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.
Read More
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
Allegiant | August 17, 2022
Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT), Las Vegas’ home-town airline, has chosen the cloud-enabled Navitaire Airline Platform to power its evolving digital strategies. The ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) plans to migrate to Navitaire’s fully cloud-based platform in early 2023. The transition will include the New Skies® order-based reservation and retailing system, GoNow day-of-departure and Ancillary Pricing Optimization. Navitaire, an Amadeus company, provides technology and business solutions to the airline industry, powering over 60 of the world’s leading low-cost and hybrid carriers today.Allegiant Air is an integrated travel company with an airline at its heart that focuses on linking travelers in small-to-medium cities to world-class leisure destinations. The carrier has grown rapidly, and now serves over 600 routes offering low base fares and convenient non-stop service. Allegiant plans to further expand its network over the next three years as it takes delivery of 50 new aircraft.
Navitaire has a long tradition of ancillary sales leadership, powering the digital retailing success of many of the world’s LCCs and digital pioneers. Allegiant plans to leverage Navitaire’s proven digital platform to help it build on this great success and take the next step in its digital journey.
“Allegiant is harnessing Navitaire’s power as an industry-leading digital tech provider to let us continue to be nimble and innovative in today’s dynamic environment, With the options available to us through this partnership, Allegiant will further establish itself as a leader in the leisure travel industry.”
-Rob Wilson, Allegiant CIO
Navitaire is honored to join forces with Allegiant Air to help it remain at the forefront of the aviation industry, with ever-stronger digital capabilities,” said David P. Evans, Navitaire CEO. “Our solutions have underpinned the success of many of the industry’s digital pioneers by providing a highly scalable cloud-hosted platform that is open, digital, connected and powered by data. These elements offer virtually unlimited possibilities and are vital to fueling the strategies of high-growth airlines like Allegiant.
Navitaire is one of the first technology providers to move its entire airline platform solutions to the cloud, offering its carriers dynamic scalability to keep pace with growth and access to leading-edge technology that supports modern offer and order retailing concepts. Its extensive API suite and proven retailing and distribution capabilities gives airlines flexible options to offer bundled or a la carte ancillary services throughout a customer’s journey. Navitaire's dynamic distribution, including its cloud-based NDC-enabled and digital channels, enables connections with industry and business partners, ranging from online travel agencies and airlines to travel commerce companies, all using modern technology.
About Allegiant Air
Las Vegas-based Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT) is an integrated travel company with an airline at its heart, focused on connecting customers with the people, places and experiences that matter most. Since 1999, Allegiant Air has linked travelers in small-to-medium cities to world-class vacation destinations with all-nonstop flights and industry-low average fares. Today, Allegiant's fleet serves communities across the nation, with base airfares less than half the cost of the average domestic roundtrip ticket. For more information, visit us at Allegiant.com. Media information, including photos, is available at http://gofly.us/iiFa303wrtF.
About Navitaire
Navitaire (www.navitaire.com), an Amadeus company, delivers industry-leading technology services supporting growth, profitability, and innovation to more than 60 airlines and rail companies worldwide, carrying a total of 819 million annual passengers in 2019, including many of the world’s most successful low-cost and hybrid airlines. Navitaire offers a full suite of proven solutions focused on revenue generation and streamlining costs in reservations, ancillary sales, loyalty, revenue accounting, and business intelligence. Navitaire has offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Amadeus Group. Learn more about Navitaire’s industry leadership in shaping the world of travel at www.navitaire.com. Navitaire’s New Skies reservations solution is a digital, e-commerce-first airline platform with comprehensive retailing, analytics, and passenger personalization tools. The solution is designed for efficiency, using a single record approach that manages both the offer and the order throughout the customer lifecycle. Real-time data for on-demand decision-making and omnichannel processing are hallmarks of New Skies, which are leveraged extensively by airlines with clear industry leadership in innovation.
Read More
DESTINATION AND TOURISM
Cabana | September 30, 2022
Cabana, the modern, mobile hospitality company with a fleet of high quality, high-tech campervans, today unveiled Austin, Texas as its next major market launch, with bookings set to formally open early next year. Cabana’s Austin debut demonstrates momentous growth as the organization’s fourth U.S. market, with established operations in Los Angeles and Seattle, as well as San Francisco, which the company announced earlier this year. Austin marks one of several U.S. expansions Cabana plans to introduce over the course of 2023.In conjunction with the upcoming launch, Cabana also announced a new partnership with Austin-based hospitality company, New Waterloo. Leaning on New Waterloo's local expertise and 13 years in hospitality management––while leveraging Cabana's combination of technology and passion for exploration––the two organizations are excited to bring this unique travel experience to Austin residents.
“Texas is chock full of unexplored and underrated gems waiting to be discovered,Whether you’re camping in Big Bend National Park or touring the wineries of Texas’ Hill Country, Cabana’s mission has always been to create the most seamless travel experience imaginable. We’re delighted to be partnering with New Waterloo to make this a possibility for Texans and those visiting the Austin area. Through our trip planning capabilities and easy-to-use technology, we’re eager to see how Austinites explore with Cabana.”
-Cabana CEO and founder, Scott Kubly
New Waterloo will manage day-to-day operations on-site and Austin locals can anticipate travel-inspired events and pop-ups as part of the ongoing collaboration.
Nearly 80% of Americans planned to take a road trip this summer, and Cabana’s numbers further this point, with 25K nights booked over the last two years. As desire for hassle-free travel options increases, Cabana will offer complimentary, contactless trip planning to those road-tripping out of Austin, complete with campsite reservations and experience recommendations. Anticipated top trip requests include Big Bend National Park and West Texas, the Hill Country, tailgating, and Texas’ beaches.
To celebrate the launch, Cabana will be hosting a pop-up in the Artist Lounge at Austin City Limits across both weekends of the event (Oct. 7 – 9; 14 – 16). Interested guests can also join the waitlist to be the first to know about trip availability at cabana.life/austin.
About Cabana
Cabana is a modern, mobile hospitality company with a fleet of high quality, high-tech cabanas (camper vans), designed to create a seamless, unique, and integrated travel experience. Cabana is revolutionizing the future of connected travel through innovative technology and high-touch trip planning. Combining passion for travel with easy-to-use technology and the most cost-efficient and operationally effective vehicles on the market, Cabana provides travelers with the convenience and technology needed for frictionless travel, empowering the explorer in everyone and creating opportunities for serendipity, wonder, and exploration.
Read More