Sceptre Hospitality Resources (SHR), based in Houston, Texas, has acquired majority control of Avvio, a hotel tech company operating from Limerick and led by Frank Reeves.
The deal follows private equity firm Serent Capital’s investment in SHR in 2020.
Founded in 2000 Avvio has been a pioneer in hotel technology for 20 years.
In 2017 it launched the world’s first AI powered booking engine, allora.ai, which provides technology to over 500 hotels around the world and powers over £400m in transactions every year.
SHR is a revenue generating platform that helps hotels maximise revenue generation through its integrated central reservation (CRS), customer relationship management (CRM), and revenue management (RMS) systems.
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It supports over 1,500 independent, group, casino and long-stay hotels, manages 6.6 million reservations, sells 19 million room nights and drives £2 billion revenue per year through its Windsurfer CRS.
Serent Capital is a growth-focused private equity firm that invests in founder-led enterprise software and tech-enabled services companies. It has over £4 billion of assets under management.
Avvio CEO Frank Reeves commented: “The coming together of Avvio and SHR creates a company that’s far more than the sum of its parts.
“Like myself, SHR’s CEO Rod Jimenez is a long-time entrepreneur and understands success is built around over-delivering for your customers every single day. Both businesses have innovation in their DNA and a real challenger mindset. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together.”
SHR CEO Rod Jimenez added: “Both SHR and Avvio are much loved brands that are passionate about providing world-class revenue generating technology solutions to independent and group hotels who want to deliver the best brand-led experience to their guests in the most profitable way.
“We’re excited to introduce the power of allora.ai into the SHR Windsurfer CRS, and combining it with SHR’s AI enabled Maverick CRM and Wave RMS solutions. Together they will deliver an incredibly personalized customer purchase journey at every stage in the customer lifecycle.”
Jiminez added: “SHR and Avvio have complementary global customer footprints, products and sales teams across North America and Europe, which will fuel scalable global growth backed by significant local knowledge and incredible customer support.
“Together, I have no doubt that we can become the first-choice provider for forward-thinking hotels around the world who really value customer experience.”
Avvio operating company RevMac Ltd is owned by London-registered Avvio Ltd, where the principal shareholders are Calculus Nominees (48%), Frank Reeves (21%) and Avvio founder Brian Reeves (21%).
Photo: Frank Reeves, chief executive of Avvio
