Cambodia’s own travel booking platform targets jet-setting families and locals

[Tharum Bun]

By: Janelle Retka - Posted on: October 16, 2018

Domestic holiday travel for Cambodians is often group-orientated – but
that comes with the struggle of finding a car park and space for the
whole crew to sleep. The new hotel booking service Bayonia.com, with
5,000 subscribers and a goal of 10,000 by the end of the year, wants
to make travel seamless. A year and 85 featured hotels since its
launch, founder Meas Sinal speaks with Southeast Asia Globe about what
sets his booking service apart.

Tell us about what Bayonia.com does…
Bayonia is the leading Cambodian hotel booking platform for local
travellers who love to travel with families, kids and groups of
friends. This could be a weekend getaway to the beach, festivals in
Angkor Wat or trips on public holidays to see nature. Bayonia provides
exclusive access to boutique hotels, luxury hotels and resorts… [for
an] experience tailor-made for Cambodians.

What sets your company apart from established booking platforms like
Booking.com?
Bayonia is a smaller, curated collection of accommodations approved by
our team and specifically selected to appeal to the Cambodian market.
We provide hotel rooms for local travellers who have different
requirements. At Bayonia, they can easily find rooms for more than
three people (like for families), hotels with parking space (because
people here mostly travel by car), hotels with activities for children
(because that’s a luxury that Cambodian middle-class families desire).
In the future, we will also provide locals with tours and programmes
nearby the hotels. Also, the price range is special for locals, and we
negotiate special deals for our clients.

Since launching your platform in late 2017, your company has listed
hotels in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kep and Kampot. What are your future
expansion plans, both in Cambodia and beyond?
We will soon add Battambang and other provincial capitals as well as
popular weekend destinations around Phnom Penh. We are already talking
to potential partners in Myanmar and Laos, since the markets and
customer needs there are similar… [But for] now, we are focusing on
leading the market in Cambodia and then exploring other countries. Our
main competitors are of course the big platforms like Booking.com and
the hotels themselves. In Cambodia, Booking.com has partnered up with
Agoda [of Singapore]. But the main reason why we chose the niche
market for families and local travellers is because there is no
competition yet.
http://sea-globe.com/bayonia-cambodias-travel-booking-platform/
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