Unveiling The Business Stories The 10 Best
Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018
Arrivals Future Mobility Innovations That Will Reshape the Outlook of the Travel Industry
Tech Insights
Kiran Dahya Co-founder & CEO
www.mirrorreview.com / Sep. 2018 Issue
Hotel Technology Keeping Pace With Demands Of Millennial Business Travellers
Making An Impactful Difference In The Hospitality Management Industry
From The Editor’s Desk Greetings to our cherished readers! The modern-day travel and hospitality industry continues to evolve, modify and improve, owing to the increasing demands of the travelers. Moreover, due to technological advancements and its impact on our standard of living, millennials seek to experience this luxury-serving industry to the fullest. In our latest magazine issue of ‘The 10 Best Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018’, we bring you the most refined and sophisticated solution providers from this industry. We do this by sharing the intel, and putting the spotlight on prominent and successful companies of the tourism and hospitality industry. Featured on our cover is DKN Hotels, a premier hotel management company that has been building, owning and operating hotels in Southern California since 1984. With a passion to make a difference, a pristine culture to define its remarkable brand, along with the dynamic leadership of Kiran Dahya, DKN Hotels is the choice company to go for. In this magazine issue, you will also find engaging profiles of innovative, customer-centric and proven solution providers who share the similar mission-driven policy to serve their customers. Showcased on the inside pages are DJUBO (Cloud-based, 360° hotel sales platform), Climber (Hotel revenue management specialist), Magellan Jets (Elite private jet travel provider), and Amadeus (Global IT business solutions leader). In our latest ‘Mixing & Matching’ section, Mirror Review’s expert team has designed creative and interactive infographics on the top unique destinations to travel around the world especially for our avid readers. Featured in the ‘Tech-insights’ segment is an informative article on how the hotel industry is adapting technological advancements to fulfill millennial business executive demands. In the ‘Arrivals’ section, our tech-savvy writers also present an interesting write-up on the trending innovations that are transforming the perception of the travel industry. We hope you enjoy reading about these revolutionary companies, led by equally high-spirited entrepreneurs, along with our featured articles. Happy reading!
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The 10 Best
Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018
Publisher Archana Ghule Editor-in-Chief Vikram Suryawanshi Managing Editor Anuja Mulmule Editorial Coordinators Bansidhar Tigga Mayur Shewale Head of Distribution and Production Aakash Mahajan Head of Operations Robert Smith Project Manager Aniket Waghmode Anagha Acharya Rohan Yadav Graphic Designers Poonam Magdum Sumit Bonage Art Director Mark Davis Research Analysts James Adams Maria Smith David Thomas Advertising Jacob Thomas
Mirror Reveiw Media & Tech C-506, Wisteriaa Fortune, Opp-Silver Spoon Hotel, Bhumkar Das Gugre Road, Wakad, Pune - 411057 +1(850)564-8517 info@mirrorreview.com www.mirrorreview.com
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18 Amadeus Sabine Hansen Peck
20 Climber Mรกrio Mouraz
24 DJUBO Tarun Gulati & Sankalp Goel
30 Magellan Jets Joshua Hebert 4
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CONTENT 26
Hotel Technology Keeping Pace With Demands Of Millennial Business Travellers
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Future Mobility Innovations That Will Reshape the Outlook of the Travel Industry
COVER STORY
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Kiran Dahya DKN Hotels 5
COVER STORY
“We are a premier hotel management company with a portfolio of hotels strategically aligned and well positioned, earning the loyalty of our customers, team members, and investors.�
The 10 Best
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Kiran Dahya Co-founder & CEO | DKN Hotels
DKN H
Making an Impactful Difference in th
Hotels:
he Hospitality Management Industry
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he international hospitality industry is a versatile and competitive industry, positioning its valuable customers at the core of its functional services as well as striving to deliver the smartest and finest range of services. Today, millennial travelers are seeking a positive experience, flexibility/options, and memorable moments. Furthermore, these modern-day travelers are technologically savvy and expect similar services as those they are using at home. Therefore, the contemporary service providers of the travel and hospitality industry have to continuously adapt and evolve to these cuttingedge technological changes to meet their guests’ expectations. Headquartered in Irvine, California, DKN Hotels is a leading hotel and hospitality management company, offering comprehensive hotel management services ranging from property development to revenue optimization.
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Since its early beginnings in 1984, DKN Hotels has grown into a fully-integrated owner, developer, and manager of wellregarded hotels – a trusted leader that has cultivated the ability to achieve steady, sustainable growth among its portfolio of primarily select-service hotels. DKN operates a portfolio of hotels predominantly serving guests in the upper select service market, where most of their hotels are branded with Marriott, Hilton and IHG flags. Keeping up with times, the premier hotel management company has developed its own proprietary software to use available technology to its advantage and is also leveraging current social media and digital marketing capabilities to reach its guests and prospective customers. Presently, DKN has a healthy pipeline of hotels in the developmental phase, where two are under construction and six are in the design phase of development.
