Cash-on-delivery at hotels with ZEN Rooms

Since launching in 2015, ZEN Rooms, the leading budget accommodation company in Southeast Asia, has shaken up the hospitality industry in the region by providing a more affordable, disruptive alternative to traditional hotel chains. The company has announced the release of a new, groundbreaking feature allowing anyone, irrespective of card ownership, to book an affordable room and travel safely.

Indeed, close to 75 percent of the population in Southeast Asia (i.e. 438 million people) are still unbanked today. Thus, credit card penetration is also very low, with 74 percent of transactions still paid in cash. Then, why are credit cards still required for the majority of online transactions?

The hospitality industry is particularly concerned, as a credit card is usually needed to secure a booking, even if the payment itself only happens at check-in.

By introducing its Payat-hotel feature, ZEN Rooms becomes the first budget hotel chain in SEA to disrupt the status quo and allow 100 percent credit-card-free bookings. The only thing required to confirm a booking on www. zenrooms.com is a valid phone number.

The feature is currently available for over 500 ZEN Rooms locations and is being rolled out to 1,000 ZEN locations in the next three months.

The pay-at-hotel option will complement other payment methods available at the moment, such as credit card payment and bank transfer.

“We are really glad to finally announce this pay-athotel feature. This of course removes a significant barrier to travel in SEA. We founded ZEN in 2015 to change hospitality in the region for the better with a full customercentric approach and this is one important step forward to allow more people travel across the region, in line with our motto and mission Travel More, Pay Less! Since introducing the feature in our Q1 pilot, we saw a 100 percent increase in booking rate and only confirmed our view that this can transform the hospitality industry in a similar way cash-ondelivery revolutionized ecommerce in the past few years,” said co-CEO of ZEN Rooms Nathan Boublil.

Founded in 2015 in Jakarta, ZEN Rooms has since become the fastest growing budget accommodation franchise in Southeast Asia. ZEN specializes in providing top value-for-money accommodations (hotels, B&Bs, guest houses, apartments) by guaranteeing all the key essentials needed for a comfortable stay and unbeatable rates (starting at only $10). Every ZEN Rooms guest is guaranteed cleanliness, free fast Wi-Fi, comfortable double bed, working AC, a hot shower and 24/7 customer support. ZEN Rooms are now available in seven territories in Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

ZEN Rooms is backed by German conglomerate Rocket Internet, telecom group Ooredoo and SBI Investments Korea.