Business Travel
Simpleview | September 11, 2023
Simpleview, a leader in destination marketing solutions, and Viator, a top online marketplace for travel experiences, have joined forces. This partnership empowers destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to enhance online engagement, equip partner listings with enticing offers, build tourism brands, instill traveler confidence, and drive business to their partners.
Incorporating Viator's vast catalog of tours, activities, and attractions, DMOs can curate unforgettable experiences for travelers. From exploring hidden gems to providing traveler-centric booking solutions, this collaboration positions DMOs to thrive in the competitive tourism landscape. Additionally, it equips destination marketing organizations with a powerful tool to boost website engagement.
In addition to its evident benefits for DMOs and travelers, the partnership showcases the strategic alignment between Simpleview and Viator. Combining their expertise, these industry leaders facilitate a deeper connection between travelers and destinations, making it easier for visitors to embark on exciting journeys and immerse themselves in the beauty of the world's most captivating places.
Greg Evans, Chief Revenue Officer at Simpleview, mentioned,
At Simpleview, our mission is to bridge visitors with unique local attractions.
[Source – Cision PR Newswire]
Viator broadens horizons for ‘top-of-funnel' or 'out-of-market' visitors and streamlines bookings for the 'in-market' users, embodying the company's dedication to transforming digital interactions into memorable journeys. This partnership empowers DMOs with tools for visitor growth while offering tailored content to fuel travel ambitions. Further, Greg expressed team’s excitement about bringing Viator's capabilities to Simpleview’s CMS.
About Viator
Viator, a subsidiary of Tripadvisor, specializes in simplifying the process of discovering and booking unforgettable global tours, activities, and excursions. The company offers a broad range of options for travelers, with an extensive catalog of over 300,000 experiences, whether they seek adventures close to home or in far-flung destinations. Committed to ensuring that travelers make the most of their precious leisure time, Viator relentlessly emphasizes quality, catering to various interests ranging from straightforward tours to exhilarating extreme adventures and everything else that is intriguing.
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Hospitality Trends
PR Newswire | October 25, 2023
Minnesota-based TravelNet Solutions (TNS), the leading provider of software solutions for the short-term rental industry, today announced several enhancements and extensions to its flagship product, Track Property Management System. Company representatives at the annual Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) conference will introduce attendees to Track's new Distribution Engine, Payments, and Reviews Management tools with an eye toward consolidating their technology footprint.
In July 2023, the company announced an investment partnership with Texas-based Blue Star Innovation Partners (BSIP). TNS CEO and Co-Founder Ryan Bailey then noted that the partnership would help the company, "... develop products and services faster, hire more staff, and pursue our market goals more aggressively." What customers are seeing right now, he says, are concrete steps toward those objectives.
"Since the beginning, innovation has been at the heart of everything we do, and it's been driven by our customers' desire to level up and win in this rapidly changing market," Bailey said. "The BSIP partnership has helped us level up ourselves so we can respond more quickly to customer needs and reduce their overall technology footprint. The new products and services we're talking about this week are stellar examples of our commitment to that goal.
"In the end, it comes down to building a sales engine that can scale and drive more bookings," he added.
TNS' NEXT user conference, held Sept. 2023 in Minneapolis, afforded current customers a sneak peek at the new products. VRMA is the first opportunity for prospects to learn about them in person.
What's New?
Distribution Engine is a Track add-on designed to make the distribution of rental listings across channels such as Airbnb and Vrbo faster, easier, and more powerful than any competing solution on the market. Users can manage listings on one dashboard, saving the hassle of logging into multiple platforms. Time-saving features such as bulk operations, plus access to a dedicated team of distribution experts, will also help property managers optimize their channel performance.
Reviews Management is a feature coming soon to Distribution Engine that greatly simplifies the process of reading and responding to guest reviews. Many operators spend several hours per week managing reviews, which are unique to each channel and require different logins and interfaces. Reviews Management brings the process into one clean interface so users don't have to leave the Track platform to manage this critical aspect of their business.
Track Payments is a new payment-processing solution set to formally launch in early 2024. Currently, Track customers rely on third-party payment portals to handle their payments, requiring separate contracts and slow or confusing processes that can tie up revenue. Track Payments will be integrated into the Track platform, giving users greater control and a central dashboard that can track credit activity such as chargebacks and refunds in real-time.
New Products, New Tagline
In addition to its new products, this week marks the debut of TNS' new company tagline, "Heart of Hospitality." The company says the tagline highlights three major areas of focus: Its software's place at the heart of customers' operations; its heartfelt connection to stakeholders, chiefly customers, owners, and guests; and a continued commitment to its company values of service to others, grit, and building the future.
About TravelNet Solutions
For more than 21 years, TravelNet Solutions, Inc. (TNS) has provided integrated software and marketing solutions for the hospitality industry anchored by its flagship Track Property Management System and other products under the Track banner. Our single-vendor ecosystem gives growing vacation rental companies all the enterprise-class tools they need to scale. With 70+ integration partners and a growing list of native features, Track helps hospitality pros level up through digital transformation.
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Business Travel
CellPoint Digital | November 07, 2023
CellPoint Digital, a Payment Orchestration provider, has partnered with Riskified, a leader in ecommerce fraud prevention and risk intelligence, to enhance fraud protection for airlines and travel merchants.
This partnership allows both companies to boost the value for their joint customers by improving fraud detection capabilities and enabling the use of multiple payment providers. Riskified's fraud management platform utilizes advanced AI and machine learning to protect online retailers from fraudulent transactions. Combined with CellPoint Digital's Payment Orchestration platform, this provides higher transaction approval rates, instant decision-making capabilities, and complete chargeback protection.
