Hotel101 Madrid, one of Spain’s five largest hotels, runs 680 rooms with about 30 staff. Its operator, Hotel101 Global, is a Philippine-born, Singapore-headquartered hotel company listed on Nasdaq as HBNB. CEO Hannah Yulo-Luccini gave the staff figure at WiT Singapore, as Hospitality Net reported.

That works out to about 23 rooms for every member of staff. The hotel in Valdebebas opened in March 2026 and still keeps a 24/7 reception. Five moves explain the numbers.

1. It sold the rooms before the hotel existed

Hotel101 sells individual hotel units in advance, while the building is still under construction. In FY2025 that produced US$75,210,378 of the company’s US$75,866,090 in total revenue, Simply Wall St reported. Hotel rental income was US$374,573.

The gross margin on those ‘Happy Room’ sales was 43.14%. For owners and operators, the lesson is timing: unit buyers pay in advance, so revenue arrives before the hotel does, and the operating company is not waiting for guests to start earning.

2. It earns from the same room twice

The company’s stated model has two layers. The first is revenue from selling units during construction. The second is recurring revenue from running the hotel once it opens. Operating income turned positive at US$1,430,118 in FY2025, from a loss of US$4,885,359 in 2024.

Today the second layer is the smaller one, which makes it the number to watch. Guest revenue has to carry the operation as unit sales slow, and Madrid is the first large test of that. Hotel groups weighing similar structures should read the rental line as closely as the headline total.

3. It built one room and one template

The signature unit is the ‘HappyRoom’, which comes with a kitchenette. The company develops a standardised 500-room hotel at scale, and its stated vision is one million standardised rooms in 100 countries. The parent company is DoubleDragon Corporation (PSE: DD).

A standard room means standard staffing, standard training and standard purchasing. A chain that repeats one product removes many of the design and operating decisions that slow a new opening. Buyers of hotel inventory, from OTAs to airline package desks, know what they are selling before they see the building.

4. It put the app in front of the desk

Hotel101’s proprietary app handles reservations, guest services, loyalty, dynamic pricing and self check-in. That is how about 30 people cover 680 rooms and still keep reception open around the clock.

Owning the booking, pricing and loyalty layer also keeps guest data in one system. For OTAs, a hotel that prices and checks in guests through its own app is a harder partner to replace. For airlines selling hotel packages, it is a source of uniform inventory.

5. It filled the rooms fast, from far away

After opening, Hotel101 Madrid booked 45,000+ hotel nights and €5,443,000 in hotel revenue, under €121 a night on average. On 19 May 2026 it made more than €100,000 in room revenue in a single day at 100% occupancy, a company record. Over 80% of guests came from Europe, North America and Latin America.

A Philippine company filling a Spanish hotel with Western guests shows that demand was not tied to its home market. A further 2,229 Hotel101 rooms are slated for 2026: Davao 519, Cebu 548 and Niseko (Hokkaido) 482, expected December 2026. Hotel101 began trading on Nasdaq as HBNB on 1 July 2025 at a US$2.3 billion equity value.

Who to watch

Yulo-Luccini spoke at WiT Singapore and also speaks at ULI and Milken Asia. Organisers building investor and hospitality-technology programmes in Asia will find a CEO with a live case and current numbers.

Key takeaway

The part worth copying is the order of operations: fund the building with advance sales, standardise the product, and let an app carry routine work so staff handle the exceptions. We would test the staffing ratio first, because it is the number other hotel teams will check against their own.

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One thread ran through this week’s travel news, from India’s national digital tourism stack to Airbnb’s call on AI agents: whoever holds the booking relationship holds the power, and several players spent the week deciding who else gets to touch it.

1. India’s national digital tourism stack is a state-run booking layer

India’s Ministry of Tourism and ONDC are building a National Digital Tourism Stack, Skift reported on Saturday. It is an open network that connects homestays, guides, attractions, experiences and transport into one bookable layer. That is five kinds of supply in a single network, much of it supply that private platforms have struggled to list well. For Indian OTAs and DMCs, the question this quarter is whether their inventory and booking systems can plug into an open network, because a buyer who books through the stack never needs to know their brand.

