Woong Hee Lee CEO and Founder of H2O Hospitality

1. Woong Hee Lee: CEO and Founder of H2O Hospitality The world is full of adventures and surprises, people are curious to explore it. With the high number of tourist places, South Korea has enhanced the way in hospitality. Though tourism is not a new thing, due to the increased interest of people it has become prominent. The travel and hospitality industry also has a vital role in contributing to the country's economy. It also has created job opportunities, along with culture which allows foreign exchange. South Korea and Japan are well-maintained in providing hospitality through their kind gestures. According to the World Economy Forum in 2021 report Korea is in 15th position in the travel and tourism development sector and attains a score of 4.8. Here let us discuss the famous and inspiring businessman of South Korea, Woong John Lee who is a pioneer of H2O hospitality. Brief account of Woong Hee (John) Lee John Lee by birth is a Korean-Canadian who was born in Vancouver, Columbia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Cornel University in the stream of Hotel Management/Administration with the duration from 2007 to 2011. When his a keen interest in hospitality and entrepreneurship he wanted to solve social problems. He started his career as an intern at Macquarie Group in the year 2010. Later he worked as an associate at Morgan Stanley and then in the year of 2014 he was promoted as Vice president at GOGOX. Woong Hee Lee with his vast work experience decided to start his journey as an entrepreneur in the year 2015 and founded H2O Hospitality Ltd., and continues to work as a CEO. Along with his interest in hospitality, he also thought that technology would be used to achieve his goal and would bring a transformation in the hospitality sector. Initially started with the business in South Korea and later on encountering the increase in tourist people in Japan he expanded his business in 2018. He took the cleaning company in Japan and made it into an accommodation property. John Lee found it challenging to convince the hotel owners as they were not ready to change the system. The next challenge of accommodating guests was not that difficult as people we looking for the same. The major difference between H2O Hospitality from other hotels is technology integration with management. With his new way of reshaping the business now H2O

2. is managing around 40,000 units including hotels, vacation rentals, resorts, villas, and apartments. It has expanded its business to 30 different cities in Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea. H2O Hospitality H2O Hospitality is the leading no1 Asia’s technology-based hospitality operation company, it is a hotel management business that provides digital transformation to hotels with their H2O Flow management. It is not the process that they change the facility but they just help you to provide differentiated service through their enhanced way of managing and operating. They follow the flow in 3 different steps i.e., connect, maximize, and transform. Connecting with the operation has been made easy as one can make use of options like H2O CRS, RMS, and FMS. To maximize they do have options of H2O Smart D2C, AI-based CRM, and transform space. It is more cost-effective than traditional lodging management as it does not entertain the desk at the entrance. The customer can avail any facilities and query just through chat and hence reduce in large need for manpower. All these technology-based facilities are inserted in the cleaning process and checkout as well which makes it quicker and easier. The mission of H2O hospitality is to connect all the operations of lodging and resort management tasks like reservation, check-in, check-outs, etc at a single tap with the integration of technology. Their vision is to provide an advanced user experience through digital transformation and will also help the leisure industry to focus on facilities and target customers. Conclusion Woong Hee (John) Lee was one of the entrepreneurs who was listed in Forbes 30 under 30 for his success and achievements from home cleaning services to managing hotels through the integration of technology. He made access to services quicker and easier for guests by making it automated. This also helped in increased business to holes and lodges as the operations through technology were more effective.