PALMA - Hotelbeds has provided a further update on the final stages of the integration of Tourico Holidays and GTA into its bedbank platform.
As of the close of January approximately 90% of the company’s existing 170,000 hotel partners are now gaining access to all of the company’s 60,000 travel buying intermediaries across the portfolio of Hotelbeds’ brands. This follows a process of unifying all hotel partners onto one new and unique contract. The process began in last year and involved working with hotel partners who were working with one or more of the three bedbank brands – Tourico Holidays, GTA, and Hotelbeds – prior to Tourico Holidays and GTA joining Hotelbeds in 2017.
Under the new contracts hotels are now able to distribute their accommodation under the same terms and conditions, whilst additionally benefiting from standardized and centralized processes for billing and account management.
Bringing all its hotel partners onto one contract forms part of the Hotelbeds strategy to find ever simpler and more efficient means to offer its hotel partners bookings that don’t compete with the direct channel.
Hotelbeds is now able to offer hotels a larger and wider range of travel buying intermediaries that has increased to more than 60,000 worldwide. This includes airlines, loyalty programs, MICE operators, traditional travel agencies and tour operators – all of whom offer high-value guests that book further in advance, cancel less, pay more for a room, spend more in destination, and return more often.
Carlos Munoz, Managing Director Bedbank at Hotelbeds, comments: “Crossing the 90% threshold is yet another milestone in the creation of the world’s leading bedbank – in fact it is actually a very important landmark, as we are now nearing the end of the whole process of integrating Tourico Holidays and GTA into Hotelbeds: the unified teams are in place, we’ve consolidated the brands, and we’ve almost completed bringing everything onto one technology stack too.
“This means we are now giving our hotel partners access to all of our 60,000 travel buying intermediaries under the same terms and conditions, whilst also simplifying their billing and account management. In short, we now offer – by a significant measure – the simplest and most cost-effective accommodation distribution solution in a market that is very fragmented. We are committed to proving our hotel partners with complementary bookings and increased value by offering access to non-competing sales channels such as airlines, MICE operators, points-redemption schemes, tour operators, and high-street travel agents – channels that provide guests who book further in advance, cancel less, pay more, spend more in-destination, and come back more often.”
This news forms part of Hotelbeds’ strategy to fully integrate Tourico Holidays and GTA into Hotelbeds to form one enhanced bedbank.
Since acquiring Tourico Holidays and GTA in 2017 the process of integration has now almost finished:
- Throughout 2018 the newly revised management structure was announced, combining the best talent from Tourico Holidays, GTA and Hotelbeds – including the creation of a Product Management department.
- In April Hotelbeds announced that going forward it would focus only on its strategic bedbank core by disposing of its incoming services division, called Destination Management, for 110 million euros.
- During 2018 the company was also transitioning the bedbanks across onto one technology platform and the process is now almost complete.
- In September 2018 the consolidation of the company’s retail brands under Bedsonline was announced, along with the launch of a refreshed Bedsonline identity and updated platform.
- The consolidation of all the brands of the wholesale channel - GTA, Tourico Holidays and Hotelbeds - under the name of ‘Hotelbeds’ was announced in October, phasing out the Tourico Holidays and GTA brands.
- Additionally the decision was announced to phase out the ‘Group’ reference when speaking about the company as a whole, to become simply ‘Hotelbeds’.
