Shane Doherty On Leaving Life Insurance To Build A Hotel Revenue Management System

Shane Doherty is an actuary who spent a decade building pricing and revenue forecasting models for life insurance companies. Something he heard at a conference struck such a chord that six months later he started Huwmo – a revenue management platform helping hotels to generate and keep more revenue.

Shane, tell us about the lightbulb moment that led to you founding Huwmo and how you got the idea off the ground.

I was at the Society of Actuaries in Ireland annual conference at the end of 2024 and there was a speaker talking about the potential impact of actuarial models in other industries. It made me curious, and I started thinking a lot about how to put that idea to the test. So, in mid-2025, I reached out to a handful of small hotels and offered to help them with demand forecasting and room pricing – for free – for three months. Two-thirds of the way in, one of the hotel managers told me that his accountant had already noticed an improvement in revenue levels year-on-year. That was the initial validation I needed. Since then, we’ve grown the business from strength to strength.

What did working with those early adopter hotels teach you about what the product needed to be?

Shane Doherty

Hotel bookings are never evenly spread. There are high-demand times like Fridays, Saturdays, or weekends in June and July but also periods of low demand. In many cases we see instances where a hotel is undercharging at the weekend but overcharging mid-week. The solution started out as a pure dynamic pricing tool – forecasting demand and setting prices based on that.

But we also wanted to get those low-demand dates in front of the right people. We were accurately forecasting them and noticed that smaller hotels without big marketing teams or advertising budgets often struggle to get visibility for them. They might have a great offer, but if it’s not getting in front of people, it’s hard to get the bookings. I think lots of people don’t realise that genuinely great deals are available if you can be flexible about when you travel.

We added a distribution engine in the form of our Guest Community, so now it’s an all-in-one solution in terms of demand-based pricing and marketing. The software identifies those low-demand dates and sends targeted offers to thousands of potential guests within the community to fill those rooms. It provides value to both the hotels and the guests – people get affordable stays in really nice hotels across Ireland, and the hotels get bookings they probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.

You’ve moved into a very different sector from your career to date. How did you find that change?

My wife and I have always loved going to hotels, so I’ve always had that attachment to the sector. But it’s been a completely new experience after working in financial services for the bones of a decade. What has really struck me about the people who work in hospitality is their willingness to help. The small hotel owners and managers I work with are unbelievably accommodating. They give up their time to do market research interviews and are always offering to help in any way they can. They are helping to get the word out as well. I don’t think we can thank our early adopters enough for the time they’ve given us and the trust they’ve placed in us.

Tell us about how you met your co-founder and what that relationship has been like.

It can be hard to find the right co-founder, but I’m very fortunate in that my co-founder Micheál Dunne is my cousin, and I’ve known him all my life! That made the decision a lot easier – I knew exactly who to go to when we started out on this journey. It’s been brilliant, and it’s actually strengthened our relationship going through the highs and lows of running a startup. It’s also great to work with someone who knows everything about you and knows how you work.

Micheál is a software engineer. My technical skill set lies in building forecasting models; I’m quite technical, but building a robust, scalable product is a different discipline, and that’s where Micheál’s expertise is critical. We work well as a team – I’ve built the forecasting calculations, and he integrates this into the software. We’ve built the system over the last 10 months or so, and we’re now bringing it to market. A key focus is to provide the best possible booking experience for guests. Ultimately, we’ll want to bring in personalised experiences for guests, and I can see us introducing AI assistance down the line to help guests book experiences that fit their exact needs.

What was your experience of the New Frontiers programme in Waterford?

I went into Phase 1 with a completely different business idea and came out with a lot more clarity about what I wanted to do and what we needed to do to turn this into a commercial business – particularly around sales and marketing. Speaking to the mentors and hearing from previous founders about what they did was really valuable. It clarified that this was something I wanted to pursue. I’m currently on Phase 2, and the group we have is so helpful. Dr Eugene Crehan, the Programme Manager, has been incredibly supportive throughout the process as well. I couldn’t recommend it enough and already have to a number of friends.

You’re nearly one year into the startup journey. What kind of traction have you achieved, and what else are you aiming for this year?

It’s been great to see the evolution from an initial idea to testing it with a few hotels and now a fully fledged software solution. We also launched the free guest community at the beginning of the year and there’s been a huge influx of guests signing up. Our goal is to reach 100,000 guests before 2027. We have worked with over a dozen early-adopter hotels so far. In terms of our go-to-market strategy, we’re meeting with hotels across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and we’re planning to enter the UK market later this year, starting with Scotland and England. We plan to onboard 93 hotels in Ireland and the UK this year. So far, we’re on track to meet this year’s goals. We have a big vision, and we’ve executed well up to this point.

What advice would you give to other new founders starting out on the journey?

Keep putting one foot in front of the other and let the time do the work. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so just trust the process. Sometimes when we’re planning, we really overestimate what can be achieved in a month, but then we also underestimate what can be achieved in a year. To be honest, if someone had told me this time last year that we would be where we are now, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are.

Shane was a participant of New Frontiers in Waterford (South East Technological University (SETU) – Waterford Campus) where our Programme Manager is Dr Eugene Crehan. Learn more about the company at huwmo.com or join the free community at theguestcommunity.com.