The 10 Best
Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018
“Each day, we strive to make a positive difference in the lives of everyone we come in contact with, be it guests, owners, or external partners.” Discovering DKN’s Foundational Roots In 1984, Kiran Dahya (Co-founder & CEO) started working in the travel and hospitality industry with his family members. They later acquired a motel in Carlsbad and another on a long-term lease in Anaheim. Both these properties were family run with all of them working at every position in the hotel. Eventually, they repositioned these hotels by renovating them and focusing heavily on the guest experience and marketing. These two ordinary motels soon delivered world-class service at a fantastic price point. Once this enthusiastic bunch of family turned working team were successful in turning these two motels around, they then began acquiring distressed properties, repositioning them and operating them more efficiently. This became their core mantra for a few years after which Kiran, along with his team, started acquiring hotel sites to build them from the ground up. Today, with over 30 years of experience and 46 property acquisitions, repositionings, and re-brandings later, DKN is a thriving company with a strong portfolio of wellpositioned properties and a knowledgeable team of
experts guiding the hotels from its central Support Center. Linchpin behind the Hotel Empire Sharing his roles and responsibilities as well as the rich culture driving DKN Hotels to great heights of success, Kiran states, “My responsibility starts and ends by making a difference. Whether it’s ensuring our DKN culture and values permeate our entire organization or that we continue to grow and create, my work is to always move us in the direction of our vision. I started in accounting and quickly decided that I did not like the career path I had chosen. Jumped ship, took the risk of managing family finances and got into the hotel business by acquiring 2 hotels. Since 1984, we’ve bought, sold and developed over 40 hotels. And I firmly believe that we’ve gotten to this place because of our culture and our people.” Comprehensive Portfolio of Services DKN Hotels’ operational services include performance benchmarking, competitive analysis, sales and marketing effectiveness, management contract compliance, brand relations, physical property review, capital expenditure planning, operational assessment, financial performance analysis, operator reporting practices, mitigation and risk assessment, management team oversight, and property meetings/calls. The Californian-based hospitality service provider also provides hotel management and development services in the areas of hospitality revenue management, lodging information technology, accounting, human resources, sales management and training, hotel development and construction, and hotel investment and vision. Strategies Employed for Understanding and Fulfilling Guest Requirements At DKN Hotels, Kiran and his team strive to provide more than just a hotel room. Acknowledging the fact that guests are away from their homes and in a new, unfamiliar environment, DKN’s primary goal is to ease the discomfort of travel in a bid to make guests feel genuinely at home. This means delivering an experience beyond that of a standard hotel and offering extraordinary, truly welcoming and exceptional services. This means hotels greeting each guest with open arms, and also creating value for its guests by providing a true ‘Home Away From Home’ feeling.
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The Home Away From Home is the hospitable way of inviting guests into ‘the experience’ that pillars DKN Hotels. Whether it’s a welcome amenity to celebrate a special occasion, recreating a school band’s junior prom after finding out how devastated they were to miss it for a competition, providing comfort when a guest is in distress over an ill family member, or dressing up as Santa and passing out toys to celebrate the holidays, Kiran along with his team endeavor to recreate a feeling of home for their guests. DKN has also integrated technology at its hotels in a way that makes the travel experience seamless. This includes a guest text messaging service, allowing guests to immediately communicate with the hotel teams in order to fulfill guest service requests and give them what they want when they want. Business guests utilizing meeting space are also provided with technology such as Clickshare to help make their meetings more successful. In terms of leading the industry shift, DKN’s value-rich culture is its brand. Kiran and his team have seven core values that drive everything they do – value & respect, innovation, teamwork, financial success, leadership, customer service & fun. These values and its team have
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been the cornerstone to DKN’s success. It has a unique culture that, in turn, fulfills its purpose by making a difference in the lives of the people with which Kiran and his team interact. Holding Turf during Thick and Thin Times 2007 deep recession was a test of DKN Hotels ability to get through one of the most difficult times in Real Estate. It brought out the true essence of its team and business partnerships developed over the years. Through the recession DKN Hotels, did not default on a single payment to its creditors. Anticipating a Desirable Future In the long haul, DKN’s strategy is to develop hotels at the right locations and brand them with Marriott and Hilton. With 8 projects currently in the development and construction stage with goals for these properties, DKN believes in focusing more towards growing the right way instead of growing simply for its own sake and doing so with a passion to make a difference.
