Background

A global TMC with a presence in over 140+ countries with 17,000+ travel professionals was failing to optimise revenues from partner hotel chains because agents were booking through different channels.

Booking through a GDS meant that most data – not all of it – would get captured. Using an OTA meant that the OTA would receive the commission. Booking directly through the hotel meant that the booking data wouldn’t be captured directly into the negotiated deal information.

As a result of bookings made through different channels, no point of integration existed to monitor or capture all booking data, so the TMC was unable to fully leverage negotiated rates, deals and incentives offered by partner hotel chains.

Challenges

• No standardised booking process. The agent would book a hotel based on limited knowledge of the best platform for a specific client/hotel/employee profile
• The existing system was unable to:
  • Promote selective preferred hotel chains to relevant corporates
  • Recommend high-value booking platforms for the hotel chains
  • Track bookings, commission, and incentives into, and due from, the hotel chain
  • Fully leverage negotiated rates, deals and incentives offered by partner hotel chains

HotelHub’s Solution

HotelHub’s Agent Booking Tool allowed the TMC and its business travel consultants to focus on hotels with higher commission returns by capturing booking data across multiple channels – including directly with the chain’s hotels – and making it available to agents at the point of sale.

This solution also enabled additional, high-value booking platforms to be created for specific TMC partner hotel chains, de-prioritising other, non-compliant chains. High-revenue generating chains would be prioritised in searches to maximise bookings into that chain.