The Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and to keep track of developments in these sectors as the green shoots of recovery slowly take root.
Agoda introduces flexible day use feature to hotels in South Korea
Agoda has rolled out a beta version of its day use feature with flexible booking options, giving people who do not want a full night’s stay the choice to book a hotel room for just a few hours.
The Booking Holdings’ Asia-headqartered digital travel platform, disclosed that the new feature is now available from 7,000 hotels in South Korea.
According to Agoda, the day use option will benefit accommodation providers who have empty rooms during the day to maximise their revenue by increasing occupancy. Additionally, they have the opportunity to expand their customer base with different types of day users.
To book a day use room Agoda users can start by searching for any destination in Korea on the Agoda mobile app, select the “day use” tab, enter the check-in date and browse through a wide range of properties across the country including in cities such as Seoul, Jeju Island, Busan, Daegu and Incheon.
Day use rates are available for two- to 10-hour blocks, depending on the hotel’s availability. Users can select from available check-in time slots before 11pm.
“This is the first time we are launching day use rates and we expect great response as we develop products and provide innovative solutions by assessing the needs of local markets,” said Omri Morgenshtern, chief operating officer at Agoda.
“The new day use feature will appeal to a wide range of travellers, whether they are in transit and need a place to rest for a while, families, couples or groups of friends looking for a ‘daycation’, people who need a quiet space to focus on work, or leisure travellers looking for a short stay in a unique, themed hotel.”
Apart from bookings its hotel partners can also drive revenue from potential spending at the restaurant, spa or souvenir store during their day time stay, he added. “Hoteliers can look forward to also converting these day use customers into returning visitors who might book an overnight stay.”
A full roll-out of the day use feature will be available to Korean users in the next few weeks.
Agoda said it would continue to work with accommodation partners to increase the selection of day use rooms and secure good prices. It plans to expand the day use offering in other destinations in the coming months.
Malaysia Airlines lends a hand to boost domestic tourism with new campaign
Malaysia Airlines is contributing to the ongoing efforts to bolster the domestic tourism sector, which could lead the way to Malaysia’s economic recovery, with a new campaign. (Read related article: Malaysia puts bet on domestic tourism, nature attractions tipped to do well)
The carrier’s tour operating arm, MHholidays, has kicked off its ‘Kids Fly + Stay Free’ campaign, where customers can now enjoy up to 60% off holiday packages inclusive of return flights, baggage, inflight meals and hotel stay.
From now until September 2, every booking under MHholidays will be entitled to a complimentary package of flight and accommodation for a maximum of one child aged between three to 11 years old or an infant aged two years and below.
The 3 day/2 night package are to various destinations within Malaysia including Kota Kinabalu (Sabah), Johor Bahru (Johor), Kuantan (Pahang) and Langkawi. These packages are valid for immediate travel until January 31, 2021.
Malaysia Airlines’ group chief marketing and customer experience officer, Lau Yin May said, since the lifting of the country’s movement control order (MCO) and the opening of the domestic travel sector its customers are keen to take a break.
“MHholidays is here for them – offering great value-for-money deals that cater not only for solo travellers indulging their wanderlust, but for families who want to enjoy a hassle-free holiday.”
The national carrier is also collaborating with the Sabah Tourism to offer a special promotion in support of the #BahMarilah campaign to promote tourism into the state – with 50% off on holiday packages and is available until August 24. Packages are valid for immediate travel until 31 December.
Noredah Othman, general manager of the Sabah Tourism Board (STB), said the easing of the MCO has seen many hotels and attractions in the state rolling out promotions for the local market.
STB has developed a landing page on its website featuring the latest deals and attractions, which then evolved into ‘Staycations in Sabah’ and currently has more than 60 packages on the site.
“In addition to this, STB is providing a subsidy for industry players to run ad promotions via digital and social media channels,” Noredah revealed. “Coupled with flight accessibility and affordable fares we believe this will further bolster efforts to promote domestic tourism in Sabah.”
BCD Travel and SAP Concur strengthen partnership
In November last year BCD Travel became one of the first global travel management companies to be recognised as a TMC Elite partner for SAP Concur solutions.
Prior to achieving the Elite status, BCD was one of SAP Concur’s biggest reseller partners and among its earliest partners with a relationship dating back to 2001.
The two companies recently built on this partnership with a new agreement to expand integration between BCD’s proprietary hotel platform and the Custom Hotel Sourcing functionality.
Under this agreement, BCD customers are able to source more hotel properties, shop across a greater mix of competitive hotel rates and leverage the intelligence of BCD’s hotel platform – all while managing their company policy and programmes goals.
“Our customers can now better leverage BCD’s robust lodging content offering, artificial intelligence-powered policy and preference engine, rate-filtering capabilities and payment options within SAP Concur solutions, helping to ensure consistency across every booking touchpoint – including BCD agents, the TripSource platform and the Concur Travel booking tool,” said Teri Miller, BCD Travel executive vice president, Global Client Team.
The integration also paves the way for BCD to deploy new capabilities empowering customers to influence traveller buying behaviour, added Miller.
“Better integration of BCD Travel platforms with SAP Concur technology enables Stay, our comprehensive lodging solution, to bring even more creative solutions to a company’s lodging programme that drive savings beyond sourcing, increase adoption and influence travellers.”
Apart from booking BCD has integrated SAP Customer Data Cloud solution for traveller identity management, and also uses Qualtrics technology to capture customer insights and optimise the customer experience.
• Featured image credit: DragonImages/Getty Images
