in Europe were launching similar services, I rushed to launch the American operator in this nascent field.
 

Q: How has creating Hotels by Day changed your life?  
A: In too many ways to count. But what I lost in financial stability, I gain monumentally in character stability and growth. Enormous satisfaction.
 

Q: Are you looking for additional funding or have a crowdfunding campaign? If so, what are you looking for in a potential investor, and how can interested readers get in touch/learn more? 
A:  This year we plan to:

- Raise $2.5M to accelerate our growth from $4.5M Gross Booking Volume to $127M Gross Booking by year 5, of which $400k earmarked to a crowdfunding campaign, to open the opportunity to the public (not just institutional investors).

- Engineer centralized portal for hotels to monetize all unused spaces: from day rooms to conferences, coworking, amenities, spas, events.

- Grow to become the world's first B2C one-stop shop for all day spaces (the Expedia of day-spaces and events).
 

Q: Is there any advice you'd give to other aspiring entrepreneurs? 
A: Yes! Measure twice, cut once. Spend extra time thinking of the launch of the company prior to getting on that crazy train. Also, learn to meditate.
 

Q: Is there anything else you want to share with our audience?  
A:  A quotes from Herb Kelleher, Founder of South West Airlines (LUV):

"You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn't going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You're going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people."