One of our missions at TravHQ has been to scout for exciting new travel startups which are solving real problems in the B2B/B2C space. One of the segments, where we’ve been focusing on lately is Tours & Activities including travel entertainment. Recent trends have seen the emergence of startups such as KKDay, Klook and BeMyGuest. All of these startups are different and have unique positioning in terms of their target market and offerings.

Today, we are featuring ShakaPass, Singapore’s brand new startup which helps travellers as well as city dwellers. We spoke to Eric Lim, the co-founder at ShakaPass about the startup’s journey and what makes them different in the competitive landscape.

L to R: ShakaPass Co-Founders, Han & Eric

Hi Eric, please give us some background about how you started ShakaPass.

ShakaPass was founded as a result of the frustration with the lack of a discovery and booking platform to allow users to spontaneously go out and enjoy the city. Both co-founders found it tedious to find out what there is to do at any given time and the process to book tickets is equally difficult. Existing solutions catered to one of either the discovery or booking process and there was no unified platform that addressed both needs.

We envision ShakaPass to be the preferred platform where users can go through curated entertainment choices and effortlessly book tickets to the event.

What does ShakaPass really mean?

ShakaPass comes from the words Shaka and Pass. Shaka is a Hawaiian inspired word and the shaka sign, as depicted in our logo, is a friendly gesture used to convey the “Aloha Spirit”. It also casually represents “hang loose” and we wanted people to be casual and enjoy life. Pass is associated with entry and our vision for ShakaPass users to access entertainment events, as does a frequently used wrist pass also seen in our logo.

We spoke earlier about the proposition on offer. What makes ShakaPass different?

1. ShakaPass focuses on spontaneous and last minute going out needs, helping users find and book something really quickly; whether it is few hours from now, over the weekend or further out. Studies have shown that city dwellers usually book last minute and organisers overwhelmingly tend to have unsold seats for events and so ShakaPass is creating a win-win solution to address this situation.
2. All content within ShakaPass is curated since the team handpicks and approves events created by organisers in the dedicated partner portal. The aim is to provide quality and relevant content from tailored shortlists rather than have the user filter through hundreds of things.
3. ShakaPass is entertainment only (no conferences or business meetups) and its content is chosen for all users who want to enjoy the city. We offer not only popular tourist attractions but also provide activities that local resident users would discover and enjoy on a frequent basis. Examples of such activities include stand-up comedy shows, local music gigs and arts & craft activities.

Can you give us some more details about your core team?

We are a three member team but currently looking to have more additions. In addition, we’ve got two advisers and two interns.

What does your supplier and vendor network look like?

We’ve entered several direct agreements with organisers and venues to provide a more seamless experience for our users. We’re always looking to collaborate and for more details, we’re always happy to connect with the media.

For more details, please visit ShakaPass at www.shakapass.com. iOS users can download the app from here and Android users can download the app here. Try out their amazing event experiences for some fun beyond the typical touristy activities in Singapore.

Co-Founders

Han Lee

Han has over 14 years of international experience at both MNCs and startups. Previously, he served as Director of Global Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at Korea Telecom and his former consulting and strategic planning experience furthered the startup itch that needed to be scratched. Han received his MBA from Emory University and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Economics.

LinkedIn Angel.co

Eric Lim

Eric has over 9 yrs of sales and business development experience with 3 yrs of regional exposure. Prior to ShakaPass, he was Sales Manager at Samsung Electronics and after receiving his MBA from National University of Singapore, he was Director of Major Account Team at Grey Scale, a local startup. In his free time, he loves to travel and is a foodie at heart.

LinkedIn Angel.co

The post Meet ShakaPass, Singapore’s rising new startup for travellers and beyond appeared first on TravHQ.

From young startups to the online travel giants, a lot of promises have been made in the hospitality industry. We often talk about how the shift towards online will redefine the hospitality industry and many startups have showcased the same globally. However, the challenges still continue to exist at the bottom of the chain, especially on our side of the globe.

The team at Caption Hospitality started off trying to build an OTA for South East Asia region with a focus on the boutique hotel category. The initial business development was focussed on Singapore but when they started testing the model in some developing countries like Indonesia and Thailand, they realised that the problem is much bigger than what they were trying to address. They took a brief pivot towards a meta search model focusing on Thailand but couldn’t take it very far back then.

By that time, the likes of OYO Rooms, ZO Rooms and many more were starting to pop up all over and the problem they were promising to address was visible in many other developing countries. The team had learned from the past experiences that they shouldn’t be tempted by a hyped idea so they considered validating the same and decided to address the problem from its root.

Key challenges

The biggest problem was that a huge fraction of the individual properties were still operating on manual processes. Hoteliers were manually updating inventories through OTA extranets and some were even managing check-ins on pen and paper. There are plenty of solutions available for hotels so that they can change it but things were quite different in the real world, especially with the lower end of the spectrum.

The team

(L to R) Larry Chua and Budi Santoso

The duo behind Caption Hospitality, Larry Chua and Budi Santoso spent time in identifying the key problems to create a product that eliminates the ground level problems. Larry has been in the travel industry for over a decade carrying experience of working with notable startups like Ensogo, Livingsocial and Deal.com.sg. He is also a motorsport enthusiast and has competed in F1 H2O Nations Cup Powerboat race in 2011 representing Singapore. Budi has been one of the top engineers graduating from the acclaimed Nanyang Technological University and has spent close to seven years with Marvell before stepping into travel space.

Solution?

After spending close to four months surveying various hotel properties and interviewing hoteliers, they identified various hurdles. The existing solutions for budget hotel properties were too expensive for most hoteliers. On top of that, these solutions were designed considering ideal connectivity situations which wasn’t the case everywhere in developing markets. To further add to the woes, most of them required a certain level of technical expertise which meant that the lower tier hotel staff wasn’t able to operate them. Adding to all this was the fact that the hoteliers were lacking the skills required to compete or even be visible in the highly competitive online travel space.

The solution? CRONO. It is an end-to-end solution for hotels that don’t require complicated modules such as managing F&B, Spas etc. In simple words, a solution to allow budget hotels to easily manage the inventory and focus on other important aspects of running a hotel business. This is more relevant now than ever before because the modern traveller doesn’t want to spend any time at the front desk. The friction at front desk puts off the customer.

The founders have extensively researched the market looping in the feedback of potential customers and specifically addressing their pain points. That is why, apart from offering solutions for streamlining operations, they also help them boost their online presence and make the most of it.

Commenting on their vision, Larry shared, “While Oracle has dominated the market of the top tier travel accommodations, we aim to be the default operating system for the lower tier travel accommodations, enabling and empowering them to be ready for the modern travellers.”

Multiple properties in Tier 2 cities are using and testing CRONO in Indonesia. The team is also in the process of signing five year management contract with some other properties in Indonesia. Recently they also announced a partnership with eRevMax, leading hotel distribution technology provider, to offer automated channel management and reservation delivery to the hotel partners.

With CRONO, Caption Hospitality is looking to get rid of inefficiencies in operations of budget hotels, which will allow them to serve their guests better, eventually giving long term gains. You can find more details at www.captionhospitality.com.

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