TravTalk India Online Magazine
Anuj Bang, Chief Information Officer, Stuba, is determined to enhance the user experience on the website. He speaks exclusively to TRAVTALK about what the online accommodation wholesaler will bring to the travel trade in 2024.
Hazel Jain
Year 2023 marked a historic milestone for Stuba, a premier online accommodation wholesaler catering exclusively to travel agents and tour operators. It was the best year for the platform in over 30 years of trading in both sales and profitability – a testament of its resilience, strategic investments and commitment to its partners. Anuj Bang, Chief Information Officer, Stuba, is ecstatic.
He says, “Our proactive investments during COVID ensured that we emerged stronger than ever, both in structural readiness and technological advancements, which positioned us favourably for the rebound that exceeded expectations.”
A huge achievement was the 100 per cent adoption of its platform for curated hotels, launched to the trade last year. This platform became a driving force behind Stuba’s substantial growth, offering travel agents a powerful tool to enhance their effectiveness.
“Throughout the year, we have continued to evolve the platform, introducing new curations such as trade deals, VIP perks, boutique hotels, and pre and post-cruise accommodations. Our commitment to product strategy was further solidified with the appointment of Malcolm Lindop as Sourcing Director based in the UK. In a short time, his contributions have proved invaluable in contracting the right products, ensuring Stuba remains at the forefront of delivering excellence to our travel agent partners. The expansion of our global sales team, including a strengthened presence in India, reflected our commitment to listening to and serving the evolving needs of our travel agent partners,” Bang adds.
Focus areas for 2024
As we head into 2024, Bang’s expectations and focus areas are grounded in the momentum gained from the successes of 2023. “On the back of our strategic investments and early wins, we are confident that we are on course for another exceptional year of sustained growth and profitability. In 2024, we remain dedicated to enhancing the user experience on our website, driven by continuous feedback from our valued travel agent partners. Our commitment to delivering features and tools that cater to the needs of travel agents underscores our unwavering support for their success,” he shares.
Behind the scenes, substantial investments are being made to comprehensively upgrade Stuba’s infrastructure, including advanced cloud capabilities, the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various business functions, and the upgrading of its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and finance systems. “These efforts are geared towards elevating our service standards, enhancing speed, and ensuring efficiency in our interactions with both travel agents and hotel partners. We have already set the service bar very high to deliver excellent service, and we intend to continue to challenge ourselves and raise the bar even higher,” the young CIO says.
Collaborations
Stuba has recently formed a strategic alliance with Vervotech, a renowned B2B accommodation data management brand, to enhance its offerings and deliver immaculate accommodation content to its customers. Through this partnership with Vervotech, Stuba’s goal is to leverage Vervotech’s AI-driven hotel mapping technology to offer its customers a property list with the latest content, removing all possibilities of duplicate hotel content and bad property mappings. This move also nullifies any possible challenges for Stuba related to passing outdated hotel partner data to its customers, which effectively enhances the quality of its accommodation offerings.
Stuba’s platform uses clever tech to curate hotels by lifestyle categories, including luxe, beach, family, as well as predictive analytics to show trending hotels and exclusive trade deals, enabling travel agents to fine-tune their accommodation searches to precisely match their client’s needs.
Sharing why he loves his work, Bang says, “There is a lot to love as I have been involved with the organisation since 2007. Both travel and technology are such interesting domains close to my heart. I get to work with such great minds and souls from within the organisation and the broader industry that it helps me develop as an individual every day. It is immensely satisfying when you realise that so many people, including our own staff and individuals directly and indirectly connected to Stuba, are positively impacted by the business of which you are a part of.”