Kristian Gjerding, Chief Executive Officer at CellPoint Digital, remarked,
“Our partnership with Riskified represents a step forward in the world of online payments. Together, these platforms empower airlines and other travel merchants to optimize their payment processes while safeguarding against fraud risks, setting a new standard for secure and efficient ecommerce transactions.”
[Source- Business Wire]
Riskified’s ecommerce platform is a dynamic system designed to protect online retailers from fraudulent transactions. Built for accuracy at scale. It utilizes advanced AI and machine learning algorithms to analyze and verify the legitimacy of each transaction. It also ensures secure and hassle-free online shopping experiences for customers while minimizing the risk of fraud for travel merchants. The travel merchants who use Riskified’s Chargeback Guarantee solution will not bear the cost of fraud chargebacks if Riskified approves a fraudulent transaction.
Ravi Kumawasrami, President of Worldwide Field Operations at Riskified, stated,
“Businesses should never have to choose between preventing fraud and providing a cohesive customer experience. Our partnership with CellPoint Digital enables airlines and travel merchants to avoid the dilemma while simultaneously streamlining their operations, increasing their revenue and creating a secure shopping environment.”
[Source- Business Wire]
Leveraging the integrated solutions offered by CellPoint Digital and Riskified, travel merchants, including airlines, can establish a robust safeguard against continuously evolving fraud threats. The Payment Orchestration platform from CellPoint Digital facilitates the integration of multiple payment methods and smartly routes transactions to increase acceptance while accommodating multiple PSPs and acquirers. Furthermore, this is enhanced by Riskified's sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning framework, which effectively identifies fraudulent activities in real-time by utilizing data from an extensive worldwide merchant network comprising over 2.5 billion past transactions.
With CellPoint Digital’s Payment Orchestration platform, airlines and enterprise travel merchants enjoy cutting-edge fraud protection, instant decision-making capabilities, higher transaction approval rates, and complete chargeback protection, thus enhancing the overall security and efficiency of the payment processes.
About CellPoint Digital
CellPoint Digital is a prominent figure in the fintech sector, specializing in payment orchestration. The core of its offerings revolves around a robust Payment Orchestration Platform, which plays a pivotal role in streamlining digital payment transactions. It caters to a broad spectrum of payment methods, from traditional cards to alternative options, and expedites the deployment of novel payment solutions. The platform also optimizes transaction routing, boosting conversion rates and reducing payment-related expenses.
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Hospitality Trends
PR Newswire | October 04, 2023
Vietjet, Vietnam's largest private airline, has just announced the launch of five new international services from Vietnam to Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, further expanding its global network. This comes as exciting news for travellers throughout the Asia Pacific region, including Singapore, as they are set to fly at more affordable fares.
Vietjet continues to fortify its Vietnam – Australia flight network by adding two new services from Ho Chi Minh City to Perth and Adelaide with five weekly flights, starting 21 November 2023. The new routes make Vietjet the first airline from Vietnam connecting to Australia's five largest cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The Hanoi – Hong Kong route will commence on 22 December 2023, with a daily frequency, departing from Hanoi at 08:55 and arriving in Hong Kong at 11:50. The return flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi will take off at 12:50 and land at 13:50 (local times). Travellers from Hong Kong can easily fly directly to all gateways of Vietnam's North – Central and South, to Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Phu Quoc.
Phu Quoc, the emerging star of Vietnamese tourism will also welcome two new Vietjet's services to Korea and Taiwan. Accordingly, Vietjet will operate the daily Phu Quoc – Busan route, starting from 10 December 2023. The flights depart from Phu Quoc at 01:15 and land in Busan at 08:05. The return flight will depart Busan at 08:55 and land in Phu Quoc at 12:40 (local times).
The Phu Quoc – Taipei direct service will operate from 17 January 2024, with a frequency of four flights per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The departure from Phu Quoc will be at 08:25 and the arrival in Taipei will be at 13:00. The return flights take off from Taipei at 14:00 and touch down in Phu Quoc at 16:50 (local times).
Super Ticket Promotion to Celebrate New Services
To mark the intensive new route introduction, Vietjet is offering an extraordinary promotion with ticket fares from just SGD80/one-way (inclusive of tax and fees) for all international services, including three routes between Singapore – Hanoi/Da Nang/ Ho Chi Minh City and other routes connecting via Vietnam. Booking for promotional tickets is available from now to 10 October 2023, with travel time up to one year until 31 October 2024 (Exclusive of public holidays, peak seasons).
Discover the exciting new routes on Vietjet's new and eco-friendly aircraft, served by dedicated and professional cabin crew. Indulge in delectable diversity of hot and fresh meals, prepared for your satisfaction. Vietjet also goes the extra mile with the complimentary Sky Care insurance, ensuring your worry-free journey, and the exclusive Sky Joy loyalty program. Let's enjoy flying with Vietjet!
About Vietjet
The new-age carrier Vietjet has not only revolutionized the aviation industry in Vietnam but also been a pioneering airline across the region and around the world. With a focus on cost management ability, effective operations, and performance, applying the latest technology to all activities and leading the trend, Vietjet offers flying opportunities with cost-saving and flexible fares as well as diversified services to meet customers' demands.
Vietjet is a fully-fledged member of International Air Transport Association (IATA) with the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certificate. As Vietnam's largest private carrier, the airline has been awarded the highest ranking for safety with 7 stars by the world's only safety and product rating website airlineratings.com and listed as one of the world's 50 best airlines for healthy financing and operations by Airfinance Journal in many consecutive years. The airline has also been named as Best Low-Cost Carrier by renowned organizations such as Skytrax, CAPA, Airline Ratings, and many others.
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