App helps you get the best out of the beach
A new app has emerged that offers to defuse the tensions over sunbeds and loungers that can be a feature on more popular beaches in the summer.
Aptly named Plazz (plazz.com), the Greece-based digital platform helps users reserve a spot on their favorite beach and, in doing so, benefits businesses as well.
As Manos Paterakis, one of the founders of the company, explains, the platform has developed an expanded network of 3,000 loungers in about a hundred locations across Greece, mostly in the Cyclades, Ionian Islands, Xanthi and Kavala.
“We now have more than 35,000 users, of whom 35 percent are based abroad. And our turnover is growing at a rate of 40 percent a year,” says Lefteris Farmakas, his cofounder.
“The disappointment that people who have covered long distances in the summer heat face when they find no places to enjoy themselves at the beach provided the incentive for the app,” he adds.
“There is a great and urgent need for an organized approach to the beach, so we came up with a solution to cover this shortcoming and also to benefit businesses.”
Plazz users can discover and connect with unique beaches and directly reserve their lounger online from any computer, smartphone or tablet.
The app also offers business a platform through which they can manage bookings and make promotional offers.
The company’s success too off last year when it began collaborating with Marketing Greece, Skyscanner and Uber. In addition to developing partnerships with online travel agencies, Plazz wants to expand its services to hotels that have pools (and deckchairs) and also to users, so they can order food and drinks or even beauty services and water sports activities.
The seasonal nature of the tourism industry is a challenge for the app, Paterakis admits. “Seasonality is of great concern to us and that is why our business plans are expanding our operations to areas such as Latin America, where the summer season is almost all year round.”
Thus, Plazz’s strategic objective is the further development of the network in several locations in Greece, as well as its representation in other countries abroad. “We are focusing on beaches and hotels in the Mediterranean, as well as in countries near the equator, to extend the platform’s operation to the rest of the year,” he says.
