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bigyack-com · 5 years

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Vie Hotel Bangkok Selects Organika Products for Renovated Spa

The Vie Hotel Bangkok, part of Accor's MGallery Hotel Collection, has chosen Organika spa products to enhance its newly renovated spa. Guests visiting the new Vie Spa by Organika will see an all-new reception area, while dedicated therapists are available to provide a personalized consultation on a range of spa and massage treatments available for various body types and wellness preferences. A strong emphasis is placed on the positive benefits of aromatherapy, with calming and energizing scents carefully created to help rejuvenate the body, mind and soul.

Guests can choose from a range of aromatherapy packages and full body treatments, facials and scrubs designed to detox, calm and purify. The spa’s signature 90-minute Zenith of Relaxation treatment is an aromatic candle massage that uses pure essential oils, soy butter, jojoba and vitamins A and E to help nourish and replenish skin moisture. This therapeutic treatment has been created to relieve the body from stress and aches and to promote a deep and restorative sleep. A range of Organika spa products, using natural ingredients, are also available for purchase, including the all-natural aroma massage candle, aromatic milk bath & massage oil, organic hand & body wash, aromatic ambiance diffuser and more. Located on the 10th floor of the hotel, the spa comprises six private treatment rooms, a Thai massage room, a single treatment room, three rooms equipped for couples treatments, and a luxurious spa suite with a jacuzzi. The hotel is located within walking distance of the BTS Skytrain Ratchathewi Station. See latest Travel News, InterViews, Podcasts and other news regarding: Spa, Accor, Bangkok, Wellness. 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coin-river-blog · 6 years

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2018 was something, and here’s to 2019 (hopefully) being something else.

It's New Year's Eve, and everyone is getting ready to start anew in 2019. Just because we're about to leave 2018 in the past doesn't mean we have to forget (even if we desperately want to) everything that happened this year in crypto and blockchain news. That's why ETHNews is here with a roundup of some of the less truly impactful, maybe a little less philosophically relevant, but nonetheless tantalizing stories of 2018's crypto pop-culture takeover.

Not a Subhead

We'll start just a couple of months back to help prevent any time-travel-induced vertigo. In October, it was reported that Elon Musk's Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunneling firm managed by Musk himself, was accepting bitcoin, bitcoin cash, Ether, and Litecoin as payment for the company's "Not a Flamethrower."

Turns out those reports were false, and the whole internet had been duped by a fake Boring Company domain that showed the flamethrower that's not a flamethrower being purchased using cryptocurrencies through a Coinbase extension.

I know the cryptospace is a hotbed for metaphors, but there's something about cryptocurrencies, flamethrowers, and internet trickery that feels way too on the nose.

This wasn't even the first time in 2018 that Musk's name was involved in cryptocurrency drama. In July, Musk tweeted about Twitter accounts impersonating him and running Ethereum scams, which prompted a response from Vitalik Buterin, who asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to "help us please." By the end of July, Twitter purged all Musk, John McAfee, Bill Gates, and Roger Ver impersonator accounts.

Unfortunately, that also meant we lost a lot of great Musk Twitter parody accounts, too. RIP, French and Italian Elon Musk Twitter accounts.

I Only Read It for the Crypto Articles

Way back in March, Vice Industry, an adult entertainment company, tweeted about its partnership with Playboy and Playboy TV, the magazine's television channel. The plan was to allow customers to use cryptocurrencies, starting with the Vice Industry Token, to pay for exclusive Playboy content.

Like most things in the cryptospace, it didn't turn out to be that simple. By August, the Los Angeles Times reported that Playboy Enterprises had filed a lawsuit against the Canadian company Global Blockchain Technologies (GBT), which had been tasked with integrating cryptocurrency payment systems on Playboy's media sites. Playboy Enterprises claimed GBT had failed to fulfill the requirements and hadn't paid the $4 million it promised in their agreement.

I guess you could say everyone was feeling a little bit blue.

I'll be here all week.

Bitcoin Bummer

I'll be the first to say it: Bitcoin is dead. I know it's controversial, but my middle name is Hot Take, and I stand by my parents' strange decision.

