TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
GigNet | August 25, 2022
GigNet, a Digital Infrastructure company with an extensive regional fiber optic broadband network from Costa Mujeres, North of Cancun, through the Hotel Zone of Tulum, announced today it is providing broadband for fast, and reliable Internet to the Grand Palladium Resort and Spa. Costa Mujeres is a fast-growing resort development area approximately ten miles north of central Cancun and features large scale resorts, golf courses, and some of the best beaches in the region.
Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres is an all-inclusive luxury resort featuring six buildings with 1146 rooms that make up Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres and TRS Coral, four pool areas, thirty restaurants and bars, a beach club, luxury spa, retail shops, convention center, and a Rafa Nadal Tennis Center. According to Mexico News Daily, the Grand Palladium, its 473-room sister property TRS Coral, and other future developments represent over US$750 million in planned investment in Costa Mujeres by Palladium Group.
Mark Carney, OBE and President of GigNet Mexico, stated, “We extended our fiber-optic network to Costa Mujeres because we recognized this would be a major growth area for the Cancun tourism market. We are excited to begin our relationship with Palladium Hotel Group by bringing the best broadband in Quintana Roo to this magnificent resort. Palladium has a reputation for working only with best-in-class partners, and we know it is critical for mega resorts to have reliable fiber-optic connectivity, backed by service level guarantees that only GigNet can offer. We appreciate the trust that Palladium is placing with GigNet and are excited to be part of the future of Palladium Hotel Group and Costa Mujeres.”
ABOUT PALLADIUM HOTEL GROUP
The Palladium Hotel Group hotel chain was founded in the late 1960s in Ibiza by Abel Matutes Juan, who dreamed of bringing paradise within the reach of travelers and offering them amazing experiences. He took his first steps in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and in the early 1990s he continued expansion by opening several resorts in the Caribbean and other top world destinations including Mexico, Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, Jamaica, and Brazil. In 2000, these hotels were combined under the name Fiesta Hotel Group and in 2012 the group became Palladium Hotel Group, taking its name from its five-star Caribbean resorts. Palladium continues to set industry standards based on a commitment to guest satisfaction and a priority for developing the group’s human capital. https://www.palladiumhotelgroup.com/en
ABOUT GIGNET
GigNet is the Mexican Caribbean brand of GigNet, Inc., a U.S. based international Digital Infrastructure company specializing in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) for enterprise customers including hotels, resorts, retailers, offices, large commercial operations, governmental offices, and medical and educational facilities, as well as fiber-optic transport services for mobile phone operators in the region. Through its Mexico operating subsidiaries, GigNet, S.A. de C.V., and Sanalto Redes Peninsular, S.A.P.I. de C.V., the Company is a fully licensed telecommunications provider in Mexico. GigNet is actively adding customers to its extensive regional broadband network in the Mexican Caribbean, one of the largest and fastest growing tourism and new residential development destinations in the world, with over 25 million annual airport visitors. GigNet is a leader in the Digital Transformation of the region.
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COMMERCIAL TRAVEL,AIRLINES AND AIRPORTS
Southwest Airlines | September 22, 2022
Southwest Airlines Co. ( NYSE: LUV) is rewarding its Rapid Rewards Members for their long-term support by giving them a limited-time incentive, making it easier to earn tier status through 2023. Starting today, Rapid Rewards® Members have more opportunities to maintain or accelerate their way to the highly coveted A-List or A-List Preferred tier status.
"We're making it easier for our Members to either earn A-List or A-List Preferred tier status, or maintain it through next year as a way to show our appreciation for their continued engagement with Rapid Rewards, We believe loyalty is a two-way street, and this is our way of thanking Customers for continuing to fly Southwest and for trusting us to connect them to the people and places that matter most in their lives."
-Jonathan Clarkson, Vice President of Marketing Loyalty & Products at Southwest Airlines
Reward Travel Counts
Southwest Airlines® is counting reward flight segments from Jan. 1 through Sept. 19, 2022, and applying them toward tier status segment requirements so Members can continue to enjoy the benefits and rewards they love and value. No registration is necessary for Members, and qualifying reward flight segments were automatically added to Members' tier progress on Sept. 13.1 Customers can view changes in the "My Account" section on Southwest.com.
Earn With New Reward Travel
Rapid Rewards Members who register and purchase Southwest® flights using Rapid Rewards points through Nov. 30, 2022, can now earn flight segment credits that count toward A-List or A-List Preferred tier status through 2023.1 The flight segment will appear in "My Account" within 72 hours after the flight is completed.
