In the news: AccorHotels’ expansion in Singapore, Ctrip’s car rental business, Amadeus Airport Pay for Lufthansa Group
HOSPITALITY: ACCORHOTELS EXPANDS SINGAPORE PRESENCE WITH NEW JOHN PAUL OFFICE, MORE PROPERTIES
The Raffles Hotel in Singapore undergoing renovations (Image credit: AccorHotels)
On June 12 AccorHotels launched its subsidiary John Paul, a concierge and customer loyalty business, in Singapore with a new office to oversee customer experience for its hotels.
The French hotel group said the John Paul’s launch was to “celebrate a decade of growth” since moving its Asia Pacific headquarters from Sydney, Australia to Singapore in 2008.
A statement from the company said it “has since grown to become the largest hotel operator in the country”.
The group currently operates 12 hotels in Singapore with 5,400 rooms, and will add another 1,000 rooms this year.
In August the 223-room Sofitel Singapore City Centre in Tanjong Pagar will open, followed in October by a combined Novotel and Mercure complex on Stevens Road with another 772 rooms.
Last year the group acquired the FRHI portfolio of hotels worldwide, including four hotels in Singapore – Raffles Hotel, Fairmont Singapore, Swissotel The Stamford, and Swissotel Merchant Court.
The Raffles Hotel Singapore is currently undergoing restoration, which will complete in the middle of next year. Renovations have also started at the 1,261-room Swissotel The Stamford.
“We do not yet have all our brands present in Singapore but we have been able to scale our business very rapidly here, and I think Singapore is the perfect city in which to innovate new brands and ideas, so we will continue to look for new opportunities here,” said Michael Issenberg, chairman & CEO AccorHotels Asia Pacific.
Apart from expanding its presence in Singapore, Issenberg added AccorHotels would be providing more employment opportunities for Singaporeans in the hospitality sector. It currently has about 3,300 employees. About 540 new jobs will be added in the coming months, 70% of which will be for Singaporeans.
The company has now grouped all its three offices – its regional headquarters, the office for its dining, hotel and lifestyle membership programme AccorPlus, and the new John Paul office under one roof in Guoco Tower, the tallest building in the city state.
TRANSPORTATION: CTRIP TO LAUNCH CAR RENTAL SERVICE
Ctrip to add car rental to its services (Image credit: totalpics/iStock)
Chinese online travel service provider, Ctrip, is entering the car rental market with its recent announcement that it would start offering car rentals at airports and train stations in major cities throughout China.
A representative for Ctrip’s car rental business was reported as saying the company has already added links to its car rental interface in the train and air travel ticketing sections of its website.
Ctrip’s new travel planning system will intelligently suggest options for vehicle pick up stations inside and nearby to the traveller’s airport or train station location.
The vehicle pickup stations will cover 200 airports and 100 train stations in China. Travellers can collect their rental s in any of these sites after leaving the airport a plane or train station.
No date has been specified for the start of the car rental service.
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: LUFTHANSA ROLLS OUT AMADEUS AIRPORT PAY
Lufthansa is rolling out Amadeus Airport Pay in airports globally. (Image credit: Amadeus)
If you taking a flight on Lufthansa you may not have much hassle paying for ancillary services, as the airline is implementing Amadeus Airport Pay from this month.
The Lufthansa Group is the launch partner of Amadeus Airport Pay, and it is rolling out the solution at check-in desks and ticket offices in over 170 airports around the globe.
The payment solution, developed by Amadeus and Ingenico, is described as “the first wireless payment solution in the industry”. It accepts EMV chip card payments and can be used by multiple airlines, ground handlers and multiple banks in any airport across the world, independently of the check-in infrastructure. This enables airlines and ground handlers to take payments anywhere in the airport.
“As a result, airlines can convert more ancillary sales by offering travellers a fast and secure payment method that overcomes the inconveniences generally faced by travellers nowadays at airports,” said Amadeus in a statement.
Kai Schilb, head of payment at Lufthansa Group hub airlines, said the airline’s passengers would benefit from the airline adopting the solution as they can “choose customised ancillary services for their flight while checking in or at the gate – securely and with a variety of payment options, and without the need for detours”.
Video below shows how Amadeus Airport Pay works