Startup Idea: Hotel Software

So I just checked in to Hotel Lucia for OSCON, and the guy at the front desk asked if I had ever stayed here before. Well I have in fact, just a few weeks ago for Open Source Bridge, and I commented that I was surprised that this didn’t simply pop up on his screen. It turns out that while the giant hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton have really fancy check-in systems, everyone else is stuck with a system that he described as “just a step above DOS”. So if you are looking for a startup idea (especially here in Portland), here you go… hotel management software. There have been a few recent restaurant related startups, but nothing for hotels that I’ve seen.