What's that now? I'm not the first to say it? Bitcoin died 91 times in 2018, according to 99Bitcoins?

Well, I'll be damned.

Yes, bitcoin died 91 times in 2018, which is relatively far off from its 125 deaths in 2017. There's a lesson to be learned here, and again, I'll be the first to say it: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Despite early predictions that bitcoin would crash this year, proclamations that the fad was over, and warnings that it had left the tracks – despite all of that, bitcoin's heart is still beating away, alive and well.

What's that now? ETHNews covered this year's hard fork and wrote a great article about the harsh reality of this crypto winter?

Well, I'm new here, okay, can I catch a break?

Coin-be Bryant

TRON founder Justin Sun announced on Twitter in November that NBA legend Kobe Bryant would be attending niTROn, the company's blockchain conference, this coming January 2019. The niTROn site also lists Bryant as a celebrity speaker.

What exactly Bryant will be speaking about is still up for debate. The site lists entrepreneurship under his name, and Bryant has made quite a name for himself in the investment world. Surely it won't be any worse than Bill Clinton's rousing keynote speech at Ripple's Swell conference, an announcement Vitalik Buterin questioned when the news broke.

Now that I think about it, maybe Bryant wasn't a ball hog at all. He was just an early adopter of the #hodl mindset.

Mr. ERC305

In April, Pitbull tried to save music.

Let me explain. Pitbull, Mr. Worldwide, Mr. 305, whatever you want to call him, announced his Smackathon project. The event sought to "decentralize the music industry" by holding a monthlong coding competition designed around "teams who can use the Ethereum platform to disrupt the current state of the music industry, bringing blockchain and music together."

Then the unimaginable happened: something positive. In July, 10 Smackathon finalists presented their projects to a panel of judges that included Pitbull. In the end, Singapore-based HyperValence was awarded first place for its crowdfunding platform that allows fans to support emerging artists by buying ERC721-compliant collectible tokens.

I guess the jury's still out on if and how this will save the music industry, but let's just end this list on a good note.

From all of us here at ETHNews, we –

808s and Hash Rates

Wait, there's one more! I almost forgot. Kanye West tweeted the word "decentralize" this year. You can figure out what that means on your own.

Okay, for real this time. From all of us here at ETHNews, we hope you have a great New Year's Eve and an even better 2019.

Nicholas Ruggieri studied English with an emphasis in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno. When he’s not quoting Vines at anyone who’s willing to listen, you’ll find him listening to too many podcasts, reading too many books, and crocheting too many sweaters for his dogs, RT and Peterman.

ETHNews is committed to its Editorial Policy

Like what you read? Follow us on Twitter @ETHNews_ to receive the latest pop culture, Kanye West or other Ethereum lifestyle news.

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endenogatai · 6 years

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TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less

TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based SaaS startup that’s built an end-to-end business travel platform, has closed a $21 million Series B round, led by Berlin-based Target Global and London’s Felix Capital. Earlier investors Spark Capital and Sunstone also participated in the round, alongside new investor Amplo.

When we last spoke to the startup back in June 2016 — as it was announcing a $7M Series A — it had just 20 customers. It’s now boasting more than 1,000, name-checking “high growth” companies such as Typeform, TransferWise, Outfittery, GetYourGuide, GoCardless, Hotjar, and CityJet among its clients, and touting revenue growth of 1,200% year-on-year.

Co-founder and CEO Avi Meir tells us the startup is “on pace” to generate $100M in GMV this year.

Meir’s founding idea, back in 2015, was to create a rewards program based around dynamic budgeting for business trips. But after conversations with potential customers about their pain-points, the team quickly pivoted to target a broader bundle of business travel booking problems.

The mission now can be summarized as trying to make the entire business travel journey suck less — from booking flights and hotels; to admin tools for managing policies; analytics; customer support; all conducted within what’s billed as a “consumer-like experience” to keep end-users happy. Essentially it’s offering end-to-end travel management for its target business users.

“Travel and finance managers were frustrated by how they currently manage travel and looked for an all in one tool that JUST WORKS without having to compare rates with Skyscanner, be redirected to different websites, write 20 emails back and forth with a travel agent to coordinate a simple trip for someone, and suffer bad user experience,” says Meir.