2. Thai Airways changes its chief executive

Thai Airways’ board removed CEO Chai Eamsiri this week. Director Samrit Samniang, a former PTT Exploration and Production executive, is acting CEO. One person now speaks for the airline, and he comes from the energy sector rather than from aviation. Distribution teams at OTAs and agencies that hold Thai Airways fares or content agreements should confirm who owns those conversations while the seat is filled on an acting basis.

3. Agentic AI for missed connections wins in Singapore

The Alibaba Cloud x Atlas Agentic AI Hackathon ended at WiT Singapore, where live pitches ran on 30 September and the winner was announced on 2 October. Participants built on Atlas flight APIs that cover more than 140 airlines, and the prize was up to USD 5,000 in cash plus USD 4,000 in Alibaba Cloud credits. Web in Travel reported that Globe Planner, founded by Victor Gaya, won from 461 applications and 46 completed submissions. Its multi-agent copilot replans missed connections. Northstar AI and YuanFen were the runners-up. The result points at where agentic AI travel tools are being aimed first: disruption, the moment a traveller most needs help and an airline or OTA is under the most pressure to give it.

4. Airbnb keeps AI agents away from its bookings

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company is unlikely to let outside AI agents such as Meta’s Muse make bookings, Nikkei Asia reported. His argument was short: “Planning travel is entertainment.” Airbnb is choosing to keep the booking relationship in its own app, even if that means staying out of a new channel. Hotel groups and OTAs face the same choice, and they now have a large peer that has answered it.

5. Mews goes the other way on guest messages

Mews launched Guest Messaging and Automations on 2 October, according to Travolution. The company says AI handles up to 80% of routine guest questions, and that one in three guest messages currently go unanswered. In beta, 47,000 workflows ran. For a hotel, an unanswered message is a lost upsell or a bad review waiting to happen, so the figure that matters is the one in three, not the 80%. Hotels that automate the conversation with guests they already hold are making a different bet from Airbnb’s, and a more modest one.

Who to watch

Ben Dias of IAG speaks at the Skift Data + AI Summit Europe in London on 6 October. Airline views on who controls the customer, and on how AI fits in, are likely to get a public airing there.

Key takeaway

This week showed three routes to the booking relationship: build the network, as India is doing, keep the app closed, as Airbnb is doing, or automate the conversation you already own, as Mews customers are doing. We would ask every hotel, airline and OTA leader to write down which of the three they are on before the next agent asks for access. The answer should be a decision, not a default.

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Eight travel startups take the stage at WiT Singapore 2026 this week in the Global Startup Pitch, picked from 17 finalists who pitched at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona in June 2026. The competition is jointly produced by WiT, Phocuswright and PhocusWire, and it is in its fifth year.

For a reader deciding whether to make the trip, the pitch is the part of the event that shows where young travel companies are pointing their products. Eight companies survived a cut from 17, so the audience sees a filtered list rather than an open call.

Two categories, two stages of company

The pitch splits entrants by age and funding. Seedup is for startups under three years old that have raised US$5M or less. Scaleup is for companies three to eight years old that have raised US$10M or less.

The split tells a buyer what kind of conversation to expect. A Seedup company has a short history and a small funding total, so its pitch is about promise. A Scaleup company has three to eight years behind it, so its pitch can point to customers already signed. A hotel, airline or OTA leader can decide before the first slide which of the two it came to meet.

Sponsor and prizes

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) sponsors the competition. The prizes include travel to the event itself: SPUN received the AirAsia MOVE award, which includes a return flight from anywhere in Asia to WiT Singapore. A prize that pays for a founder’s seat at the show fits a contest whose purpose is to put startups in front of buyers.

