OLSET sets its sight on the lucrative business travel market

OLSET (pronounced “all set”) promises to revolutionize hotel distribution for the business traveler segment. Positioning itself as the first customizable booking engine, the platform pledges to provide a personalized short list of hotel recommendations in a manner of seconds.

This initiative aims to satisfy the needs of business travelers in a coveted market of flyers that lack time to plan their next trip.
According to OLSET co-founder Gadi Bashvitz, 78% of these travelers abandon their search for a hotel room.

Complex algorithms examine significant correlations between tastes and customer preferences in addition to evaluating  TripAdvisor reviews. This innovative use of big data generates three recommendations based on three variables, according to the importance given by the user, such as: location, price, classification and amenities.
Upon registering on the site, users have the option of creating their unique profiles specifying their likes and preferences; alternately, they may import a previously-created travel profile from a similar travel site on the Internet such as Expedia or Orbitz. If the user chooses the latter, their previous hotel stays are taking into account when making an analysis.

In order to fil its inventory of available hotel rooms, OLSET has affiliated with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN), which provides them with 140,000 available hotel rooms worldwide.
Users can make a reservation directly on the platform, choosing a travel destination or when one plans to travel.
One also may also choose to share their calendar with the portal, thus allowing one’s meeting request automatically create hotel recommendations.

OLSET integrates with Outlook, Google Calendar, as well as iPhone, iPad and Android calendar apps. The service has forged strategic alliances with such companies as GetGoing and Any.do to provide its users greater flexibility by being able to make booking directly from an application.

Since OLSET is betting on the business traveler sector, it’s going head-to-head with competitors like Concur, which caters to this group, and well-known OTA’s such as Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline.
The challenge remains in modifying the habits of flyers who traditionally book their own hotels and may distrust an application to do the task.