Blockchain is emerging as a strong technology tool that is all set to change the status quo of the travel industry. This is largely because it has the potential to dramatically alter the way in which information or data is stored and used, enhancing transparency and security, while also improving transactions. One of the most crucial aspects of blockchain technology is that data is decentralised, with information shared across a peer-to-peer network.

Banking on its subsequent adoption and tremendous growth potential, Singapore-based GOeureka is planning to launch their online hotel booking platform at the end of 2018, which will be utilising blockchain technology to deliver an industry-first solution that will disrupt the current OTA business model.

This next-gen solution that will shape the future of online booking, will be built on top of the Ethereum platform, an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications. GOeureka will challenge the status quo by removing hefty OTA commissions paid by hotels.

Image source: GOeureka

The booking engine will also allow users to earn cryptocurrency tokens (Go Tokens issued by GOeureka) for online bookings made on the platform which can then be used for future bookings on the portal. The company’s goal is to deliver greater transparency in the booking process and drive better value for the consumer by allowing users to transact directly with hotels through smart contracts. GOeureka will eradicate the current commission model adopted by online travel agents and work on a much more cost-effective fixed-fee model with their hotel partners. This will decrease the costs that hotels incur when a booking is made through a third party booking engine.

By reducing the financial commitments of hotels to third-party booking platforms, the company’s vision is to enable hotels to focus more resources on providing better intrinsic value and services to travellers around the globe. Other features the company plans to release is to facilitate interoperability of hotel loyalty points and a rebooking system that will deliver the best possible room rate for travellers.

“Think of GO Tokens as loyalty points which users can utilise to unlock a range of benefits across our platform. One of the distinctions between our tokens and traditional loyalty points is that GO Tokens will also have monetary value as they can be traded on crytopcurrency exchanges. Having said that, the intrinsic value of our tokens is its utility across our platform” said Manraj Rai, GOeureka’s founder and CEO. GOeureka also plans to enable booking payments through traditional methods such as credit cards and other forms of cryptocurrency.

GOeureka has already launched its GO token sales, after which it plans to launch product Beta test with its partner hotels. This will be followed by the launch of the platform, and a digital marketing campaign by the end of this year. The company has already received a successful seed funding for the purpose, and currently has a 19-member strong team spread across Singapore and Malaysia.

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The travel and tourism industry now accounts for one-tenth of the world’s GDP, and is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors, with bookings hitting close to $1.6 trillion in 2017. Despite this vast market, the industry is dominated by a handful, especially in the travel booking space. Major players like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb have become the only options for finding hotels and rooms, who charge fees for vendors, while their payment processing systems charge a fee from the customer.

Vietnam-based Concierge.io is aiming to change all that with its decentralized travel booking marketplace that utilizes the NEO blockchain, reducing third party interaction, whilst pledging a transparent operational process. The platform connects consumers directly with vendors to discuss their deals with no fee or commission associated.

According to Concierge, the current centralized market leaders take 15-45% booking fees from vendors, the prices of which are passed onto consumers more often than not. Added to this fee, are ones from payment merchants charging around 2-3% on each transaction.

The Concierge.io marketplace UI (User-Interface) and UE (User-Experience) have been designed to give as much accessibility to both the vendor and consumers. The platform utilizes specific API’s to enable speed of transferring listings from other platforms providing maximum efficiency. Traditional payment methods like Visa/Master Card will be an option with top cryptocurrencies also added in due course. (Read more about how 2018 is going to be all about blockchain.)

The company’s goal of cutting out middlemen comes amid an intensifying battle between hotels and third-party booking websites. A recent report stated that accommodation providers are aggressively offering incentives to guests who don’t go through intermediaries.

This peer-to-peer platform will serve as a booking hub for hotels, resorts, and tours with payments carried out all within the platform. The marketplace will be powered by Concierge’s dedicated token dubbed the CGE Token, which will be used for bookings and minimising fees. The focus towards the community will be to increase substantial worth of the CGE token. The company plans to generate revenues through advertising, while the low transaction costs for travellers will lead to an overall reduction in prices.
Travel and tour providers and property owners will be able to build and develop their own apps and services directly on the Concierge platform. Concierge.io also says that its system will offer safety through an AI-based dispute system, which means that any discrepancies in booking or issues with poor customer service can be resolved without leaving the marketplace.