“We understood that in order to fix business travel there is no way around but diving into it head on and create the world’s best OTA (online travel agency), combined with the best in class admin tools needed in order to manage the travel program and a consumer grade, smart user experience that travelers will love. So we became a full blown platform competing head on with the big TMCs (travel management companies) and the legacy corporate tools (Amex GBT, Concur, Egencia…) .”

He claims TravelPerk’s one-stop business trip shop now has the world’s largest bookable inventory (“all the travel agent inventory but also booking.com, Expedia, Skyscanner, Airbnb… practically any flight/hotel on the internet — only we have that”).

Target users at this stage are SMEs (up to 1,500 employees), with tech and consulting currently its strongest verticals, though Meir says it “really runs the gamut”. While the current focus is Europe, with its leading markets being the UK, Germany and Spain.

TravelPerk’s business model is freemium — and its pitch is it can save customers more than a fifth in annual business travel costs vs legacy corporate tools/travel agents thanks to the lack of commissions, free customer support etc.

But it also offers a premium tier with additional flexibility and perks — such as corporate hotel rates and a travel agent service for group bookings — for those customers who do want to pay to upgrade the experience.

On the competition front the main rivals are “old corporate travel agencies and TMC”, according to Meir, along with larger players such as Egencia (by Expedia) and Concur (SAP company).

“There are a few startups doing what we are doing in the U.S. like TripActions, NexTravel, as well as some smaller ones that are popping up but are in an earlier stage,” he notes.

“Since our first round… TravelPerk has been experiencing some incredible growth compared to any tech benchmark I know,” he adds. “We’ve found a stronger product market fit than we imagined and grew much faster than planned. It seems like everyone is unhappy with the way they are currently booking and managing business travel. Which makes this a $1.25 trillion market, ready for disruption.”

The Series B will be put towards scaling “fast”, with Meir arguing that TravelPerk has landed upon a “rare opportunity” to drive the market.

“Organic growth has been extremely fast and we have an immediate opportunity to scale the business fast, doing what we are doing right now at a bigger scale,” he says.

Commenting in a statement, Antoine Nussenbaum, partner at Felix Capital, also spies a major opportunity. “The corporate travel industry is one of the largest global markets yet to be disrupted online. At Felix Capital we have a high conviction about a new era of consumerization of enterprise software,” he says.

While Target Global general partner Shmuel Chafets describes TravelPerk as “very well positioned to be a market leader in the business travel space with a product that makes business travel as seamless and easy as personal travel”.

“We’re excited to support such an experienced and dedicated team that has a strong track record in the travel space,” he adds in a supporting statement. “TravelPerk is our first investment in Barcelona. We believe in a pan-European startup ecosystem and we look forward to seeing more opportunities in this emerging startup hub.”

Flush with fresh funding, the team’s next task is even more recruitment. “We’ll grow our teams all around with emphasis on engineering, operations and customer support. We’re also planning to expand, opening local offices in 4-5 new countries within the upcoming year and a half,” says Meir.

He notes the company has grown from 20 to 100 employees over the past 12 months already but adds that it will continue “hiring aggressively”.

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abckidstvyara · 6 years

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Co-founder and CEO Avi Meir tells us the startup is “on pace” to generate $100M in GMV this year.

Meir’s founding idea, back in 2015, was to create a rewards program based around dynamic budgeting for business trips. But after conversations with potential customers about business trip pain-points, the team quickly pivoted to target a broader bundle of travel booking problems.

On the competition front the main rivals are “old corporate travel agencies and TMC”, according to Meir, along with larger players such as Egencia (by Expedia) and Concur (SAP company).

“There are a few startups doing what we are doing in the U.S. like TripActions, NexTravel, as well as some smaller ones that are popping up but are in an earlier stage,” he notes.

The Series B will be put towards scaling “fast”, with Meir arguing that TravelPerk has landed upon a “rare opportunity” to drive the market.

“Organic growth has been extremely fast and we have an immediate opportunity to scale the business fast, doing what we are doing right now at a bigger scale,” he says.

He notes the company has grown from 20 to 100 employees over the past 12 months already but adds that it will continue “hiring aggressively”.

