In the news: Booking.com’s business reservations on the rise, SITA’s survey on Australian air passengers, new country director for FASTBOOKING in Thailand, Trisara Phuket’s virtual reality tour,
Business travel taking off for Booking.com
More leisure travellers making business reservations on Booking.com. (Image credit: ArtemSam/iStock)
Booking.com reveals that more and more of its leisure travellers are making business reservations on its site, with almost one in five now being made for business travel.
To meet the increasing number of business travel bookings, the largest accommodation booking platform in the world, has added tailored features and new service to give road warriors an easier and more rewarding experience.
“Among Booking.com customers, location is the primary factor when selecting a place to stay when traveling for work,” said Ripsy Bandourian, Booking.com’s senior product owner. “With around a third of US business bookings on Booking.com made at places that are not hotels, there’s also a clear and growing desire for something different.”
She added that the “traditional executive crash-pad” is a thing of the past, and may have had its day.
“Today’s business travellers wear more guises and require more choice, control and flexibility over where they choose to rest their heads than ever before.”
In line with these changing trends Booking.com has shaped its product for business travellers to discover and book the best places to stay when travelling for work.
The company has combed through more than 60 million of guest reviews to present choices from 25 different types, including apartments, homes, B&Bs, motels, and hotels to find accommodations that business travellers tested and approved.
Additionally, the site highlights key amenities that rank most essential among travellers, from free WiFi to choices of breakfasts.
The site also provides a free tool, Booking.com for Business, which is designed for corproate travel where travel managers and assistants can make booking on behalf of others.
Bandourian said the formula is working as more and more business are opting to use Booking.com for Business tool, and “tens of thousands of businesses have signed up” already.
“We see strong growth and a bright future in this area,” she added. “Someday, we hope to see as many business bookings as leisure bookings on our site.”
Australians turn to tech for planning travel and new experiences
Technology popular among Australians for travel planning. (Image credit: SITA)
A new survey by air transport IT provider SITA, which examines the emotions and types of airline travellers, reveals that Australian passengers are an interesting mix of ‘careful planners’ and ‘open-minded adventurers’ who all look to technology to provide the best travel experience.
For the first time this year the annual global survey, looked at air travellers in Australia to identify a number of common profiles, as well as to capture their emotions and the impact of technology at different stages of their journey.
Passengers traveling through seven major international airports across Australia, representing 80% of the country’s passenger traffic, were surveyed and four different personas were identified:
- Independent and hyper-connected
- Pampered
- Careful Planner
- Open-minded adventurer
Two out of the four personas stood out – ‘careful planners’ (60% of passengers surveyed) and ‘open-minded adventurers’ (20%).
The ‘careful planners’ appreciate the control and convenience provided by self-service technologies. They are happy to use technology for the planning stage, and throughout the journey. However, they like to arrive early at the airport carrying printed documents and welcome interaction with airline agents to confirm everything is on track and going to plan.
The ‘open-minded adventurers’ are excited by the prospect of their journey. They tend to be tech-savvy people, keen to use technology for travel-related tasks, and are early adopters of new mobile services. However, they are frustrated by a lack of integration, which required using multiple apps to manage different parts of their trip.
“Our survey shows that 80% of Australians had a positive experience throughout their last trip and technology is helping,” said Ilya Gutlin, SITA president, Asia Pacific.
“Airlines and airports can be assured that passengers are happy to use self-service. Mobile check-in is an outstanding example, 100% of passengers who used their mobile for check-in had a positive experience in contrast to 82% who checked in at a counter.”
Gutlin added that SITA is working with the industry in Australia and encouraging airlines and airports to implement strategies that accelerate adoption of technology in travel.
“Our survey shows that passengers are happy to use these services. Offering Australian passengers efficient self-service is an essential element of overall efforts to improve customer satisfaction and the end-to-end passenger experience.”
Although the survey results indicated Australians are happy to use technology during their journey, overall they are behind the curve in adoption.
One area where Australia is out in front is the adoption of self-service bag drop. About 26% of domestic passengers process their bag themselves rather than going to an airport counter – well ahead of the 20% global average.
Looking to the future, SITA said that Australians want to use more self-service, and the adoption of mobile services in particular is expected to increase dramatically.
When asked about their next flight, more Australians expect to use their mobile devices for travel-related services, with 11% intending to use mobile check-in for their next flight, nearly three times the current usage rate of 4%.
Details of SITA’s research into the Australian air passenger can be found here.
A new country director for FASTBOOKING in Thailand
Peter Yap, Thailand director
FASTBOOKING expands its footprint in Thailand with the appointment of Peter Yap as its country director
An industry veteran with vast experience in sales and online distribution for the hospitality industry, Yap will bolster its customer service team and improve technology to underscore its business proposition in Thailand that is a key market for FASTBOOKING.
Pierre-Charles Grob, FASTBOOKING managing director for Asia, said Yap’s experience “will help localise our strategy so that hoteliers can best leverage our solutions to grow their business in Thailand and beyond.”
FASTBOOKING provides hoteliers with products, solutions and expertise to maximize the revenues they derive from online bookings. The company was established in Singapore in 2003, and has since built a portfolio of over 2,000 hotel customers in Asia ranging from small independent hotels to regional and international hotel chains.
Trisara’s first resort in Thailand to showcase property through virtual reality
Trisara using virtual reality to showcase the resort.
Trisara, the private pool villa resort in Phuket, Thailand, is the first hotel in the country to use virtual reality (VR) to showcase the property, allowing viewers to get up close to the resort without actually being there.
“Virtual reality represents a wonderful opportunity to enhance the customer journey for a hospitality business. For trade partners, an immersive VR experience provides a much better feel for a property than traditional slideshows or videos,” said Kittisak Pattamasaevi, VP sales and marketing of Montara Hospitality Group, which owns and manages Tisara.
He added that from November potential guests can enjoy 360-degree virtual reality video via platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. They can literally look around the resort before their trip, while guests can capture a VR experience of their own stay.
With Facebook’s announcement that it would soon support 360-degree videos on mobile devices in addition to web, hotel guests can move around the resort with their mobile phones to view all the resort’s facilities from every angle.
Trisara was recognised for its use of VR at the recent Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, US where it was awarded “Best Presentation” out of 400 hotels.
The VR experience is available for streaming via Google Cardboard on YouTube.
