Sitges, a Sunday in May —
A letter to a fellow hotelier · from Masia Can Parès
Your guest just paid you €2 000 to €6 000 — and then, for thirty days, you say nothing.
I've been writing these emails by hand for three years from my own masia in Sitges. Six of them. One every few days, in five languages, between the moment a guest hits confirm on Booking.com and the moment they walk through my gate.
The honest hypothesis — and the public benchmarks from Skift and Hotel Tech Report point the same way — is that 15% to 25% of stay revenue typically slips through that silent window. Not because guests don't want more. Because we've never been there to offer.
I built Havenkit first for myself, because nobody had built it for me. It runs those thirty days the way I'd run them on my best Sunday — only it never tires, never misses a German family, never forgets the Lyonnais couple comes every Easter.
— Martin Ohannessian · Masia Can Parès (Sitges, 16th-c · two houses · ~10 guests) · ex Le Petit Ballon, €40M to Veepee in 2014.
The silent window · what it costs
You spent €300+ on Booking.com to win this guest. Then you went silent for thirty days.
Booking.com took its ~18% cut. Stripe took 1.4%. Your cleaning team is briefed. Your sommelier reordered the Penedès. And then — nothing. For four weeks, the most emotionally invested customer of your year hears from you exactly zero times.
While they Google “best restaurants near [your village]” and book hundreds of euros of dinners at the place across the street.
- ●You wait until check-in to mention the airport transfer — and your guest has already booked a taxi app.
- ●Your PMS template is English-only. Your German guests delete it unread — and Germany is consistently a top inbound market for Mediterranean boutique stays.
- ●You chase credit card numbers by WhatsApp at 11pm. Like an amateur.
The hypothesis is straightforward: those silent thirty days are where 15–25% of stay revenue typically slips through the floorboards. We're building Havenkit to recover them — starting with our own bookings at Masia Can Parès.
The pre-arrival window · D-21 → D-1
Same hotel. Same staff. Same Booking bills.
A window, recovered.
Here is what those thirty days actually sound like, on a normal week, when the sequence is running and I am not at my laptop.
D-21
The first note — airport, in their language.
Three weeks out, before the guest has even bought a flight. A short line from me, in Italian for the Milanese, in German for the Berliners, with a Mercedes Vito and a price. Industry conversion on warm pre-arrival transfer offers tends to sit in the 40–60% range (Oaky, Revinate). The point is not the cut. The point is that they aren't fighting an unfamiliar taxi app at 23h00 with a tired toddler.
D-14
A Sunday brunch, casually offered.
Two weeks out the appetite shifts — they start picturing the trip. A private chef, a long table on the terrace, the Penedès we keep cold for visitors. One paragraph. One Stripe Checkout embedded in the email. No link they have to follow to a tab they will close.
D-10
The pantry, pre-stocked.
The most underrated message of the six. Families with small children pay anything to walk in and find olive oil, fresh bread, milk for the morning. Ten days out is when the mental load of holiday logistics peaks — and where a kind, specific message disarms it.
D-7
Welcome wine, signed off by me.
A small regional pack — three bottles, picked by hand from the Penedès, no upsell tone. I write this one a little warmer because at seven days out they are committing emotionally. Warm pack conversion benchmarks: 30–50% range.
D-3
An offer of rest, before the journey.
Three days out we suggest an in-room massage on the first evening. Not for everyone — and the sequence knows it. If the guest hasn't opened the previous two notes, this one is suppressed. Reply to anything, and the sequence pauses entirely. The concierge takes over the thread, no further automation hits them.
D-1
The last message — keybox, parking, the dog’s name.
Twenty-four hours before arrival, the practical things. Door code, parking, the village pharmacy hours, the name of our dog so the children know who they're greeting. No upsell. This last note is a gift; the work was already done.
Six touchpoints. Five languages. One afternoon to set up. Then it runs while you sleep — Stripe Checkout inside every message, replies pausing the sequence automatically, every line in the voice you'd use yourself on a Sunday with a coffee.
Because the prompts were written by a hotelier who has actually written them. On Sundays. With coffee.
The setup · one afternoon
One afternoon to set up. Then it runs while you sleep.
- I.4 min
Connect your PMS
Mews, Cloudbeds, Lodgify, Smoobu or Hostaway. OAuth in under sixty seconds. We import every booking arriving in the next ninety days.