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dalepwithchari · 6 years

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TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

Co-founder and CEO Avi Meir tells us the startup is “on pace” to generate $100M in GMV this year.

On the competition front the main rivals are “old corporate travel agencies and TMC”, according to Meir, along with larger players such as Egencia (by Expedia) and Concur (SAP company).

“There are a few startups doing what we are doing in the U.S. like TripActions, NexTravel, as well as some smaller ones that are popping up but are in an earlier stage,” he notes.

The Series B will be put towards scaling “fast”, with Meir arguing that TravelPerk has landed upon a “rare opportunity” to drive the market.

“Organic growth has been extremely fast and we have an immediate opportunity to scale the business fast, doing what we are doing right now at a bigger scale,” he says.

He notes the company has grown from 20 to 100 employees over the past 12 months already but adds that it will continue “hiring aggressively”.

[Read More …]

TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less

#HotTrendsWithCharity.com #TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less

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touristguidebuzz · 8 years

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To Understand Personalization, Corporate Travel Looks to Consumer Travel

Corporate travel management companies have finally figured out they need to provide better digital tools to their customers. Concur acquired consumer site Hipmunk to improve its offerings. Hipmunk

Skift Take: Travel management companies are finally looking to approach corporate travel from a more traveler-centric perspective. The pressure is on to shift to a more progressive approach to travel technology, iterating based on what travelers actually want.

— Andrew Sheivachman

Editor’s Note: A year ago, Skift expanded its coverage of corporate travel with more frequent stories and a dedicated newsletter. The Corporate Travel Innovation Report focuses on the future of corporate travel by examining the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought, and sold.

In this series of stories and one-on-one interviews, we explore some of the latest trends, technology, and external forces causing corporate travel to evolve.

Subscribe to the Corporate Travel Innovation Report

This year is shaping up to be a pivotal one for corporate travel management companies, with companies putting an emphasis on technological innovation. More important, however, is a newfound focus: on the user experience of travelers themselves.

Last year’s acquisition of booking technology provider KDS by American Express Global Business Travel showed one path for these giant, global companies to take; acquire technology and talent to give your travel company an edge in an increasingly complex digital marketplace. Concur’s acquisition of metasearch player Hipmunk was another example.

Another path, as evinced by companies like Carlson Wagonlit Travel, involves an internal restructuring to use already existing capabilities in a smarter way. Andrew Jordan, the company’s chief technology officer, recently told Skift the company will renew its focus on technology by providing a more inclusive online booking tool and focusing on more customer-facing products under the leadership of former Travelport CEO Kurt Ekert.

Skift spoke to several leaders at top global travel management companies about the technology trends that will most impact corporate travel in 2017, as well as the important lessons learned over the last few years.

Data and Extending Service

Foremost, it seems a wholesale shift towards capitalizing on the wealth of available data is in the offing. By using traveler preferences to present them with the trips they prefer, and provide custom service, travel management companies can enhance their value proposition to business travelers instead of limiting their access to the types of flights and hotels they prefer.

“Travel management companies are starting to recognize the need and opportunity to extend their service beyond the point of sale and the simple ticketing of a transaction,” said Mike Koetting, executive vice president of supplier and travel management company services at Concur. “There’s a generation of corporate travelers who are genuinely just unfamiliar with the benefits of using a travel management company or talking to a highly experienced travel consultant. I see travel management companies looking for ways to acquaint corporate travelers with their services and brand and more broadly extend that service beyond the point of generating tickets.”

This doesn’t mean using psychological tools to influence traveler behavior, as in gamification. It entails better customizing a trip to a traveler’s preference during the booking process, and then engaging with the traveler throughout their journey. Online travel booking sites used by travelers in their personal lives tend to do a much more effective job of this than their business travel options.

This starts, for many, with simply presenting better content when the traveler is ready to book; customization can help, even if the travel management company isn’t selling the exact product it wants. Expect common sense measures soon like adding sharing economy services like Airbnb to corporate travel policy and enabling travelers to book them through their corporate booking tool. Many have already integrated Uber booking capability into their apps.

