At WiT Singapore, motels and OTAs discovered commonplace floor in a brand new battleground: consider, enjoy and emotion
20 years on, the previous debate between direct as opposed to oblique bookings nonetheless echoes thru resort convention halls. However at WiT Singapore 2025, the message was once transparent: The way forward for hospitality isn’t about channels, it’s concerning the visitor.
Moderated via Kerry Healy, CCO for Accor’s top class, midscale and economic system manufacturers around the Center East, Africa, Turkey and Asia Pacific, the panel introduced in combination 4 heavyweights with distinct views:
- Puneet Mahindroo, team director of earnings control and distribution, COMO Inns and Hotel
- Boon Sian Chai, managing director and VP of world markets, Travel.com Crew
- Laura Houldsworth, managing director of Asia Pacific, Reserving.com
In combination, they unpacked a central reality: Visitors don’t care the place they guide; they care how they really feel once they arrive.
The nice reframe: From channels to enjoy
Healy set the tone early: “When was once the final time a visitor looked at and instructed you what channel they booked on?” she requested. “They don’t. They simply need it to be simple, seamless and to really feel valued.”
Her provocation reframed the dialog from possession to orchestration: how motels and platforms can co-create a adventure that starts with inspiration and ends with loyalty.
“These days, it’s now not about direct or oblique,” Healy mentioned. “It’s about what occurs when the visitor presentations up—and the way we cause them to really feel.”
Travel.com: Empowerment, now not possession
Boon Sian Chai of Travel.com Crew was once fast to reject the perception that on-line shuttle businesses (OTA) are looking to personal consumers.
“It’s now not about possession—it’s about empowerment,” he mentioned. “Our position is to offer consumers the gear, knowledge and content material they want to make the most productive choices.”
He pointed to Travel Genie, Travel.com’s AI assistant, and Travel Moments, a social function the place vacationers proportion itineraries and reviews. Each goal to make shuttle discovery extra personalised and interactive.
However the corporate’s largest differentiator, he mentioned, lies in provider. “We resolution any name globally inside of 20 seconds. No robots, no press-one-for-this menus,” he mentioned. “Customer support is primary.”
Much more revealing: Over 50% of shopper messages on Travel.com’s platform occur ahead of reserving, now not after. “That implies vacationers are the use of us to ensure, ask and consider,” he mentioned. “That’s empowerment.”
Reserving.com: The human at the back of the tech
For Houldsworth, the largest false impression about OTAs is they’re all algorithms and no empathy.
“Sure, we’re tech-first, however we’re fixing a human downside and that human isn’t going away,” she mentioned.
She famous that generation, when carried out smartly, complements quite than replaces human connection. “We’ve moved from solving portions of the funnel to rethinking the entire adventure,” she mentioned.
OTAs, she added, are not as regards to transactions, they’re about inspiration. “We’re now on the most sensible of the funnel,” she mentioned. “We’re serving to vacationers dream. And that implies we will have to be relied on at each and every degree, now not simply at checkout.”
For Reserving.com, that consider comes from 350 million evaluations—peer-to-peer validation that helps to keep the platform human, even in an AI-driven global.
“Folks don’t submit that they booked on Reserving.com,” she mentioned. “They submit concerning the superb enjoy that they had, and that’s precisely the way it will have to be.”
COMO: The artwork of enjoy orchestration
As a hotelier, Mahindroo introduced the dialog again to fundamentals: consider and knowledge.
“We’ve in large part solved distribution,” he mentioned. “What we haven’t solved is consider.”
He painted an all-too-familiar image: a returning visitor nonetheless being requested to fill of their electronic mail and cope with upon check-in or a spa bundle booked on-line that doesn’t align with on-site availability.
“The issue isn’t distribution; it’s knowledge disconnection,” he mentioned. “Our applied sciences engage in silos. Our consumers don’t.”
COMO, he defined, makes a speciality of “enjoy orchestration”—aligning each and every touchpoint, from reserving to spa to meals and beverage, into one cohesive waft. “It’s more difficult than construction a reserving funnel,” he mentioned, “but it surely’s the place loyalty is in point of fact received.”
He cited examples like COMO’s collaborations with Rafa Nadal Academy, NASA and Nationwide Geographic photographers to create immersive, multigenerational reviews.
