TBO Holidays the B2B hotel content giant enters the Central European region more strongly
TBO Holidays powerful Indian B2B hotel platform plans major expansion in Central Europe.
TBO Holidays B2B platform with access to hundreds of thousands of hotels
The Indian company has ambitions to join the game for the lucrative global business hotel booking market. After successful expansion in South America, it’s time for Central Europe. Perhaps the decision to enter our region was accelerated by the activities of the competitive portal RateHawk, which, constantly working on technological innovations, is gaining a stronger and stronger position in Poland and neighboring countries. The philosophy of both platforms seems very similar.
Rate Hawk, however, has its own shopping structures, and similar activities are planned by TBO. The linked-in portal has posted job openings in Central Europe. TBO’s regional representative Alyona Gorlach is also active. All this shows a very serious approach to expansion in Poland.
TBO will also give a tool for self-booking business travel
The market for business travel booking tools is growing significantly, alongside new entrants such as Hotailors and Stery the traditional players CTA and eSky are still strong. TBO plans to stir things up in this market as well, for now the Paxes platform launches in its home country.
What TBO can offer to successfully compete for the market. Above all, it could be the open nature of the tool. TBO emphasizes that it is not a TMC, but a B2B platform. This leads us to assume that the tool from TBO will be available to all IATA agents and maybe NON IATA as well.
It is also potentially interesting to adapt it to the needs of public tenders and offer a white lable solution for the entities organizing them.
Other advantages that TBO can play with are, first of all, the cost of implementation and licensing, so far these very arguments have determined the poor implementation in Poland of GDS products like Concur, Ctric or Get there.
The 24-hour. service and ease/accessibility of communication in English.
Polish TMCs will support TBO – Weco a natural partner
There are still a few big partners on the Polish market who have not had much success in implementing Self Booking tools over the years. A natural partner seems to be Weco – after all, this office is just managed by JJ Singh, who comes from India. In addition, Weco’s presence in other countries in the region like the Czech Republic and Hungary is also a plus.
Another big potential partner is Why Not Travel, it is laboriously building its Why Not Book although the development costs and pandemic certainly does not make the job easier. In case of an interesting offer Why Not could be willing to cooperate. The portfolio of the recently acquired Bluesky office is an additional asset here, and there is considerable potential to implement a self-booking tool there as well.
Certainly there are many more potential partners, there is still a lot of potential in non-iata offices specialized in handling corporate traffic.
An interesting clash in the business travel market in the Hotels segment
The entry of another partner with interesting hotel content will certainly, shatter the status quo. Booking com may have the most to lose, other competitors like RateHawk and HRS may also feel the expansion of the Indian giant.
However, another scenario is also possible, where the market will be divided geographically according to the strength of hotel content. As we know HRS is strong in German-speaking countries, RateHawk in the post-Soviet bloc and TBO can give added value in India and Southeast Asia.
Hotel content in Central Europe and Poland itself may also be a key to success. Still the majority of business trips are domestic or to the nearest neighbors. It’s no coincidence that Prague, Budapest and Bucharest are among the top business destinations from Poland.
TBO also has the icing on the cake, in the form of a partnership with loyalty tool GIFT. In this way it can incentivize the vendors working with it. A similar tool in the area of airline tickets is still offered by LOT. LOT Collector enjoys great success among vendors, and its business potential seems to be underutilized( vide lack of partners).