Tag: Agoda

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Deep dive into APAC online travel agencies – Part 1

There are 4.3 billion active internet users in the world. Over half of them or 2.2 billion are from Asia. A growing middle and upper class with travel as a popular lifestyle choice, mobile penetration, emergence of low-cost-carriers and smartphone adaption has made the region the fastest growing online travel market across the world.

With over US$386.4 billion in gross travel bookings, APAC has long been the largest regional travel market with online booking expected to grow upward of 10% for the next couple of years. With 40% of the bookings coming from online, no wonder this is the hottest market for the online hospitality players. According to a recent study by Allied Market Research, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) are expected to grow higher over the next 5 – 6 years, even as direct travel suppliers, such as hotels, airlines and car rental companies are increasingly adding booking facilities on their website.

Consider this – according to IBEF, digital is expected to account for around 40%-50% of the total travel transactions in India by 2020 – for hotels, every third booking will be made online, predicts a report by Google BCG.  The market is presently dominated by MakeMyTrip-Goibibo – which accounts for 45% of all transactions, followed local players like Cleartrip, Yatra and global majors like Booking.com and Agoda. In China, Ctrip and Qunar combined control 53.6% of the total online travel market, followed by Fliggy with a share of 14.7%. The top three altogether took 68.3% shares of the online travel market.

Clearly online travel agencies are playing the dominant role in this unfolding story. In this multi-part series, we take a deep dive into OTAs in the region who are playing vital role in shaping the digital travel.

Ctrip

Over 180 million Chinese travellers are expected to take an international trip this year, and most of them are likely to book through Ctrip – the largest OTA in the country, and a global player in its own right. According to PhoCusWright, Ctrip is almost at par with Expedia and Booking.com in terms of gross bookings, and controls over half of online travel market in China. In a country with 100% mobile penetration, and 772 million mobile internet users, Ctrip’s app with rich content and location-based information has led the mobile booking revolution – 80% of its transactions are from the mobile platforms. The channel has over 300 million subscribers, lists 700,000 overseas hotels and as many within China. With its acquisition of budget OTA Qunar, Skyscanner, Trip.com and stake in Elong and India’s MakeMyTrip, Ctrip has emerged as the dominant player in Asia Pacific.

Agoda

Agoda, which has been one of the most popular online travel agencies in the region, started with discounted leisure hotel bookings across Asia, and continues to be a hotel-focused OTA. Headquartered in Singapore, and operating largely from Bangkok, the channel, owned by Booking Holdings, lists out 1.8 million properties including vacation-rentals and BnBs. With 22 million reviews from customers who have stayed at properties, Agoda is way ahead of its competitors on user-generated reviews, which can only be matched with Google or TripAdvisor.  In sync with the mobile-savvy APAC population, the channel has invested heavily into mobile app which currently accounts for half of all bookings made on the channel. The channel also shares its inventory with sister companies like Booking.com and Priceline to expand its global reach. However, unlike its parent brand, Agoda primarily relies on the merchant or wholesale model – where the property sets the net rate with OTA adjusting the markup.

Make My Trip

The earliest entrant to Indian online travel market, Make My Trip has been a dominant player since its inception. The recent acquisition of Ibibo Group’s travel business has made it the largest player in online air ticketing and hotel booking business. Leveraging big data and machine learning, the company has recently introduced an artificial intelligence-based chatbot Gia, which is serving up to 5,000 unique users post sales query daily. Last year, the company introduced Goibibo Express, a conversation-based app targeted at the entry level internet user which accounts for close to 100 million. The app available in both Hindi and English, allows users to book hotels, trains and buses. The Make My Trip loyalty programme, which has close to 800,000 subscribers is also driving repeat bookings.

As hoteliers, are you ready to tap into the Asia Pacific market? Are you managing these channels well and keeping them updated with rates and availability on a regular basis?

Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

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Agoda Opportunities debuts on LiveOS

The #1 hospitality operating system LiveOS has introduced Agoda Opportunities on its platform. Hotels using LiveOS platform to manage their online distribution can now access this special service from Agoda to amplify visibility on Agoda, the fastest growing global OTA.

Through Agoda Opportunities, hotels can access Agoda Sponsored Listing, a service designed to connect hotels with a highly engaged travel audience through paid listings. The sponsored listing appears in premium placement alongside search results – increasing exposure, building brand awareness and maximizing opportunities to convert lookers into bookers.

Another service is Agoda Private Sale (APS), a feature promoting properties and insider deals and offers to Agoda’s registered VIP members. With the new features available exclusively on LiveOS, user hotels can now view and take part on this select closed user group incremental sales program directly from their LiveOS dashboard.

