Travel & Hospitality Awards | Travel Innovation, Design & Technology 2021 | www.thawards.com

In a nutshell, what is Karhoo?
"Karhoo is a cloud platform allowing travel and hospitality
operators to resell mobility services, such as first and last
mile connections and in-stay journeys. For that purpose we
aggregate thousands of mobility providers around the world,
starting with taxi and private hire vehicle companies, and make
them available in the form of a marketplace delivering choice
and fair market price to end-customers.
Our product comes with various integration options. An API
provides the most complete way of embedding mobility into
websites and apps, for example as add-on in the checkout flow.
Alternatively, we offer an SDK to speed up mobile development
and a pre-built fully customisable microsite supporting rapid
deployment within a few days or weeks.
To sum up, we’re a business and technology enabler for travel
and hospitality operators. We help them enhance their offers,
build “one stop shop” apps and generate ancillary revenues. My
previous 12-year experience with Accor and Booking.com tells
me that mobility is very relevant for the travel and hospitality
industry when addressed through digital solutions to create
seamless experiences for clients."
Karhoo started as a taxi comparator app. What’s the model now?
"The previous Karhoo team learnt the hard way about client
acquisition in e-hailing, one of the most competitive markets.
We realised that channeling established brands was a wiser
alternative to coupons. Hence we moved to a B2B model
allowing brands to act as distribution channels for their clients
while leveraging our valuable connections to thousands of taxi
and PHV fleets.
We now focus on developing the most complete and robust
mobility exchange platform, capable of managing trips from
the initial booking to the final settlement between brands and
fleets, at a global scale.
Our model creates a win-win situation. On one side, travel and
hospitality operators can very easily offer seamless mobility to
their clients and quickly build new ancillary revenue streams.
And on the other side, our fleet partners grow their business
and compete with disrupting e-hailers by distributing their
service through the most powerful brands in the world!"
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