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The 10 Best
Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018
Sr. No
Company Name
Company Info
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Amadeus Sabine Hansen Peck, People, Culture, Communication & Brand, Senior Vice President
Amadeus is one of the stellar companies, powering travel by providing technology solutions which connect travellers to the journeys they want through travel agents, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and railways. Amadeus serves all industry segments, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels, railroads, car rentals, airports and much more. www.amadeus.com
Betty Maclean Travel, Inc. Mary Ann Ramsey, CTC, DS, President
Betty Maclean Travel, Inc. “The Adventure Travel Company” is a luxury travel agency headquartered in Naples Florida, and has been passionate about providing Expert Luxury Travel Planning to Discerning Travelers for over 40 Years. www.betty-maclean-travel-inc.com
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Climber Mário Mouraz, Co-founder & CEO
Incepted in 2015, Climber is democratizing Revenue Management (RM) to independent hotels and small chains through connectivity and customer focus. www.climberhotel.com
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DJUBO Tarun Gulati & Sankalp Goel, Co-founders
DJUBO is one of the leading, all-in-one, new age hotel tech company which aims to empower every small hotelier with capabilities over assistance in operation and distribution of property at the same standard as any 5 star property at a very low cost. www.djubo.com
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DKN Hotels Kiran Dahya, Co-founder & CEO
Headquartered in Irvine, California, DKN Hotels is a leading hotel and hospitality management company, offering comprehensive hotel management services ranging from property development to revenue optimization. www.dknhotels.com
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Pahrump Nugget Hotel Jeremy Jenson, General Manager
Pahrump Nugget Hotel has 69 all newly remodeled guest rooms providing amazing luxury and comfort at reasonable prices. www.pahrumpnugget.com
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Magellan Jets Joshua Hebert, Co-founder & CEO
Founded in 2008, Magellan Jets’ innovative model offers jet-specific memberships and on-demand charter services designed to provide the freedom and exceptional personalized services that private travellers expect. www.magellanjets.com
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Millennium Hotels and Resorts Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman
Millennium Hotels and Resorts was founded in 1989, on the vision of its Chairman, Kwek Leng Beng, who leads Singapore’s Hong Leong Group. www.millenniumhotels.com
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Pebble Beach Company Bill Perocchi, CEO
Pebble Beach Company, headquartered in Pebble Beach, California, owns and operates the world-famous Pebble Beach Resorts. www.pebblebeach.com
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Rovia Josh Paine, CEO
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Rovia is an industry-leading travel and lifestyle service provider offering turnkey solutions for business partners and membership-based travel companies. www.rovia.com
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Amadeus: A Global Technology Giant for the Travel and Tourism Industry
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Our people and our culture are at the heart of Amadeus and our future success
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s one of the world’s largest business sectors, the travel and tourism industry is known to build economies and create connections between societies around the world, accounting for around 10% of world GDP and over 313 million jobs. However, in this day and age, the travel industry must now adapt to face modern challenges as well as consider several influential factors such as cultural preservation, environmental protection, peace and security, jobs, economic growth and development. Also, sustainability is a critical consideration for all the existing players in the travel industry.
Sabine Hansen Peck is the Senior Vice President, People, Culture, Communication & Brand of Amadeus. Sabine has over 20 years of international management experience across the technology, financial services, private equity, aviation and travel industries. She also has specific expertise in aligning a company’s talent agenda with the business strategy and company culture - in particular, the development of talent and pipelines in competitive markets as well as large-scale organizational, cultural and business transformation.
Born 30 years ago out of a partnership of key industry players, Amadeus is one of the stellar companies, powering travel by providing technology solutions which connect travellers to the journeys they want through travel agents, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and railways. Amadeus serves all industry segments, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels, railroads, car rentals, airports and much more. Its solutions allow these companies to sell and market their content, manage their travellers and guests, run business and financial operations and receive travel analytics and consultancy.
Describing her role, the key strengths of Amadeus and its rich culture, Sabine asserts, “Our competitiveness depends on our ability to continue attracting and retaining the best talent at Amadeus. This is at the core of what my team and I do. We work to make Amadeus a place where each and every one of our people wants to do their best for our customers, every single day. Managing such a diverse, global workforce spanning five generations, with over 16,000 employees in more than 190 countries worldwide, is exciting. I firmly believe that people and culture are the true competitive advantage and the cornerstones of business success and future growth.”
This year, Amadeus has been ranked as one of the ‘World’s Top 10 Largest Software Companies’ by Forbes. The leading travel technology solution provider also invests hundreds of millions every year to develop and acquire new technologies, along with actively undertaking sustainability and social responsibilities. For instance, Amadeus’ CSR uses travel as a channel to increase the employability of young people in underserved communities through its Knowledge & Skills Transfer program and public-private partnerships to ensure that onthe-job training improves their access to work.
Taking the Long View
Likewise, Amadeus is an advocate of diversity, thereby operating widely in more than 190 markets as well as employing individuals from over 140 nationalities in its workforce who are multilingual.
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Intellectual & Inspirational Leader
There are three significant and impactful things that hold the Amadeus team together. Firstly, its people and culture play a crucial part and really make a difference. Secondly, Sabine and her team strongly believe in building longterm partnerships and sticking around, especially if things get tough. And thirdly, the travel software provider prides itself on having a global team of highly skilled professionals with hands-on mentality and a passion for travel and innovation. Through its teams’ attributes, Amadeus has been able to diversify and serve its customer needs, right from its initial role in travel distribution to providing a broad range of travel technology solutions.
The 10 Best
Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018
Serving the Travel and Tourism Industry’s Who’s Who Amadeus has served hundreds of airlines, thousands of travel sellers, and provided technology for hotels, casinos, football stadiums and many other segments of the travel and tourism industry. One of the ongoing project which keeps Sabine and her skilled team awake is the acquisition, subject to the deal closing, of TravelClick in the US: a leading global hospitality provider that serves more than 25,000 customers such as Hilton, Marriott, Mandarin and Accor across 176 countries. This major acquisition is expected to position Amadeus as a hospitality leader, providing a broad range of innovative technology to hotels and chains of all sizes across the globe. Further, its ambition is to provide the hospitality
industry with the tools they need for growing their businesses, along with delivering a great experience for their guests. Strategies for Crossing the Future Milestones The leading software solutions provider is basically a people company that relies on talent. Yet, attracting, developing and retaining the best talents is becoming increasingly difficult in the current world, where demand vastly exceeds supply. So, Sabine and the other decision makers of the company are experimenting with new ways to attract talent, such as hackathons or coding games. They also ensure that employees have the opportunity to innovate and work on cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Sabine Hansen Peck, Senior Vice President, People, Culture, Communication & Brand | Amadeus 19
Climber : Assisting Small Hotel Chains To Achieve & Exceed Revenue Targets
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Climber wants to make Hotel Revenue Management accessible to every hotelier and help them achieve their full potential by using its hassle free product.