- II.35 min
Pick your upsell catalogue
Six battle-tested templates from the Masia playbook. Edit the prices. Done.
- III.20 min
Approve once, then walk away
Preview every email per language. Sign off once. Stripe Checkout lives inside every message. Replies pause the sequence automatically.
Every email reads like you wrote it on a Sunday with a coffee. Because the prompts were drafted by a hotelier who has actually written them on Sundays. With coffee.
From the early cohort · names withheld
What the early cohort is asking us for.
We're currently in private conversation with a small group of boutique properties around Sitges, Begur and the Costa Brava. No customer quotes are published yet — we'll only release names with signed consent, and only once we have real Stripe receipts to point at.
- Early cohort signal · 01
The WhatsApp credit-card chase has to end.
The thing every owner mentions first: they want to stop being the 11pm receptionist with a Stripe link in WhatsApp. Embedded Checkout inside the language-matched email is the design that keeps coming up.
Drawn from private demos · names withheld until signed
- Early cohort signal · 02
A six-week onboarding is a non-starter.
Multi-property managers told us point-blank: nothing that needs a six-week SaaS rollout. They want to be live the same week. That is why setup is one afternoon, not a project.
Drawn from private demos · names withheld until signed
- Early cohort signal · 03
One angry reply is worth more than a year of upsell.
Hosts are protective of guest trust. The reply-pause guardrail and the conservative-over-creative AI rule were not marketing — they were the first concession we made to make hosts comfortable switching this on.
Drawn from private demos · names withheld until signed
The thesis · out loud
This isn't a pitch deck. It's the thesis we're building against — out loud.
No published outcome numbers yet · we'll show the receipts when they're ours
“I'm building Havenkit for myself first because nobody else built it for me. The hypothesis: the thirty silent days between “booked” and “check-in” is where 15–25% of stay revenue slips through the floorboards. When the receipts come in, they'll be from our own Stripe — and from the early cohort. Not a slide.”
Industry benchmark ranges · public sources
- D-21 Airport transfer — 40–60% warm conversion range.
- D-14 Sunday brunch — 25–40%.
- D-10 Pre-stock groceries — 20–35%.
- D-7 Welcome wine pack — 30–50%.
- D-3 In-room massage — 15–25%.
Ranges drawn from Oaky, Revinate and Hotel Tech Report public benchmarks for warm pre-arrival upsell. We publish our own numbers as the beta cohort produces them.
Two founder-signed guarantees
If the sequence doesn't earn its keep, I refund the year personally.
The 60-day refund.
If your sequence hasn't produced at least €1 of incremental Stripe in your first sixty days — I refund the full year personally, from my own account. One email to me. Money back in 48h.
The performance promise.
If after one full year Havenkit hasn't outearned its own fees on your Stripe, I refund the year and write you a personal apology — signed and on paper. Outcome-aligned isn't a slogan; it's how the pricing is structured.
— Martin Ohannessian, Masia Can Parès
Why me · the short version
A hotelier who learned to ship software. Not the other way around.
In 2014 I sold Le Petit Ballon for €40M (Veepee). I could have done anything. I bought a 16th-century masia near Sitges, restored it across two rentable houses, and ran it as a host for three years before writing a single line of Havenkit code. This is not a SaaS founder cosplaying as a hotelier.
Everything I learned at Le Petit Ballon — sequencing, peak-emotion timing, outcome-based copy — was D2C wine. It transfers cleanly to pre-arrival hospitality. The A/B test that became Havenkit runs on my own Masia bookings today.
There's a difference, and you can feel it in every email Havenkit sends.
Built for · trusted by · part of
- Masia Can Parèsthe flagship · 2 houses · Sitges
- Le Petit Ballonfounder alumni · €40M exit
- Booking.com PartnerDirect Communication API · Q1 2026
- Made in EuropeRGPD-native · Supabase EU-West
- Sitges hospitality networkCosta Brava boutique cluster
- D2C wine network alumniDecantalo · LPB lineage
The pricing · plainly
Mews + Oaky + Klaviyo: €7 000 to €15 000 a year.
Havenkit: €99/mo + 15% of the upside.
Pilot
Invite-only · early Sitges & Costa Brava cohort
- · No base fee, no commission for 12 months
- · Up to 30 rooms
- · All 5 PMS adapters
- · All 5 languages (EN / ES / FR / DE / IT)
Reciprocity offer — limited intentionally to a small founding cohort.
