ONDA Partners with Seoul to Combat Bed Bug Crisis in Hospitality

ONDA Partners with Seoul to Combat Bed Bug Crisis in Hospitality

- ONDA collaborates with Seoul Metropolitan Government to ensure bed bug-safe accommodations

- Digital tech enables 'Bed Bug-Safe' badge display across booking platforms

- Accurate information helps domestic and international tourists book with confidence

(Press Release—November 15, 2023) Hospitality tech company ONDA and Seoul Metropolitan Government are teaming up to protect tourists from bed bugs.

ONDA (CEO Oh Hyun-seok) announced on November 15 that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Seoul on November 10 to prevent bed bug spread and provide bed bug-safe accommodation services.

ONDA and Seoul plan to display 'Bed Bug-Safe' badges on booking platforms, giving domestic and international travelers confidence when choosing accommodations.

To enable this, ONDA will pull data on accommodations, including compliance records, from Seoul's open public datasets. The company will turn this data into an open API (Application Programming Interface) that any booking platform can integrate—and plans to release it as quickly as possible.

The Bed Bug-Safe badge will first appear on ONDA Select (ONDA's own booking service) and on platforms using BookingOn, ONDA's commerce builder—including T map, OK Cashbag, and The-K Education Community. From there, the program will expand to domestic and international OTAs, portals, and other platforms that opt in. Each platform can choose how to display the badge, as long as users can easily access the information.

Seoul recently launched the "Bed Bug Zero City Project" in response to global bed bug outbreaks, aiming to protect public health and stop the spread. The city has built a reporting and management system for rapid response and is proactively inspecting high-risk facilities like hotels, spas, subways, and movie theaters.

To ensure safety and hygiene for Seoul's visitors, the city is urging tourism accommodations to conduct pest control and will continue monitoring compliance with sanitation standards—including disinfection requirements—through the end of the year.

ONDA will build a seamless system to help tourists visiting Seoul choose bed bug-safe accommodations with confidence.

"We're honored to contribute ONDA's digital capabilities to solving a nationwide bed bug problem in partnership with Seoul," said CEO Oh. "We're committed to providing accurate information so that both Korean and international tourists can book Seoul accommodations without worry."

ONDA is a hospitality tech and data company covering roughly 60–70% of Korea's online room transaction market. The company has built strong partnerships with global big tech players, including becoming Airbnb's first premium partner in Korea and Google Hotels' first Korean partner.

ONDA was also the first Korean company to be named a "Global PMS Vendor" by Skift, the U.S. travel research firm, ranking 34th on the list—a milestone in the global hotel tech landscape. This year, the company was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Baby Unicorn Plus program and has been named to the Financial Times' "High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific" list two years running (2022–2023).