“The ones aren’t promotions,” he mentioned. “They’re emotional investments. We want to get started measuring go back on emotional funding, now not simply RevPAR.”
Accept as true with, friction, and the posh paradox
The panel turned around again to at least one common ache level—friction.
Travel’s Chai shared a non-public tale of arriving at a Ecu resort in the dead of night after finishing pre-check-in on-line, handiest to spend an hour at reception.
“Generation will have to take away friction, now not fortify it,” he mentioned. “It’s now not about pace. It’s about doing the best factor for the client.”
Accept as true with, he added, is constructed “thru enjoy, thru phrase of mouth and thru doing the best factor over and over again.”
Houldsworth agreed: “All of us need to personal the client till one thing is going fallacious,” she mentioned dryly. “That’s when everybody will have to personal the client.”
The commentary drew laughter and realizing nods from each hoteliers and OTAs within the room.
A shared long run: Competing for retention
When Healy requested if the trade had in point of fact moved on from channel obsession, Mahindroo was once philosophical.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” he mentioned. “For many years, we’ve obsessed over value of acquisition. It’s time to compete for retention as a substitute.”
He challenged hoteliers to behave right through the keep, now not after. “We nonetheless stay up for a TripAdvisor evaluate to mention, ‘We’re sorry you had a nasty enjoy.’ What had been we doing when the visitor was once proper there?”
Houldsworth stated the honesty. “The dialog is converting, but it surely hasn’t long past away,” she mentioned. “We’ll nonetheless speak about value, channels and possession. However the shift towards enjoy and generation because the differentiators is plain.”
Chai closed on a observe of harmony. “If we stroll the adventure at the side of our consumers—OTAs, logo.com, motels—the client wins, we win and the arena wins,” he mentioned.
“Global peace,” Laura quipped.
Proudly owning the sensation, now not the channel
Healy wrapped the consultation with a sentiment that summed up the brand new generation: “The visitor will select the place they need to guide. They received’t care concerning the channel. What they’ll be mindful is how we made them really feel,” she mentioned.
“Whoever makes the adventure easy, private and noteworthy—that’s who they’ll select once more.”
This tale at the start gave the impression in WiT.
At WiT Singapore, motels and OTAs discovered commonplace floor in a brand new battleground: consider, enjoy and emotion
20 years on, the previous debate between direct as opposed to oblique bookings nonetheless echoes thru resort convention halls. However at WiT Singapore 2025, the message was once transparent: The way forward for hospitality isn’t about channels, it’s concerning the visitor.
Moderated via Kerry Healy, CCO for Accor’s top class, midscale and economic system manufacturers around the Center East, Africa, Turkey and Asia Pacific, the panel introduced in combination 4 heavyweights with distinct views:
- Puneet Mahindroo, team director of earnings control and distribution, COMO Inns and Hotel
- Boon Sian Chai, managing director and VP of world markets, Travel.com Crew
- Laura Houldsworth, managing director of Asia Pacific, Reserving.com
In combination, they unpacked a central reality: Visitors don’t care the place they guide; they care how they really feel once they arrive.
The nice reframe: From channels to enjoy
Healy set the tone early: “When was once the final time a visitor looked at and instructed you what channel they booked on?” she requested. “They don’t. They simply need it to be simple, seamless and to really feel valued.”
Her provocation reframed the dialog from possession to orchestration: how motels and platforms can co-create a adventure that starts with inspiration and ends with loyalty.
“These days, it’s now not about direct or oblique,” Healy mentioned. “It’s about what occurs when the visitor presentations up—and the way we cause them to really feel.”
Travel.com: Empowerment, now not possession
Boon Sian Chai of Travel.com Crew was once fast to reject the perception that on-line shuttle businesses (OTA) are looking to personal consumers.
“It’s now not about possession—it’s about empowerment,” he mentioned. “Our position is to offer consumers the gear, knowledge and content material they want to make the most productive choices.”
He pointed to Travel Genie, Travel.com’s AI assistant, and Travel Moments, a social function the place vacationers proportion itineraries and reviews. Each goal to make shuttle discovery extra personalised and interactive.
However the corporate’s largest differentiator, he mentioned, lies in provider. “We resolution any name globally inside of 20 seconds. No robots, no press-one-for-this menus,” he mentioned. “Customer support is primary.”