Where the winners go next: Phocuswright in Fort Lauderdale

Singapore is not the end of the road. People’s Choice winners go on to The Phocuswright Conference, 17 to 19 November, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The route runs from Barcelona in June to Singapore this week to Florida in November, across three continents. For a founder, that means three different audiences testing the same product. For a buyer, it is a way to watch the same companies get questioned in more than one room.

A Wildcard route into Singapore

One entrant arrived by an unusual door. Hotel-Online reported that OneJourney advances to WiT Singapore following a Wildcard win at the Global Startup Pitch competition. The same report says OneJourney has been in commercial use since early 2026, is live with operators in Europe, and is available to more than 1,100 luxury independent hotels through the DayBlink GPO partnership.

Brian Dass said in the Hotel-Online report: “The next frontier for hospitality innovation is in financial operations.” The frontier he names is the back office, not the guest-facing side of the hotel. The distribution figure gives the claim weight: more than 1,100 hotels can reach the product through a single partnership.

What WiT Singapore 2026 is about

The event is focused on generative AI, startups and travel technology, according to TravelDailyNews Asia. The startup pitch sits inside that frame, so buyers who come for the AI sessions can also see the young companies building for the same problems at the same event.

For organisers

The Global Startup Pitch is a format other organisers can study. It uses two tiers with hard limits on age and money, so entrants compete against their peers. It has a headline sponsor in Amex GBT. Its prizes carry travel, as the AirAsia MOVE award does. It feeds winners into a larger event, and a Wildcard route lets a company that missed out in one city come back in another. A tiered pitch also needs people who can judge the entries and moderate the stage, and regional events that run startup programmes of their own will find the same need.

Key takeaway

We would make the trip if your job is to find a supplier before your competitors do. Eight companies from 17 finalists is a short list worth reading, and the Seedup and Scaleup labels tell you which pitches to sit through. If you can attend only one session, make it the pitch itself, and watch the People’s Choice result, since those winners head to Fort Lauderdale on 17 to 19 November.

Are you a travel startup founder? Pitch your story to TravHQ right now. Pitch it to TravHQ.

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Klook, the Hong Kong experiences platform, signed Mastercard, Visa and Cloudbeds in the four weeks to 24 September 2026, putting its inventory inside two card schemes and one hotel property management system across seven Asian markets instead of paying for the demand itself.

The numbers explain the choice. Fortune reported in July that Klook booked revenue of US$407.4 million and a net loss of US$141.5 million for the first nine months of 2025, and that its November 2025 filing for a New York Stock Exchange listing sought US$300 million to US$500 million, with no updated plans announced since. Arival put gross bookings for the same nine months at US$2.3 billion, up 31% year on year. Co-founder and chief executive Ethan Lin says Klook holds under 1% of the global experiences market. A company with that much headroom and that size of loss has to stand where the traffic already flows. Here are five things Klook did that others did not.

1. It signed Visa and Mastercard in 28 days

Mastercard came first, on 27 August 2026. Eric Gnock Fah, co-founder and president of Klook, and Peter Robejsek, executive vice president for market development in Asia Pacific at Mastercard, signed a memorandum of understanding built on three stated pillars: cardholder value, new travel and lifestyle opportunities, and payment innovation. Visa followed on 24 September, when Klook joined Visa Destinations as a partner platform across six South-east Asian markets. Two schemes in one quarter, with the cardholder marketing paid for by the schemes, not by Klook.

2. It gave 30,000 creators a shop, not a link

Klook’s Kreator Programme has grown past 30,000 travel content creators in 88 markets, TTG Asia reported. The Visa deal puts affiliate links from Visa’s own creators on Klook’s Kreator Shops, so the card scheme’s creators sell from a Klook storefront. Klook’s Travel Pulse 2026 supplies the reason: more than half of Asia Pacific travellers no longer begin a plan with a fixed destination, and 23% begin with one activity and choose the place around it. When nearly one trip in four starts with the activity, whoever holds the activity inventory holds the top of the funnel.

3. It wired itself into Cloudbeds both ways

On 24 September 2026 Cloudbeds and Klook switched on a two-way integration that keeps rates, availability and bookings in step for hotels in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, Hotel News Resource reported. Cloudbeds runs in more than 150 countries. Sebastien Leitner, its vice president of partnerships, described distribution as “being present where travelers are looking”. Emma Lee, VP of hotels at Klook, said Klook’s travellers book the stay together with the experiences and transport that shape the trip. A Cloudbeds hotel now turns Klook on from the system it already uses.

4. It attached demand numbers to every deal

Each memorandum arrived with the same survey. Travel Pulse 2026 found 47% of APAC consumers actively hunt for deals, discounts and bundled offers, 42% book earlier to lock in better prices, and 73% would travel to a lesser-known city for a unique event. Those three figures give a card scheme a reason to fund an offer, to fund it early, and to fund it outside the capitals. Klook is not asking partners to believe in experience-led travel. It is giving them percentages for their own board papers.

5. It kept signing supply while rivals bought demand

Klook’s newsroom lists three supply deals in the same September: a renewed partnership with the Philippine Department of Tourism on 3 September, coastal ferries with the Korea Shipping Association on 14 September, and a free shinkansen campaign with Kagoshima Prefecture on 18 September. About 80% of Klook’s customers live in Asia Pacific, and gross transaction volume from non-Asian users grew 13.4% over three years, so the supply follows the customers. Founded by Ethan Lin, Eric Gnock Fah and Bernie Xiong, with a first app in mid-2015 and unicorn status in 2018, Klook spent a decade building the inventory the schemes and Cloudbeds now distribute.

Who to watch at WiT Singapore, which opens on 30 September: the distribution sessions. Klook leaders have taken WiT stages before, and this year’s question is whether a card scheme, a PMS and an OTA now count as one channel.

Key takeaway

The one move to copy is Cloudbeds: put the inventory inside the system the partner already runs, two ways, so nobody has to leave it to sell you. A hotel group, a ferry line or a tourism board can do that without Klook’s balance sheet. We would fund the integration before the marketing budget, because a channel that costs the partner nothing to switch on is the one they leave on.

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Skift Global Forum 2026 opens in New York City on Tuesday 22 September and runs to 24 September, on a stage that drew 5,983 attendees from 5,391 companies across 92 countries in 2025, 62% of them at director level or above. WiT Singapore follows at Marina Bay Sands from 30 September to 2 October. The previews Skift published this week already name the argument both rooms will have: the money in travel has moved from booking to servicing.

Here are the five threads of the week, one number each, and the names to book meetings with before the rooms fill.

1. Spotnana puts a number on servicing: 50%

Spotnana CEO Steve Singh told Skift this week that AI automation can cut servicing costs by 50% or more, and that Spotnana’s AI already handles cancelled flight segments, unticketed flights and refunds. “Servicing. We talk endlessly about search, distribution, and booking. What really matters is what happens after the trip is purchased,” Singh said. Why it matters: for a travel management company or an OTA, servicing is the cost line that grows with every booking, and 50% is the first hard figure a vendor has put on it in public ahead of the forum.

2. Singh’s 95% test for curation

Singh set a second number in the same interview. Curation, on his definition, means presenting the options a traveller would have chosen 95% of the time out of the full available list. Why it matters: that is a testable bar for any agent or search product an operator is being sold, and a question to put to every vendor on the floor in New York and again in Singapore.

3. IHG rebuilds its hotel content for machines

IHG Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer Heather Balsley told Skift that IHG is launching a new content platform later in 2026 and restructuring its hotel content to be machine-readable, so that AI tools surface its properties. She argued that the models will not own the guest relationship. “AI tools can only be as helpful as the content they’re drawing from, so content has become increasingly important,” Balsley said. Why it matters: a global chain treating content as distribution infrastructure sets the bar for every hotel group in Asia Pacific whose room and rate data is not yet readable by an AI agent.