Standard
For everyone after the pilot.
- · €99 flat + 15% commission on what Havenkit generates
- · If Havenkit generates €0 — you pay €0 commission
- · Via Stripe Connect — money lands in your account
- · Cancel anytime, keep your data
Outcome-aligned. I don't eat unless you eat.
vs the stack you already pay for
What you'd be replacing, and what changes.
Competitor pricing sourced from Capterra, G2 and Hotel Tech Report public listings (2026). Conversion ranges are industry benchmarks, not our own measurements.
- Annual software costToday€7 000 – €15 000With Havenkit€1 188 + 15% of upside
Delta · ≈ −80% on fixed
- Setup timeToday~8 weeksWith HavenkitOne afternoon
Delta · −97%
- LanguagesTodayEN + manual duplicationWith Havenkit5 native
Delta · +4, zero manual
- Pre-arrival coverageTodayIn-stay only (Oaky)With HavenkitD-30 → D-1 sequence
Delta · Whole window
- Stripe upsell nativeTodayLinks out, ~30% drop-offWith HavenkitEmbedded in email
Delta · Cleaner conversion
- AI personalisationTodayGeneric templatesWith HavenkitPer-guest, host-voice prompts
Delta · Host-voice
- Reply pause guardrailTodayNoneWith HavenkitAuto-pause + concierge
Delta · Protects guest trust
- Owner time / weekToday4–6 hoursWith Havenkit< 15 minutes
Delta · −5 to −6 h
- Best-touchpoint conversion (industry range)Today< 5–8%With Havenkit20–60% target window
Delta · Step-change
A personal invitation —
Come sit with me for fifteen minutes. I'll show you your own next thirty days.
Here is the offer, plainly. Give me a quarter of an hour and a sandbox copy of your PMS. I will project the next thirty days of arrivals against your real bookings and write back with the working hypothesis on stay-value uplift. From my own laptop, signed by hand.
If it isn't worth your time, you will know in fifteen minutes and we both move on — no second email from me. If it is, you join the founding cohort: twelve months free, no base fee, no commission, all five languages, every PMS adapter we ship.
And if, after sixty days of being live, the sequence hasn't produced one single euro of incremental Stripe — I refund the year personally, from my own account. One email to me. Money back in 48 hours.
Martin,
from the Masia.
Masia Can Parès · 16th-century · two houses (Casa Blanca 3ch · Casa Mediterranea 2ch) · ~10 guests max · Sitges.
Ex Le Petit Ballon, sold to Veepee in 2014 for €40M. Hotelier first, software second.
Questions hoteliers ask me
The seven things that come up every single demo.
Q1.What if my guests complain that I am spamming them?
The sequence pauses the instant a guest replies — auto-concierge takes over the thread, no further automation hits them. We target an unsubscribe rate inside the industry sub-2% benchmark and a near-zero complaint rate, and we publish the cohort numbers as they accrue.
Q2.Does it work with my PMS?
We ship adapters for Mews, Cloudbeds, Lodgify, Smoobu and Hostaway — together they cover the majority of the boutique EU market. Other PMS via standard iCal + manual import in v1.
Q3.Booking.com forbids direct communication, no?
Not since the Q1 2026 Direct Communication API Guidelines. Booking.com officially opened the channel via the API — Havenkit is being built fully inside the new compliant window.
Q4.Will the AI hallucinate facts about my hotel?
No free-text generation about your property. The AI personalises tone and language; every factual claim (room name, dates, amenities, prices) is pulled from your PMS and validated before send. Conservative over creative — by design.
Q5.What does the guest see on the Stripe side?
A standard Stripe Checkout page, in their language, with your hotel branding. One click. They never leave their inbox to your website. Stripe-hosted Checkout typically converts noticeably better than custom checkout UIs — that is why we chose it.
Q6.15% commission — that feels like a lot.
On €0 of incremental upsell, 15% is €0. On a hypothetical €5 000 month of incremental Stripe, you keep €4 250 and Havenkit earns €750. The downside is mathematically capped at the €99 base.
Q7.How long until I see revenue?
Our design target is a first Stripe transaction inside the first 30 days of connecting your PMS — the natural cycle of the pre-arrival window. We publish the realised median as the beta cohort completes its first cohort of arrivals.