A new agreement between the Booking.com hotel reservation
portal and a Middle East telecom provider is changing the way customers make
hotel reservations in the Emirates, and throughout the Middle East.
The Zain Group, a top regional
telecom provider, announced recently that when its customers choose hotels through the
Booking.com portal, they’ll get benefits related to their wireless accounts. Customers will be rewarded with the allocation of additional
mobile data or voice benefits that are credited to either their prepaid or
post-paid line.
Benefits vary according to country-specific audiences; for
example, Kuwait customers will get broadband services of up to a terabyte,
while Iraqi users will get additional voice and SMS credits.
“As we evolve to
become a digital lifestyle operator, this agreement with another world-class
digital marketplace provider represents Zain’s ongoing commitment to delivering
exciting and compelling user experiences to our customers.” Zain Group
CEO Scott Gegenheimer said. “We admire Booking.com’s customer orientation in its own right, and
feel that the collaboration between our two organizations will be of enormous
mutual benefit, offering our customers the best choice of rewards and
convenience.”
Zain’s move
utilizes the power of a hospitality platform that is truly built for
international service: with more than 900,000 booking venues in 223 countries,
Booking.com supports 24/7 booking operations staffed by more than 11,000
multi-lingual customer service workers.
Along with revolutionizing the practice of choosing hotels
in the region that’s rich in tourism and high-end accommodations, the agreement
between Zain and Booking.com will also help individual telecom customers.
Edmund Herod, vice chancellor at Houston Community College, lived and worked in Qatar for a number of years as the school maintained
a campus there.
“Telecom was a big deal.” Herod told the Gulf News Journal. “People love their phones.”
Part of the difference between American and Middle Eastern
telecom services, Herod said, is related to the ways that will pay for phone
calls.
First, he said, in the Middle East region, the caller pays for all
charges. The recipient doesn’t get charged for incoming calls. Also, he said, the subscription model is different.
“You paid for the minutes and you actually ‘charged’ your
phone,” Herod said, comparing the Middle Eastern system to the use of prepaid “burner”
phones in the U.S., which is a much smaller market in America.
While Americans
like to sign up for unlimited services or those that provide automatic renewal
of minutes, other customers around the world are well accustomed to buying
cellphone credits from kiosks on printed cards, and entering those credits into
the phone to “charge up” its minutes.
“There was a different sort of mindset.” Herod said.
Booking.com’s top brass have also gone on record to promote
these types of initiatives. In a 2005 interview, Booking.com CEO Darren Huston
spoke enthusiastically about trips to strengthen relations with Middle Eastern
partners and the potential for Booking.com in the UAE.
“The amazing thing about Dubai is that it’s one of the most
mobile cities in the world.” Huston said. “In fact, for (Booking.com), we get a
higher percentage of mobile bookings in Dubai than any big city in the world.”
