Korea’s Billion-Dollar Travel Group Yanolja Doubles Down on ZEN Rooms to Create Future of Hospitality in Southeast Asia
Highlights:
- Yanolja, Korea’s billion dollar travel group, double down on ZEN Rooms one year after investing US$15M in 2018. Through this transaction, Yanolja is investingadditional funds in the Company, purchasing stakes from early investors and announcing a wide strategic alliance between the two groups
- ZEN joins forces with one of the most technologically innovative travel groups and its backers Booking Holdings to create the first full service budget & mid-range hospitality group in SEA
- ZEN willheavily deploy technology to continue to improve Southeast Asia’s hospitality sector, enhance customer experience and lower hotels’ operating costs
- ZEN has achieved market leading customer satisfaction ratings in its franchise business, quadrupled revenue in the past year and became in Q4 2018 the largest hotel chain in the Philippines
Singapore, October 16th 2019 -- ZEN Rooms (“ZEN”, “Company”), one of the leading economy and mid-range hotel franchises in Southeast Asia, today announced it had signed a definitive agreement with travel group Yanolja regarding additional investment, acquisition of early investors’ stakes and the signing of a wide strategic alliance. Yanolja is the leading travel group in South Korea, backed by Booking Holdings and GIC, among others. Yanolja was the lead strategic investor in the company’s US$15M funding round in 2018, with rights to invest further. Early investor Asia Internet Holdings (Joint Venture of Rocket Internet and Ooredoo Telecom) has agreed to exit its stake to Yanolja. RedBadge Pacific and SBI Korea remain investors, and Access Ventures join as co-investors.
The alliance of
ZEN and Yanolja creates the leading economy & mid-range hospitality group
in Southeast Asia.It combines ZEN’s top-ratedbudget hotel franchise business
with Yanolja’s scale, hospitality technologies and the backing by the global
leader in Online Travel, Booking Holdings (behind Booking.com, Agoda,
Priceline.com, Kayaketc), thus granting ZEN unique competitive advantages in both
hotel technology and sales distribution. The groups will work to heavily deploy
automation technology to enhance customer experience, further reduce budget
hotels’ operating costs and reinvent budget hospitality
across Southeast Asia.
ZEN Rooms is today
one of the largest hotel franchises in Southeast Asia, with 13,000 rooms under
franchise. Since Yanolja’s investment in mid 2018, ZEN has grown revenues 400%
and has becomein Q2 2019 the largest hotel chain in fast-emerging Philippines,
with 5,500 rooms under franchise.
Southeast Asia
is today the world’s fastest growing travel market, fueled by exponential
domestic and regional demand of young travelers and millennials (e.g. the
number of Chinese visitors has quadrupled in the past decade[1]).
Yet, the value-for-money proposition of its budget hotel sector has
historically been defective, plagued by several issues: fragmentation, poor
hygiene & safety standards, lack of training and low technology use.
ZEN was founded
in 2015 to improve the state of budget hospitality and bring much needed operational
and technological efficiency to the estimated 2 million independent economy
rooms in the region. Thousands of hotel owners have since joined ZEN’s
franchises to improve their revenue, optimize their cost base and increase the
long-term value of their property. These efficiency gains ultimately benefit
travelers who can enjoy safer and better value-for-money stays.
With a deep
emphasis on customer satisfaction, ZEN franchisees have enjoyed the best
average guest ratings on Booking.com for two years in a row.
Nathan Boublil,
co-founder & CEO of ZEN, comments: “We started ZEN exactly 4 years ago to
make budget accommodation in Southeast Asia more affordable and safer. We have
proudly built ZEN into the top-rated budget hotel franchise in the region and were
honored to be Yanolja’s 1st international investment. With this strategic
alliance, we are joining forces with one of the most technologically innovative
travel groups and its unique backers Booking Holdings to create the first full
service budget & mid-range hospitality group in SEA, able to deploy world-class
technology infrastructure in IoT R&D, automation, hardware and software to
all hotels in Southeast Asia.This alliance will greatly benefit our ability to
serve our hotel clients and ultimately the travelers of the entire
region”.
Jongyoon Kim,
CEO of Online Business at Yanolja, adds: “Since first investing in ZEN, we have
shared the same vision of operational excellence and customer centricity to
radically improve the SE Asian hospitality market. In the last 12 months, the
ZEN team has taken major steps to fulfill this vision and has grown
exponentially while displayingtop inventory quality. With this exciting agreement,
Yanolja plans to fully support ZEN to solidify its status as the market leading
full-stack hospitality company in the region".
For enquiries, contact: Nathan Boublil, co-Founder & CEO - nathan@zenrooms.com ; Nika Plana, PR - nika.plana@zenrooms.com
***
About ZEN Rooms
Founded in 2015
by entrepreneurs Kiren Tanna and Nathan Boublil, ZEN Rooms was founded to
improve the state of budget hospitality in Southeast Asia, making travel more
affordable and safer. ZEN is now one of the fastest growing hospitality
companies in the region, the #1 hotel chain in the Philippines and Top 3 budget
hotel chain in Southeast Asia. ZEN helps budget & mid-range hotels operate
more efficiently and increase the value of their property through a range of
operational & technological solutions. ZEN contributes daily to
democratizing access to safe and affordable travel with millions of travelers
staying at ZEN's franchised or operated properties each year. ZEN has raised
US$23M equity funding from leading institutional investors Rocket Internet,
Ooredoo Telecom, RedBadge Pacific, SBI Investments Korea and
Yanolja.
About Yanolja
Yanolja is
Korea's No.1 leisure platform leading the industry in providing travelers with
real-time travel –and –stay booking services connecting them to a comprehensive
database of hotels, motels, private lodgings, guesthouses, and international
accommodations. Yanolja is driving innovation in the travel and tourism industry
by utilizing and integrating new technologies such as IoT, AI, and AR, to offer
enhanced solutions for all stakeholders involved. Yanolja will continue to
develop and introduce innovative solutions that enables users to enjoy leisure
most efficiently and conveniently. In June 2019, Yanolja announced a capital
raise of $180M funding from GIC and Booking Holdings at a valuation of over
US$1bn.
