Q&A: Stuba news, USPs and future plans

What are your USPs?

We have just launched curated hotels for travel agents. Our new curated approach is about match-making the right set of hotels to the right set of agents. As with daily life, a “one size fits all” route no longer works, particularly when selecting a hotel as customers’ demands have become more discerning. Our state-of-the-art technology uses clever predictive analytics and algorithms to curate a selection of hotels for travel agents.

We differ from our competitors, as it’s no longer about the numbers for us. Many bed banks boast how many properties they have to offer, for us, it’s more about quality. We’ve flipped our outlook from “how can we sell more to the travel agent” to “how can travel agents serve their customers better?”

For us, it’s all about travel agents selling more effectively and profitably – our vision is to be travel agents’ most-loved platform for curated hotels. It’s not just about changing the look and feel of a website, it’s much broader than that. It’s about travel agents partnering with Stuba in a simple and immersive way.

What have you done to boost recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic?

We have significantly increased the size of our business development and customer service teams to enhance our reach and service level. As part of that, we guarantee and provide a hotel confirmation number for every booking by confirming it directly with the hotel, so there can be no doubt the booking exists.

We have made big investments in technology such as cloud migration for scalability, tools for automation, and a new website for hotel curation. With our curated product we have been cherry-picking niche suppliers and hotel chains to build our curated collections.

Have you noticed any trends in sales this year?

Sales this year are clocking above 2019 levels on the back of pent-up demand. We are also seeing higher booking values (30-40% more than pre-Covid) given hotel prices have gone up and demand for luxury stays is stronger than ever.

What is your marketing strategy going into 2023?

We will continue to market to our trade customers using all the channels we have available to us. Our new curated approach means we have plenty to say and this is just the start of things to come. The more travel agents start to use the curated listings, the more our algorithms will offer valuable recommendations.

We have an exciting development pipeline to enhance what we are launching, including more agent-friendly curations and tools to help secure the sale. We are also looking at how travel businesses can adopt the concept over API and are in talks with several of our customers already.

For more information on Stuba’s new curated hotel search, watch the following webinar or visit stuba.com.