Enso Connect
6 known investors
Enso Connect is a guest experience platform for hospitality businesses, using AI, smart home integrations, and data analytics to personalize and manage guest interactions across the customer journey. It serves short-term rental hosts, property managers, and hotels.
Also known as Enso Connect Inc.
Founders & leadership
Investors · 6
Also in the syndicate · 4
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Enso Connect is an AI-native guest experience platform for vacation rentals, short-term rental operators and boutique hotels. It centralizes guest communication and automates the guest journey from inquiry through checkout, connecting to property management software, online travel agencies, smart locks, payment providers and messaging channels including email, SMS, WhatsApp, Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com messaging.
Core capabilities include an AI-powered unified inbox; agentic AI messaging in which an AI CoPilot drafts responses and an AI AutoPilot answers routine guest questions from a customer-specific knowledge base with human oversight; the "Boarding Pass" web-based guest portal covering arrival information, identity verification, property access, digital guidebooks, local recommendations, upsells and payments without an app download; configurable if-this-then-that workflows for verification, reminders, access, escalation and post-stay follow-up; upsells and fees such as early check-in, late check-out, gap nights, pet fees, parking, equipment rentals, damage waivers and local experiences; a guest CRM with unified guest profiles, tags, consents and segmentation; sentiment analysis and auto-translation; Apple Wallet support; and reporting dashboards covering incremental revenue, response times and messaging automation ratio. Governance features include roles, permissions, activity logs and policy controls positioned for portfolios from 20 to 2,000+ listings.
Founding story
Co-founder Francois Gouelo attributes the company's origin to a February 2019 ski trip to Mont-Tremblant, where the Airbnb key was frozen under the doormat, the heating system was confusing and the host was unresponsive; a week later the host reported that an open window and disabled heating had frozen the kitchen pipes. Gouelo describes the episode as avoidable with smart devices, better communication and an owner mindset. Enso Connect was co-founded in 2019 by CEO Francois Gouelo, a graduate of the Universities of Toronto and Cambridge, and CTO Peter Sorbo, who paused the Machine Intelligence stream of the University of Toronto's EngSci program to build the platform.
Business model
Enso Connect sells software to hospitality operators that layers on top of their existing property management systems rather than replacing them; the company states it is not a PMS. Its value proposition combines labor reduction through AI-assisted and automated guest messaging with incremental revenue generated through upsells, fees and payments collected in the guest portal.
The sources describe a software platform sold to hospitality operators, with customer-facing monetization through upsells, fees and payment collection; specific pricing terms are not stated.
Traction
Site figures cite 60,000+ active properties (elsewhere 50,000+ properties), operators in 50+ countries (elsewhere 60+ countries), $50M in upsell revenue calculated, $1.5M+ in monthly upsell revenue processed for customers, and 10M+ guest journeys powered. Customer case studies report outcomes such as a 400-property operator driving $130K in guest upsells, an operator scaling from 25 to 300 listings in a year, and a Manchester aparthotel cutting manual guest emails by 94%. At the 2021 seed round the company reported 12,000+ live listings, 17,000% growth in six months and operations in over 18 countries.
Latest developments
Recent published customer case studies through 2025 and 2026 cover AI AutoPilot deployments, keyless entry integrations with Assa Abloy, PMS integrations with Guesty and Hostaway, and multi-brand operations, with reported metrics such as 65-73% of guest communication automated and per-stay upsell revenue gains.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
The company positions itself as a single operating system for guest experience addressing fragmentation in the short-term rental software stack, citing an official Airbnb partnership and a 4.8 Capterra rating. Press coverage framed it as a proptech company responding to the professionalization of the short-term rental market.
Enso Connect emphasizes AI trained on each operator's own content and voice with configurable guardrails and gradual rollout, a no-download branded guest web app, deep integrations with hospitality software and hardware, custom workflows, and revenue attribution tied to upsells and stays.
Technology
The platform uses domain-trained AI applied to each customer's own data, rules and tone of voice, an AI Knowledge Base, intent and sentiment detection, automatic translation, and escalation routing of edge cases to humans, with automation enabled gradually. It integrates with property management systems, OTAs, payment providers, identity verification vendors, monitoring devices and smart locks (including Assa Abloy keyless entry), and delivers guest-facing functionality through a browser-based Boarding Pass app plus Apple Wallet.
Go-to-market
The company markets through demo bookings, published customer case studies and videos, webinars and events, newsletters, a blog and an "Enso Pros" community, and works alongside PMS partners such as Guesty and Hostaway and hardware partners such as Assa Abloy.
Growing vacation-rental brands of roughly 20-200 listings, enterprise operators with 200+ listings, and boutique hotels and aparthotels; the company also references serving individual Airbnb hosts through to large hotel groups. Documented customers include property managers and concierge businesses in the UK, France, Spain, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Geography
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada (488 Wellington Street West) with a Spanish office in Barcelona (Luxa, Glories, Carrer de Tànger 86, 08018). Customers are reported across 50-60+ countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia, Canada and the United States.
History
Founded in 2019 in Toronto, the company reported over 12,000 listings live on the platform and launches in more than 18 countries at the time of its November 2021 seed round. By the time of the current website the platform reports 50,000-60,000+ properties across 50-60+ countries and more than 10 million guest journeys, with offices in Toronto and Barcelona.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 2
launches, deals, and filingsToronto-based Enso Connect announced a seed round of just shy of $2 million led by Mantella Venture Partners, with strategic investment from Michael Hyatt and participation from Mistral Ventures, Cowie Capital and Wheelhouse CEO Andrew Kitchell.
$2M source ↗
The Annex Hotel general manager and partner Ryan Killeen described partnering with Enso Connect to enhance guest experience through technology.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Enso Connectensoconnect.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Enso Connect do?
- Enso Connect is an AI guest experience platform for short-term rental operators and boutique hotels.
- Who founded Enso Connect?
- Enso Connect was founded by Francois Gouelo.
- Who are Enso Connect's investors?
- Enso Connect's investors include Mantella Venture Partners, Mistral Venture Partners.