A new collaboration between Grab, a Singapore-based company offering ride-hailing transport services and travel accommodation booking platform Booking.com will now allow travellers to book local rides from the latter’s app. At present, the service is on iOS, and shall soon be accessed by android users.
According to Business Traveller, Booking.com users can now book Grab rides in Singapore without the hassle of downloading the Grab app or even creating a new account on the same.
This service is currently available in Singapore and will soon be extended to Indonesia and Thailand by the end of the year, and in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines by early 2020.
Users can choose their preferred currency and language on the service, and messages sent via the Grab’s instant messaging (IM) feature will be auto-translated into any of the 43 local languages that Booking.com operates in.
For example, Danish-speaking travellers in Singapore will be able to send messages to Grab drivers in their native language, as their messages will be auto-translated as long as they are using the Booking.com app.
South-east Asia, “with its love of mobile technology, is the obvious arena in which to take on the challenge of ride-hailing,” the companies said to Business Insider. According to ABI Research, as much 70 per cent of the world’s ride-hailing activity takes place in Asia as a whole.
Additionally, tourist arrivals to Asean are projected to reach 155.4 million by 2022, according to GlobalData.
According to the statement received by Tech in Asia, according to the statement, the latest move is part of a wider strategic partnership between Booking Holdings and Grab. Earlier this year, Grab introduced direct hotel bookings through its app in collaboration with Agoda and Booking.com. Booking Holdings also injected US$200 million into Grab.
