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Tag: booking.com

  • Agoda’s top Chinese New Year 2019 travel rankings

    Agoda’s top Chinese New Year 2019 travel rankings

    Bangkok, Tokyo, and Taipei are the top three most popular destinations for Asia-Pacific travellers over the Lunar New Year period in 2019, according to booking data from Agoda. This year, Osaka, slips from the third spot in 2018 to sixth, while Taiwan scoops three of the top ten destinations, with Taipei in third, and Kaohsiung and Taichung in fifth and seventh respectively. Overall, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand will benefit the most from travellers celebrating the Lunar New Year.

    Travels during the Spring Festival tend to be reserved for family bonding and indulging in food and leisure activities that the whole family can enjoy. It is thus not surprising that most travellers in the region have chosen gourmet and retail paradise in Bangkok, Tokyo, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore among their top ten destinations.

    The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many cities across Asia, but Chinese travellers enjoy the longest holiday. With a week to spare, Chinese tourists are spending the new year in cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Bangkok.

    This year, HongKongers chose to change things up, travelling to Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan over the previously favoured Korea. In fact, Korea dropped out of the top three destinations altogether to settle at the fifth spot. Staycations have also risen in popularity, and Hong Kong has made its way into the top ten this year as well.

    Singaporeans prefer to travel to neighbouring countries for their relatively short Lunar New Year public holidays. For the first time, staycations have emerged as a popular choice for those who prefer staying behind to celebrate the festival.

    Taiwanese are travelling within the region for Chinese New Year, with Kaohsiung rising up to clinch the top position. For the first time in three years, Kyoto has slipped out of the top ten rankings.

    Malaysians continue to favour travelling within the region to celebrate Lunar New Year. In 2019, domestic destinations take up eight out of the top ten destinations. Thailand remains the only overseas destination in the top ten list for Malaysian travellers over the period.

    Indonesians are venturing further afield this year to celebrate the Lunar New Year, with Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo taking up two out of three of its top travel destinations. Japan is rising in popularity, as the region adds Sapporo – with its winter wonderland – into Indonesia’s top ten destinations.

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  • Malaysia is Airbnb’s fastest growing market in Southeast Asia

    Malaysia is Airbnb’s fastest growing market in Southeast Asia

    Malaysia, one market in the region which has not stifled the growth of short-term accommodation, is Airbnb’s fastest growing market in Southeast Asia, welcoming over two million guests in the past 12 months as of July 1, marking a 99% growth year on year. Airbnb head of public policy for Southeast Asia Mich Goh said that Airbnb, as a platform, is not illegal in Malaysia and there is no clear consensus on what the policy is for short-term rental here as it is a new phenomenon.

    There are now 44,000 listings in Malaysia on Airbnb, which is almost a 60% year-on-year increase.

    Goh said the Malaysian government has been consultative and open to dialogue with the home-sharing platform, where there has been willingness to listen to insights and to hear about how it could help Malaysia to evolve its tourism industry.

    “We treat every country differently. We’ve seen countries all around the world where they reach a moment when they decide whether or not they need to regulate short-term rental. Where we see these discussions go well is where governments are open to discussing this with multiple stakeholders, not just us but open to speaking with hosts, guests, hotel group, local communities and neighbourhoods.

    “Where these discussions have been holistic and involve multiple stakeholders, we’ve seen it reach a stage where smart and innovative policies are implemented that allow the short term rental activity to continue and to thrive to the benefit of the community while making sure any concerns that groups may have are addressed through the regulatory framework,” said Goh.

    Airbnb has signed a memorandum of collaboration (MoC) with the Malaysian Productivity Council (MPC) and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) to drive inclusive, sustainable development of tourism in Malaysia.

    As part of the MoC with MPC, Airbnb will share relevant data and best practices to inform recommendations on short-term accommodation policy in Malaysia, and will assist MPC in shaping national policy plans related to the development of Malaysia’s tourism industry and infrastructure, as well as local communities.

    Airbnb’s MoU with MDEC is focused on promoting digital inclusion and empowering local hospitality entrepreneurs in Malaysia, while building capacity in both homes and experiences throughout the country.

    In Malaysia, Airbnb is having discussions with authorities including the Ministry of Finance, the Royal Malaysian Customs and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to discuss the implementation of Voluntary Collection Agreements (VCAs) to collect and remit tourist tax.

    The VCA is a tool designed by Airbnb to collect taxes from its host and guest community and remit them on their behalf. This helps to facilitate a streamlined process and lighten the administrative burden for local and state governments, as well as Airbnb hosts.

    Asked on plans by the government to tax e-commerce, Goh said Airbnb will comply once it is implemented. “We’re waiting to see how it would apply in Malaysia and how we would comply when the time comes.”

    In 2017, the Airbnb community contributed RM200.4 million to the local economy. Its typical host earned US$1,200 (RM5,200) renting out their space 19 nights a year. The top five inbound markets for Airbnb in Malaysia are Singapore, China, the US, Indonesia and Australia. Seniors (aged 60 and above) make up Airbnb’s fastest growing age group of guests in Malaysia.

