Tell us about yourself and your background
I grew up in the Southern US and at a young age was always starting small business ventures. After graduating college, I started my career in the hotel industry at Four Seasons Jackson Hole. This began a decade of leading Food & Beverage teams for Four Seasons & Hilton Hotels in Jackson Hole, Philadelphia, Miami, St. Louis, Dallas, and New Orleans.
What inspired you to found TrayAway?
During my 10+ years of leading teams in luxury hotels, it became obvious that guests, hotel executives, and hotel corporate teams all despised dirty room service trays cluttering hallways. Despite this, there was not a viable solution on the market that hotels could easily purchase and implement to resolve this issue.
What is TrayAway?
TrayAway provides intuitive solutions that streamline service and enhance guest experiences. From hotels to hospitals to senior living communities, TrayAway supports service operations for success in 30+ countries. More specifically we provide seamless room service tray tracking technology to eliminate dirty trays from hallways. We also provide flawless in-room digital ordering to improve the guest experience and order accuracy. Our incredible waterproof hardware technology is perfect for boosting revenue and improving service throughout pool & beach operations. Lastly, we provide customized wooden service request devices for luxury meeting room operations.
What makes TrayAway unique in the marketplace?
We started with the end user experience in mind and worked backwards when creating incredible technology users will love utilizing each day. While this does include the guest experience, more importantly I am referring to the staff experience. We care deeply about how the servers, bussers, order takers, and other team members will interact with and enjoy using our platforms each day. Ultimately, if the team members love using TrayAway daily, it will result in everything the hotel executives are aiming for such as improved hotel cleanliness, increased guest satisfaction, and enhanced staff efficiency.
Are you completely self-funded or did you raise investment?
We’re grateful to have incredible investors supporting TrayAway such as Gulf South Angels, Elevate Capital, and LookFar Ventures to name a few.
How long did it take from idea to manufacturing to your first sale/hotel order?
From the initial idea to our first hotel sale was 6 months. It was a new build property going through the pre-opening phase, while we were also in our final stages of development. It worked out perfectly as their grand opening a few months later was the official launch of TrayAway.
What are the current hotel industry trends for dining?
Nearly a decade ago, some experts in the industry believed that In-Room Dining was soon to be extinct. Thankfully they could not have been more wrong, as many luxury properties have seen room service business levels double and, in some cases, triple over the previous few years. Thanks to TrayAway, the headaches previously associated with In-Room Dining have been resolved, enabling hotels to increase efficiencies therefore operate room service more profitably.
Can you provide a case study of the success of TrayAway?
“TrayAway is a valuable tool that allows our team to not only better serve the guest but also provides a clear system of tracking and staff accountability.” -Michael Rodriguez, F&B Director, Fairmont Austin
“TrayAway has become a great companion to our In-Room Dining operation. The system not only allows us to swiftly retrieve our trays and trolleys, but our guests love the convenience of not having to call an operator. It also helps our team members stay on track with their pick-ups. A great solution overall!” – Chris Pageaud, F&B Director, Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas
What has been the biggest company success since launching?
We’re grateful to be supporting hotels within just about every major luxury brand such as Conrad, Fairmont, Hyatt, InterContinental, Jumeirah, Montage, Raffles, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Waldorf Astoria, and many others.
How have you managed the transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship?
I thankfully had several entrepreneurial ventures prior to starting my hotel career. One venture was a painful failure, but proved to be an incredible learning experience that helped develop my entrepreneurial skills needed to build TrayAway into a successful company today.
How have you built high level connections within the hotel industry to build trust and launch TrayAway?
All of our big opportunities started small. In most cases, we started supporting a single property for success within a particular brand. This would gradually lead to several sister properties and eventually make its way to a larger discussion with corporate decision makers.
How have you grown the company?
TrayAway is not only easy for hotels to implement, but we primarily provide support remotely with our current footprint expanding across 30+ countries. This allows us to provide an incredible level of support, but doing so in a time efficient and cost-effective manner, always keeping hotel budgets in mind.
What is one of the most difficult challenges you have faced since launching? (
As we’re all aware the 2020 pandemic was an incredibly difficult year, especially for the hospitality industry. We were an early-stage company and worked very carefully to support our hotel partners during this difficult time. Thankfully m,any of our hotel clients stayed with us, and we were able to further support their operations as business began to ramp up in 2021.
What do you see as the future of the dining experience in hospitality?
I believe incredible Chefs & Restaurateurs are and always will be at the heart of innovation for food and beverage. With that said, it’s difficult to focus on innovation when labor costs continue to ris,e resulting in staffing challenges and difficulties executing basic service standards. Hotels need technologies like TrayAway to perform service properly in today’s environment, which in turn enables the innovators to do what they love and do best.
How do you plan to expand TrayAway over the next 5 years?
TrayAway’s goal is to continue ‘Elevating Experiences’ across all areas of hospitality and healthcare. While currently 30% of the 5-Star Hotels in the US utilize TrayAway, we have a ways to go to reach 100% adoption within the luxury market. As we continue strengthening our partnerships within each hotel brand, we’ll continue to innovate and bring to market amazing products that enable hoteliers to perform at their absolute best.
How can readers find out more about you and TrayAway?
Feel free to visit our website at www.TrayAway.com, reach out to us via email at Info@TrayAway.com, and connect with me directly on LinkedIn – Josh Johnston, CEO & Founder TrayAway.
