Latitud Hotels – how B2B exclusivity drove increased hotel occupancy for this chain

Latitud Hoteles is a young, dynamic and innovative hotel chain with premium facilities in Argentina and Brazil. In just ten years, they’ve forged an admirable track record in the market and have grown their hotel chain to nine: two in Buenos Aires, Argentina and seven in Buzios, Brazil.

I realized that we couldn't depend on 70% of sales with a single OTA. After all, I don't have much control with them and my success depends directly on the algorithm and my reviews. Hotelbeds offers me on-hand human support and allows me to proactively improve things, whereas before I had to be reactive.

Jan Pablo Panasci,
Founder,
Latitud Hoteles

About Latitud Hoteles

Latitud Hoteles is a young, dynamic and innovative hotel chain with premium facilities in Argentina and Brazil. In just ten years, they’ve forged an admirable track record in the market and have grown their hotel chain to nine: two in Buenos Aires, Argentina and seven in Buzios, Brazil.

Hotelbeds and Latitud Hoteles – a successful partnership

When Juan Pablo Panasci decided to develop his revenue management consultancy into a hotel chain over 10 years ago, partnering with Hotelbeds offered him access to hard-to-reach international markets and gave him increased control over his rates.

For the last three years, Hotelbeds has been the exclusive B2B distributor for Latitud Hoteles.

This is a success story where a hotel enterprise with progressive ideas manages to grow year after year thanks to the unique distribution partnership and expert consultancy that Hotelbeds offers.

In short, a relationship of trust, dialogue and cooperation.

If you’re keen to learn more about the unique value of the bedbanks distribution model, the PhocusWire/Hotelbeds report offers a comprehensive overview.

Scenario and challenges

Initially, Latitud Hoteles had been relying on a single OTA for up to 70% of bookings. However, over time, frustrations grew due to limited personalised support and, in some cases, lack of fixed tariff (FIT) flexibility, which resulted in overbookings.

Other challenges Latitud Hoteles faced were:

• The recession impacted domestic travel in Argentina

• Lack of distribution control.

• Risk of losing good positioning due to human error on OTAs

• Limited support from largest OTA – technical support for positioning on their platform, but no other expert help beyond that

• Time-consuming discrepancy resolution

Access to international source markets maintains hotel occupancy rate during domestic downturn

Due to the recession, Argentineans are not travelling as much. Working with Hotelbeds exposes our hotels to tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites, and loyalty schemes, which is essential for attracting customers from international source markets. This helps keep our average occupancy steady.

Varying degrees of flexibility = differing degrees of satisfaction 

The main challenge Juan Pablo faced when working with other B2B distributors was that some B2B distributors do not allow fixed tariff (FIT) flexibility. Large blocks of rooms were booked last-minute at once and this resulted in costly overbookings.

After negotiating B2B exclusivity with Hotelbeds, Latitud Hoteles regained control of the rates by setting certain conditions to the FIT contract. 

Mutual trust and understanding together with Latitud allow us to make adjustments based on what we have already negotiated. This trust makes it easier to drive sales faster than other competing hotels

Natalia Dral,
Contracting Manager,
Hotelbeds

Results

Since partnering with Hotelbeds, Latitud Hoteles has overcome several challenges faced when working predominantly with the large OTAs.

The expert support offered by Hotelbeds helps streamline revenue management, drive occupancy and organise daily operations.

But beyond expert support, other crucial results Latitud Hoteles witnessed include:

• 30% of occupancy with Hotelbeds

• 20% increase in sold room nights during last year

• 75% reduction in overbooking issues

• Noticeable increase in international source markets

• B2B exclusivity with Hotelbeds ensures rate integrity

Satisfied with the support and flexibility offered by Hotelbeds, Juan Pablo, adds, “Thanks to the combination of flexible net rates for different room types (FIT) and dynamic rates (BAR), sales are optimised and occupancy rates are surprisingly high.”

Working with Hotelbeds

• Access to a network of over 66,000 hard-to-access B2B travel buyers such as tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites, and loyalty schemes in over 190 source markets worldwide.

• Distribution channels provide hotel partners with returning guests that book further in advance, cancel less, spend more in-destination and stay longer.

• Hotelbeds is also the world’s largest B2B seller of travel ancillaries, offering 24,000 transfer routes and 18,000 activities, as well as attractions, tickets and car hire.

Interested in joining us? Register your property here and start boosting your occupancy!