ZEN Rooms expands to leasing and management model
Fresh from its US$15 million investment round by Korea’s Yanolja, ZEN Rooms, which started in 2015 with a partial inventory model, and moved to a franchise/revenue management model early last year, is progressing to leasing and operating its own hotels.
Shohita Choudhry, country manager, Singap [...]
Mystifly blends Indian, Japanese and Chinese leadership in new bid to scale and make air shopping better
The biggest promise that the Internet brought was access to content anywhere and anytime. “Why should airfare booking be any different?” This thought gave birth to Mystifly back in 2009. Ten years on, the business, which started as an India-based B2B airfare marketplace to provide a corporate tr [...]
Portier Technologies gains more ground with VinaPhone tie-up
As hotels seek ways to engage their guests beyond the initial booking and the check-in, and boost ancillary earnings, startups offering hotel concierge service like Portier are gaining traction.
US-based Portier Technologies, founded in 2016, just announced its latest tie-up – a partnership wit [...]
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even DBS Bank had a “near death” experience.
It is said that misery loves company, so does change. Change loves, and needs, company because it is definitely less lonely when you see that everyone’s experiencing and muddling through the same set of challenges.
In the past few months, I’ve seen and spoken to an array of companies grapplin [...]
Work on digital literacy to compete against aliens, magicians and barbarians, futurist Rohit Talwar urges
In a world where “aliens, magicians and barbarians” are shaking up the world at large with their tech and tech change is happening at an exponential rate, organisations have to ensure digital literacy at every level if they are to transform successfully.
Rohit Talwar, futurist and CEO of Fast [...]
How Anywhr grew out of a hate of travel and now she’s sending people to live her dream
It started out as a lark – a travel website that would surprise Singaporeans with destination choices based on their profile and preferences – but when they got their first booking, the two co-founders found themselves scrambling to put together what they had promised.
From that start a year [...]
Sean Menke pushing the limits with his own Sabre endurance race – 80 miles to go
The toughest endurance race Sean Menke, Sabre president & CEO, has ever run is the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile race in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, which you have to be complete in 30 hours. It has an elevation gain of 5,000 metres and you do it without oxygen and sleep.
He completed [...]
Stop thinking in verticals, says Menke as Sabre sets out to become platform at the centre of travel
To travellers, a trip is a connected journey – we grab a ride to the airport, fly, arrive, grab ride to hotel, hopefully have a lovely stay and if we have time, book a couple of activities (or should we say experiences these days), depart hotel for airport, and the loop continues.
The travel in [...]
Round two of “Passion Made Possible” pushes envelope with tales of locals who defied the norm to do their thing
Meet Cai Yinzhou whose parents kept asking him to get a fulltime job but all he wanted to do was share his Geylang neighbourhood with travellers. He turned his passion into Geylang Adventures, which takes visitors through the back alleys of Singapore’s red light district. (Watch his video here)
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Hand lettering in the heartland, and why boredom can be a good thing
“I can’t remember the last time I concentrated so long at doing one thing,” said Parin Mehta, director, global experiences, operations, Airbnb, his head bent low as he painstakingly wrote on a piece of paper.
“Ya, me too,” I agreed, my head bent equally low over the task at hand.
Par [...]
