It is a pleasure to announce that after many months of tinkering with our product, we are live. There is a special feeling when you reach that moment in your startup journey. You experience a moment of relief, but is it though? The hard part hasn’t come yet, we’re just about to enter that phase, haha.
Let me tell you about this project that took our time, energy and resources for the past year and kept us busy in our “garage” back in the Netherlands.
The concept was simple: help hotels help themselves so that you, me and anyone going on holiday spend less time trying to figure out how to organize and book everything. That’s pretty much it, give the travel industry a fancy salon where the members can get a makeover.
At least, that’s what we thought it would take, however, once we dived deep down into the core parts of the whole digital travel experience, we unveiled a much bigger monster. To keep the analogy going, this monster is rooted into the whole industry, from hotels, to OTA’s, to people, to all the software companies in the travel tech industry and it calls for another approach: work with it, feed it, understand it and help it become better.
The monster that I’m referring to is the concept of buying travel services online. From stays, flights, activities, products to experiences. It was formed over a long period of time and it is based on how the relationship between consumers and providers has evolved and equally important, how the internet has evolved.
Consumer trends lead the change, always. When someone has a need, the providers react to that need. That is why In the ever-evolving landscape of the hotel industry, the spotlight was set more recently in the past few years on direct bookings. More than a trend, it’s a strategic move for both consumers seeking personalized experiences and hotels aiming to offer a perfect digital experience.
The Concrete Case: Going on Holiday
Picture this: You’re planning your vacation, searching up and down the internet for destinations, accommodations, flights, experiences, food. You have to match the availability between all of those services, compare prices and more than often, you end up making separate bookings because you can’t book everything in one go.
Don’t even get me started on extra services like early check-in, transfers, parking etc…
OTA’s are helping on this matter a little bit, but due to their focus and volume, they can’t capture the different unique offerings of each provider so you end up (ironically) working quite hard to go into a holiday.
A dynamic solution for a dynamic industry
PackXGen introduces a dynamic packaging solution that goes beyond conventional room bookings. It enables hotels to sell personalized travel experiences in real time, combining rooms with flights, activities, experiences, products and services. The integrated e-commerce booking engine ensures a seamless checkout process, making direct bookings a breeze. Anything the guests are interested in, they can just add to the basket, have a quick glance at the shopping cart and book it. Simple and effective.
We don’t sell booking engines, hotel websites or property management solutions, we’re selling an ecommerce solution that creates an immersive online shopping experience.
Industry Insights: The Shift in Favor of Hotels
Why launch now? Well, the online booking industry is a lucrative market, generating 50 billion euros annually. Now, the tide is turning in favor of hotels, the market becomes a bit more “grey” and seems to be spending more and more time and money on traveling and leisure activities. At the same time, people are becoming more comfortable booking directly, with online direct bookings being the fastest growing channel at a rate of 10.01%.
We are live. Just before Christmas! Launching with a customer in a destination that can warm you up a little bit on these cold days. Daniela Hotels, our showcase customer, is located in Dahab, Egypt and thanks to PackXGen, you can now book everything from their beautiful arabesque-style rooms, to diving activities organized by their dive center to safari trips, transfers and even flights directly through their website at www.daniela-hotels.com
To sum up
PackXGen isn’t about buzzwords like revolutionary or game-changing; it’s about real solutions for real challenges in the hotel industry. As the industry shifts towards embracing direct bookings, PackXGen is the compass guiding hotels towards a future of autonomy and enhanced guest experiences.
