BEIJING, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China's leading and fastest growing house-sharing platform Xiaozhu.com has announced a global strategic partnership with global online booking platform agoda, a member of Booking Holdings. The companies will collaborate in areas including listings, technology and service innovation, branding and marketing, thus leveraging their expertise in different markets, to innovate homestay and homeshare experiences for worldwide consumers. The initial phase of the cooperative partnership will see both parties share inventory, resulting in 100,000 listings on each platform.
agoda is one of the fastest growing online travel platforms offering a choice of 1.8 million properties to its guests around the world. Since entering China in 2015, agoda has become one of the primary choices of accommodation booking for Chinese tourists traveling overseas, and foreign tourists visiting China.
Spencer Low, Managing Director, Greater China explains: "This partnership will offer alternatives to traditional hotels in China, and will benefit travelers who are looking for more distinctive options for their accommodation needs. Together Xiaozhu and agoda will provide easy access to listings that offer different benefits. One is the flexibility of staying together at a larger property when traveling as a group of friends or family, while another is more options for business travelers who crave the comforts of home. Additionally, these listings include a range of price points to cater for a variety of budgets. We are confident that the combination of Xiaozhu's rich knowledge of the China market and agoda's global OTA expertise will enhance consumers' experience of homestays."
Chen Chi, co-founder and CEO of Xiaozhu, also commented this joining of forces as a win-win cooperation. agoda's worldwide success, especially its experience in Asian countries, will enhance Xiaozhu's globalization momentum. "As Chinese outbound and inbound tourism is growing rapidly, homestay platforms must be able to provide high-quality services to global consumers. To this end, Xiaozhu is accelerating cooperation with our industry partners", Chen explains.
Since launching its overseas business in 2017, Xiaozhu now covers listings in over 100 overseas cities, with a particularly strong upward trend in booming homestay markets like Japan and Thailand. In the "2017-2018 China Sharing Economy Survey Report" released by Nanfang Daily, Nanfang+ APP and iMedia Research in February, Xiaozhu was ranked first in the competitiveness chart of house sharing industry.
