How it started

When Seda Hotels opened its doors in 2012, it quickly became known for its accessible, business-focused, and city centre accommodation. However, the needs of travellers have since evolved. Recognising this shift, Seda wanted to reassess its offering to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive industry. To solidify its standing in the hospitality sector, Seda sought deeper insights into the needs of business, leisure and Bleisure travellers, aiming to refine its value proposition.

How we inspired change

To achieve this, we collaborated closely with Seda and created an online community for their consumers, employing a three-layered approach:

• Scoping workshop: Half-day workshop with key Seda stakeholders to identify goals, baseline knowledge, knowledge gaps, and hypotheses.
• Online community: Engaging 51 travellers (domestic business travellers, Bleisure travellers, and staycationers) and 12 travel bookers in a series of activities for 2 weeks. This evaluated the new value proposition and uncovered learnings for both B2C and B2B:
• B2C (Travellers): Deeper understanding of travel needs, barriers, considerations, perceptions of hotel services and accommodation, as well as pain points from hotel booking to check-out.
• B2B (Travel Bookers): Enhanced awareness of the end-to-end booking experience with Seda and its competitors.
• Debrief + Action Planning: Session to help Seda, and their hotel managers strategize and prioritise actions to meet travellers’ needs effectively

How it lives on

The insights helped the team define the Seda brand’s role in fulfilling Ayala Land Hospitality’s growth ambitions for 2025 and beyond. As a result of this work, the company decided to focus the Seda brand squarely on business travellers who want the reliability and predictability of an efficiently run full-service hotel, but with the comforts of a Filipino home. This work also identified the key levers to making the promise of Filipino hospitality real for this target market.