Interview Manuel Hilty, CEO Nezasa
“Technology is the key to innovate the travel industry”
Nezasa provides the technology to make hyper-personalised trip creation a reality. Its state of the art software is spearheading trip planning technology to guarantee its transition from static to live itineraries. It covers all aspects of the travel lifecycle with unprecedented speed and efficiency- from booking over in-destination experiences until the completion of the trip. In this interview, Manuel Hilty, CEO of Nezasa explains how has the experience been for his company to be on collaboration and connectivity through TravelgateX.
Tell us a little about. How did the business start, and how has it evolved over the years?
From the beginning, Nezasa was all about making personalized travel packages simple to design, plan and book. Planning a trip is part of the holiday experience! But it has to be simple and inspirational. This in mind, Nezasa started the quest to bring this type of experience to the travel industry: not just for end consumers, but also for travel agencies. We set out to revolutionize the travel industry and to make hyper-personalised travelling and the so-called “connected trip” a reality.
Can you describe the importance of two key factors to Nezasa development: technology... and customer service.
Technology is the key to innovate the travel industry. We still see many manual processes which we think can be automated in a way that the tour operators and travel agencies can focus on what is the most important: the customer. The customer service is what enables technology to be integrated and set up easily and maintained to the full satisfaction of the customer.
How long has Nezasa been a partner of TravelgateX? What did you know of us beforehand?
We started our collaboration with TravelgateX in 2018 when we wanted to offer our clients (TO, travel agencies) an easy way to access inventory from various suppliers. We knew at that time that TravelgateX had a very high-performing solution for this type of use case.
What led you to move to TravelgateX? What are the main factors that influenced your decision?
TravelgateX allows us to maintain one technical connection for accessing many suppliers. This means less effort required for the integration of any new supplier, which is very important for our business model where we want to offer our customers as much freedom of choice in terms of sourcing as possible.
How easy was it to integrate the TravelgateX API - and how long did it take?
The integration took us approximately 3 months. It could be done in less time for many purposes, but we had to support many use cases and to build the integration into a complex workflow where not only one hotel is booked at a time. The API of TravelgateX is well documented and support is responsive.
What are the benefits of using the TravelgateX API?
The API normalizes the responses from many suppliers into a single API for Nezasa. All important use cases of hotel supply are covered in the TravelgateX API.
How does working with TravelgateX and using the TravelgateX API help you to achieve your business goals?
It significantly reduces time to market in case a new supplier connection is required. TravelgateX allows us to do an easy and fast setup of new suppliers.
You partner with many other tech companies – what makes TravelgateX different?
With TravelgateX we have a very direct communication, an easy ticketing system for bugs, easy setup requests via connection forms and an ongoing cooperation that does not end after implementation is done.
What’s the most interesting or useful thing to come out of a TravelgateX meeting? In what ways have these sessions made a difference to your relationship with TravelgateX?
The meetings are always very cooperative, with the spirit of finding solutions together.
Lastly – how would you describe TravelgateX in three single words?
Velocity, Cooperation, Honesty.