SINGAPORE, 20 June 2024: RateHawk, an online system for travel professionals booking hotels, air tickets, and transfers, has established its Asian headquarters in Singapore.
With the ambitious goal of targeting travel agents in Asia, RateHawk delivers an advanced booking tool tailored to the local markets. The launch of this hub and legal entity in Singapore will position RateHawk as a key industry player, actively serving travel agents across Asia.
Following its successful performance in Europe and the Middle East, RateHawk targets Asia with a localised platform and business operations.
Local travel agents, operators, travel management companies (TMCs), and other industry professionals will have access to RateHawk’s full range of travel services.
It features over 2.5 million accommodations worldwide, flights from over 400 airlines, and transfers in 150 countries. The platform has various language editions, including Thai, Chinese, and Korean. It also offers dedicated language support lines in Thai and Korean during business hours and a 24/7 multi-language support line to ensure high-quality customer care.
Establishing its Singaporean presence as a legal entity will facilitate payment transactions, avoiding additional costs due to exchange rates. Travel professionals will benefit from making payments in several local currencies, including Singapore Dollar (SGD), Thai Baht (THB), and Malaysian Ringgit (MYR).
Emerging Travel Group CEO Felix Shpilman commented: “The preliminary market evaluation revealed a strong demand among travel industry players for a user-friendly, comprehensive B2B platform offering a full range of services at competitive terms, powered by advanced technology and high-quality support. Our early operations in the region have demonstrated the product-market fit of RateHawk in Asia. Therefore, we are ready to elevate our operations and establish a robust regional presence. We expect our new legal entity in Singapore will significantly enhance the user experience for Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia partners. For us, launching this hub means laying the foundation for becoming the leading preferred B2B booking platform in Asia. We will continue to localise the product further and ensure full coverage of the entire region”.
RateHawk is entering the region with a dedicated commercial team of over 30 people — business development and sales managers — overseeing Southeast, South, and East Asia. Each registered partner is assigned an account manager to help the partner onboard the system, customise contract settings, and assist with financial matters. Given the potential of the B2B travel sector in Asia, the company plans to expand the team further to ensure support for travel agencies in all parts of the continent.
RateHawk Head of Business Development Southeast Asia Jennifer Chua commented: “RateHawk is perfectly positioned to meet the needs of travel agencies and operators of all sizes, including collaborations through API and tech platforms. Our extensive 2.5 million-strong accommodation supply spans over 220 countries, with particularly strong coverage in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, which are in high demand among local travel professionals.
“Our plan for 2024 is to strengthen the team further and scale the business in Asia by increasing the reach locally. RateHawk will be present at several major regional travel fairs, including ITB Asia, later this year, where we will showcase our advanced solutions tailored for the local market”.
Launched in 2016, RateHawk employs over 500 professionals in commercial roles globally and has offices in London, Berlin, Milan, Lisbon, Warsaw, Dubai, Limassol, and Wilmington. The number of RateHawk partners exceeds 70,000 travel professionals worldwide. RateHawk offers a web platform and a mobile app enabling partners to handle business remotely.
RateHawk is part of the UAE-based Emerging Travel Group. This global travel company operates travel brands for individual travellers (ZenHotels), B2B travel professionals (RateHawk), and corporate customers (Roundtrip) in over 190 source markets. In 2023, Emerging Travel Group achieved a gross transaction value of $2.6 billion.
About RateHawk
RateHawk is an innovative B2B booking platform developed by Emerging Travel Group, a Dubai-based company. It offers hotels, flight tickets, transfers, car rentals, and other travel-related services. RateHawk offers its clients 2.5 million hotels and other accommodation types from over 250 wholesalers and 92,000 properties contracted directly, flight tickets from over 400 airlines, and transfers in over 150 countries.