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he travel & hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing sectors and largely contributes to the creation of jobs, driving of exports and st creating prosperity across the globe. In the 21 century, there are two aspects which can be termed as most interesting, namely the increasing number of young travelers with more disposable income, and the exponential influence that technology is having on the industry. The travel & hospitality industry further needs to continue working to understand the changing wants and needs of these new customers and practice everything to stay relevant to them. Additionally, technology is a great opportunity for companies to stay competitive and thrive in this growing market. Incepted in 2015, Climber is democratizing Revenue Management (RM) to independent hotels and small chains through connectivity and customer focus. The RM software provider company believes that large luxury hotels should not be the only ones benefiting from intelligent RM solutions to help optimize hotel yield management strategies. Climber’s international team consists of people from 9 different nationalities with bundles of Revenue Management, data science and hospitality experience and knowledge. Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, its client partners stretch from UK, Europe, to the USA and Azerbaijan as Climber’s cloudbased Revenue Management Software (RMS) can be used from anywhere around the world. This RMS solution takes historic data from users’ PMS, combines it with their competitive set and the city demands, thereby clearly reporting the status of users’ hotels in real time. Moreover, its machine learning takes all of the above and recommends optimal, dynamic prices for each of the users’ hotel room types, eventually turning data into opportunities. RMS has been designed in a way that it can be used across all levels and departments of user’s hotel, regardless of their level of revenue management expertise. Climber’s clients have varying business challenges that can range from growing hotel chains that need to
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consolidate their RM practices to clients who wish to receive a quick RM overview of their business. The highly skilled team of the leading RMS solution provider company has worked with clients who fear their pricing decisions are not optimal, and hotels that are fearful of losing market share to multinational hotel groups and wish to react to their competition in real-time. Through its excellent RM software, Climber has indeed offered a successful solution over these issues. Change-savvy & Passionate Leader Mário Mouraz is the Founder & CEO at Climber. Mario studied hospitality management and has always been passionate about the industry as well as awed by the immense potential of technology. He has previously worked at the Four Seasons, Starwood Hotels and collaborated on building sustainable hotels in Iran. After his fulfilling experiences in the hospitality industry, Mário started his first travel-tech company and soon after that launched his second company. Fortunately, after witnessing the initial failures from these startups, Mário got better equipped about the existing market needs and requirements. This is where he realized that the hospitality industry was dominated by large, expensive and complex revenue management solutions, with a huge gap for a company that was accessible to those independent and small chain hotels that were just starting to adopt yield management practices. Mário along with João Feliciano (Co-founder & CTO) launched Climber and today their main job is to build a strong team and provide them with a common vision. Both the dynamic Co-founders’ are very hands-on, and completely involved in all aspects of the business, at the same time, they give individual members of the team ownership and autonomy over their aspects of the business. Ensuring Strong Customer Service & Customer Satisfaction It is understandable that not every piece of technology is suitable for every hotel. Most RM technology relies on integration with hotel’s PMS and channel manager. With
The 10 Best
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the exception of a few companies, now the RM solutions are gradually getting commoditized from features perspective. Currently, Climber is integrated with 30 major PMS softwares and will continue expanding its connectivity to be able to serve all small chain and independent hotels looking for RM solutions. Like its clients, the team of Climber is also 24/7 available and do their utmost to assist and inspire their clients.
Mário’s Key Message to Potential Customers “A growing number of hotels are increasing the RM culture of their organizations to become more competitive within their market. We would like to tell Mirror Review’s readers magazine that we think there is a great RM tool behind every smart RM decision and that Climber is your trusted RM partner.”
Standing Tall in the World of Hotel Landscape Climber is the most accessible RMS solution in the market. However, according to its estimates, 96% of worldwide hotels do not make use of the software solutions and instead, are using MS Excel or other tools to organize data and make revenue and pricing decisions. On the bright side, the hotels which are adopting the RMS are saving their time, refining price accuracy, mitigating biases over pricing decisions, increasing their ability to act upon revenue opportunities and ultimately establishing themselves solidly in the hospitality market. For Climber, its milestones involve scaling of its team and number of clients, as well as offering more functionalities that help making hoteliers with revenue management practices in an easier way.
Mário Mouraz Founder & CEO | Climber 21
DJUBO: India’s first 360 degree Cloud ERP for hotels
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DJUBO’s mission is to be the largest SAAS company to come out of India.
