Software Engineer

Smartvel's AI accessibility tool. Almosafer's ChatGPT app. Staynex acquires Sleap.io. Airbnb's $10M community fund. More. 09/04/2026 by WiT Fliggy and Alibaba's Qwen app expand AI travel integration to 80+ brand partners. Alibaba's travel platform Fliggy and its Qwen AI app have grown their joint travel integration initiative to over 80 brand partners after adding 30+ new names, including Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Hyatt Hotels, and Universal Studios Singapore. Through the Qwen App, users can search, book, pay, modify, and cancel travel reservations via a single chat interface. Fliggy reported AI-driven order growth of over 800% week-on-week, with attraction ticket bookings surging more than 24x during Spring Festival; ticket reservations for the upcoming Qingming Festival are up over 70% year-on-year. Staynex acquires European hotel booking startup Sleap.io ahead of April token launch. Singapore-based Web3 travel platform Staynex Group has acquired Swiss hotel booking startup Sleap.io, bringing its booking engine, European market relationships, and core team under the Staynex brand. Founded in 2023, Sleap.io won five industry awards and holds partnerships with crypto exchanges Gate and Coinbase. The deal combines Sleap's European technology with Staynex's Asia-based $STAY token loyalty ecosystem and AI trip planning tools and is timed ahead of Staynex's planned April 2026 token generation event (TGE) and exchange listing. Sleap founder Michael Ros will become CEO of Europe. Staynex is chaired by Jeff Hoffman, who is credited as a founder of Priceline/Booking.com. Spotnana connects directly to Premier Inn, expanding corporate booking access. Travel infrastructure firm Spotnana has launched a direct API integration with Premier Inn, the UK's largest hotel chain, giving Spotnana's TMC partners access to over 900 Premier Inn properties across the UK, Germany, and Ireland. The connection enables corporate travelers to book negotiated and saver rates, make self-service modifications and cancellations, and purchase ancillaries like breakfast within the booking flow. Both pre-paid and pay-at-property options are available, including a fully flexible rate allowing free cancellation up to arrival day. TMC partners can activate the content via Spotnana Cloud. Smartvel launches AI accessibility tool for air travellers. Smartvel has launched TravelAble, a platform designed to help passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) navigate air travel by consolidating fragmented accessibility information from airlines and airports into a single, personalised guidance tool. The platform covers every journey stage - from pre-departure through arrival - and translates technical IATA Special Service Request codes (e.g. WCHR, WCHS, WCHC) into plain language. It supports over 8,000 possible requirement combinations across 100+ structured content categories, with outputs tailored to each traveller's mobility equipment, battery type, and travel context. The launch is framed against research showing 40% of travellers with accessibility needs are unsure whether airport infrastructure will meet their requirements, 33% struggle to find clear pre-travel information, and 28% don't know if they can board with their mobility equipment. TravelAble is deployable as a widget across websites, apps, and booking platforms, allowing airlines and travel companies to embed accessibility guidance directly into the customer journey. On the operational side, Smartvel positions it as a tool to reduce repetitive customer service queries and minimise last-minute compliance issues around equipment and batteries. Currently focused on reduced mobility, Smartvel plans to expand coverage to visual, auditory, cognitive, and hidden disabilities, as well as additional medical equipment needs. Almosafer becomes first Saudi app on ChatGPT. Saudi travel company Almosafer has launched on OpenAI's ChatGPT platform, becoming the first Saudi Arabian app to offer consumer travel services through the interface. Users can now access Almosafer's inventory of over 1.5 million hotels directly within ChatGPT, searching and booking in both Arabic and English through natural conversation, including multi-city itinerary building and preference-based filtering such as family-friendly options or proximity to landmarks. The company framed the move as aligned with Saudi Vision 2030's digital transformation objectives. Airbnb's $10m community donations, Samsung browser deal. Airbnb announced its annual Community Fund donations, distributing nearly USD $10M to 130+ nonprofits across 25 countries globally in the Fund's fifth year, with over 30 organizations across Australia, Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand receiving a share of the nearly USD $8M donated to Asia Pacific since the Fund launched in 2020. Asia Pacific recipients cover a range of causes including domestic violence support (Patricia Giles Centre, Safe Steps in Australia), food insecurity (Second Harvest Kyoto), female entrepreneurship (Access Development Services in India), and environmental sustainability (Marine Research Foundation in Malaysia, Yayasan R.O.L.E. in Indonesia). Host nominations played a role in selecting recipients. The Fund is targeting USD $100M in total global donations by 2030, with this round distributed between November 2025 and March 2026 via grantmaking partner Goodstack. Separately, Airbnb has struck a partnership with Samsung to feature its platform as a shortcut in Samsung Browser's "Quick access" menu - the panel that appears when users open a new tab or tap the search bar - now live across 49 markets including Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and key European and American markets. The integration recorded tens of thousands of daily click-throughs within its first month. Dida signs 5-year R&D and talent deal with Tsinghua University. Global travel tech firm Dida has entered a five-year partnership with Tsinghua University's x-lab innovation platform, focusing on three areas - travel tech R&D, startup incubation, and talent development. The agreement was signed at Dida's Engage China Roadshow 2026 in Beijing, attended by over 80 international hotel partners. As part of the partnership, Dida announced the inaugural Global Travel Technology Innovation Competition, set to take place in Europe later this year, targeting young talent worldwide with a focus on internationalising Chinese travel innovations. The deal builds on prior collaboration including the 2025 Tsinghua SDG Open Hackathon and was signed by Tsinghua's Vice Dean of Economics and Management, Professor He Ping, and Dida Group CEO Daryl Lee.

