RedDoorz offers budget accommodations across South East Asia a brand and service guarantee to enable standardization and online distribution
Travel and hospitality industry veterans, Philip Wolf and Ajay Bakaya join RedDoorz Strategic Advisory Board
Singapore- India, 30th September 2015 – RedDoorz today announced that it has received an undisclosed amount of pre Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures. It further announced that Philip Wolf, Founder PhoCusWright and Ajay Bakaya, Executive Director at Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, both travel and hospitality industry veterans have joined the company’s Strategic Advisory Board to help accelerate it's growth and product success in its segment.
RedDoorz is South East Asia’s first asset light budget accommodation brand and service offering for hotels, resorts, inns, service apartments, B&Bs and guesthouses. It provides budget accommodation owners access to expert advice and assistance to standardize their offering and directly distribute online via RedDoorz technology platform. Under the RedDoorz brand and service umbrella, these properties will also receive continued guidance to build repeat business and see higher online occupancies of up to 50 percent.
To the consumer, a RedDoorz branded accommodation will mean receiving a consistent experience and great prices, complimented by the brand’s trust and security.
“The Asia Pacific region is expected to receive 27% of global tourist arrivals by 20201. Travelers are increasingly expecting a personalized stay and hotel owners have to adapt using technology, social media and other innovations to deliver a more customized experience. Today budget accommodations have fragmented and non-uniform experiences that affects the consumer satisfaction which can lead to negative reviews on social media and declining footfalls said Amit Saberwal, CEO & Founder, who previously was Chief Business Office of MakeMyTrip, India’s largest OTA which has been listed on NASDAQ since August 2010. “This is where RedDoorz has a strong value proposition. We not only help consumers receive standardized services across all RedDoorz enabled budget accommodations but also help the budget hotel owners with technology to distribute across multiple digital platforms. It’s a win-win for both the consumer and the hotel owner”.
The South East Asia travel market today has a size of US$ 60.6 Bn2. Its prominent tourism and business hubs include Thailand, Bali, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, etc. During many periods in the year, the demand for accommodation far exceeds supply in the region. A large number of properties are offline. Further, the market is highly fragmented with low adoption of online distribution technology. Hotel owners are unable to realize the full monetary potential of their assets and have to make do with lower average daily rates.
“RedDoorz’ offering is helping to standardize a fragmented hotel landscape, especially in the budget space that suffers from low online penetration. We are thrilled to partner with RedDoorz as it expands its offering across a market that is ripe for transformation,” said Amit Anand, Founding Partner at Jungle Ventures.
About the Strategic Advisors
Philip Wolf is an American entrepreneur known for his work in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The founder and former CEO of travel industry research firm PhoCusWright, Wolf serves as board director and advisor to multiple travel and technology companies.
In 2007, Travel Weekly named Wolf as one of the 33 most influential people in travel and Skift in 2014 included him among its Skift 30: Travel’s Top Online Movers and Shakers, noting that he “defined online travel for a whole industry.”
He is a former adjunct professor at NYU’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management and has been a distinguished lecturer at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
Ajay Bakaya is the Executive Director of Sarovar Hotels & Resorts and oversees the group's operations in India and abroad. A legendary hotelier, he has been with Sarovar Hotels since 1996 and has played a key role in making the company one of the most visible and successful hotel management companies in India.
Prior to joining the Sarovar group, he was a general manager at Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and the assistant general manager at the Sheraton park in Australia.
He was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India.
About RedDoorz
RedDoorz is South East Asia’s first platform to offer budget accommodations across key business and tourist destinations in South East Asia a range of high quality standardization services and a brand guarantee to help increase occupancy and build loyalty.
Redoorz is launched by Commeasure, the leading technology platform, that helps hotels distribute and manage their digital presence thereby lowering their cost of distribution and increasing direct reservations. Since its launch in July 2014, Commeasure is working with 500+ Hotels across India and Asia.
Commeasure received funding in April 2015 led by Jungle Ventures , a Singapore venture firm which is known to have backed leading travel technology startups in Asia including travelmob (acquired by NASDAQ listed HomeAway) and Voyagin (acquired by Japan’s leading OTA Rakuten)
To know more about RedDoorz, please visit www.reddoorz.com, To know more about Commeasure, please visit www.commeasure.com
RedDoorz (and Commeasure) is founded by Amit Saberwal and Kunwar Asheesh Saxena,. Prior to founding Commeasure, Amit was Chief Business Officer - MakeMyTrip Ltd. (NASDAQ : MMYT), India’s largest online travel company and was on the board of HotelTravel.com. Based in Singapore with MMYT, he was a part of the leadership team that took the company to the most successful IPO in three years on NASDAQ in 2010. Amit Saberwal is also a seasoned hotelier and was the Sales and Marketing Director for India’s largest 5 star boutique hotel brand - The Park Hotels. He has a Bachelor Degree in International Hotel Management and has further sharpened his skills at Cornell University.
Asheesh was previously Senior Vice President - Product Development and Engineering with Knimbus and Director Technology Development - Online Hotels for MakeMyTrip Ltd.
About Jungle Ventures:
Jungle is a Singapore based venture firm that invests and helps build tech category leaders in Asia.
Jungle's portfolio include companies such as – India based LivSpace, Pokkt and Zipd
Jungle is reinventing how venture capital is done in Asia with its operations as a service model. Full-time partners at Jungle Ventures work with portfolio companies on marketing and design, product management, engineering and recruiting. These Operating Partners include executives with decades of deep operating experience at global startups such as Google, Facebook and leading tech category leaders in Asia, such as Lazada and Komli Media.
To know more about Jungle Ventures, visit www.jungle-ventures.com
No comments:
Post a Comment