Why we built Ekkamai, and why we're looking for a small number of partner hotels to build it with.
Hotels lose bookings not because guests stop looking — but because no one answers. Most direct booking inquiries arrive on LINE, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger, often late at night or on weekends when staff aren't available.
We contacted 39 hotels in Bangkok with a straightforward booking inquiry. 62% never replied. Of those that did, most gave a vague response or pointed us to a third-party booking site.
The best hotel in our test was a small boutique property that replied in under 10 minutes with a clear room and rate. That hotel had a real advantage. Ekkamai gives every independent hotel that same advantage — automatically.
Ekkamai helps independent hotels reply faster, convert more direct bookings, and keep staff in control.
Ekkamai is an AI front desk assistant for independent hotels.
We spent two weeks sending the same booking inquiry to 39 hotels across Bangkok — boutique properties, mid-range guesthouses, branded hotels. We tracked who replied, how fast, and whether the response was actually usable by a guest trying to make a booking decision.
The full results and methodology are published. The numbers are worse than we expected.
Read the article →Every conversation has a journey.
Every guest gets an answer.
Guide guests to book.
Capture reservation requests.
Staff reviews and confirms.
Communicate in your guest's language.
One workspace for every conversation.
The result is Ekkamai.
Built from months of research
with independent hotels across Thailand.
Ekkamai
AI Reservation Agent
for Independent Hotels
We're inviting a small number of independent hotels to join our pilot.
If you run a hotel and you're losing bookings because guests message and don't hear back — we want to work with you. We're not looking for scale right now. We're looking for hotels that care about direct bookings and want to be part of building something that works.
The pilot is free. We'll handle the setup and be in direct contact throughout. In return, we ask for honest feedback and permission to share the results (anonymised if you prefer).
I'm Changyu, the founder of Ekkamai AI.
I built Ekkamai AI after discovering that 62% of the hotels we contacted didn't respond to a booking inquiry. The hotels that respond fast and clearly win the booking. The ones that don't lose it to a third-party site, or to the hotel down the road.
If you run an independent hotel and want to work on this together, I'd like to hear from you.
Reach me directly: