Zenrooms

The brief

Raising the bar for Southeast Asia's hotels and the people who run them.

Zenrooms started in 2015 as a Rocket Internet venture best known for budget-friendly hotel listings. Management decided to grow into something bigger: a travel and hospitality technology platform serving hotels across Southeast Asia. They asked us to reposition and redesign the brand for that shift.

Travellers would still find the Zenrooms they knew for affordable stays. What changed was a new B2B side, giving hoteliers simpler and more reliable technology to run, market and grow their properties.

Much of the Zenrooms team began their careers in hotels, so they know the daily pressure owners face. Their platform helps properties work more efficiently, automate operations, reach new markets and give guests a better stay.

Founded in Singapore with Rocket Internet among its early backers, Zenrooms is now part of Korea's Yanolja Group, which counts Booking Holdings, SoftBank and GIC among its investors. Together they are pushing the digital transformation of travel and hospitality in the region.

Challenge

After almost eight years in market, people saw Zenrooms as a budget booking site. That image got in the way with hotel owners, especially in the luxury and chain segments, who were now the target for its management software. The core question: how do we show that Zenrooms is no longer only a B2C booking platform, but also a serious SaaS partner for running, growing and marketing a property?

Research

Interviews with hotel owners across Southeast Asia, from boutique properties to larger chains, confirmed what came up in our workshops with the Zenrooms team: the name carried a strong existing image. Visually, most people linked the mainly red brand with "fast" and "budget". Those associations had served the company well, but they held it back for where it was heading.

Solution

After an internal vote, the team kept the name Zenrooms. It was memorable and still fit the new B2B goals, so the work went into the messaging and the identity around it. The love of travel stayed at the centre, while the strategy separated the two sides of the business clearly:

B2C: safe, reliable places to stay in all your favourite destinations.

B2B: we automate your operations and grow your revenue, so you can focus on what you do best.

With that as the foundation, we built the verbal and visual strategy and guided Zenrooms through a confident launch with consistent messaging across both audiences.

What we delivered

The outcome

The new heart-shaped logo won the team over immediately and gave them a renewed sense of purpose going into the year. Zenrooms has since used the new strategy and identity to launch "Zenrooms Solution", its B2B technology arm, starting with launch events for hospitality and tech communities in Indonesia that drew excellent feedback.