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he importance of 21st century’s hospitality industry has largely increased as people have started looking for creating richer lives by moving away from the materialistic aspirations to soul searching and mindfulness. Describing his perception of the modern travel and hospitality industry, Tarun Gulati, Co-founder of DJUBO asserts, “I personally believe that the global population is probably going to be travelling less for business and more for leisure and collecting experiences. Travel will not be done as an essential work requirement because the internet will keep bringing teams and business partners closer. Travel will be more spiritual and inspirational and moving away from dense business cities towards smaller and lesser known destinations as access to remote areas opens up with better airline connectivity.” Today, the hospitality industry has become a core enabler of leisure traveller in place of an enabler of business travel alone. Instead of being a three department industry which limits itself to front-desk, housekeeping and food & beverages, the modern travel and hospitality industry is slowly turning into a more expertise led industry, focussing on experience, personalization and innovation.
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since their schooling days along with a similar family business background in hospitality. Later, Sankalp went on top ursue a degree in Computer Science from IMT Ghaziabad, while Tarun completed his MBA from IIM Bangalore. After getting 6 years of experience in private equity career, Tarun decided to call it quits and start afresh. In 2011,he took over the family property to turn it around and soon realized the dearth of hotel tech products meant for small hotels were limited to not just India but on an international level as well. There were scraps of software meant for hotelier’s troubleshooting, but a huge void for integrated solutions offering operations, distribution and intelligence in the same software. After candidly identifying the existing gap in the travel and hospitality industry, Tarun and Sankalp embarked on the mission of establishing DJUBO. Currently, Tarun looks after the sales and marketing division at DJUBO, along with jointly looking after the product roadmap. Outstanding Range of Solutions
DJUBO is one of the leading, all-in-one, new age hotel tech company which aims to empower every small hotelier with capabilities over assistance in operation and distribution of property at the same standard as any 5 star property at a very low cost. DJUBO targets this by fusing high end intelligence and distribution technology with easy-to-use property management capabilities through cloud based software, accessible via any smart phone or tablet from anywhere in the world. Additionally, DJUBO is also the only cloud based fully integrated hotel tech software which customers can utilize to solve property management, distribution, revenue management and intelligence solutions on a single interface.
DJUBO manages, controls and enhances online sales and guest experience for hotels using following applications. · Operations: For better sales operations and guest experiences, DJUBO offers property management system, central reservation system as well as reporting and analytics. · Distribution: In order to maintain inventory & price parity across channels, expertise are provided through hotel channel managers, direct booking engines and metasearch advertising for hotels.
Listed as one of top 50 start-ups in India by Nass com Emerge 50, DJUBO is backed by the world’s biggest technology investor N aspers and India’s biggest Online Travel Agent - Make my trip as its investor.
· Intelligence: Data guides for making correct business decisions are presented by using online reputation management, hotel rate shopper and intelligent revenue manager.
Visionary & Change-savvy Team of Co-founders behind DJUBO
Incorporation of Advanced Technology in DJUBO’s Ecosystem
Tarun Gulati and Sankalp Goel are the Co-founders of DJUBO. Both Tarun & Sankalp have known each other
As smaller destinations, smaller properties and small entrepreneurs are entering the hospitality industry, the
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requirement for new age hotel tech requirements are rising at an extremely fast pace globally. The small businesses do not have the capital to invest in heavy hardware or expensive software. Their operational needs are basic but their revenue needs are already evolved because most of their business is online. DJUBO caters to this exact audience by providing unique offerings which are fully integrated in terms of functionality, yet extremely simple to use for small hoteliers. Serving the Cherished the Clientele Base DJUBO always thinks from the perspective of a small hotelier. All its product developments are built keeping in mind the necessities of a small hotelier and ease of use of its staff members so much so that its entire feature roadmap is now governed by client requirements. Currently, the leading high tech company has 2300 plus hotel clients across 30 countries. Many international and Indian hotel chains use its solutions to varying degrees, in addition to an increased client base as well as rapid launch of new applications in the market every few months, keep in gits product mix stronger and its differentiation more obvious.
In the coming future, DJUBO plans to grow from 30 countries to 100+ countries with 50% of its clients outside India. Glue that Holds DJUBO Together Tarun credits his client’s feedback and the difference that DJUBO has made in their businesses in terms of increased revenue and reduced costs for uplifting them during tough times. Also, DJUBO team’s undying attitude and ability to wage through any storm is something that keeps the decision makers mindset together. Tarun’s Key Message to the Potential Customers “We would like to tell our target customers that we are going to continue getting stronger as a product and making it tougher for our competitors to survive in the market. Therefore, hotels that are not using us should reach out to us and get a demo done sooner rather than later and start adopting a system which is future proof.”
Tarun Gulati & Sankalp Goel Co-founders | DJUBO 25
Arrivals
Hotel Technology Keeping Pace With Demands Of Millennial Business Travellers
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onsumer technology is the bellwether for the enterprise. The expectations gap between consumer and business technology is virtually non-existent. So the imperative for B2B technologists to adopt a complete consumer-first mentality is clear. There’s simply no way forward any longer: business software and hardware must act, think, and feel like consumer software and hardware. Enterprise users are no longer willing to sacrifice usability or functionality simply because it’s a service or tool they use at work. Rapid experimentation and implementation of successful experiments — is the way to stay relevant with today’s consumer. This means staying current and always paying attention. Hotels must fully grasp the latest consumer technology trends to both effectively serve the fellow business clients, as well as to surprise and delight the travellers and guests that support the travel and hospitality industries. It’s an exciting time, where small moves create lasting impressions in the minds of travellers given that each experiment costs resources — not just time and money, but opportunity costs as well. Today, the travellers are in constant need to be connected; personal technologies – such as smartphones and tablets – are increasingly important. Although a maximum of business travellers can use desktop corporate booking tools to plan and modify their trips, only a third of them have access to mobile booking tools. Business travellers now more than ever require flexibility, while adjusting their plans once they’re on the move having to amend their flights or change the routes.
