In the news: HRS annual APAC Hotel Price Radar, Amadeus Family Fares offering from Travix, Sabre’s revenue solution for Bangkok Airways, Wego’s payment guide in the Middle East
Tokyo’s most expensive city in APAC for hotel stay: HRS Price Radar
Tokyo had the highest ARR in APAC in 2015. (Image credit: sokano/iStock)
Last year saw Tokyo in Japan commanding the highest room rate in Asia Pacific (APAC), taking the top spot away from Melbourne, Australia, with an average rate of SG$269 a night – a 30.3% rise from the previous year
The data, revealed by corporate hotel solutions provider HRS in its annual Asia Pacific Hotel Price Radar, also saw Sydney, Singapore, and Mebourne joining the ranks of APAC cities with the most expensive ARR in 2015.
The HRS annual report was based on data collected from all hotel bookings made via the company’s hotel portal in 2015. It looked at per night hotel room rates, which is also indicative where companies are channeling their corporate travel budgets.
According to the analysis, Tokyo held on to the top spot despite a slip in the country Abenomics-led economy in the final months of 2015.
“Tokyo continues to uphold a strong footing as a MICE destination by being a leading force for research and development in industries ranging from engineering, pharmaceuticals to robotics. The appeal of these strengths, coupled with Tokyo’s thrust back in the spotlight as the host of the 2020 Olympic Games, may be a contributing factor of the surge in the city’s room rates,” said HRS in a media release.
The year saw a significant drop in hotel room rates in Melbourne despite it sporting one of the most expensive average room rates per night in the region.
“The city’s increase in room rates in 2014 was due to developing MICE offerings, but the growth hit a ceiling after a year. As the second- costliest Australian city, Melbourne ranks closely behind Sydney, where rooms set business travelers back SG$266 a night,” added the report.
Bangkok saw a 31% increase in room rates last year despite the bombings in the city that had some impact on the level of leisure travel.
The same goes for Beijing, which saw a rise of 22.2% ARRdespite the first red-alert being issued under its four-tier alert system during the city’s smog crisis late 2015. However, the growth is not anticipated to continue as strongly into 2016 with China’s current economic woes.
Hotel room rates in cities such as Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney remained fairly stable with less than a 10% change over 2014.
HRS Price Radar also revealed that business travel remained largely unaffected by terrorist scares and environmental crisis.
“The rise in business-related travel drive hotel rooms demand, and cities with the top hotel room rates indicates the business hotspots within the APAC region. Hotel room rates increases are driven by higher levels of business confidence, and our findings are synonymous with the GBTA Foundation’s prediction of global business travel spending to increase 6.5-percentage points over 2014,” said Todd Arthur, managing director APAC at HRS.
Travix personalises travel with Amadeus Fare Families
Personalised offers for family travel from Travix. (Image credit: Nadezhda1906/iStock)
Searching for good deals for travel with the family is now easier with Amadeus Fare Families, which global online travel company Travix has made available on its websites.
The personalised offers are tailored to the customer’s needs to improve the travel experience.
John Mangelaars, CEO of Travix, believes that its new offering “will not only open new relationship opportunities with our airlines partners, and this will benefit our customers”.
Travix sells flights in more than 28 countries with a global portfolio of 35 websites that include CheapTickets (Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand), BudgetAir.com (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand) and Vayama.com.
Sébastien Gibergues, head of leisure online and travel media at Amadeus, said: “Last year we saw an incredible growth in the amount of OTAs interested in Fare Families, and we’re seeing more and more airlines interested in creating and sharing this kind of content. We think 2016 will be the year where personalised flight booking becomes mainstream.
Amadeus is currently distributing Fare Families for 23 airlines through the GDS, and 12 more are under implementation.
Bangkok Airways selects Sabre technology to maximise revenue
It’s Sabre technology for Bangkok Airways to grow revenue. (Image credit: Bangkok Airways)
Bangkok Airways has adopted Sabre’s innovative Revenue Optimizer solution, which is designed to help airlines respond to changing market conditions in real-time and maximise multiple revenue streams.
The new solution provides end-to-end control for airlines to better understand traveller profiles, and respond to passenger demand while efficiently pricing and selling their seat inventory and ancillary products.
It works in concert with SabreSonic, Sabre’s passenger service systems (PSS) providing seamless inventory integration and real-time data access.
Darren Rickey, vice president of Sabre AirVision, said a primary challenge facing carriers are optimising tradiotional and emerging revenue streams.
“Gone are the days of focusing on revenue per seat. To be competitive, airlines must optimize all revenue sources including partnerships and ancillary products. Revenue Optimizer supports this transformation and, furthermore, will allow airlines to offer more personalised services.”
Peter Wiesner, advisor for network management at Bangkok Airways, added that the solution helped the airline “to better leverage customer demand across various revenue streams, including partner airlines and ancillaries, while maximising revenue opportunities.”
Wego’s traveller guide to payment in the Middle East
Various types of payment facilities in Middle East countries. (Image credit: ZambeziShark/iStock)
Travelling to the Middle East may present some problems for visitors not familiar with the region when it comes to payment for hotels or service – whether to use cash or credit cards.
Mamoun Hmedan, managing director Wego for Middle East, North Africa and India, said: “Each country in the region is very different and travellers can be caught short if not aware of local payment facilities and customs. I see a lot of confusion from international visitors around which credit cards are most accepted in which countries, or whether they’re better off using cash.”
The travel site has come up a handy guide to local currency and payment facilities for anyone planning to travel in the Middle East (see infographic below).
- Jordan (Jordanian dinar – JD): Visa more widely accepted than MasterCard, mostly in the larger restaurants and hotels.
- Oman (Omani Rial – OMR): ATMs readily available; both Visa and MasterCard widely accepted; cash advance and cashing of cheques in some high-end hotels and travel agencies.
- Kuwait (Kuwaiti dinar – KWD): MasterCard and Visa widely accepted in banks; American Express and Diners Club can also be used; ATMs are everywhere and probably the best way to get KWD.
- United Arab Emirates (United Arab Emirates dirham – AED): Credit cards accepted in most places in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman; Visa and MasterCard most popular; American Express accepted in some areas.
- Saudi Arabia (Saudi riyal – SAR): Cash and debit card most popular forms of transactions; credit cards now more readily accepted in most large shopping malls and hotels; carry cash for transactions for shopping at places like souks and marketplaces.
- Iran (Iranian rial- IRR): International credit cards not accepted; bring cash to pay for hotels and move around.
- Lebanon (Lebanese pound LBP): Visa and MasterCard commonly accepted in most places, occasionally American Express; international cards accepted at ATMs; recommend to carry cash (USD or LBP).
- Egypt (Egyptian pound – EGP): Wide variety of cards like MasterCard, Maestro, Visa accepted; hotels do POS transactions; Visa and MasterCard accepted in high-end hotels and restaurants, rarely Diners Club; advisable to carry cash as regular restaurants and markets only deal in cash.
- Turkey (Turkish lira – TRY): Most international credit cards accepted; American Express and Diner’s Club in major cities; cash for purchases in markets and bazaars.
