In the news: Amadeus white paper on safeguarding data, a ”Canvas” for independent hotels, Ascott’s expansion in China
Smarter data care can improve travel companies’ revenue, finds Amadeus white paper
Safeguarding company’s information could be a lever for revenue growth. (Image credit: matejmo/iStock)
Amadeus has launched the white paper, Safeguarding information systems: A lever for revenue growth, which gives a comprehensive overview on data care, the rising impact of fraud, and the response of the industry.
The white paper’s introduction states: “As more and more of our business and personal lives are conducted online, the risk of account takeover or identity theft are ever greater. In addition to the impact on the affected individuals, this creates very real costs for companies.
“According to data from the Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standards council, cybercrime costs the victim company an average of US$2.6 million.”
However, there is a positive side to this threat according to the findings. It can be turned into a commercial opportunity, allowing companies to protect their sensitive information to improve the customer experience, grow their reputation, reduce risk exposure and ultimately improve the balance sheet.
Some of the white paper’s key findings include:
- Companies can use security initiatives to improve their customers’ experience and drive greater sales on their websites.
- There is a significant opportunity for airlines to unlock hidden revenues by reducing the number of valid transactions, which are blocked by ineffective fraud management.
- Storing sensitive data as tokens allows travel companies to eliminate sensitive data from their organisations, which greatly reduces the burden of meeting regulatory obligations.
- Automating fraud management controls can not only reduce the level of fraud, which a company is exposed to, but also reduce the hidden cost of fraud.
A core recommendation of the paper is that companies take holistic approach to data security.
“To achieve the revenue opportunity, the responsibility for safeguarding data cannot be the domain of a single department but span the whole organisation, with conversations across and beyond silos. We have developed this white paper with the explicit aim of driving these conversations between those responsible for assuring the safety of their companies’ data i.e. IT heads and commercial executives,” said Celia Pereiro, head of travel payments at Amadeus.
Travelstart, an online travel agency from South Africa and one of the paper’s key contributors, has leveraged data security technology on its mobile app to improve the payment experience.
Said Stephan Ekbergh, CEO and founder of Travelstart Group: “It shouldn’t take you as long to book a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg as it does to fly there. With our new Flapp app our customers have gone from over 30 clicks to just two to book and pay for this trip, saving them valuable time.”
To simplify the payment process in Flapp, Travelstart has to store their customers’ credit card details that they convert to secure “tokens” with the help of Amadeus.
The white paper also includes contributions from specialists including GlobalDataLock.com, Hold Security, and Frost & Sullivan. Download it here.
A “Canvas” for independent hotels to create their own websites
Siteminder’s Canvas helps independent hotels design their websites.
Independent hotels can now create their own websites with help from Canvas – a new offering from SiteMinder, the cloud platform for hotels.
The company unveiled Canvas, described an intelligent website creator that combines best practice in hotel e-commerce with beautiful designs for independent hoteliers, at WTM London.
This product is the latest addition to SiteMinder’s suite of smart and simple technology for hoteliers who are looking to attract, reach and convert guests globally online.
Using Canvas, hoteliers can create and easily manage their website by selecting from a range of templates purposefully packaged for guided selling by design and user experience experts in hotel websites.
Hotelier users are also able to customise their own pages through the cloud-based product, and preview those changes before making the decision to publish them live instantly on their website.
“The launch of Canvas is about further empowering the world’s independent hoteliers who want full ownership, control and amplification of their most profitable channel – their website. Canvas is about enhancing the independent hotelier’s ability to compete in today’s consumer-led Internet economy,” said SiteMinder’s co-founder and managing director, Mike Ford.
He added that Canvas was designed specifically with independent hoteliers in mind, many of whom are disadvantaged by their lack of technical or design expertise and their constrained budget to acquire this expertise.
“For this reason, we wanted to make sure Canvas was intuitive, responsive and search-optimised, so these hoteliers could be found and stay up-to-date, when they wanted to. It purposefully brings together only the things a guest needs to make a booking decision online, and removes all the noise that turns them away.”
Four new properties for Ascott in China
Citadines Putuo Shanghai, one of Ascott’s new property. (Image credit: Ascott)
Ascott, a wholly owned serviced residence business unit of Singapore-based CapitaLand, is expanding its footprint in China by inking four new management contracts for 583 serviced residence units in top-tier cities.
The company said the new properties would further reinforce its position as the largest international serviced residence owner-operator in China with over 14,300 units in 80 properties across 24 cities.
Two of the new properties are located in Shanghai and one each in Beijing and Dalian.
Ascott Beijing (opening 2016), Citadines Jinxiu Shanghai (opening 2019), and Citadines Putuo Shanghai (opening 2019) will boost Ascott’s portfolio to 11 properties in Beijing and seven properties in Shanghai.
Ascott is also bringing its Citadines brand to Dalian, a major port city in northeast China, with the management of Citadines Gugeng Dalian (opening 2016). Located at Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone, the new property will cater to the fast growing accommodation needs of the developing area.
By introducing Citadines to the city where Ascott currently manages two Somerset-branded properties, the company would offer travellers more choices for a home away from home, said Kevin Goh, Ascott’s managing director of North Asia.
He added that to drive the company’s growth in China it was accelerating expansion across the tier-1 and tier-2 cities, while increasing its business development in the growth cities of the central and west China.
“We will expand through investments, management contracts, strategic alliances and franchises. We are on track and confident of achieving Ascott’s target of 20,000 units by 2020.”
Ascott has invested in Tujia.com, China’s largest online apartment sharing platform, to expand in the O2O (offline-to-online and online-to- offline) business. Its serviced residences in China under its three brands – Ascott, Citadines and Somerset – are available on Tujia’s website for booking, expanding its reach to more customers online.
“This collaboration will also fuel our performance at properties beyond China as we plan to have our serviced residences outside China available on Tujia’s website in 2016″, said Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s chief executive officer.