“We are pleased to reinforce our integration with eRevMax by optimizing production opportunities within LiveOS, to strengthen property profiles among Agoda’s customer bases and drive increase in revenue. We are constantly striving to provide more value and innovation to the benefit of our mutual accommodation partners and the launch of Agoda Opportunities allows us to do so. We are excited to continue exploring new approaches that are made possible by the quality of eRevMax’s software,” said Lucas Johnson, Associate Director Connectivity & Partnerships, Agoda.

“We continuously strive to bring relevant enhancements and features to make our customers experience wonderful. LiveOS users can now view and activate various incremental sales and marketing opportunities available on Agoda directly from their dashboard,” said Ankur Gupta, Sales Director, LiveOS.

LiveOS is an operating system that simplifies the use of technology for the hospitality industry. It centralizes the core functions of multiple applications in a single sign-on platform offering accommodation providers the much-needed simplicity in daily operations. Over 9000 hotels today use the LiveOS platform to manage multiple pre-integrated technology solutions including PMS, CRS, OTAs, Metasearch sites, Channel Manager, Reputation Management and other services.

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Agoda certifies eRevMax as their Innovative Supplier delivering best-in-class connectivity solutions to hotels


eRevMax, the leading distribution and connectivity solution provider for the hospitality industry, has been certified by Agodaas an Innovative Supplier Partner. The certification, offered to a select few, acknowledges the company’s continuous focus on innovation to deliver best-in-class solutions to its hotel partners. 
Agoda is one of the world’s fastest-growing travel portals with a network of over one million accommodation properties including apartments, villas, homes and hotels. The Asia based online channel caters to over 18 million customers across the world. eRevMax was one of the first companies to complete 2-way XML integrations with Agoda. The latest certification gives eRevMax the advantage to get new technology feature updates in advance, resulting in improved efficiency for hotel customers using RateTigerand RTConnect. 
“We are thrilled to acknowledge eRevMax as one of our Innovative Supplier Partners. Their solid performance achievements and demonstrated ability to drive innovation helps accommodation partners better manage their daily operations, whilst making clear and effective pricing decisions, thanks to eRevMax’s reliable and sophisticated technology,”said Errol Cooke, Vice President Global Partner Services at Agoda. 
“This certification from Agoda further highlights the industry acknowledgement of RateTiger and RTConnect solutions and the trust and goodwill we have established among the hotel community. We believe this is a direct result of our continuous effort on incremental improvements to make online distribution and channel management effortless for hoteliers, giving them more opportunity to focus on strategy planning and implementation,” said Caroline Faries, Strategic Account Director, eRevMax.
eRevMax offers strong connections with over 350 OTAs and 70 technology providers. The company provides channel management, business intelligence and connectivity solutions to hotel chains, 4* and 5* properties and large serviced apartment groups globally.
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TigerTime by eRevMax turned out to be a hit with hoteliers and OTAs

While WTM ended a month back, we are still recovering from its success. The TigerTime sessions we organized with leading OTAs proved to be a hit at WTM 2013. The sessions generated significant interest among the travel industry with a ‘standing room only’ turnout.

Agoda, GTA and Ostrovok – all part of the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem – delivered relevant presentations to hoteliers looking for superior connectivity, new distribution markets and updates on new technology developments.

“TigerTime by eRevMax was the perfect platform for us to present our value proposition to a varied set of attendees. It helped us showcase how hoteliers can benefit from our advanced XML connectivity and how they can reach out to our diverse client base. Apart from being a great branding exercise, this platform put us directly in touch with key decision makers who can understand the value of our offerings and with whom we can take our business forward,” said Pavel Babenko, Director for International Markets, Ostrovok.

Here is a sneak peek into some interesting moments captured from WTM 2013


Read the full story: TigerTime by eRevMax turned out to be a hit with hoteliers and OTAs

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eRevMax hosts networking sessions for Hoteliers at World Travel Market 2013

To celebrate hitting an important milestone in eRevMax history – serving 7000 happy customers – the company attended the 2013 World Travel Market event in London to show exactly why they’re considered a world leader in channel and distribution management. With help from their approved channel ecosystem which includes Agoda, GTA, and Russian-based Ostrovok, eRevMax used this opportunity to show how the popular RateTiger software has evolved and become flexible and diverse enough to meet the needs not only of independent hoteliers but also of mid-market hotel groups and large, global hotel chains. The event took place between 4th and 7th November at ExCeL Docklands.


Networking sessions for Hoteliers at World Travel Market 2013 – Full story