Much more revealing: Over 50% of shopper messages on Travel.com’s platform occur ahead of reserving, now not after. “That implies vacationers are the use of us to ensure, ask and consider,” he mentioned. “That’s empowerment.”
Reserving.com: The human at the back of the tech
For Houldsworth, the largest false impression about OTAs is they’re all algorithms and no empathy.
“Sure, we’re tech-first, however we’re fixing a human downside and that human isn’t going away,” she mentioned.
She famous that generation, when carried out smartly, complements quite than replaces human connection. “We’ve moved from solving portions of the funnel to rethinking the entire adventure,” she mentioned.
OTAs, she added, are not as regards to transactions, they’re about inspiration. “We’re now on the most sensible of the funnel,” she mentioned. “We’re serving to vacationers dream. And that implies we will have to be relied on at each and every degree, now not simply at checkout.”
For Reserving.com, that consider comes from 350 million evaluations—peer-to-peer validation that helps to keep the platform human, even in an AI-driven global.
“Folks don’t submit that they booked on Reserving.com,” she mentioned. “They submit concerning the superb enjoy that they had, and that’s precisely the way it will have to be.”
COMO: The artwork of enjoy orchestration
As a hotelier, Mahindroo introduced the dialog again to fundamentals: consider and knowledge.
“We’ve in large part solved distribution,” he mentioned. “What we haven’t solved is consider.”
He painted an all-too-familiar image: a returning visitor nonetheless being requested to fill of their electronic mail and cope with upon check-in or a spa bundle booked on-line that doesn’t align with on-site availability.
“The issue isn’t distribution; it’s knowledge disconnection,” he mentioned. “Our applied sciences engage in silos. Our consumers don’t.”
COMO, he defined, makes a speciality of “enjoy orchestration”—aligning each and every touchpoint, from reserving to spa to meals and beverage, into one cohesive waft. “It’s more difficult than construction a reserving funnel,” he mentioned, “but it surely’s the place loyalty is in point of fact received.”
He cited examples like COMO’s collaborations with Rafa Nadal Academy, NASA and Nationwide Geographic photographers to create immersive, multigenerational reviews.
“The ones aren’t promotions,” he mentioned. “They’re emotional investments. We want to get started measuring go back on emotional funding, now not simply RevPAR.”
Accept as true with, friction, and the posh paradox
The panel turned around again to at least one common ache level—friction.
Travel’s Chai shared a non-public tale of arriving at a Ecu resort in the dead of night after finishing pre-check-in on-line, handiest to spend an hour at reception.
“Generation will have to take away friction, now not fortify it,” he mentioned. “It’s now not about pace. It’s about doing the best factor for the client.”
Accept as true with, he added, is constructed “thru enjoy, thru phrase of mouth and thru doing the best factor over and over again.”
Houldsworth agreed: “All of us need to personal the client till one thing is going fallacious,” she mentioned dryly. “That’s when everybody will have to personal the client.”
The commentary drew laughter and realizing nods from each hoteliers and OTAs within the room.
A shared long run: Competing for retention
When Healy requested if the trade had in point of fact moved on from channel obsession, Mahindroo was once philosophical.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” he mentioned. “For many years, we’ve obsessed over value of acquisition. It’s time to compete for retention as a substitute.”
He challenged hoteliers to behave right through the keep, now not after. “We nonetheless stay up for a TripAdvisor evaluate to mention, ‘We’re sorry you had a nasty enjoy.’ What had been we doing when the visitor was once proper there?”
Houldsworth stated the honesty. “The dialog is converting, but it surely hasn’t long past away,” she mentioned. “We’ll nonetheless speak about value, channels and possession. However the shift towards enjoy and generation because the differentiators is plain.”
Chai closed on a observe of harmony. “If we stroll the adventure at the side of our consumers—OTAs, logo.com, motels—the client wins, we win and the arena wins,” he mentioned.
“Global peace,” Laura quipped.
Proudly owning the sensation, now not the channel
Healy wrapped the consultation with a sentiment that summed up the brand new generation: “The visitor will select the place they need to guide. They received’t care concerning the channel. What they’ll be mindful is how we made them really feel,” she mentioned.
“Whoever makes the adventure easy, private and noteworthy—that’s who they’ll select once more.”
This tale at the start gave the impression in WiT.
