Safer-Tourism | September 03, 2020
Three leading US companies have teamed up to form the Safer-Tourism Alliance (STA) to offer the travel and tourism industry technology-driven and innovative solutions for safer tourism as a result of Covid-19 based on the principle of managed risk achieved through effective testing, training and tracking (3Ts).
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
CLEAR | June 09, 2021
Biometrics are poised to make the leap beyond airports and act as a passport to any number of environments where crowds gather in post-COVID reopening.
To that end, biometric security firm CLEAR filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paving the way for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange.
CLEAR may arguably be best known for its origin that ties into creating “a frictionless travel experience while enhancing homeland security,” as described in the prospectus. At a high level, the company’s biometric security service offers subscriptions to its services, speeding up passenger flow through TSA lines at the airport.
But branching into other use cases shows how fungible, in a way, biometrics tech can be, where knowing who is who — for admission, for security, or commerce — is an essential deployment. But along the way, as CLEAR’s filing shows, the pivot beyond travel — where demand is only now recovering from the ravages of the pandemic — will help determine whether the firm will see ignition. CLEAR points to the “convenience economy” as a critical driver for using biometrics in a bid to streamline everyday interactions.
Tracking The Enrollments
Digging into the prospectus, since inception, there have been 5.6 million cumulative enrollments, with 61 million cumulative use cases across its platform.
Along with the decline in travel-related activity, first-quarter revenues slipped 17 percent as U.S. domestic flyers dropped by 60 percent. But the company remarked in its prospectus that a trend in its favor would be the reopening of and return to secular growth in the travel industry.
As travel declined, cumulative enrollments on the platform were up more than 12 percent, to 5.2 million. Looking across the entire year, revenue was up 20 percent to 230.8 million in 2020, while net loss narrowed to $9.3 million from $54.2 million.
Moreover, the company has debuted its Health Pass app, which stores healthcare-related data such as COVID test and vaccine records, which can help members show credentials required to enter a sporting event. CLEAR has partnered with 26 sports and entertainment partners and 67 Health Pass-enabled partners. That reach helps give coverage to 110 locations, including offices, theaters, and theme parks.
Launched in 2010, CLEAR’s biometric security service is popular among frequent fliers who purchase subscriptions for $179 a year. Along with gaining the ability to speed through airport lines, subscribers can also use the service at sports stadiums and entertainment venues.
Looking Toward Scale
CLEAR defines the total addressable markets, by vertical, as being rather significant. In aviation and travel, 90 million American adults fly at least twice annually, while 31 million flies at least six times annually. In hospitality, there were 1.3 billion room nights occupied in 2019, pre-pandemic, in the U.S. Per data from ESPN, across major sports leagues, there were 130 million sports attendees in 2019.
The movement into adjacent use cases depends on how many consumers embrace $179 annual subscriptions (the price of Clear PLUS) and whether the populations that do so will justify partners signing on with the technology platform.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
RateGain Technologies | September 08, 2021
RateGain Technologies, a provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality, announced the launch of MarketDRONE Narratives, an update to its real-time rate intelligence SaaS solution for hotels, OPTIMA. Through this update, RateGain aims to transform how revenue managers plan and tackle market volatility on an everyday basis.
On a daily basis revenue managers spend considerable time manually sourcing data and identifying critical insights that impact their market position. However, with increasing demand channels, last-minute travel plans, and the ongoing volatility, most revenue managers are pressed for time to get these insights on demand to mitigate inaccurate and incomplete analysis that drives revenue maximization.
MarketDRONE Narratives provides clear actionable insights, shared every time there is a change in the market, helping revenue and pricing managers know exactly how to position ones revenue strategies for the day to mitigate any loss of market share while increasing RevPAR. Revenue and pricing managers will now save critical time that was earlier spent in collating and analyzing data, allowing them to take the lead in attracting more guests and increasing revenue.
Narratives are generated based on change hints using a mix of distribution and market supply data combined with competitive rate shopping data across Hotels and OTAs. It generates personalized insights using all these data points with customized thresholds for each of the hotels that they can configure to get the most relevant insights for tailoring their strategies. RateGain developed these narratives by consulting our customers, industry experts to understand insights that are most vital to make better strategies.
Over the last few years, RateGain has focused on solving the problem of collecting and providing accurate real-time data for hoteliers through updates to OPTIMA such as pricing playground and lightning refresh. However, with the volatility introduced in pricing since the pandemic, hoteliers don't only need real-time data but also instant insights which are powered by Narratives.
Commenting on the launch, Harmeet Singh, CEO, RateGain, said, "As one of the largest aggregators of data in our industry, RateGain is committed to listening to our customers who have clearly stated the need to evolve rate intelligence solutions. MarketDRONE Narratives is a step in that direction where we continue to push innovation and help our customers move faster every day to unlock more revenue. We will continue to evolve and add more depth to this product such as providing insights on Parity and Events Intelligence to help our customers get all the insights they need instantly. "
About RateGain
RateGain is a global provider of SaaS solutions for the hospitality and travel industry, offering travel and hospitality solutions that unlock new revenue every day. We are one of the largest aggregators of data points in the world for the hospitality and travel industry.
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