Travel Tech Talks – interview with Natalia Vakulenko – Director of Sales Cosmobeds

Radu Ciubotaru, the Director of the Business Department of wbe.travel invited Natalia Vakulenko the Director of Sales from Cosmobeds for an honest talk about her career evolution in the travel sector, about the pulse of the travel companies partners to Cosmobeds and future plans. Within the discussion, Natalia offered some useful insights on how she adapted fast to a new software solution, how the trust should guide a partnership and many more.

Radu – wbe.travel: Natalia, please share some of your career highlights with us.

Natalia – Cosmobeds: Initially, I have started my career in the hotel industry prior to my move to the travel trade; worked for international enterprises including Le Meridien Middle East where I handled various worldwide travel markets and represented Le Meridien Hotel group as Sales Manager in the UAE and Qatar. Following years, I have led a tour operator in Ukraine and Russian before returning to the Gulf as a Business Development Manager of WWHR (Worldwide Hotel Reservations WLL), Kuwait in 2009 to be in charge of a hotel consolidator trading in Kuwait Market; in recent appointments with Jac Travel UK, WebBeds, UAE and HotelsPro, Turkey, I run sales businesses with the clients from the Middle East (including Israel), Africa, India and countries of the Indian Ocean. During my career, I have gained a tremendous grounding in the global tech space and confidence that my experience will contribute to making Cosmobeds one of the greatest global players.

Radu – wbe.travel: How do you see travel agencies today and what is the general feeling?

Natalia – Cosmobeds: While we all try to keep our spirits positive, I do have to say that there is an overall worry and a delay consensus in all markets. The best beacons of help that I have seen to date are the ways Israel, UAE and Turkey handle the tourism sector/ quarantine execution/ vaccination process and those reflect directly on the numbers of bookings in our system. Now I am anxious for the Arabian Travel Market on 16-19 May as am keen to finally meet live my associates to discuss and share the ways we see the business can be carried forward.

Radu – wbe.travel: How fast did you adapt to the wbe.travel engine?
Natalia – Cosmobeds: After being involved in B2B trading for about 2 decades, to be honest, a lot of the systems from one-point forward are seen as tools that do the job. But having spoken to the clients using the wbe.travel engine, colleagues from the contracting and reservation departments, everyone was quite happy with the speed of the onboarding experience. Until the time I joined the company, within one month of launching, everything had been already set up, live and the project was fully delivered. This really was a comforting experience proving the trustworthiness of our tech partner.

Radu – wbe.travel: What are your personal goals in Cosmobeds for 2021 and beyond?
Natalia – Cosmobeds: Beyond 2021, I think the desire to travel will be brightened and will act as a powerful driver that will push our industry forward. I would like to build a solid cooperation with our partners in Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East, Far East and mutually benefit by being adaptive, innovating and collaborative.

Radu – wbe.travel: Thank you so much for your time and for the great info.

Natalia – Cosmobeds: My pleasure.

About Cosmobeds

After building a robust booking system for the fresh company, wbe.travel has integrated via the API XML and has added in the Premium PLUS program the brand new Destination Management Company – Cosmobeds. The installation of Cosmobeds API comes with a zero cost attached and no monthly fees for the time of the connectivity.

Cosmobeds offers easy access to their worldwide portfolio via their B2B platform, available for Tour Operators, Bed Banks, Travel Agents, Wholesalers and OTAs worldwide. Cosmobeds’ portfolio goes up to more than 10.000 worldwide directly contracted properties covering all accommodation types such as Hotels, Resorts, Apartments, Villas.

If you would like to know more about Cosmobeds or simply want to integrate them into your booking system, send us an e-mail at sales@wbe.travel.