Concierge currently has 16,000 tours, resorts, and hotels in Southeast Asia and Australia ready for listing once it launches.

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Established in 2006 as flightraja.com, Via.com has covered great distances since its inception. In the highly competitive online travel market, Via.com proudly claims to be the only travel e-commerce company which is consistently profitable. Over the decade, the company has built a presence across six countries: India, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and UAE.

With the 10^th anniversary, Via.com is looking to further expand the reach of its B2C business. In order to celebrate the anniversary and reach out to new customers, the company will be launching a five day sale starting July 22 till their anniversary on July 26. The deals will be available on all the travel services sold through Via.com including flights, hotels, buses and holiday packages.

Swaminathan Vedaranyam, Chief Executive Officer, VIA

Talking about the upcoming sale, Swaminathan Vedaranyam, Chief Executive Officer, VIA said, “The core DNA of our company is to add value to the user’s experience. We are giving them a platform to explore various deals across all our channels during this period. We aim to tap users for immediate travel and upcoming holiday season. Our 10 th Anniversary Sale will provide offers and discounts across flights, hotels, buses and holiday packages.”

The five day sale will also be accompanied by social media campaigns on different platforms. With the upcoming sale, they are expecting 50 million users with 200 percent rise in number of transaction during the period. The company is also expecting a significant increase in number of app downloads which has been downloaded close to a million times now. You can find more details on their website via.com.

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Concur offers business tools and B2B solutions across the globe. Now Concur is extending support for the users and is offering them an easier way to book travel tickets and manage travel expenses on Microsoft’s emailing tool Outlook starting this summer. This announcement was made during the SAP’s Sapphire Conference making the images of the prototype available at concur.com, but the technology company offered no formal release date of the full product.

Expense management

The Outlook’s e- receipt would be recognised by Concur. Concur will then fill the details of the expense integrated form within the email display. The user would then verify and adjust details before sending the form to the associated Concur Expense user account. Once logged in, the user must attach each item to the Concur Expense platform within the expense tool.

This feature would find its release around summer 2016 in beta format and would be a part of the major features to be offered at Concur on an opt-in basis.

Booking handling

The Outlook would gauge in these details of the user while assessing any travel booking

• User’s home base location.
• User’s credit card information on the record.

Using the above credentials, the Concur feature will automatically recognise when a business meeting is scheduled outside of home base location. Once the user enters a scheduled entry out of its home base, Concur would display few number of policy compliant air, hotel and car rental options all in sync with the meeting date along with the itinerary details of the location and the time of the meeting.

Similar to Concur’s mobile booking tool, the tool would be flooded with data from previously booked business trips, past trip data from friends and colleagues to return the most relevant option.

The customer overlap is predicted to be extremely rich as the travellers would be clients of both Concur and Microsoft.

A well-treaded path for Outlook

Microsoft had partnered with SAP to develop Duet Enterprise that collated data from various versions of SAP server and Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook. This was the first feature to be used to make travel reservations within Outlook calendar.

Amadeus and Microsoft are looking into Outlook booking integration. KDS had also experimented in aligning travel booking in Outlook calendar back in 2014.

The currently talked about tool needs some tweaking and it would be unfair to not expect barrier-breaking possibilities.

Source: Business Travel News

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Until a few years back, most of the online travel businesses were focussed on catering to the masses, but recently we have seen a good number of startups come up with niche offerings. Few months back we learned about one such startup called 42Race during the WIT Bootcamp. A large number of marathon enthusiasts often travel across the world and 42Race is a one stop portal for the resources they would need. They not only offer packages tailored around the needs of marathon runners but also help them find new races and prepare for them.

We recently spoke with their team to learn more about this unique platform. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Why the need for 42Race?

42race is an online travel agency (OTA) targeting both Chinese and Singapore outbound marathon travellers. There are more than a million Chinese marathon runners, with estimated USD 200mil market size and double-digit year-on-year. However, there were no existing travel services catering to these runners. They face inconvenience in finding the right hotels near the starting line, searching for midnight transport and lack of social interaction with other runners is another problem.

