Rennies taps into bleisure market with new offering

TRADITIONALLY known
as a corporate travel
specialist, HRG Rennies
Travel has been rolling out
initiatives over the last few
years to tap into the leisure
travel arrangements of its
existing high-end clients.
“The aim is to woo the wives
of our existing clients who
currently make the leisure
decisions in their families,”
said Jose Cruz, national
executive client services
manager of Rennies Travel.
Rennies Personal, the leisure
arm of the travel agency,
was recently rebranded as
renniestravel.com to coincide
with the launch of its new
website.
The site manages leisure
travel arrangements from
enquiry right through to point
of sale, offering live availability
searches for hundreds of
thousands of hotels, transfers,
rail, international and domestic
transfers, sightseeing,
standard and luxury car hire
options and even local bus
trips.
“We are particularly proud
of the pricing functionality
for airfare sales,” says
Christopher Simonsen,
product manager of
renniestravel.com.
“We have links with both
Galileo and Sabre as well
as direct APIs with domestic
low-cost carriers, Mango
and FlySafair, enabling very
comprehensive searches for
the best priced flights.
“There are also links for
baggage purchases, visa
applications, mobile roaming
activations, airport lounge
tickets as well as tabs
allowing clients to track their
flight status, complete their
online check-in and to read
up on current news regarding
safety in the destinations that
they will be visiting. It truly is a
one-stop shop.
“All items on the site reflect
live availability, with the
exception of our packages,
which are still static for the
time being.”
The site will focus specifically
on the leisure and bleisure
travel requirements of existing
Rennies Travel corporate
account holders, in order to
tap into the unmanaged spend
that the agency has been
losing out on.
“The website is doing
extremely well. Last month
we sold over 800 air tickets
during a one-day airfare sale
that we promoted at one of
our inhouse corporate offices,”
said Christopher.
He also confirmed that
the team of Rennies leisure
consultants had grown to
seven staff stationed around
the country.
 “Leisure still accounts for
only only about 15% of our
revenue but the division is
growing fast,” commented
Jose.