Scots hospitality tech firm secures deal with Greenland hotel overlooking Arctic sheets
“Moving into new territories is part of our ongoing overseas commitment for growth and innovation.”
A Scottish hospitality tech firm has secured its first ever Arctic contract with a hotel in Greenland 1,600 miles from its Edinburgh base, a deal it says ties into its ambitious international growth plans.
Hop Software has developed a property-management system that handles all aspects of hospitality including online bookings and payments, and has now been signed up by a hotel in a port town in Southern Greenland with views over the Arctic ice sheets.
Hotel Narsaq lies on the shore of Tunulliarfik Fjord, and boasts 11 rooms, guesthouses, six family apartments and houses. Co-owners Fridrik and Kattie Magnusson said they were seeking an online booking system for guests visiting Greenland’s ninth-biggest town, with the Hop team working with the couple to remotely integrate the product and get it live ahead of the main summer tourist season. The deal also comes after the Scottish firm has in the last 18 months secured deals in Barbados, Florida, Nigeria, and Europe.
Hop co-founder Richard Drummond, who also manages McKays Hotel Bar and Restaurant in Pitlochry, said: “It’s probably one of the last places we would have imagined Hop to be, at the outset, if I am honest. Our home is firmly in Scotland and the UK, however, the Hop team enjoy setting up the platform in these locations which are far from home.”
Iceland-born Fridrik Magnusson, who has co-owned the hotel on the “Greenlandic Riviera” for a decade with his family, said: “We had a few issues to do with Nordic laws, but the Hop team was quick to add these features to the system. It was important for our business customers to be able to book easily online and also to amend bookings, themselves, which many systems can’t do.”
Hop Software originated in 2017, with co-founders also including Jon Erasmus (who co-owns the Glen Mhor Hotel, Inverness) and Ronald Tweedie, and now boasts more then 70 Scottish hotel customers and has more than 250 hospitality businesses on its books. Its UK clients include former Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne’s Bannatyne leisure group, Trivelles group, and Petite Hotels. Chief operating officer Sharon Smith has now said: “Moving into new territories is part of our ongoing overseas commitment for growth and innovation.”
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