Berlin's Smart Host lands Riverside growth backing for European push
What's the deal? Berlin-based Smart HostDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a CRM platform for the hotel industry, has raised growth equity from Riverside Acceleration CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (RAC). The financing backs an expansion across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland before entry into further European markets.
What's the endgame? Smart Host connects to hotels' existing property-management systems, centralises guest data, and automates personalised communication across the guest journey. The goal: help hoteliers boost direct bookings and cut reliance on commission-charging online travel portals.
Why now? RAC is investing as many hotels rethink their digital infrastructure. Online travel platforms increasingly control the guest relationship and take significant commissions, while traditional systems struggle with guest communication, marketing automation, and data management.
Where the money goes: Smart Host plans new features in guest profile management, CRM, offer management, and analytics, and wants to build the platform into a central data ecosystem. It will also step up sales to independent hotels, boutique properties, and smaller groups in the DACH region.
"This partnership gives us the means and the network to accelerate what we've built over the past years," said founder Julian LeitnerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Christian Stein, senior partner at RAC, said Smart Host "addresses a structural problem that affects thousands of hotels every day."
The signal: Hotel CRM is emerging as an investable niche within vertical SaaS. RAC, which focuses on B2B software growth deals, is betting on a regional champion just as European hotels race to modernise their tech stacks and win back profitable direct business — a race likely to spur further consolidation.
Read more: Firmenpresse
Image credit: Simbe90