Earn Double Tier Qualifying Points
Southwest Rapid Rewards Members who register for this promotion and purchase Southwest qualifying flights, and travel through Nov. 30, 2022, can earn double tier qualifying points toward A-List or A-List Preferred tier status for 2023.2
Join Rapid Rewards
The Rapid Rewards program is designed around a simple concept—to make earning reward flights faster and easier. With Rapid Rewards, every seat is a reward seat, there are no blackout dates, and points don't expire. Customers can create an account to become a Rapid Rewards Member at Southwest.com.
All Rewards flights are subject to availability and taxes, fees, and other government or airport-imposed charges of at least $5.60 per one-way.
Tier qualifying points are earned on flights paid entirely with dollars, LUV Vouchers, gift cards, or travel funds, and with no portion of the purchase price paid for with Rapid Rewards points. Only qualifying activity will be eligible for flight credits.
ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world's most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across 11 countries. Having celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline.3 Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its more than 62,0004 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years5 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders ( NYSE: LUV). Southwest leverages a unique legacy and mission to serve communities around the world including harnessing the power of its People and Purpose to put communities at the Heart of its success. Learn more by visiting Southwest.com/citizenship. Southwest is also continuing to develop tangible steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, including offering Customers an opportunity to help the airline offset its carbon emissions. To be part of the solution, visit Southwest.com/wannaoffsetcarbon.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY,HOSPITALITY TRENDS
SiteMinder | August 23, 2022
SiteMinder, the world's leading open hotel commerce platform, has announced it will acquire industry acclaimed hotel guest engagement suite GuestJoy, a cloud-based app that allows hoteliers to automate personalised, direct, contactless guest communications before, during and after their stay.
The acquisition, to be completed this year, follows the launch of SiteMinder's next generation platform in April - an all-in-one hotel commerce platform that unifies SiteMinder's channel management, distribution and booking engine products with real-time market insights, automated payments, website-building capabilities and more than 1500 partner integrations for accommodation providers to grow their businesses online. GuestJoy will further expand SiteMinder's robust hotel commerce offering, allowing hoteliers to automate and digitise their guest communication, drive upsell revenues, and strengthen direct guest acquisition.
Sankar Narayan, CEO and MD of SiteMinder, said the agreement to acquire GuestJoy builds on a year of strong organic growth following the company's IPO in 2021.
We are thrilled to announce SiteMinder's acquisition of GuestJoy this year. Great technology powers human connection, and this couldn't be truer for hotel tech. GuestJoy is highly regarded within the hotel tech industry for its simple user experience, seamless guest communication functionalities and integration capabilities, which are essential for the modern hotelier to deliver a winning and profitable guest experience, while also optimising their booking and ancillary revenues. GuestJoy's capability to automate and personalise guest communications will allow SiteMinder to offer a fully integrated user experience for our hoteliers, as we continue to deliver on our hotel commerce platform vision, Sankar Narayan said.
Since 2014, GuestJoy has gained a strong reputation in the industry for its innovative, easy-to-use technology and for delivering high ROI for its customers. Founded by hospitality tech innovators Alar Ülem and Annika Ülem, GuestJoy was created to solve a key unmet need - to make it simpler and faster for hoteliers to communicate directly with their guests and increase customer value via their property management system.
We know firsthand how distracting and cumbersome unfit technology can be while you are working hard to deliver an impeccable, memorable guest experience. It's why we set ourselves the mission of designing GuestJoy to be very easy to use, using data-driven intelligence and automation. We also know that seamless, unified technology can transform hotel businesses, and this is why we are so proud that GuestJoy will become a SiteMinder company,said GuestJoy Co-founder Alar Ülem.
"SiteMinder is unrivalled in its deep feature capabilities in hotel technology, and for its scale of connectivity in the hotel tech market. We can't wait to join SiteMinder's vision to bring every hotel into the new era of hotel commerce, by helping hoteliers connect meaningfully with their guests along every step of their accommodation journey,"
-GuestJoy Co-founder Annika Ülem.
A SiteMinder Partner since 2017, GuestJoy is already a part of the SiteMinder ecosystem and will be fully integrated into the SiteMinder hotel commerce platform following the completion of the acquisition this year.
About GuestJoy
GuestJoy has been helping hoteliers seamlessly digitise, personalise and automate their guest engagement throughout the entire guest journey since 2014. In 2021, GuestJoy was named a finalist in Hotel Tech Report's Best Upselling Software, and that same year, 70% of GuestJoy customers across 23 countries were named in TripAdvisor's Travellers' Choice Awards. GuestJoy has been a SiteMinder partner since 2017, with customers across the UK and Europe.
About SiteMinder
SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the world's leading open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for opening up every hotel's access to online commerce. It's this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of tens of thousands of hotels, across 150 countries, to sell, market, manage and grow their business. The global company, headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangkok, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila, generated more than 100 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels in the last year prior to the start of the pandemic. For more information, visit siteminder.com.
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