INDONESIA’s MG Group has split its online hotel wholesale and inbound travel division in a restructuring and rebranding exercise, it announced today during the two-day MG Mega Table Top B2B trade fair in Jakarta.
MG Holiday’s hotel business is now MG Bedbank and its travel division has taken on the name MG Destination.
MG Group COO Raymond, who like a good number of Indonesians go by one name only, explained the name change. “The word ‘holiday’ in the travel trade refers to a set of components, including ticketing, hotel voucher and tour packages. We wanted to focus on growing each division; therefore, we separated the hotel wholesale and inbound tour division.”
The rebranding includes the revitalisation of MG Bedbank’s website to put it on a par with B2C OTAs, which is capturing a significant share of bookings even with higher prices.
Having noticed instant confirmation was a key factor to this, MG has invested in a system allowing sub-agents to access inventory and provide clients with instant confirmation.
Raymond said MG Bedbank and its sub-agents offers more competitive commissions for hotels – three to five per cent against OTAs, where rates can go up to 25 per cent.
Furthermore, with so many new hotels opening all over Indonesia, often with more than one property under the same brand, travel consultants are able to advise which hotel is most convenient for the traveller.
“Booking through a travel company also provides more flexibility in date changes and payment methods,” he added.
At the moment, MG Bedbank has more than 3,000 sub-agents in Indonesia, more than 2,500 hotels in its Indonesian inventory and 200,000 hotels overseas.
