A new travel app created in Singapore promises to address common travel woes
If y'all've been ignored by third-party travel websites, felt stressed over what to do on a vacation and frustrated by the disability to redeem annihilation on hotel loyalty programmes, Iqbal Jumabhoy has heard your cry.
The CEO of BlackBook is launching the integrated travel management platform in early 2020, with possibly the largest inventory of over i.82 million hotels online. Information technology aims to requite travellers access to intuitive travel planning tools and a rewards conversion plan where perks such as hotel stays, dining credits and greenbacks rebates tin can be earned.
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Jumabhoy was the CEO of the Rendezvous Hospitality Group for ii years before leading SilverNeedle Hospitality (now chosen The Next Hospitality Group) as its Managing Manager and Grouping CEO. At both companies, he'd read every feedback email, where he noticed three common traveller angst: Third-party travel websites that were slow in responding to customer complaints after a booking was made; deciding what to see and do during a holiday; and loyalty programmes where one has to stay for many nights earlier qualifying for a complimentary stay.
He shared, "Customers would tell me that once they booked on a travel site, they leave you lonely. And the hotel rewards programme is completely useless because information technology tin merely offering what is within the group. Or y'all take to stay 10 nights to get one night free. 90-five to 97 per cent of the world do not travel or slumber in a hotel more than 10 nights a year. And so these are real pain points."
Like a black book of personal favourites, the Blackbook app is meant to exist the traveller's go-to resource for a hassle-gratuitous holiday, from booking adaptation and tickets to places of interest to using ride-hailing services like Take hold of and Uber.
Earlier this yr, a holiday in Hua Hin that became a "return trip from hell" convinced Jumabhoy, who is also the CEO of investment visitor Edge Capital and Chairman of Republic of india-based real estate investment and development company WIRE Group Ltd, that he was going in the right management.
According to Jumabhoy, the group had received inaccurate data on the commute time to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and he and a few relatives missed their flying.
"The hotel staff told us one number, the airline told us another number… the airdrome was really very far. The car driver took as well long, and while sitting in the machine there was no fashion for us except to go through multiple websites to look for alternative flights."
To exacerbate the situation, even when they managed to notice an choice departing from Don Muang Airport, the driver refused to change course and left them at a petrol station next to a shopping centre where they had to hail another taxi.
As there was a niece who had an exam the side by side forenoon, Jumabhoy concluded up flying home via Kuala Lumpur where they rang a driver to pick them up at 1am to get dorsum merely in time for her to change and go to school.
"Imagine if you lot had an app that gives you a map and tells you where you go, how y'all do information technology. You plan all your details. If you need updates, the updates come to yous. If you need to find new flights, a identify to slumber, it'southward all in a single identify and you get back on time and with maximum convenience."
In future, it will offer ride hailing options, flights, travel insurance, tickets to attractions, car rentals and restaurants. Its proprietary technology, BlackBook Uno, scours multiple information sets and eliminates indistinguishable entries to calculate the best margins and display the best deals.
Whenever a booking is fabricated, users earn BB Coins on the BBonus cross-chain rewards programme, which can be used to redeem stays or exist converted to greenbacks every bit quickly as after the offset stay.
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In futurity, BB Coins can as well be used on other travel services such as flights, cabs, attractions and in-room dining. Another characteristic, myBlackBook, combines the planning and direction aspects, assuasive users to view, share and add itineraries to calendars in a single click. Travellers can also explore 32 million places of interest with images, 360-degree videos, opening hours and contact details, as well as obtain data on over 150,000 destinations including atmospheric condition, foreign exchange and local time.
Jumabhoy explained, "Aye, 32 million places sounds a lot and it is, because that's what people want. They want to be able to observe different things, merely the sources of data out at that place are so many. Where are you going to notice that? Yous'd need them in one place."
Simply while Jumabhoy believes that powerful data sifting and aggregating algorithms are the way to go for efficiency, the human touch is still crucial for a rewarding client service experience. Jumabhoy says that BlackBook will allow users to connect directly with the hotels they book on the platform.
"We don't take to exist defensive about allowing our customers to speak to the hotels directly. We believe that the other advantages nosotros have on our platform will go on them with u.s.. Human being interaction is needed and nosotros've structured our BlackBook Uno engine such that it can be available to smaller online travel agents and offline travel agents."
The man who spends at least 200 days on the road every twelvemonth says that, ultimately, service from the heart is what draws people back to the same hotel. "1 of the things I dislike in a hotel is when I enquire for a eating house recommendation and the staff says, 'oh, in the hotel we have this restaurant'. I'd say 'no, I didn't inquire you lot that'."
Ironically, on the same Hua Hin trip, the hotel the Jumabhoys stayed at was impressive in how they did the contrary. He said, "They were telling us 'become downwardly there, do this, try that, and yeah, yous can accept the automobile from the hotel, but really, it's cheaper if you do it this way'. I appreciated that, and we really spent much more in the hotel, including eating there, because we were so happy with the people."
"Human interaction is needed and nosotros've structured our BlackBook Uno engine such that it can be bachelor to smaller online travel agents and offline travel agents." – Iqbal Jumabhoy
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/travel-app-blackbook-iqbal-jumabhoy-177041
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