AsiaRooms.com Launches ‘The Right Room for You’ in Malaysia

Campaign Offers Personalised Deals for Malaysian Travellers Based on Local Insights

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – April 18, 2012 – On the back of a local survey that showed more than 50 percent of Malaysians booked their travels online, AsiaRooms.com, one of the world’s leading online travel agencies (OTA), today announced the launch of “The Right Room for You”, a campaign aimed at providing Malaysians with localised deals catered to the different needs of every unique Malaysian traveller.

Starting this April, Malaysians can log onto www.AsiaRooms.com/MY to browse for booking discounts of up to 76 percent across AsiaRooms.com’s network comprising more than 55,000 hotels. From budget hostels to five-star luxury resorts, travelers can now easily choose, compare, and book accommodation from the comfort of their own homes.“At AsiaRooms.com, we understand that each individual is different and each trip has different requirements. It is simply impossible to have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach,” said Andrew Pumphrey, Managing Director of AsiaRooms.com. “Malaysians are savvy travellers who constantly seek out the best bargains to get the most out of their travel experience. Whether you are backpacking or going on a family vacation, we want every Malaysian traveller to know that AsiaRooms.com definitely has ‘The Right Room for You’.”

This latest campaign was conceptualised based on insights from a local survey conducted by Blackbox Research among 150 online-savvy Malaysians late last year. The other countries involved in the survey were Australia, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.
Some key findings include:
 50% of Malaysians booked their travel trips online; slightly lower than the Asian region average of 61%.
 71% of Malaysians preferred booking first and paying later
 Only 31% of Malaysians online prefer booking with a travel package, a low statistic compared to the Asia-Pacific average at 48%.
 Top three essential hotel services include breakfast at hotel (45%); Internet in room (30%); and the use of swimming pool (21%).
 27% of Malaysians believe that the hotel can make or break the entire trip.
 45% believe that a good deal is the right room for the right price, not necessarily the lowest price
 When choosing a hotel, 52% of Malaysians regarded online reviews as the top influence in their decision-making process.

“These insights provided us a much clearer perspective of what Malaysian travellers needed and allowed us to customise our service and offerings accordingly. For instance, we expedited a Bahasa Malaysia local website that supported currency conversion to Malaysian Ringgit. We also moderated our reviews to ensure only genuine reviews were published so that customers receive a fair and true opinion to aid their decision-making,” added Pumphrey.

“With our new campaign, AsiaRooms.com is focused on placing the customer at the centre of what we do by adding value to their travels. We understand that our customers place huge importance on the hotel room, and to that end we’re facilitating the sharing of authentic, un-doctored hotel reviews from like-minded travellers so that everyone makes an informed decision on their potential destinations and hotels,” said Andrew Pumphrey, Managing Director, AsiaRooms.com.

“Today’s online travel industry has become heavily commoditised. For many people, the travel booking experience has become simply a process of searching through different sites for the best deals. We pride ourselves on providing authentic reviews from real travellers who’ve stayed in the hotel they’re reviewing. These reviews help travellers see the hotel from different points of view in an aggregated fashion, so they get to see the good and bad of the hotels all in a flash,” added Pumphrey.

AsiaRooms.com offers a 24-hour online booking portal, in six different languages. With all-inclusive rates, customers can book now and pay later for bookings up to a year in advance; or right up until the date of travel. Customers of AsiaRooms.com receive an instant confirmation of their booking whether they book online or by phone. Social media enthusiasts can now also check out deals and contests on the newly launched Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AsiaRoomsMalaysia. Since its inception in March, the page has quickly amassed a base of 2,000 fans in just over a month.