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  • Korea’s FTC orders Booking.com, Agoda to change rules

    Korea’s FTC orders Booking.com, Agoda to change rules

    Hotel booking sites Agoda and Booking.com have been ordered to revise their no-refund policies or potentially face legal action. Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday that it has ordered the two global travel platforms to revise the terms and conditions which allow them to unfairly deny refunds for products and services.

    Customers are currently unable to get refunds on some hotel bookings or additional services, like hotel meals, reserved through Agoda and Booking.com even if reservations were made well in advance. Agoda and Booking.com have the same parent company, Booking Holdings, which also operates travel platforms Kayak and Priceline.

    “Though we recommended that Agoda and Booking.com revise their no-refund clauses last November, the companies failed to take heed without any particular reason,” read an FTC report. “We decided last month to issue an order forcing them to make the necessary revisions.”

    The FTC is not asking them to ban all no-refund products, but to at least accept refund requests made long before reservation dates.

    “The companies will still be able to deny refunds on highly discounted products or bookings made just before the reservation date,” said a spokesman. “But it is unreasonable for them to deny refunds for reservations made months ahead.”

    “The probability that a booking platform will be able to resell a product after a consumer cancels a reservation long before reservation date is very high,” he added. “The platform operators will face few losses if they resell the products.”

    The Act on the Regulation of Terms and Conditions gives the FTC the right to take “measures necessary to correct the terms and conditions” of a business that incurs losses to “several customers because the business person fails to comply with the recommendation” to revise “unfair terms and conditions.”

    According to the Act, the FTC also has the right to report the case to prosecutors if companies fail to respond accordingly within 60 days.

    The two companies have yet to give an official response. Agoda’s Peter Allen, who serves as the head of the company’s external relations department Agoda Outside, was in Seoul on Wednesday to give a talk at a leadership forum organized by the company.

    Agoda and Booking.com are not the only booking platforms that have been flagged for having policies that potentially harm customers.

    From 2016 through October 2017, the FTC reviewed the terms and conditions of major hotel booking sites operating in Korea and found that seven, including Agoda and Booking.com, had unfair refund policies.

    Unlike Agoda and Booking.com, Interpark, Hana Tour, HotelPass, Hotels.com and Expedia have since revised their terms and conditions.

    The number of consumer complaints against international travel platforms grew in Korea last year.

    According to the Korea Consumer Agency, consumers filed a total of 5,721 complaints in the first half of 2017 against international travel and accommodation platforms, or 46.4 percent more compared to the same period in the previous year.

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  • Smartphones outpace tablets in Asian eCommerce

    Smartphones outpace tablets in Asian eCommerce

    For the first time, 34 per cent of browser-based online transactions globally are now made on a mobile device, compared to slightly more than 30 per cent last quarter.

    And smartphones are starting to outpace tablets.

    These were key findings of the fourth quarter edition of the Mobile Payments Index by Global payments technology company Adyen, which tracks mobile payment data from browser-based transactions across its client base and monitors Asian eCommerce shopping patterns.

    It also found that many consumers in Asia are increasingly using mobile devices to shop online. This is being driven particularly by such major payments methods as Alipay, JCB and UnionPay. JCB had the highest share (54 per cent) of mobile payments on the Adjen platform, up from 47 per cent the previous quarter. Alipay increased to 44 per cent (up from 35 per cent) while UnionPay reached 31 per cent (from 23 per cent).

    “The checkout stage of the shopper journey is not the end, but the beginning of an on-going relationship with the consumer,” says Adyen Asia Pacific president Warren Hayashi. “Merchants with a frictionless mobile checkout experience are driving repeat traffic, especially in Asia.”

    For the first time, the index shows that smartphones have overtaken tablets as the preferred device for online shopping – 17.5 per cent on smartphone against 16 per cent on tablet, compared to 14 per cent and 17 per cent respectively the previous quarter.

    When it comes to mobile payments globally, the trend to use smartphones rather than tablets continues for the 10th consecutive quarter. Last quarter this share was up 2 per cent to 68 per cent on smartphone versus 32 per cent on tablet.

    Smartphone use far outweighed tablet in Asia, with 29.5 per cent of online payments on a smartphone compared to 4.5 per cent on a tablet.

    In terms of average transaction value, iPad led the way for the first time at $107, edging out not just smartphones but also desktop/laptop, the traditional leader (at $106). Following were Android tablets at $86, iPhone at $83 then Android smartphones at $73.

    Adyen has been tracking the evolution of mobile payments since June 2013. The index is based on its global browser-based mobile payment transaction data. It does not track in-app mobile payments. With its headquarters in Amsterdam and San Francisco, Adyen serves more than 4500 businesses, customers including Airbnb, Booking.com, Crocs, Dropbox, Facebook, KLM, Mango, Netflix, Spotify and Yelp.

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