(Seoul, South Korea – Sep. 13, 2022) ONDA, South Korea’s Hospitality Tech company, reports breakthrough growth for first half H1 2022. ONDA manages South Korea’s largest hotel and travel accommodations network with over 42 online bookings channel partners.
ONDA’s GMV(Gross Merchandise Value) increased by 100% YoY to $81 million in H1 2022. The number already exceeds last year’s total GMV ($76 million).
ONDA explained that its revenue doubled compared with 2021, along with a rapid increase in GMV. Both signs point to a healthy momentum for this hospitality tech startup.
ONDA’s growth was made possible through diversifying revenue sources and lowering dependence on small and medium-sized travel accommodations.
For instance, the percentage of sales from small and medium-sized accommodations such as vacation rentals, which made up most of ONDA’s GMV in H1 2019, fell to somewhere between 40% and 50% in H1 2022. During this period, ONDA was able to increase its hotel and resort sales from less than 10% of GMV in H1 2019 to about 30% to 35% in H1 2022. This upturn was accompanied by a boost in luxury accommodations earnings with its high ARPU(Average Revenue Per User), which accounted for 10% of GMV.
Another 2022 milestone for ONDA was expanding its online sales partners. The GDS (Global Distribution System), ONDA’s main revenue source, is a B2B platform that distributes hotel and travel accommodations to 42 domestic and overseas channels. It reported 107% growth YoY in H1 2022.
During the same period, ONDA’s GMV through its global channels such as Airbnb, Agoda, HotelsCombined, and Trip.com increased by 124.87% YoY. ONDA’s D2C (Direct to Customer) business that directly connects travelers and accommodation providers also increased its GMV by 193% YoY.
ONDA Select, a service providing a curated selection of accommodations, achieved a seven-fold increase of GMV in H1 2022. Notably, transactions by foreign users increased by 20%, proving increased demand for inbound travel and signaling the reopening of the Korean travel market.
ONDA also plans to directly operate residences and hotels and deliver substantial revenue this year, after successful trial operations in 2021.
ONDA will continue to focus its efforts on the digital transformation of the hospitality industry. It plans to increase its supply of customized SaaS based PMS (Property Management System) to premium hotels and expand its D2C business to promote the small and medium-sized accommodations sector. In fact, ONDA's average customer transaction per registered room increased by 16% YoY in H1 2022.
“Due to the increasing share of online sales in the hospitality industry, and the growing trend of digital first management, we’re experiencing an explosive surge of domestic hotels and prestigious accommodations seeking to join ONDA. Based on our customer first policy, ONDA is committed to advance our mutually beneficial business model across the hospitality industry," said Oh Hyun-seok, CEO of ONDA.
ONDA is a hospitality tech company that analyzes online transaction data and also brokers sales of 70% of South Korea’s accommodations market. It has built solid partnerships with global tech companies and has been selected as Google Hotel's first official partner in Korea and as an Airbnb Software Preferred Partner.
ONDA is recognized as a leader in the global hotel tech industry. In 2021, ONDA was selected by both Airbnb (becoming its “Preferred Partner”) and Google Hotels as their first official Korean partners.
Recently, it was selected into “The Baby Unicorn Project” by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Also, the Financial Times ranked ONDA 7th among Korean tech companies in its "Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies 2022” and recently, ONDA was ranked 34th (first among Korean companies) in the "Global PMS Vendor" list selected by Skift, a U.S. travel research company.