“If you’re exchanging a trip in business to economy, and the only thing you’re getting is points that really don’t mean anything, you as a human being aren’t perceiving this as a fair exchange,” said Jean Noel Lau Keng Lun, senior director of global product marketing at Egencia. “Consumerization comes from a good thought, that people want to get the human back into business travel. But I would say that travel managers can no longer to be seen as the people having the hammer or being gatekeepers or people who enforce things. Culturally, that’s less and less possible because they don’t have the right power or the culture of the organization.”

Platforming

Another major problem many travel management companies grapple with is simply collecting data on every aspect of a trip and presenting all that information in one place. This represents a problem if younger travelers are booking their business travel through an online travel agency instead of their company’s preferred tool.

More corporate travel providers are trying to make their mobile and online tools easier to use in order to capture these bookings.

According to Lau Keng Lun, 90 percent of the silent generation use their phone to make business travel bookings, compared to just 40 percent of Gen Xers. He says the next frontier for Egencia is positioning the company for younger travelers who prefer to be communicated with through messaging apps instead of other channels.

There is also an element of education here; if business travelers understand they’re going to get a better deal using corporate tools, then they are more likely to use them.

“I see larger travel management companies pursuing an initiative to negotiate their own content, particularly on the hotel side,” said Concur’s Koetting. “The idea being that the travel management company can secure better rates and more ancillary benefits for their clients than a client may be able to negotiate on their own. They’re really trying to battle this perception that online travel agency and supplier direct has better content.”

This new focus on technology won’t deter travel management companies from promoting personal service to travelers through in-house travel consultants. Many business travelers may not realize these services are available to them, and travel management companies are usually able to charge a higher fee if one is involved in a transaction or service during a trip.

“Travel management companies are starting to recognize the need and opportunity to extend their service beyond the point of sale and the simple ticketing of a transaction,” said Koetting. “There’s a generation of corporate travelers who are genuinely just unfamiliar with the benefits of using a travel management company or talking to a highly experienced travel consultant. I see travel management companies looking for ways to acquaint corporate travelers with their services and brand and more broadly extend that service beyond the point of generating tickets.”

Going tech-first

Corporate travel giants are looking to become more like technology companies for various reasons. Corporate travel has historically lagged behind leisure travel in terms of innovation, and the rapid adoption of mobile devices by travelers has made it a necessity to become more focused on technology.

American Express Global Business Travel acquired booking software provider KDS last year in a deal that shows the perceived value of using an acquisition. KDS was best known for its Neo Travel booking engine that crunched the numbers based on various factors related to a trip, instead of showing the lowest-cost preferred options like many other booking tools.

“The idea is not to GBT-ify KDS, the idea is to KDS-ify GBT,” said Oliver Quayle, vice president of product marketing and innovation at American Express Global Business Travel, the former senior vice president of products, partners, and marketing at KDS.

The goal is to get better travel options in front of business travelers, while ensuring that in-trip communications take place through the channels they prefer. Watch for companies like American Express Global Business Travel to roll out new functionality in their apps and online tools to facilitate more a more effective dialogue throughout a trip.

“I think this notion that in the future we’re going to ask our travelers to go somewhere, to do something that is not convenient for them, is just ridiculous,” said Evan Konwiser, vice president of digital traveler at American Express Global Business Travel. “We’ve also had to completely imagine how we talk to our traveler and travel manager.”

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abckidstvyara · 6 years

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TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less

Co-founder and CEO Avi Meir tells us the startup is “on pace” to generate $100M in GMV this year.

On the competition front the main rivals are “old corporate travel agencies and TMC”, according to Meir, along with larger players such as Egencia (by Expedia) and Concur (SAP company).

“There are a few startups doing what we are doing in the U.S. like TripActions, NexTravel, as well as some smaller ones that are popping up but are in an earlier stage,” he notes.

The Series B will be put towards scaling “fast”, with Meir arguing that TravelPerk has landed upon a “rare opportunity” to drive the market.

“Organic growth has been extremely fast and we have an immediate opportunity to scale the business fast, doing what we are doing right now at a bigger scale,” he says.

He notes the company has grown from 20 to 100 employees over the past 12 months already but adds that it will continue “hiring aggressively”.

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