Project : Jabama Accommodation (Alibaba Travel)

What it was

Alibaba.ir is Iran’s top online travel agency, with about 40 percent market share and more than 15 million yearly sales. Jabama was Alibaba Travel’s accommodation sub-brand, covering vacation rentals and domestic hotel bookings. Khashayar worked on this business at Alibaba Travel Co. in Tehran, Iran, across two roles: Senior Product Manager, Domestic Hotels, from December 2016 to April 2018, then Group Product Line Manager, Accommodation, from April 2018 to February 2020, a total of about three years and two months.

What I led

In the earlier Senior Product Manager, Domestic Hotels role (December 2016 to April 2018), Khashayar switched the hotel booking business from offline to online inventory, moving reservations onto an online booking flow. He also introduced customer segmentation for the hotel booking business, which reduced operational expenses.

In the later Group Product Line Manager, Accommodation role (April 2018 to February 2020), Khashayar managed Jabama, Alibaba Travel’s accommodation sub-brand, as a whole. He launched vacation rentals as a new line of business under Jabama, alongside the existing domestic hotel bookings. Across this period he worked to improve conversion rates on the accommodation booking flow and to increase gross margins on the accommodation business.

The outcome

The shift from offline to online hotel inventory and the introduction of customer segmentation reduced operational expenses in the domestic hotels business. Under Khashayar’s management of Jabama, vacation rentals launched as a new accommodation category, conversion rates improved, and gross margins increased across the accommodation business at Alibaba Travel, Iran’s top online travel agency by market share and yearly sales.