We have created 42Race specializing in providing the best running vacation travel solutions for these runners and their family members. We have curated more than 50+ marathons around the world to provide runners a one-stop solution for running vacation. The web/ mobile platform allows runners to comment and review so as to build up an online community. The team is also in the midst of building an application to link our travel partners’ API (e.g Expedia) so as to provide personalized services.

How did the idea originate?

42Race is founded by marathon enthusiasts. We faced the inconvenience ourselves and we decided to come together to solve the problems. In particular, Zhou Mi, co-founder of 42Race had been an avid ultra-marathon runner for years and she had extensive experience and connection in running community. She would love to inspire more people to discover the joy of running vacation.

What is the early traction?

Catering mainly to Singapore and Chinese runners, we have generated more than SGD 30K revenue within 2 months of launch and we have attracted early interest from investor by raising SGD 500,000 seed funding. In addition, we are partnering with the established OTA such as Ctrip and Expedia from the beginning. The team had won several awards since launch, such as People’s Choice Award in Thack China 2015 (Shanghai, China) and People’s Choice Award in Startup Pitch, Web-in-travel 2015 (Singapore), etc.

How do you differentiate yourself from other online travel agents?

We are a very niche online travel agent, serving the marathon travellers. Our travel packages and services are designed to serve the runners, and their family. We would be offering specialised services such as training advices prior the marathon, recovery plan post-event. And our hotel rates are also highly competitive vs. DIY marathon trips due to our collaboration with our partners.

What is the way forward?

We would to serve the running community better by creating mobile application and encourage users generated content. In addition, we will link our platform with our partners’ API to improve the efficiency. We might go into other categories of sports travel once we stabilised our marathon travel segment.

If you are an avid marathon runner, 42Race can be a great platform for you to discover new events and easily make the necessary arrangements. You can visit them at 42race.sg.

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Founded by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Franck le Ouay and Romain Niccoli in 2005, Criteo is a personalized retargeting company with over 1500 employees worldwide. It involves itself with internet retailers and helps them in displaying personalized online ads to the targeted consumers.

Image Source: Pixabay

Since last year, Criteo reviewed more than 1 billion bookings made by travel suppliers and online travel agencies that exist globally. Recently, they’ve published the travel flash report which highlights a few interesting facts. Here are some of them:

#1. Mobile is the biggest influencer in travel booking

It doesn’t spring a surprise that mobile has been the biggest influencer in travel booking. The share of mobile booking has almost doubled, increasing from 12% to 23% globally. Mobile adoption has grown but is not consistent. Japan leads in the share of bookings coming from mobile devices. Western countries, Latin America and European markets lag behind.

#2. Is there a link between the booking preferences and devices used for it?

The travel flash report states that mobile users prefer to book their flight tickets through tablets. For hotel bookings smart phones are preferred. 14% of the bookings take place through smart-phones and 10% through tablets. It has also been mentioned that in case of urgency, people tend to book through smartphone for discounts and exclusive offers.

#3. Travellers have a preference of when and how they book the tickets

The share of smartphone bookings is higher during the weekends. During weekdays, smartphone bookings are more in the mornings but they decrease as the day progresses. For simple booking, smartphones are often preferred but when it comes to comparing prices, the same group of people chose desktops. This might be possible since desktops have a bigger screen. So, it’s convenient to compare prices then.

#4. The longer the stay, the bigger the screen!

This might be a surprise for many! The travel flash report states that when bookings have to be made for shorter stays, travellers tend to use smartphones. ‘Smartphones in particular account for just 10 percent of the bookings for stays of a week or more, but they account for 18 percent of one-night stays.’ Tablets constitute 10% of the one-night stay bookings.

#5. Travel Season = Mobile Season

Most of the people travel to their favourite destinations during springs and summers. In these seasons, mobile adoption increases and their usage too. Especially, from January to June in most of the regions except in the Southern Hemisphere.

#6. Hotel OTAs v/s Hotel Suppliers

OTAs lead the bookings made via smartphones in comparison to hotel suppliers. The disparity b/w the two is quite wide and OTAs account for almost thrice the bookings made by hotel suppliers themselves.

For the complete travel flash report, click here.

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