Hotel General Managers often begin their day by checking the PMS, reviewing revenue, pulling payroll reports, cross-checking occupancy, and logging into the F&B system. Gathering all this information can take up much of the morning, even though these tasks could be automated.
Paul Ryan and Nikhil Patil started Otel AI in Dublin in 2025 to solve this problem. Its platform connects to a hotel’s existing systems, such as PMS, revenue management, payroll, F&B, and guest reviews, bringing them together in one place. Rather than adding another dashboard like Mews and Apaleo, Otel handles tasks internally.
Every output can be traced back to its source data, and people still oversee all actions. The AI handles daily tasks, but the team makes the final decisions. Otel is ISO 27001-certified and GDPR-compliant, so sensitive hotel data remains within the client’s environment.
Today, the startup has announced €2.8 million in total funding since its launch 6 months ago. It secured €800,000 from Nebular, Baseline, and Angel Invest. This was followed by a €2 million round led by Playfair, with Nebular increasing its stake.
Why Playfair and why now
Ryan and Patil first funded the company themselves before raising initial funding. They launched a product version in summer 2025 and soon saw real results with hotels. Four months later, Playfair reached out to Otel directly, resulting in an off-market deal based on real customer results rather than a typical fundraising process.
“There was no theoretical pitch. General Managers were already using Otel every morning and seeing the results. When an investor can talk to a customer and hear that directly, it shortens the conversation quickly,” explains Ryan to Tech Funding News.
The terms of the funding round were intentionally simple. Ryan chose a founder-friendly structure instead of focusing on a high valuation, showing what mattered most to him at this stage.
“The gap between ‘working’ and ‘scaling’ is hiring. We needed to go from two founders doing everything to a proper engineering and product team. Without this round, we’d still be live with a handful of hotels instead of onboarding dozens. This capital has enabled us to bring speed to our execution plan,” shares Ryan.
What comes next
Otel is already working with partner hotels in Ireland and the UK, such as the O’Callaghan Collection, Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Johnstown Estate, and Killarney Park. One early highlight is an 8.6% year-on-year RevPAR increase at The Alex Hotel in Dublin during the first three months, all without hiring more staff. The platform there now also covers F&B, payroll, and guest reviews.
The new funding will help grow the product and engineering teams, speed up expansion into the UK, Europe, the US, and the UAE, and create a self-serve onboarding process.