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Additionally, convenience is prioritised by business travellers above cost and comfort. These business travellers are fine examples of the ‘self-centered’ generation – a deviation seen in the hotel industry itself – one in which a guest assumes the world revolving around their wants and needs. For the business traveller, this could be anything from having an integrated, onestep booking process through their Travel Management Company (TMC) or corporate travel planning tool, to having access to a boutique hotel in a local destination close to the work meetings. Supporting the ‘self-centered’ generation as well as the growing trend towards Bleisure (Business + Leisure), the business travellers like to extend their business trip to include self-funded leisure travel along with miscellaneous information about the local sights. Connection of Hotel Experience to Technology Ÿ
A Technology Powered Booking Experience
In many ways, technology has cut-short the travel booking process immensely – making methods such as booking through travel agents or calling airlines and hotels directly a thing of the past. Travellers, today expect speed, instant confirmation, access to real traveller reviews, diverse places to stay and price transparency – demands which traditional booking methods simply cannot fulfil or keep pace with. Maximum business travellers experience some level of stress during their trip, where most of them claiming they are always or frequently stressed throughout. By
The 10 Best
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making travel apps, gadgets and tools an essential part of their travel process, executives on the go can simplify travel and get rid of those stressful aspects of the journey. Ÿ
Tech-savvy Accommodation
The impact of technology does not stop when business travellers leave the airport. In fact, this is where it becomes even more interesting. Accommodation providers are increasingly recognising that the sweet spot in customer service excellence lies in a mix of selfservice technology and human interaction. That’s why interest in things like Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning is elevating. As human beings crave personal interaction, travel technology providers are now trying to mimic this through cutting-edge innovations. This includes uplifting the check-in experience to make it more intuitive, seamless and personal, as well as providing app and gadget recommendations to help travellers navigate their neighbourhoods while in town on business. From language apps such as ‘Duolingo’ to learn while on-the-go, to foodie apps like ‘Yelp’ which take the hassle out of finding places to get local cuisines – technology is enhancing the full horizon of the travel experience, well beyond flights and accommodation. The Blow-Up Hall 5050 hotel in Poznan, Poland, for example, combines innovative technologies with luxury to create a modern and intuitive experiment. Photos of guests are captured on camera as they enter the hotel, and stylised images of their profiles are projected back. Instead of traditional key fobs, guests are handed iPhones at reception which are linked to specific rooms and use digital recognition software to guide users to the correct room and unlock the door on proximity. This takes out the hassle for business travellers – one in five
of who opined that checking in and out is the most annoying part of a work trip. Ÿ
Connectivity is the Key Factor
Providing basics such as free Wi-Fi and high-speed internet access is also a simple way to appeal to this business traveller who needs to be connected all the time. Given that business travellers generally use multiple devices during their stay, it’s also worth investing in extra USB and power outlets, along with in-room chargers to ease up their life. As it is a demographic era predominantly made up of millennials, offering access to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and HBO will also increasingly be seen as a point to attract more travellers. Ÿ
The Ability to Socialise
There’s also an opportunity to appeal to business travellers by helping them network while they’re on the move. Just recently, Accor Hotels released Business Check with LinkedIn, a feature that helps guests find people in their professional network who are based in the destination they’re visiting. Finding creative ways to help guests socialise like this clearly has its perks. But hotels can also use LinkedIn to promote themselves to the business community, publishing branded content, and sharing videos and images of desirable amenities or previous networking events. M
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Magellan Jets: Creating Personalized Private Travel Experiences For High-End Clients
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oday’s contemporary world is an ever-changing mix of technological advancements, and industries are struggling to keep pace with the speed at which customer demands are evolving. Several businesses are moving towards harnessing the power of technology such as conversational AI chatbot’s and other virtual assistants to manage the day-to-day flow of work. By 2020, it is estimated that about 85% of customer interactions will be managed by AI. But there’s a dark side to that fast adoption to artificial intellegence. Comprehending the impact of modern technology, Magellan Jets, a Boston-based private aviation solution provider, sees primary safety concerns for its clients in AI’s ability to access their data. Therefore, the team of Magellan Jets is taking major efforts to understand the influence that AI could have on their customers’ privacy as well as making sure their customers are protected. With Magellan Jets, your information, habits, preferences and interests are not only unique to you and your guests; but are held with the utmost care by every one of their team members. Magellan Jets is built on the foundation of integrity, reliability, and trust. Founded in 2008, Magellan Jets’ innovative model offers jet-specific memberships and on-demand charter services designed to provide the freedom and exceptional personalized services that private travellers expect. Magellan Jets and its FAAlicensed Flight support team ensure that every detail is tailored to surpass customer expectations. Furthermore, the leading aviation service provider offers safety, security, and an uncompromising focus on hospitality, combined with the most exclusive network of aircraft in the skies, to let travelers experience private aviation the way it should be: purely private. At the heart of Magellan Jets culture lies a ‘relentless focus on results.’ They strive to make a difference in everything they do. While their people hold common goals, individuals drive the richness of their culture. Magellan Jets’ enriching environment encourages people to achieve their best and make a lasting impact. To name a few of its accomplishments, Magellan Jets
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From day 1, our intention was never to sell something, but to help our customers find the best private travel solution, even if that meant pointing them in another direction.
