UAE-based startup Hotel Data Cloud (HDC), has raised $350K in seed funding from both local and international investors, to help hotels re-connect remotely with their customers.

The funding will enable HDC to accelerate the introduction of its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based recommendation engine to help hotels optimise their customer experience and expand their customer base in an effort to help hotels quickly get back on their feet as soon as the crisis is over.

Through the new technologies, the company will manage to create customisable and personalised AI-powered travel recommendations engine, which is expected to increase CTR (click through rate) by over 35 per cent for online bookings  

"The travel and hospitality industry has taken a catastrophic hit and we need to work together to ensure a fast and effective recovery," said Gregor Amon, co-founder and managing partner at HDC. "We’re very proud of our investors, who believe in the vision of HDC and have stepped up to ensure that we are able to accelerate the introduction of AI and machine learning into our systems.”

HDC has a portfolio of over 11,400 hotels across 153 countries.