Busbud Joins Forces with Ratality to Accelerate B2B Software Growth

A growing Business Suite for operators worldwide

Busbud Business Suite offers B2B business services to ground travel operators to help manage their operations more efficiently and expand their sales to the online market. The suite is used by over 350 partners worldwide and has powered hundreds of millions of tickets to date.

The Business Suite spans three pillars. An inventory management system (IMS) covers schedule and route management, seat map flows, dynamic and automated pricing, payment options, manifests, ticket scanning, and reporting and analytics, and follows the 2022 merger with Betterez, a leading B2B reservation and ticketing management platform. A white-label e-commerce platform lets ground transportation operators sell tickets online and can also help bolster route inventory through its distribution product. And a revenue management system (RMS), added through the acquisition of Ratality, allows bus companies to maximize yield and revenue for their existing transportation services.

The platform supports a multitude of payment and language options and has been configured in 16 countries, acting as a trusted partner for many operators including 4 of the top 5 in South Africa, and is flexible enough to support larger and smaller operators alike. Operators can also opt in to distribute inventory to worldwide marketplaces in the Busbud Group's network, such as Busbud (global), Buson (Brazil) and Recorrido (Chile), as well as other third-party marketplaces worldwide that attract hundreds of millions of visitors annually.

Taking the Business Suite to the next level

“Uniting with Busbud expands the reach of our platform to bus operators around the world. Our innovative revenue management solutions generate immediate ROI for our partners and have already been proven in other travel sectors like airlines. Overall, this combination unlocks untapped potential for bus operators, maximizing revenue and operational efficiency.”

“This is a very special partnership that will add a key missing piece to our growing B2B offering. We've heard first-hand from ground travel operators the tangible results they've achieved by using Ratality to generate more revenue for their businesses. We were extremely impressed by the technology and capabilities of their platform. It just really made sense to bring Ratality's team of revenue management experts on board and integrate these features further into our core B2B platform. We wanted these capabilities to be in the hands of all of our operator partners worldwide. We have been partnered with ground travel operators for more than a decade and thrive on their success. We are excited to keep innovating together with Ratality for years to come for the benefit of our operator partners.”

The addition of revenue management capabilities to the Business Suite is another major step towards offering a best-in-class software platform tailored to the unique needs of ground travel operators.

Strong results from Ratality's revenue management platform

Ratality's revenue management capabilities unlock a whole new level of efficiency and economics for operator partners. One of Ratality's customers, a large South African-based ground travel operator, saw a major impact on sales and efficiency between November 2023 and February 2024: 73% more passengers, a 76% improvement in seat factor, a 37% improvement in revenue, and a 32% increase in revenue per kilometer.

The operator also saw two other key benefits: a positive shift in its booking window, as dynamic pricing strategies made lower prices available for customers booking earlier, and improved operational efficiency, with 98% overall forecasting accuracy thanks to advanced demand forecasting.