4. WiT Singapore 2026, 30 September to 2 October

WiT Singapore 2026 runs from 30 September to 2 October at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, six days after New York closes. Why it matters: an operator can hear the same argument twice in eight days, once from the US side and once from Asia Pacific’s hotel groups, OTAs and airlines, and the gap between the two answers is the brief for the fourth quarter.

5. PATA and ATTIA sign an MoU in Bangkok

PATA and ATTIA signed a memorandum of understanding in Bangkok on 15 September to run policy dialogue and to support each other’s conferences and webinars across Asia Pacific. Why it matters: two associations pooling their conference calendars means one more organiser-side channel for travel-tech speakers in the region, and one more table where policy on the technology gets argued before it reaches a ministry.

Who to watch

Two names to book before the rooms fill. Steve Singh of Spotnana, on the 50% servicing figure and the 95% curation bar, and on which servicing tasks the AI handles without a human today. Heather Balsley of IHG, on the content platform due later in 2026 and what machine-readable hotel content looks like in practice for a property in Tokyo or Taipei. In Singapore, the WiT programme team, whose three days at Marina Bay Sands are the Asia Pacific reading of the same agenda.

Key takeaway

Fly to New York if the servicing cost line is on the fourth-quarter plan, and put Singh’s two numbers, 50% and 95%, to every vendor on the floor. Fly to Singapore if the business runs on Asia Pacific supply, because the same argument will be made again at Marina Bay Sands with the region’s hotels, OTAs and airlines in the room. If only one trip is possible from Asia, we would take Singapore and read the Skift sessions from the desk.

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The much awaited WiT Singapore 2026 runs from Wednesday 30 September to Friday 2 October under the theme “21: A New Beginning”. Web in Travel, the organiser, frames the three days around travel’s new beginning in the generative AI era, and describes an industry at a point where “everyone is restarting from the same line”.

The event draws hundreds of senior decision makers, founders, investors and future leaders from more than 30 countries. They come from airlines, OTAs, hospitality, tourism boards, tech disruptors, payment platforms and social commerce, the mix that makes WiT Singapore the region’s leading travel tech conference and sets distribution terms across the region. For an Indian or Southeast Asian operator weighing the flight two weeks out, the question is which of the three days delivers that room, and what to carry home from it.

The main programme is built as seven acts, set out on the programme page: Act 1 The Asia Moment, Act 2 The Provocation Moment, Act 3 The Build, Act 4 The Reckoning, Act 5 Rewriting the Future: Lenses of Experience, Act 6 The Growth Map, and Act 7 The Wager: Placing Bets on What’s Next. Read in order, the titles carry one argument. Asia comes first. A provocation follows. Then what gets built, what gets counted, how the traveller’s experience is rewritten, where growth sits, and, last, where the money goes. The order places the build and the reckoning before the bets, which is where attention and capital sit as the generative AI cycle matures.

Which day of the WiT Singapore programme earns the flight

Day one, Wednesday 30 September, is mostly by invitation. Next Generation Leaders, powered by Booking.com, runs from 10.00am to 1.00pm, invite only. The WiT Bootcamp follows from 1.00pm to 4.00pm and features the winners of the WiT Phocuswright Global Startup Pitch Seedup. The Global Travel Tech Thinktank, run by WiT with Phocuswright and PhocusWire, takes 5.00pm to 7.00pm, again invite only. Opening cocktails hosted by Pan Pacific Singapore start at 7.00pm. Of the four sessions, only the Bootcamp and the cocktails carry no invitation label on the published schedule, so day one is a founder’s afternoon and a networking evening rather than a full conference day.

