The pioneering travel tech company expands its Commercial and Software Engineering teams as it continues to pivot into TaaS with its new solution uGO.
AMSTERDAM – Bidroom, the first membership-based travel marketplace, has expanded its Commercial and Software Engineering teams as it continues to grow uGO, its Travel-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform. uGO, which is offered as either a whitelabel solution or API connection, makes ancillary sales more efficient for businesses in order to increase member engagement, conversions, average booking value and generate additional revenue.
Gianluca Laterza, a former TripAdvisor Senior Sales Executive and Territory Manager, has taken on the role of Head of Partnerships in the Commercial Team to drive sales of the recently launched service. He joined Bidroom soon after the launch of uGO in January 2022.
Laterza will be supported by three new hires that will help Bidroom expand into new markets globally: Mariem Benbouazza, Senior Sales Manager France & Morocco; Ihsane EL Amrani, Sales Manager APAC, Greece & Croatia; and Laura Castillo, Senior Sales Manager Spain, Portugal & LATAM. El Amrani and Castillo also bring experience at OTAs to the company, having previously worked at Booking.com and Expedia respectively.
Bidroom’s Software Engineering team has also been expanded with six new hires from various specializations. This is a crucial move for the company as it simultaneously enhances uGO and Bidroom’s self-developed hotelier portal. The portal has been designed to bring fairness and transparency back into the hospitality industry by giving hoteliers greater control over their distribution and data.
Gianluca Laterza said: “I am delighted to be joining Bidroom at the start of its journey in TaaS. What attracted me to the role was the opportunity to build the uGO brand from scratch. My previous experience as a SaaS sales manager will be essential here, as managing sales in a SaaS environment requires a specific mindset based on specific dynamics, processes and metrics. I look forward to demonstrating to potential customers the added value that uGo offers, such as instant rewards, experiential benefits and eco travel choices, all of these adding real value to the members' life.”
Caroline Dal’lin, Commercial VP of Bidroom, said: “We are delighted to have Gianluca, Mariem, Ihsane and Laura join the Commercial team. Together, their unparalleled experience in the travel industry will help us accelerate our growth and put the uGO sales team on the road to success. We’re particularly excited that our new Head of Partnerships, Gianluca, understands the benefits that TaaS brings to brands, employees and organizations. His ability to articulate this clearly will help bring uGO to life so that it is seen as essential to potential partners.”
Michael Ros, CEO of Bidroom, said: “Bidroom’s unique solution has attracted interest from multinational companies looking to tap into its benefits. The purpose of uGO is to facilitate this process and we are thrilled to welcome all our new Bidroom team members on board so the potential of uGO is fully understood going forward into 2022.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
