Facilitating easy hotel reservations in more than 150 cities of the country: Nadine Malik, Country Manager, Jovago.com

Travellers in Pakistan have traditionally been dependent on travel agents and taxi drivers. When visiting any of the cities and towns of the country, one would either have to pay commission to a travel agent for booking accommodations for the duration of stay, or ride around town in a taxi, relying on the driver to help find a hotel. But shrewd travellers don't like to pay commissions and nobody looks forward to being fleeced into a stay at a location without first confirming the availability of requisite facilities.
But that's history now, thanks to the efforts of a young team of enterprising solution providers. Since May 2014, a young team of professionals has been diligently working to provide an easier alternative. In a recent conversation with BR Research, Nadine Malik, country manager for Jovago.com explained the painstaking process behind providing a convenient alternative for travellers in the country.
"Since, May 2014, we have visited hotels, motels, guest houses and other accommodation providers across 150 cities and towns of the country. We have visited scores of facilities across the country, collected details of the facilities available at each of these locations, negotiated the best possible deals for consumers and prepared processes to ensure that travellers can make reservations for accommodations, prior to their arrival by simply visiting our website.", she said. Within a short span, the website has signed about 1,600 contracts with service providers across the country that is listed for reservations on the portal.
"Currently we are facilitating easy hotel reservations in more than 150 cities of the country and that number is growing day by day", she added. Explaining the process of on-boarding establishments, Nadine informed that Jovago representatives conduct periodic evaluations of all hotels by personally verifying number of rooms and the associated charges, availability of amenities and facilities, security, etc. The team also take pictures and prepare all content themselves to ensure accurate and reliable information for their clients. Operationally, the Jovago team consists of content producers, business developers and customer service facilitators.
Explaining the genesis of Jovago, she informed that the company is a subsidiary of the global internet giant, Rocket Internet. Jovago began its journey from Africa where it currently provides the ability to make reservations at more than 20,000 hotels. It also has a sizeable presence in Africa, North America, Europe and Asia collectively connecting consumers to more than 200,000 accommodation providers across the world.
"Prior to our launch in this country, there was no online bookings platform for hotel stays in Pakistan. There was also no consolidated list of hotels that a consumer could access to find accommodation when visiting different areas of the country", she said highlighting the convenience that the launch of this portal has provided to travellers in the country. Conversely, the portal has also enabled hotels to reach out to consumers. The country manager informed that the vast majority of listed properties are small and medium-sized properties, which individually do not have capacity to advertise and reach out to the broader market. The Jovago portal is helping these establishments reach out to prospective clients and also drawing attention to the best services providers by virtue of positive feedback generated by satisfied clients on the website.
But the efficacy of the portal does not end with enabling online reservations. "We work on behalf of consumers to drive down costs. We encourage hotels to offer deals and discounts, and we guarantee best prices which means if you can find a better rate on a property listed on our portal, we will meet that rate" she said. The country manager also highlighted that the portal has become a means for gathering the suggestions and feedback of consumers to help hotel owners, improve their services and provide better value to their clients.
"We conduct regular surveys that help hotels to find out what are the most important factors for consumers when choosing a place to stay" she said adding that a survey by Jovago established that room air conditioning and wifi availability are among the most often desired facilities that travellers want from hotels. Similarly, survey respondents have also revealed that about 30 percent of all hotel stays in the country are initiated by business travel while the remainder are all for leisure trips. According to Nadine, such insights will continue to help the industry, improve its positioning and service quality for consumers as they will become more informed about consumers over time.
Payment is also a breeze with the portal as unlike reservations through travel and tour operators, Jovago lets users "book now, pay later". Nadine Malik informed that credit card payments are facilitated through the portal; most domestic users prefer to pay at place of stay.
The Jovago team expressed their desire to play a positive role in drawing attention to the numerous tourist attractions within the country and expressed hope that improving conditions at home will encourage domestic and international tourists to travel across the country, soaking in the magnificent vistas of the land. In her concluding remarks, the Jovago country head pledged, "We will be there every step of the way helping to ensure that travellers spend less time worrying about where to stay so they can concentrate on all that this country has to offer"