Connecting hotels and travellers

Muscat - The Sahala platform was developed to connect travellers to hotels so that the whole process is ‘legit and hassle free’, according to Adnan al Shuaili, founder and CEO of eMushrif.

“During the time of COVID-19, we wanted to support the government through a digital medium. Sahala connects travellers to hotels in an easy way,” Shuaili said.

“Our call centre has been activated now to help those with queries. We have also activated live chats in the system. We had not expected a large number of queries before.”

On refunds, Shuaili said, “A refund process is already there in the system in case travellers want to cancel their hotel stays. It’s up and running fine.”

As for hotel price options, Shuaili said, “We do not have any control over prices. We are a platform to regulate the process and monitor it to make sure people go to hotels, not to regulate prices and hotel capacity.”

He said that prices depend on supply and demand. “In Oman, we have around 500 hotels. On Sahala, around 400 hotels are registered and we expect more in the coming days which will make prices more affordable.”

For the hotels that show ‘Sold out’, Shuaili said, “Rooms are actually not sold out. Once people check out, hotels need to update in the system. If that is not done, the system will continue to show as ‘Sold out’.”

He said Sahala tracks information beginning from landing in the airport to bracelet attachment to hotel quarantine.

“We take this data and give it to the concerned authorities. We work closely with the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, Royal Oman Police and Oman Airports.”