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has been recognized for its growing success six years in a row on the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, puting them in the Inc Hall of Fame; Boston Business Journal’s Pacesetters (now Fast 50) list; and as one of SmartCEO’s Future 50. Ambitious and Goal Oriented Leaders Joshua Hebert is Co-founder & CEO of Magellan Jets and has over 25 years of experience in finance, marketing, and aviation. His expertise in business startups, transformations, search engine optimization, and marketing has enabled him to grow Magellan Jets into an established brand. In founding Magellan Jets, Joshua melded his passion for aviation with his knowledge and financial knack, which he gleaned from starting his career on Wall Street at Paine Webber. Anthony Tivnan, President and Co-Founder, has used his understanding of Magellan Jets’ diverse clientele to lead the sales team in creating tailored private travel solutions for all. Most recently under his leadership, Magellan Jets closed out 2017 with almost 200 new customers and an 85% member retention rate. “Magellan Jets takes pride in providing its customers solutions for life,” he says. “Whether for business, personal, college tours or IPO’s, the relationship and guidance we offer is intended to serve as a resource for all major events in a customers’ life.” As Founder and CEO of Magellan Jets, Joshua is the visionary behind an incredibly successful team that the executive leaders have diligently crafted over the past decade. Joshua’s expertise has culminated in a team that has increased sales at Magellan Jets by 35% a year for over a decade. Setting High Standards in the World of Aviation Magellan Jets has set itself apart from its competitors by delivering top-notch and value added services. These services are characterised by features mentioned as follows. • Safety: Magellan Jets’s relentless commitment to safety has earned respect and recognition from some of
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the most prominent organizations in the aviation industry. The leading aviation service provider company flies under Part 135 of the FAA safety standards – the Magellan Jets Preferred Network (MJPN), featuring carefully selected aircraft and flight crews.
its rich culture, customer service, technology with BuildA-Card/Bespoke Membership, as well as high safety standards, Magellan Jets customers appreciates its truly personalized and private experience with every interaction, both in the air and on the ground.
• Customer Experience: Joshua, Anthony and their team have created a membership experience team to ensure the perfect travel experience for their members, down to the smallest details.
CEO’s Vital Message for Potential Customers
• Membership: Magellan Jets allows its clientele base to call the shots with their custom-tailored Individual Bespoke Membership, or the business-friendly flexibility of its Corporate Membership. Creating Unique and Engaging Client Experiences Over a decade ago, Magellan Jets set out to change the private travel experience through a purely private, personalized customer approach, and an unwavering commitment to safety. After a modest first year, this concept proved itself as Joshua and his team saw an explosive upward trend with an average of 36% growth each year over the last 10 years. This year, Magellan Jets is celebrating its successful 10th anniversary. Through
“For business, pleasure, family, and friends, Magellan Jets is here to support every significant event of your life. Our solutions range from college tours to IPO road shows to emergency evacuations; peace of mind and confidence in being there is what comes with your investment in a solution with Magellan Jets. Add a team of highly-trained aviation professionals to your family office or company and have the confidence that, in all aspects of aviation, you are receiving the right recommendations as well as the peace of mind that your travel is safe and seamless. Magellan Jets sits on the same side of the table with its customers, and by adding value to their travel solutions, builds long-lasting relationships.”
Joshua Hebert Co-founder & CEO | Magellan Jets 31
Tech Insights
Future Mobility Innovations That Will Reshape the Outlook of the Travel Industry F
rom the times of using maps to the interactive smartphone applications, the travel industry has been changing the way people explore the world. Not far from today, in 2007, a cutting-edge technology was developed known as Manilla folder. One cannot leave home without taking the Manilla folder. The folder used to contain the tickets of travel bookings and reservations. This technology was developed in the emerging internet era, and was popular those days. However, after 10 years later, the internet has made the biggest change, because it is now utilized in every single part of the travel experience, especially in the vehicles people travel.
Transit Elevated Bus
Travel has changed massively, and the vehicles in which people travel too, has been modified. These changes involve the impossible innovations which were once mentioned in the sci-fi fantasy movies. This article covers these seemingly impossible future breakthrough technologies in mobility, which are bound to influence the future of the travel industry. 1. Project Hyperloop Imagine traveling non-stop at up to 670 miles per hour above the land or underground. It sounds impossible, but it is coming to reality in the form of Project Hyperloop. Came from the Elon Musk’s idea of moving vehicles at high speeds through low-pressure tubes, the Project Hyperloop can cut the travel time between New York to London to 3 hours as compared with the 6 hours of a conventional airplane traveling. Hyperloop, a new motor
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transportation has been developed by Hyperloop One. The Hyperloop system consists of an electric motor which is separated into two components, the rotor, and a stator. The rotor rotates on a stationary electromagnetic stator. When an electric current passes through the stator, the rotor magnetically gets attracted towards the spin.