Day two, Thursday 1 October, closes with the WiT Phocuswright Global Startup Pitch Scaleup winners, The Great WiT Debate, and a closing party that carries the WiT For Good charity auction. The Scaleup final and the debate are the two sessions in which the room takes a position in public. If the trip is limited to one day, day two is the day to hold. Friday 2 October completes the three days, and the running order sits on the programme page.

What to walk out with is set by the mix in the room. Airlines, OTAs, hospitality, tourism boards, payment platforms and social commerce are all listed as delegate groups, so the practical output is a short list of distribution and payments counterparts met in person, a first look at the Seedup and Scaleup winners in front of the investors who attend, and a position on the debate to take back to the team.

Our pick: The formats at WiT Singapore that take outside voices are the WiT Bootcamp on day one and the WiT Phocuswright Global Startup Pitch, with Seedup winners on day one and Scaleup winners on day two. Founders with a pitch and operators with a view on the debate have those two doors, and the published contacts are the place to start.

Key takeaway

We are running this preview two weeks out because budget and travel decisions for Singapore are being made now. If one day is all the calendar allows, book Thursday 1 October for the Scaleup final and the debate, and add the Wednesday evening cocktails if they fit. Founders should treat the Bootcamp as the open door on day one. Hotel, airline and OTA leaders should arrive with a short list of the payments and distribution names they want to meet, because at WiT the room is the product. If you’re around, do let us know about the sessions that stole the spotlight for you.

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Many marketers wish to learn the art of customer acquisition. This year, WIT Singapore held a panel discussion on ‘Travel Distribution, Reboot’ which focused majorly on how traditional global distribution systems are prominently positioning themselves in the market. The panellists of this discussion were: Albert Pozo, President, APAC, Amadeus; Martin Herbert, General Manager, Asia, Travelport; Roshan Mendis, SVP, Sabre.

The panelists of ‘Travel Distribution. Reboot’ session  at WIT 2015

The panel discussion brought to light many essential factors for the marketers who attended this event:

#1- Customer Acquisition, Personalised Unique Experience and Travel Corner Platform

With the motive to attract ‘powerful’ travellers, the need of ‘powerful’ data was brought to the forefront. ‘Powerful’ travellers are the ones who are better connected, informed and experienced in the world of travel. On the other side, the focus of global companies should be customer acquisition while giving a personalised experience to the customers. This is mostly forgotten by businesses in the cut-throat competition in the market. Global distribution system should be converted into a ‘Travel Corner Platform’ that provides richer and diversified content on their fingertips of the users. Taking this into account, Travelport has allowed airline companies to merchandise and sell their products while helping them expand in different sectors like hospitality.

#2- Disruption in corporate travel

While leisure travel space is mostly disrupted, corporate travel is falling in the same category too. In the corporate market, there are many discrepancies. Often there are issues of cost and control between businesses. Then, there are business travellers who have different tastes and preferences- few of them wish to travel in the business style while others want to enjoy the facilities of both leisure and business travel. To counter this irregularity, technology providers can produce sophisticated search and control platforms and use business analytical tools to attain the best results.

#3- Significance of localization & development of advanced technology

Many global companies realise that localisation is inevitable. For this form of development, restructuring of businesses is deemed necessary. Recognising the needs and demands of clients/customers is highly essential for businesses to deliver better products and obtain profits. With the improvement in the quality of products, advanced user-friendly technologies should be developed that help the suppliers to make differentiated offerings for the customers.

#4- Travellers’ feedback in company policies

Travellers’ feedback can really help travel brands to grow and expand. The panellists in the discussion pointed out that adoption of travel feedbacks must be made mandatory and should be included in the company policies. If the company listens to their travellers, their compliance will be higher. This self-regulatory system will increase travellers’ satisfaction for the brand.

#5- Disruption in the Travel and Transportation Distribution System

Be it GDS, Metasearch, corporate travel agencies, the barriers to enter into this market are low. With richer content in GDS, new companies have come into existence. The corporate space is vast and there is room for more players who wish to establish businesses and try out different things.

