It’s the partner for national broadcaster, RTM, for Olympics 2012, and has purchased spots in sports like badminton, archery and swimming. It’s also bought free-to-air television spots during the Ramadan period to cash in on the domestic travel peak period, and has splashed out on billboards to target traffic on the highways as the Malay population celebrates this festive season.
“We are importing our brand into Malaysia,” said Lin, who along with the Asiarooms.com regional team, is based in Singapore.
AsiaRooms is taking a bet on Malaysia for various reasons. It’s not that dissimilar to Singapore, where its regional team is based. It’s also the market where relatively few foreign OTAs have focused resources. “We are seeing the highest growth in Malaysia, the market is not as saturated and we want to claim first mover advantage. We are the first to do offline in Malaysia in a big way – our site traffic is up by more than 200% – and there’s opportunity to grow,” said Lin.
Here’s the data AsiaRooms has unearthed about the Malaysia consumer in its new Traveller Confidence Index (TCI).
• 65.8% of respondents have gone online to book their travel accommodation in the past 12 months
• Almost half (44.8%) of Malaysian travellers did not place bookings directly and used third parties to place bookings on their behalf online
• More than 70% (71.04%) of Malaysian respondents did not book a room for overseas leisure travel. Rather, most respondents (77.01%) focused their holiday stays in-country with stays of up to 7 nights.
• A third (31.54%) of Malaysian respondents will maintain or increase their overseas business travel room nights in the next 12 months.
Compare these to Singapore data
• 81.5% of Singapore respondents have gone online to book their travel accommodation in the past 12 months
• One third (31.64%) of Singapore respondents went on holidays with accommodation of more than 7 days
• 5% of Singaporeans (5.56%) spend around 30 days per annum, annum for their overseas leisure travel. More than half (55.19% of Singapore respondents will maintain or increase their overseas business travel room nights in the next 12 months
• The majority of Singapore respondents spend between US$101-150 per room night for overseas business travel (40.52%), while overseas leisure travellers typically spend US$51-100 per room night.
“With this data, we are able to come up with more interesting products and targeted offers for our customers. For example, the research tells us that business travel in Asia is very bullish so we should get more business hotels into our content,” said Lin.
There were a couple of surprises in the data, he said – for example, the optimistic outlook on business travel. “We thought Asians would be thriftier and cut down on the budget they’re willing to spend but that wasn’t the case. And the fact that 5% of Singaporeans spend more than 30 days on overseas leisure travel – a lot of Singaporeans are self-made and can take time off.”
Other markets it is targeting include Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Australia
AsiaRooms’ competitive advantage over other sites is its “book now, pay later”, said Lin. “You pay when you check out – this is an important value proposition to certain markets.”
Leveraging on the TUI network, Lin said AsiaRooms offers great deals throughout the year. “Rate parity exists – we do have exclusive deals with hotels that can be locked out at AsiaRooms. It empowers us to make educated analysis and deductions about offers that will work.”
Lin declined to disclose budgets but said Asiarooms spends “a lot on search”. “I know that when you remove search and the budgets for search, you disappear from the online space. But when you build a brand, people come direct to you. Search complements brand and marketing.”
He’s spending 30-40% of total budget on digital media. It focuses on three main social media channels – YouTube, Facebook andTwitter.
“The most exciting thing is the emphasis on trusted, genuine reviews in travel. This is why we have incorporated verifiable genuine guest review function on the website.” It’s also why it features video reviews on its YouTube channel. It recently ran a competition to find the next social travel superstar to host its travel programme and flew contestants to 12 unique locations. The campaign targeted people in the 20-44 age range. Here are the winners.
With the site available in five languages, Lin said AsiaRooms is in a good position to win in the competitive hotel segment in the region. What will it take to win?
Said Lin, “At the end of the day, it’s a process-driven experience. People want great deals and great value. That’s the core benefit. Our tagline, The Right Room For You, captures that – the right price, right features, right value, right location.”
