THE Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and an update on how businesses in these sectors are adapting and resetting as they prepare for post-pandemic travel.
Indonesia’s Tauzia properties available for booking on Ascott’s new online platform discoverasr
EARLIER this month (July) CapitaLand’s wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), launched discoverasr.com to unify 14 lodging brands on one global online travel booking platform.
The platform provides a one-stop access to more than 400 serviced apartments, co-living spaces and hotels with a total of about 77,000 units in over 30 countries, including 61 newly added properties under Tauzia Hotel Management (Tauzia).
Headquartered in Indonesia, Tauzia became part of Ascott in 2018 and has a portfolio of over 120 properties under the Préférence, Vertu, Harris, FOX, YELLO, FOX Lite and POP! brands.
Tauzia properties are now available for booking on Ascott’s online platform through Sabre’s SynXis Central Reservations(CRS) – made possible as Sabre worked with the hospitality group to onboard the hotels to the discoverasr.com website.
Dovetailing with the launch of discoverasr.com, members of Tauzia’s My Tauzia Privilege (MTP) loyalty programme who join Ascott’s loyalty programme, Ascott Star Rewards (ASR), can receive perks including ASR bonus points and discount vouchers.
Sabre said its CRS enables lodging companies like Ascott to control reservations in real-time through a single platform. It also provides a chain-wide performance overview and insights to help improve distribution, increase bookings and optimise offerings to guests.
“As Ascott expands its global portfolio the scalable platform will also allow new properties to be easily onboarded,” commented Frank Trampert, Sabre Hospitality Solutions SVP and global managing director, commercial.
Yanolja Cloud, VNTravel collaborate to facilitate digital transformation of Vietnam’s hospitality industry
South Korean travel technology company Yanolja Cloud has entered into a partnership with VNTravel, the largest travel company in Vietnam, to drive the digitalisation of the Vietnamese hospitality industry.
VNTravel is an affiliate of VNLife, a diverse fintech ecosystem in Vietnam and the country’s newest unicorn. The travel company has about five million customers, provides more than 50,000 tour and activity products and offers deals for more than 1.5 million hotels over multiple platforms such as mytour.vn, dinogo, Tripi and more than 30 mobile banking apps from Vietnam local banks..
The two companies will work together to lead the digitisation by combining their capabilities – Yanolja Cloud’s innovative technology and VNTravel’s local network and sales expertise.
Yanolja Cloud will deploy its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to hotels in Vietnam to provide real-time data connectivity. The solutions will improve the hotels’ operational efficiency and enhance the guest experience.
Meanwhile, VNTravel will carry out marketing campaigns with its in-depth understanding of the local market. It will also support the interconnectivity with VNPay, one of Vietnam’s top major e-payment solutions.
Binh Giang Tran, CEO of VNTravel, said the “combination of VNTravel’s local experience with Yanolja’s technological expertise will definitely bring the best solution to the Vietnam market.”
Andrew Kim, head of global hotel solutions of Yanolja Cloud, added the partnership would accelerate the deployment of cloud-based solution to local hotels in Vietnam, allowing the company “to spearhead the full digitisation of the Vietnamese hospitality industry.”
Yanolja Cloud’s parent company, Yanolja, recently raised US$1.7 billion from Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Amadeus expands accommodation content from China in partnership with Shiji Group
China-based Shiji Group has teamed up with Amadeus to provide the global travel technology company with new content from Chinese hotels and chains to the Amadeus Travel Platform.
Through the partnership, travel agents across Amadeus’ distribution network have access to Shiji’s hotel accommodation options, providing them with “new hospitality content that is not made available yet on other global distribution systems,” said Amadeus in a statement.
Shinji is a multi-national technology company that provides software solutions and services for enterprise companies in the hospitality, food service, retail and entertainment industries.
Anson Lau, managing director of Shiji Distribution Solutions, said many hotels hotels in China run on the company’s suite of solutions, from PMS, Channel Management, CRS to back-office solutions.
“Our partnership with Amadeus will open up a whole new global hospitality distribution network to our hotel customers, empowering them to grow both their retail and corporate business globally.”
Shiji Distribution Solutions, which launched in 2007, has built a diverse hospitality network that connects to 40,000+ hotel properties including 80+ hotel chains, 2,500+ independent hotels and 200+ channels.
• Featured image credit (POP! Hotel Kuta Beach in Bali): Ascott