You can find more stories from WIT Singapore 2015 and other events held during TravelRave here.

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Rakuten Group, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997, is the largest and possibly the most reliable internet shopping mall in Japan. It has around 40 businesses and services like Online Retail, Securities, Travel, Professional Sports and Entertainment. The travel wing of Rakuten provides hotels, cars and other forms of travel solutions to its customers.

Takanobu Yamamoto, the Executive Officer of Travel Business Rakuten, attended WIT Singapore 2015 – the leading B2B conference of travel and technology sector. Like other speakers, Takanobu shared his experiences and insights about the company’s services and travel industry.

Takanobu Yamamoto at WIT Singapore. 2015

Rakuten Travel offers 29,845 hotels within Japan and 15,425 hotels outside the country on its platform. They work closely with these hotels to understand the uniqueness of each property. After careful observation, they display the best features of the hotels on their website. For every hotel booking, the customers earn points which they can use to purchase small but essential items. 56 million room nights were booked from October 2014 to September 2015. Rakuten Group received a revenue of USD 56 billion in 2015 of which travel is about 10% of the group’s revenue. Through their analytical tools, they have realized that the conversion ratio of women smartphone users is higher than the male counterpart.

Takanobu Yamamoto stated that Rakuten Travel is not just a transactional platform but a matching platform too. It connects the travellers and hotels providing the best fit between the two. Elaborating on the same, Takanobu Yamamoto quoted:

“We’ve transitioned from a transaction platform to a matching platform. We tell users we can find the best hotel for them, for their unique personality, and tell hotels that we can find hotels the best fit users.”

Rakuten Travel even has ‘internet travel consultants’ who support customers and reduces the amount of mismatch on a regular basis. Successful matching creates higher customer satisfaction and results in better hotel reviews. Satisfied customers who have rated this travel service above 3.0 have 30% higher repeat rate than those who have rated it below 2.0.

Like AliTrip, Rakuten Travel has a huge database. It uses this chunk of data to understand customer behaviour for achieving more profits. Takanobu Yamamoto revealed that the brand is achieving just 20% to 40% of its potential profits. The enormous data alone can help this travel business to grow to a great extent.

Rakuten Group, often called as ‘the Alibaba of Japan’, has focused on establishing solid brand power in Japan in the last few years. It has already laid a strong base to build a truly global company. How does it perform in the years to come, especially at an international level, is yet to be seen.

For more updates from WIT Singapore 2015 and other events held during TravelRave, click here.

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With WIT Singapore, 2015 taking place at Marina Bay, Singapore, we managed to pull out a few interesting key points from Chan Park’s Key address. Chan Park is the General Manager (Southeast Asia) of Uber. He is actively involved in the expansion the car-rental brand through numerous operations linked to government relations.

Chan Park sharing the Uber story

During his session, he highlighted many interesting elements of Uber and its story over the years. Here are a few of them:

#1- Uber’s presence in the Asian market

Chan Park stated that the growth of Uber in the Asian market has been ‘incredible’. The brand has observed phenomenal increase in the number of cabs and the demand for them. For this car-rental service, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are the fastest growing markets in Asia. Marketing in India was altogether a different experience. For example, the average pick-up time for cabs in other countries is mostly 3-4 minutes but in India it turns out to be 35-40 minutes. Over the last few years the company has reduced the average fare of its cabs by 15-20% of the original cost. With the increase in demand of Uber cabs, there will be more trips daily. This will turn into an opportunity for Uber drivers to earn more per day.

#2- The roles of the Governments and locals

Governments of different countries have their own set of goals and agenda. Uber attempts to align its goals with the goals of these governments. For example, with the plans of creating a mobile environment that is safe and smart, Uber has observed that Singapore focuses on lesser cars and reduction of car parking space in its area. Interestingly, 12% of the real estate of Singapore is allotted to car parks. In the same manner, they have also noticed that different countries have their own set of rules and regulations for car-pooling. In order to expand globally, Uber will be required to adhere to the laws of the land.

