Most Visionary Leaders to Watch 2026

Nicolas Vorsteher, CEO of Chatlyn, Brings AI and Personalization to Hotel Guest Communication

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Company: Chatlyn | Founded Year: 2022 | Headquarters: Vienna, Austria | Website | LinkedIn

Published: 2026   |   Author: VisionariesNetwork Team

Hotels have always depended on good communication to build lasting relationships with their guests. As travelers increasingly use messaging apps and digital channels to make requests, hotel teams must keep up without losing the personal touch. Nicolas Vorsteher, co-founder and CEO of Chatlyn, saw an opportunity to address this challenge through technology. Drawing on his experience in software entrepreneurship, he helped establish a platform that brings guest conversations together and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make hotel communication more efficient.

From Recruitment Software to Hospitality Technology

Vorsteher’s entrepreneurial journey began with Prescreen, a recruitment software company he co-founded in Vienna in 2011. The platform helped businesses organize hiring processes and manage communication with candidates. In 2017, XING acquired Prescreen, marking an important milestone in the company’s development and giving Vorsteher experience in scaling a software business within a larger organization.

His work in recruitment technology gave him a practical understanding of the challenges businesses face when managing information, serving customers, and growing their operations. He later carried this experience into hospitality, an industry where communication is central to both customer satisfaction and daily operations.

Hotels receive questions through WhatsApp, email, booking platforms, and other channels. When these conversations remain scattered across different systems, staff may struggle to keep track of requests or respond promptly. Vorsteher recognized that technology could help hotels manage these interactions without making service feel impersonal.

In 2022, he co-founded Chatlyn with Michael Urbanek and Matthias Haubner in Vienna. As CEO, Vorsteher took responsibility for developing the business and expanding its reach. His move from recruitment software to hospitality technology reflects a consistent interest in creating practical digital solutions for everyday business challenges.

Building Chatlyn Around Hotel Needs

Chatlyn was developed to help hotels bring guest communication into one place. Rather than requiring employees to move between separate applications, the platform provides a shared inbox where teams can manage conversations across channels, including WhatsApp, email, webchat, Booking.com, Messenger, and Instagram.

The company has also expanded its focus beyond messaging. Its current platform combines guest profiles, reservation information, communication history, and AI-powered tools. By bringing these details together, Chatlyn helps hotel employees understand who they are speaking with and respond with greater context.

This approach reflects Vorsteher’s understanding that effective technology should fit the way businesses already operate. Hotel teams need tools that simplify routine tasks while allowing employees to remain involved when a guest requires personal attention.

Using AI to Support Better Guest Experiences

Artificial intelligence is central to Chatlyn’s platform. Its AI tools can respond to common guest questions using information supplied by each hotel, including property details, policies, and frequently asked questions. The system can communicate in a guest’s language and help staff manage repetitive requests outside regular working hours.

The platform also supports personalized communication. By connecting guest conversations with relevant stay information, hotels can identify opportunities to offer room upgrades, transfers, spa treatments, and other services when they suit a guest’s needs.

Human involvement remains an important part of this process. When a conversation requires judgment or a request falls outside the AI’s knowledge, the system can hand it over to a member of the hotel team. This combination allows hotels to automate suitable tasks without treating every interaction as a transaction.

Funding and International Growth

Chatlyn’s development gained momentum in June 2025, when the company raised €8 million in Series A funding led by Smedvig Ventures. The investment was intended to support product development, team growth, and international expansion.

The company had already opened an office in Dubai in 2024 as part of its efforts to reach hospitality businesses beyond its Austrian base. By mid-2025, Chatlyn reported serving more than 1,000 hotel properties across over 30 countries, demonstrating its growing international presence.

A Connected Approach to Hospitality

Chatlyn’s current positioning centers on an AI-native guest relationship management platform. Instead of treating messaging, guest data, and automation as separate functions, it brings them together around a single guest profile. The system connects with hotel property management systems to access reservation information, while the hotel’s existing system remains the master record.

The platform is designed to help hotel teams improve response times, maintain more consistent communication, and identify opportunities to strengthen guest relationships. Its hosting in Frankfurt and stated GDPR compliance also address the importance of data protection for hospitality businesses handling guest information.

For Vorsteher, the opportunity lies in making technology useful to both hotel operators and travelers. As Chatlyn continues to develop, its progress will depend on how well it meets the varied needs of hotels, maintains reliable AI responses, and delivers value beyond automation. His experience in building software businesses provides a foundation for that work, while Chatlyn reflects his belief that digital efficiency and personal hospitality can work together.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Nicolas Vorsteher?

Nicolas Vorsteher is the co-founder and CEO of Chatlyn, a hospitality technology company that develops AI-powered tools for hotel communication and guest relationship management.

2. What does Chatlyn do?

Chatlyn provides a platform that brings hotel guest conversations from channels such as WhatsApp, email, Booking.com, Instagram and webchat into a shared inbox.

3. How does Chatlyn use artificial intelligence?

Chatlyn uses AI to answer common guest questions, support multilingual communication, automate routine requests and help hotel teams provide more personalized services.

4. How much funding has Chatlyn raised?

Chatlyn raised €8 million in Series A funding in June 2025, led by Smedvig Ventures. The funding was intended to support product development, team growth and international expansion.

“Technology should make hotel communication more efficient without taking away the personal touch that makes hospitality special.”