Spotnana and Booking.com strengthen corporate travel with a deep API integration. Spotnana and Booking.com just tightened their relationship - and it's a big one for corporate travel. Spotnana has rolled out a "deep, direct" integration with Booking.com's newest API, meaning Booking.com's full accommodation inventory, rates, and servicing capabilities are now available directly inside the Spotnana platform. Spotnana Booking.com integration For business travelers, TMCs, and procurement teams, this isn't just another integration announcement. It's a glimpse into where corporate travel infrastructure is heading: fewer intermediaries, deeper pipes between suppliers and platforms, and consumer-grade booking experiences replicated inside managed travel ecosystems. What this integration actually unlocks. With the new API connection, any buyer or seller using Spotnana will be able to access the full range of Booking.com's accommodation content - not a filtered or restricted corporate version, but the same depth travelers see on Booking.com's website and app. That includes: * Standard, member-only, and loyalty rates * Pay-at-property and prepaid options * Last-minute deals and seasonal promotions * Long-stay inventory, including apartments and alternative accommodations * "Work-friendly" tagged properties designed for digital nomads and business travelers Agents using Spotnana's agent desktop can also service these bookings, meaning modifications, cancellations, and traveler support now run through the same unified workflow instead of being pushed back to suppliers. Luigi Tiberio, Spotnana's partner director of content and distribution, put it simply: "Our TMC partners can now offer their travelers the same exceptional, consumer-grade experience found on the Booking.com website... fully serviceable within Spotnana's platform." For TMCs, Booking.com content can be toggled on directly within Spotnana Cloud for TMCs, giving them control over inventory activation without relying on lengthy implementations or third-party pipes. Why Booking.com is making bigger moves into corporate travel. Booking.com has been slowly - but very intentionally - widening its reach in the business travel space. The company already powers Booking.com for Business, built on technology from Serko, one of the most respected corporate travel platforms globally. Mark van der Linden, Booking.com's VP of partnerships, said Spotnana's architecture was a key factor: "Spotnana's unique architecture enables us to provide an exceptional experience to travelers, while making our inventory easy for TMCs to service." This matters because many suppliers still struggle to make their leisure-grade inventory serviceable in managed travel programs. Booking.com's deep content is a massive selling point but historically difficult for TMCs to support at scale. The bigger picture: direct connections are becoming the real battleground. Spotnana isn't the only player pushing for deeper supplier connectivity - but it is one of the loudest voices advocating for replacing legacy pipes (like GDS-only setups) with modern, cloud-native connections. Here's where this move sits in the current market landscape: Spotnana vs. Legacy TMC infrastructure. Traditional TMC platforms often rely heavily on the GDS as the central source of content. Spotnana's model - direct API links to suppliers - bypasses many of those limitations. Direct connections mean richer content, more dynamic rates, faster servicing capabilities, and fewer workarounds. Spotnana vs. Modern player ecosystem (Hopper, Navan, Serko, Amadeus Cytric). * Hopper Business leans heavily on consumer inventory, but servicing remains a pain point for TMC-level clients. * Navan (formerly TripActions) has built many direct links, but its system is not open architecture. * Serko, already powering Booking.com for Business, focuses on deep supplier partnerships but stays more traditional on the servicing side. * Amadeus Cytric is pushing hard on NDC and hotel direct connect, but implementation cycles are long. Spotnana is differentiating itself by combining direct pipes with platform openness, making it easier for TMCs to adopt without rebuilding everything from scratch. Reliable sources like PhocusWire and BTN have repeatedly highlighted that direct supplier connectivity is becoming the strategic lever for corporate travel platforms. It creates better traveler experiences and reduces servicing overhead - the two things TMCs want most in 2025. How this plays into corporate travel trends. Several major trends make this integration perfectly timed: * Hybrid travel is pushing demand for long-stay and alt-accommodation inventory. Booking.com is strong here - far stronger than most traditional corporate channels. * Travelers expect consumer-grade UX in corporate platforms. Spotnana's pitch is essentially "consumer quality with corporate controls." * Servicing complexity is the new battleground. Booking.com content hasn't always been easy for TMCs to support. Spotnana solves that. * Corporates want more content choice without losing policy compliance. Direct pipes give TMCs control without sacrificing breadth. This integration matters for TMCs, travelers, and the industry. Spotnana's Booking.com integration feels less like a feature drop and more like a strategic line in the sand. Corporate travelers increasingly expect broad accommodation options - from business hotels to apartments with a desk and decent Wi-Fi. Booking.com has that volume. Spotnana has the modern infrastructure to ingest it cleanly. Conclusion: A signal of where corporate travel platforms are heading. This move isn't happening in isolation. Across the industry, Alertify is watching a shift away from closed ecosystems and legacy distribution toward open platforms with direct supplier access. Spotnana is becoming a central figure in that movement by giving TMCs plug-and-play access to consumer-grade content with enterprise-grade servicing. Compared with players like Navan, Serko, and Cytric, Spotnana is positioning itself as the most modular, tech-forward platform - the one suppliers can integrate with deeply without losing control, and the one TMCs can adopt without ripping out their entire stack. If Booking.com keeps expanding these API-driven partnerships - and all signs suggest they will - corporate travelers may finally get parity with leisure travel platforms. And that's a shift the entire industry has been waiting for.