Persuading the governments in the right manner is essential too. Uber makes it clear to them that they are for safety, customer protection, formalizing and regulating appropriately within the transport industry of the country. Fortunately, things have been mostly favourable for the brand till date.

#3- Uber for Business

Understanding the difference between regular travellers and business travellers, the brand has extended its service. ‘Uber For Business’ provides reliable rides for employees with rides up to 40% cheaper than regular taxis.

After enrolling through its website, businesses can set rules and policies mentioning where and when their employees can take the ride. For later reference, trip info for every ride will be available. The feature makes the management of business rides much easier.

#4- Goals of Uber

During his speech, Chan Park stated that Uber attempts to reach the following goals: Bringing down the pick-up time and fulfil the customer requests. As mentioned earlier, the pick-up time in most countries is 3-4 minutes but for India it reaches 35-40 minutes. In India, they might face a big challenge in reducing pick-up time.

#5- A glimpse into the life of Chan Park and his link with Uber

Chan Park has been an avid Mathematician. For a short period of time, he worked as a currency trader. He claims that his analytical, creative and quick problem solving skills have helped him become an important part of Uber culture. He elaborates that the company does not really take cultural background into consideration for accepting employees. Most of the present employees of Uber are bankers and consultants. People just need to have strong analytical skills and they can be a part of this global brand.

You can find more stories from TravelRave here.

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The day 1 of WIT saw participation from a large number of business leaders and innovative startups. Amongst many business leaders Bobby Healy, the Chief Technology Officer of CarTrawler, attended the event. Bobby Healy is a technology entrepreneur mastering the art of booking engine software. He joined CarTrawler in 2005 and is playing an important role in the development of the company.

Bobby Healy, CTO, CarTrawler during his session at WIT Bootcamp

During his session, he brought to light many interesting observations. Here are some of them:

#1- Car Rental Brands have huge scope in European Markets

Car rental services have been growing at a faster pace in Asian markets, clearly highlighted by the 400% annual growth of CarTrawler in China in last 3 years. On the other hand, European markets are yet to experience the same. As stated by Bobby Healy, this continent is a “sweet spot” for car rental brands where customers are ready to experiment with the products & services and suppliers have less control over the distribution network. Thus Intermediators can interfere & bring significant changes in the market. In American markets lack of fragmentation is the biggest obstacle for car rentals.

#2- Data Analysis is must to understand the consumers

One of the reasons behind CarTrawler’s success in the market is their huge database. They have huge world-wide data set of all airlines. Through the advanced systems, CarTrawler not only keeps a track of its bookings but analyses the decision-making behaviour of customers. This helps the brand to determine the optimum price points, select reliable suppliers and define the right products for the customers. Thus, accumulating and reading the data is extremely essential to understand the customer behaviour and needs.

#3- Website should be a complete source of information

Website is always a first point of contact for all the consumers. Ensuring rich content with a simplified navigation can help in easily influencing the psyche of the users. Over the years, CarTrawler has leveraged this and ensured that their website becomes a comprehensive source of information with a smooth journey. This track of the navigation can help in understanding the consumer behaviour and give a clarity on the loopholes and consumer demands.

#4- International car-rental brands dominate the market

Over the years, international brands have been capturing the markets because of their efficient global supply chain system. With 1500 car rental agents and efficient team across different countries, CarTrawler has been able to function smoothly and thus has been the choice of majority of travellers. Whereas all the domestic players, because of less reach and consumer understanding, are still struggling to achieve the seamless operations.

#5- Essentials of business development

Bobby Healy stated that any form of business should initially begin as a B2B business. Simultaneously, it should also have a B2C plan. This is highly required for understanding the needs and demands of the customers. Every business endeavour should be coupled with the brand’s core business values and goals. Networking is important but it should be done in such a manner that the firms do not compete with its B2B partners while attempting to obtain B2C solutions.

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