Letter from 5lasserre: Where time is as fluid as the wine and as silent as the cats
I AM writing this as I overlook the vineyards of St Emilion, a French medieval village in the heart of Bordeaux. Since I’ve been in France the past week, I’ve experienced a heatwave – two days of temperatures that made me think I was in Oman, instead of Brittany – and a hailstorm, with stone [...]
WebBeds’ Sun on rate parity, credit and distribution shifts
Bedbank sees strong recovery in both traditional and online channels
Just as its hotel partners had to pivot to domestic during the pandemic, so did WebBeds as it re-deployed resources towards domestic content, closed its Taiwan office and ramped up its domestic distribution network, working with l [...]
Letter from 30,000 feet: Why worry, be happy, and dreaming of digital twins
I AM writing this on a flight bound for Amsterdam where I will connect to Nantes, France. I am a tad anxious because everyone is warning me what a mess travelling in Europe is these days – harrowing stories of delays in even Schiphol, in my book, one of the best airports in the world.
It seems [...]
Yanolja Cloud names David Peller as EVP, launches into f&b with Gusto X
YANOLJA Cloud, the Software-as-a-Service company owned by South Korea’s Yanolja, continues its expansion with the appointment of a global senior leader and a joint venture in the f&b sector.
It has appointed David Peller, formerly managing director, travel and hospitality, Amazon Web Servic [...]
As global wellness booms, real estate pivots to hospitality-meets-hospital
MK Real Estate makes wellness play with RAKxa, and more to come
AT a recent WiT event, when Chris Hemmeter, managing partner of Thayer Ventures, a travel and hospitality-focused fund was asked what he believed the biggest change Covid would bring to hospitality, he said, “I think the whole world [...]
The WiT Podcast – Episode 39: Vikram Malhi, Co-founder, Zuzu Hospitality
IN this episode, we speak to Vikram Malhi, who’s the co-founder of ZUZU Hospitality, on the recovery trends he’s seeing in the small, independent hotel segment in South-east Asia and how this could be a breakout moment for the longtail of hospitality.
Here are the key takeaways.
On recover [...]
Pace breaks into travel, Shangri-La makes first move into BNPL
SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts in Malaysia has signed a partnership with BNPL startup, Pace, the first for the hotel group to delve into the Buy Now Pay Later space and for Pace, its first break into travel and hospitality. WiT speaks to Turochas ‘T’ Fuad, founder & CEO, Pace and Katie Robert [...]
Having survived, Blue Mansion on mission to build a business that matches the brand
Venture capitalist-turned-hotelier Shen on “hospitality with a conscience”
HAVING been involved with the family business since 2015, Loh-Lim Shen Yi decided to return to Penang to lead the heritage Cheong Fatt Tze/The Blue Mansion fulltime in January 2020 “when I felt it could pay me a salary [...]
Rethink of hospitality/real estate and the rise of digital nomads – two big changes driven by the pandemic
“The total restructuring and rethink of accommodation real estate” and “the rise of digital nomads” will be two of the biggest changes coming out of the pandemic, according to two leading investors who spoke at The Bridge Series, Episode 1, organised by WiT and Phocuswright.
When asked by [...]
From pandemic to war, IHG’s Macpherson stays focused on recovery
From growth to tech investments, hospitality needs to balance “guest experience with owner expectations”
It’s a sign of the better times we are in that when Kenneth Macpherson, the CEO for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa (EMEAA) for IHG Hotels & Resorts, was visiting his team in Sing [...]