5. Transit Elevated Bus Another biggest solution for traffic has been developed in China and is popularly known as Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), which is currently in a testing phase. The prototype of TEB is 22-meters long, 7.8-meters wide and 4.8 meters tall. The actual model will have the capacity to transport 1200 to 1400 passengers, and it will allow cars to drive underneath the hollow part of it, as it is shaped like an overpass. The TEB could replace up to 40 conventional buses, and this could save 860 tonnes of fuel and avoid 2,640 tonnes of carbon
emissions each year with the huge traffic reduction. The TEB system uses a hub-mounted motor for propulsion. There is an indicator system, under monitoring, under-part indicator, and an emergency brake system to avoid accidents. A largetext display in the center of the bus allows it to communicate with the traffic behind it. 6. X-plane Lockheed Martin, a global aerospace company, and NASA are working together to bring a supersonic plane without the sonic boom. The sonic
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boom is created when an object surpasses the speed of sound, 340.29m/s. The X-plane, officially known as X-59 will reach speeds of 940 mph, and fly at an altitude of 55,000 ft. with the sound as low as closing a car door. NASA has awarded Lockheed $247.5 million to build the X-plane. NASA aims to lift the ban on using supersonic planes from flying over land by testing this quite, high-speed plane in 2021. If the project succeeds, then the people can travel across the world at supersonic speeds. 7. Airlander 10
The world’s largest aircraft, Airlander 10 combines the best characteristics of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, which is a hybrid aircraft filled with 30,000 cubic meters of helium. It implements the Archimedes principle to get a 60% of its total thrust and the remaining 40% of the shift was obtained from the aerodynamic shape. There is no internal structure in the Airlander 10 because it maintains its shape due to the pressure stabilization of the helium inside the hull. Carbon composites are used throughout the aircraft to make it lightweight and strong. With the luggage carrying
capacity up to 10 tons, Airlander 10 can remain in the air up to 5 days, and it can land or take off from a multitude of surfaces including grass, soil or water. The impressive thing is that it doesn’t need an airport or infrastructure to land or take off. Airlander 10 can be used to deliver temporary communication services in disaster zones, aid during tsunamis or in other natural disasters. With such essential abilities, Airlander 10 can connect and contribute the world to a large extent. The future world will be connected to a large extent with these extremely powerful mobility devices. Travel has a key role in the expansion of these technologies. It is all about movement, and the industry must consider how mobility plays in its core value. The reality of these future technologies is a positive existential threat to the conventional modes of travel. There are not only the large scale companies, but also start-ups who are presenting innovative and compact vehicles to develop the future mobility technologies. With the implementation of these technologies, the world is moving towards a cleaner, greener and a healthier future world.
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Unlike a normal electric motor, the Hyperloop One motor is not circular, it is linear, and the rotor is on the pod which is propelled magnetically as it moves on the stator. The magnetic levitation technology helps to guide and lift the pod off the track. Almost all the air from Hyperloop One tube is removed using a series of vacuum pumps, making the inside pressure such that the Hyperloop quietly flies at a height of 20,000 feet above the sea level. This cost and energy efficient system will be automated by the most advanced systems in the world, allowing a safe and super-fast journey that's never delayed.
on magnetic levitation technology. One can travel at a speed up to 155 mph in skyTran. It’s the unique transportation system with a predictive artificial intelligence, which knows when the passenger will need a ride. With its speed and capacity, skyTran can bring an end to traffic. Imagine, with no cars or vehicles on the road, people can transform these streets into nature parks, cafes and markets.
2. Orion For many years, space agencies have been imagining about traveling to Mars, and Orion, a new NASA spacecraft for astronauts will make the NASA’s journey to Mars or to an asteroid possible. The Orion spacecraft will go further into space like people have never traveled before. It will carry astronauts into deep space and then return them home to earth. The recently tested heat shield will keep the astronauts safe, while re-entering earth’s atmosphere at a very high speed with extreme temperatures. NASA’s new giant rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) will carry Orion. In Exploration Mission-1, with SLS, Orion will go through a test without any crew on board for about 25 days. After the successful attempt, it will soon launch Exploration Mission-2 to transport humans to the Mars for the first time in the history. 3. Self-Driving cars Equipped with 360-degree cameras, lasers, and radars, the self-driving cars can see everything on the road and beyond. No matter what the environment, these vehicles never get distracted. Unlike the human beings, they don’t text, multitask or fall asleep during the journey. The attachments equipped on these cars scan the environment, but before the cars roam on the roads, they are configured by trained vehicle operators. The vehicle operator tests the cars with unexpected obstacles such as swinging car doors, pedestrians, and street signs. Once the journey is completed, a team of mapmakers verifies the streets, tracks, lane line, roadsides and traffic light in the vehicle’s path. According to the new data, the car’s software gets upgraded, which leads to a better accuracy of the vehicle on every inch of the road. 4. skyTran One of the biggest problems that are globally impacting the quality of life and economic development is traffic. As life is moving faster, people are moving slower and slower, for the traffic is just getting worst day-by-day. The problem is not the driver rather it’s the increasing number of vehicles and shrinking spaces. skyTran is the solution over this issue. skyTran is a pollution free, personal, and elevated rapid monorail-style transportation, which works
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