Asia Tours Startup Triip Adds Accommodations to Cope With Last-Minute Bookings

Editor's Note: Skift has launched a new series, Gateway, as we broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world. We will start with regular reports several times per week from Beijing and Singapore, and look for us to add cities around the world shortly. Gateway Beijing and Gateway Singapore, for example, signify that the reporters are writing from those cities although their coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in their regions. Read about the series here, and check out all the stories in the series here. In trying to cope with the difficulties its tour guides have in dealing with last-minute bookings, Asia-based tours and activities startup Triip.me is doing something most competitors don't do: It is adding lodging choices to its app and website. In an affiliate deal with Booking.com, Triip will let customers book hotels or apartments along with tours. “Eighty-five percent of guests book air tickets and rooms first," says co-founder and CEO Ho Viet Hai. "They then go to our website or to the hotel desk to see what’s available at the last minu