HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
STAAH, the New Zealand-based leading hospitality solutions provider partnered with hotels booking platform booking.com, WebBeds, the global marketplace for travel trade and Airpay, the payment gateway solutions provider to host a successful edition of ‘The Big Connect’ networking hospitech conference in Chennai.
Held at the GRT Chennai Convention Centre, the event saw the participation of over a 120+ industry experts and innovators who all gathered to foster connections, share and exchange knowledge with an aim to fortify the hospitality sector in India.
The event featured insightful sessions on various topics focused on the travel personas, behaviours and expectations that have emerged in the new travel market, and how property owners can capitalise on this change to maximise their revenue.
“The Big Connect provides a wonderful platform, where hoteliers come together to harness the power of technology for driving growth and boosting revenue. We are excited to meet our industry representatives here in Chennai and look at new ways to propel the sector to greater heights,” said Rajesh Ghanshani, Director – Partnerships, who opened the conference with his keynote address.
Esteemed industry leaders from Booking.com, WebBeds, Airpay along with STAAH offered their expertise in sessions, which covered a range of topics, including sharing Overview of Booking.com, Leveraging B2B growth with Online Distribution, Simply Payments & Amplify Sales and Integration Technologies & Right Distribution Mix.
Deva Kumar, CEO – Coral Beach Resort, Mahabalipuram, expressed “The event named The Big Connect truly lives up to its name by facilitating significant connections throughout the industry. It’s an excellent event that greatly broadens our understanding of STAAH.”
“A truly fantastic event that excelled in connecting individuals and fostering great networking opportunities.” says Charlie, Revenue Manager from Raintree Hotels
With a focus on leveraging technology to optimize distribution channels and enhance guest experience, ‘The Big Connect’ delivered valuable insights and actionable strategies for the accommodation providers in Chennai. The event also offered networking opportunities to owners of hotels, motels and vacation rentals while they could also gain key insights on top trends in the hotel sector with respect to latest tools and strategies to drive more bookings.
The Big Connect – Chennai was a highly successful Dinner event. The invaluable insights and recommendations from industry experts are primed to be instrumental in driving the growth of India’s travel sector. We are eagerly looking forward to hosting more such events in near future.” Shoaib Ali, National Sales Head – India, STAAH.
The event concluded with a lively Q&A session followed by a Lucky Draw and Dinner.
Globally, the ‘The Big Connect’ conference, that was hosted by STAAH for the first time in the year 2018 at the HHI Kolkata, and since then travelled to over various countries. In India, STAAH has organized the conference in over seven cities like Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Udaipur & Chennai.
