He is a hotelier at heart. And his startups aim to ensure that you enjoy your stay

Amit Saberwal, a management grad, built the online hotel booking division of MakeMyTrip in 2005. He was instrumental in making it the market leader in India and growing the turnover to US$200 million. After that, he wanted to help hotels develop their own direct booking systems – so he quit MakeMyTrip as its chief business officer to launch Commeasure.

Commeasure has tech tools for hotels to manage their digital presence to increase direct reservations. It also provides a booking engine. In just over a year since launch, the startup has brought 500 hotels across Asia onto its platform. That’s when Amit realized that budget accommodation in Southeast Asia provides fragmented and non-uniform experiences, and that led to many hotels remaining mostly empty.

To solve that, Amit then launched RedDoorz, which gives assistance to budget accommodation owners on standardizing their offerings. Travelers can book hotels, resorts, inns, service apartments, and guesthouses on RedDoorz’ site, which aggregates all the hotel partners. It’s a bit like Uber for hotel rooms.

Southeast Asia hubs

Right now, it has a presence in key business and tourist destinations across Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, Bali, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur.

“We not only help consumers receive standardized services across all RedDoorz-enabled budget accommodations, but also help the budget hotel owners with technology to distribute across multiple digital platforms,” says Amit. “It’s a win-win for both the consumer and the hotel owner.”

Today, the founder announced that RedDoorz received an undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding led by Jungle Ventures to build out RedDoorz. Amit previously raised US$1 million for Commeasure.

Amit Anand, Jungle Ventures’ founding partner, says that the startup’s service particularly helps “the budget space that suffers from low online penetration.” He describes the sector as one “ripe for transformation.”

Jungle Ventures has backed many travel technology startups in Asia. These include Travelmob, which was acquired by US-based HomeAway and Voyagin, which was bought by Japan’s Rakuten.