• Service now available in Zain operations in Kuwait and Iraq, other countries to follow soon
  • Reservations made through a dedicated Zain URL booking.zain.com are converted to additional complimentary mobile services

Kuwait 16 May, 2016

Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator with operations in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces a ground-breaking agreement with Booking.com to offer Zain customers additional complimentary mobile services for using the hotel service through a dedicated URL. Booking.com is one of the most successful hotel reservation booking services online, and the service is now available to Zain customers in Kuwait and Iraq. It will be rolled out to other Zain country operations in due course.

Zain customers who book a hotel stay through booking.zain.com will gain exclusive benefits based on the value of their booking. By inserting their phone number, each time they complete a booking on the site and fulfil the reservation, they will be rewarded with the allocation of additional mobile data or voice benefits that are credited to either their prepaid or post-paid line.

In Kuwait, customers will receive additional free Internet capacity of up to 1TB, while in Iraq, customers will benefit from additional voice and SMS credits. Other Zain country operations will offer similar benefits according to the local market preferences.

Commenting on the latest digital partnership with Booking.com, Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer said, As we evolve to become a digital lifestyle operator, this agreement with another world class digital marketplace provider represents Zains ongoing commitment to delivering exciting and compelling user experiences to our customers. We admire Booking.coms customer orientation in its own right, and feel that the collaboration between our two organizations will be of enormous mutual benefit offering our customers the best choice of rewards and convenience.

The partnership with Booking.com further builds on the establishment of the Zain Digital Frontier and Innovation (ZDFI) business unit, which is charged with launching Zain into the digital space by identifying new business areas, value-adding strategic partnerships, accretive acquisition opportunities and synergistic corporate venturing investments. Collectively, these activities look to create new revenue streams to maximize the groups high-speed 4G-LTE broadband networks, customer assets, network intelligence and payment and billing frameworks. ZDFI focuses on the areas of innovation; digital services; corporate venturing; and smart cities.

In the past, Zain has partnered with other leading global technology and content companies such as Uber and global computer game developer ZeptoLab to deliver rich content and value added services to the benefit and delight of its customers. 

Truly international, Booking.com is available in more than 40 languages, and offers over 900,000 active properties in 223 countries and territories. The site offers competitive hotel rates and an easy, efficient and inexpensive way for leisure and business travelers to choose and book accommodation from a wide range of choices. A team of more than 11,000 multi-lingual customer service representatives support customers 24/7.

About Zain Group
Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 45.5 million active customers as of 31 March, 2016. With a commercial presence in 8 countries, Zain operates in: Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Lebanon, the Group manages touch on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain has a 15.5% stake in INWI, through a joint venture. Zain is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (stock ticker: ZAIN).For more, please email info@zain.com  or visit: www.zain.com; www.facebook.com/zain; www.twitter.com/zain; www.youtube.com/zain; www.instagram.com/zaingroup; www.linkedin.com/company/zain

Press Release 2016