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9dots provides an answer to the central question of many individual hotels: How can I stay viable in the long run without losing my own identity?

Seen from the outside, everything seems the same: the carefully folded tablecloths, the stately staircase, the friendly smiles at reception. But behind the scenes, many individual hotels in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are fighting for their economic survival day in, day out. There is a lack of skilled workers, cost pressure, rising demands for digitalization and sustainability – and a market increasingly dominated technologically by big hotel groups.

But it is the small, individually managed hotels that shape the character of the DACH hospitality landscape. Ninety percent of hotels in the region are not affiliated with any chain. They provide some 63% of available rooms. Yet they often have to manage all this without access to what other industries have taken for granted for years: a sophisticated, integrated system for frictionless operations – including the integration of state-of-the-art technologies such as artificial intelligence.

A system that thinks for itself instead of prescribing

With the launch of 9dots, all this could now change.
Headquartered in Monheim am Rhein, the new company specializes in the digital and operative transformation of the SME hotel sector, making a promise that has the entire industry listening closely: Hotel as a service. What is meant is a fully digital, AI-driven, modular, guided system that is intended for individual hotels for the first time.

Trailblazers such as Duolingo and Shopify have demonstrated that “AI first” has long since become a strategic guideline. 9dots is now bringing this approach to the hotel sector, creating the foundation for a future-proof, data-based hotel business.

“Intuition isn’t enough: If you want to run a profitable business, you need reliable data. That is exactly what 9OS gives us,” explains Martin Kemmer, CEO and Managing Partner of the Place Value Group, the entity behind the 9dots brand. For more than a decade, Martin Kemmer and his brothers have been renovating and digitalizing hotels together – drawing on their first-hand experience and with entrepreneurial consistency. In 2024, they founded their own brand, Hey Lou HOTELS, that has now been successfully rolled out at seven locations.
These very experiences now inform their platform, which they are making available to SMEs.

“We did more than plan from the desk, we thought from a place of first-hand hotel experience. Because what matters is not what we like, but what really works in your business,” explains CEO Daniela Schade.

The linchpin of the concept is the hotel operating system 9OS, that digitally covers all processes, from housekeeping and purchasing to booking and HR. It consists of nine scalable modules that can be combined flexibly. Hotels that want to start off small can use the five mandatory base functions. Hotels that want more can expand the system to a complete platform. More than 100 leading tools and partner solutions are already integrated.

Not digital for the sake of digitalization

At 9dots, digitalization is not an end in itself. It is essential for economic survival – especially for hotels that do not have their own IT departments or process consultants. That is where the so-called 9dots transformation process comes in. Hotels receive structured guidance in four phases (analysis, strategic consultation, integration, and maximization) in technical, operative, and personal terms.

“Transformation is not a cakewalk, but it pays off. 9OS not only digitalized our processes, it made them more personal,” says Daniela Schade. The founders have a special passion for SMEs: “As the backbone of our industry, it deserves solutions that are not dictated from on high but were developed from an equal footing.”

What sets 9dots apart: Brand neutrality

Many businesses will particularly appreciate that the system is brand-neutral. Under the Solution partner label, hotels can use 9OS in the background, keeping their own brand, story, and style. Hotels that are interested in franchising can join Hey Lou HOTELS – benefiting from clear branding, but purposefully lean standards. No expensive modifications, no licensing hurdles. Instead, a consistent, digital guest journey and access to a shared platform.

The question of costs has also been rethought. Instead of costly initial investments, 9dots uses a monthly, per-room billing model. Available on the website, the ROI calculator uses individual operational data to reveal, in just a few steps, when using the system will start to pay off financially.

9dots marks the beginning of a new chapter where hospitality is not just lived out, but supported intelligently. Artificial intelligence is not an afterthought here – it provides the strategic foundation for a hotel business that can evolve on an ongoing basis. 9OS thinks for itself, it learns and grows with the challenges you face, allowing you as a hotel operator to return your focus to what really makes the difference: real hospitality.
This marks the start of a new era in the hotel sector: data-based, AI-driven, but always personal. In fact, that may be the greatest change: that technology is no longer at odds with tradition; it has become its ally.

For many traditional hotels, the offering comes at just the right time. Because the challenges are growing and time is running out. Or, as one hotel director succinctly put it: “We don’t have to digitalize because it is the modern thing to do. We have to digitalize so that we can stay who we are.”