Case StudiesStrategic Partnership: How Hotelbeds and Goway Travel Drove Global Growth Through Innovation
Executive Summary
From its origins as a one-man company operating out of a small apartment in Toronto in the 1970s, Goway Travel have expanded into a global tour operator specialising in ‘tailor-made’ vacations on a global scale.
When Goway Travel partnered with Hotelbeds in 2011, they were in the midst of expanding beyond their long‑standing focus on Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Their ambition required a partner that could instantly connect them to global markets and provide the scale, stability, and availability needed to compete internationally.
Hotelbeds, as part of the global travel ecosystem HBX Group, offered exactly that: broad global distribution, strong destination coverage, and instant access through seamless API connectivity. For Goway Travel, this meant the difference between being constrained by limited regional supply and being able to activate new destinations at speed.
The Challenge: Manual Processes Hindering Growth
We spoke to Sacha St Germain, Director of Technical Development at Goway Travel, who suggested that before working with Hotelbeds, Goway Travel’s business model depended heavily on manual workflows. Contracting processes were conducted via email, with rates loaded manually into internal systems, which was labour-intensive and limited operational speed alongside Goway Travel’s scalability.
“We were working with other companies,” Sacha revealed, “but we didn’t have an API connection.” Everything was manual for Goway Travel, including retrieving online content and re-entering it in-house: “We had to log online and then go and double-handle it somewhere else.”
This introduced delays, errors, and inefficiencies, all of which became increasingly problematic as the company sought to expand beyond its traditional core.
By choosing Hotelbeds, Goway Travel secured a partner capable of sustaining their global ambitions while giving them the technological capability to scale operations without proportionally scaling workload.
Why Choose Hotelbeds? Connectivity, Automation & Reliability
With a strong desire to grow globally, but with manual processes and a lack of API connectivity holding Goway Travel back, they needed a partner that could provide both instant availability and reliable access to new markets. A technology‑driven partner capable of eliminating friction, reducing turnaround times, and enabling real‑time operations.
“We needed to ensure that we could have instant availability to many destinations… we were branching out globally and needed a partner that could help us be globally connected.”
Hotelbeds provided the critical infrastructure to solve these challenges through automation, connectivity, and a global product inventory.
By partnering with Hotelbeds, Goway Travel secured that ‘breakthrough’ moment of automation: “[This partnership] allowed us to skip that step and was our first foray into automation”, marking their entry into more efficient, scalable, and technology-enabled operations.
With the introduction of a handful of our time-saving distribution tools and services, Goway Travel were able to increase their operational efficiency significantly:
API-driven connectivity: This eliminated manual steps and provided live access to availability, pricing, and inventory, dramatically improving speed‑to‑market and reducing errors.
A global inventory aligned with Goway Travel’s expansion goals.
Hotelbeds' broad, global reach: Allowing Goway Travel to scale into new regions without needing to onboard separate suppliers for each market.
Real-time availability and rate reliability: This ensured Goway Travel could make faster, more accurate commitments to customers and tour operators.
The shift from manual to automated workflows did more than streamline tasks; it allowed Goway Travel to focus on growth strategy rather than administrative burdens and inefficient operational structures.
Sign up today to become a Hotelbeds partner
Maintaining a Collaborative Working Relationship
Sales & Commercial Collaboration
Through regular monthly meetings with Hotelbeds, Goway Travel receives ongoing updates, strategic market insights, and forward‑looking recommendations. This proactive approach keeps Goway Travel informed about upcoming opportunities, product developments, and emerging destinations — ensuring they stay ahead of market trends.
Sacha commented that the relationship has been nothing but respect: “I have nothing but respect for everybody from our sales side in our day-to-day dealings [and] meetings to keep us apprised of what's new, always prompting us to see what's coming down the pipeline, what we should be doing to keep active, to keep ahead of the curve.”
This hands-on partnership model has become a defining strength of Hotelbeds’ relationship with Goway Travel. By offering technical guidance alongside commercial support, Hotelbeds has, and will continue to empower Goway Travel to learn to operate in more agile ways as they enter new markets and scale operations.
Technical Support
Hotelbeds' technical and strategy management teams offer swift troubleshooting and deep expertise in connectivity and system integrations, which helped to combat the lack of extensive in-house tech resources restricting Goway Travel’s growth. Throughout their growth, this support from Hotelbeds has been critical in helping Goway Travel maintain smooth operations and adopt new capabilities confidently.
Sacha commented that this working relationship is inherently respectful, while Hotelbeds provided critical support for integrations and troubleshooting; “We rely on our partner to help us out in that front.”
This partnership model, combining commercial insight with technical enablement, has given Goway Travel the structure required to innovate continuously while feeling fully supported, which is key in today’s evolving landscape.
Global Availability that Enabled International Expansion
Moving from a regional product specialist to a global operator requires inventory; something that Hotelbeds was well-positioned to offer. The breadth of Hotelbeds’ product inventory and the numerous countries where we have product available allowed Goway Travel to expand with confidence in a working relationship led by cooperation.
By accessing a wider product range and reliable travel distribution technology via Hotelbeds, Goway Travel was able to compete in new markets, reduce operational barriers and accelerate market entry: “The experience has been great because everybody has partnered with us to help us work through how to do things bigger, faster, better”, suggested Sacha.
This was particularly relevant when considering the complexities of navigating global contracting: “We started life as a South Pacific player, and we've grown globally, and we couldn't have done it without [this partnership]helping us along the way”, revealed Sacha, highlighting that the global availability provided by Hotelbeds was a significant enabler of Goway Travel’s geographic expansion.
With Hotelbeds’ support, Goway Travel adopted new technologies, improved system stability, and embraced automation across their organisation. This resulted in an increased capability of adapting to new and evolving travel trends and consumer expectations, especially in emerging destinations.
Strategic Impact: Enabling Company‑Wide Growth
Overall, Goway Travel’s partnership with Hotelbeds has influenced not only their accommodation strategy, but also their wider organisational approach to technology. As their first experience with API connectivity, Hotelbeds became the blueprint for how Goway Travel integrates with other sectors — from hotels to transportation and experiences.
As Sacha commented, “[The partnership has] helped us not just with hotels and our increasing bookings, but on other aspects of our business as well, whether it's been connecting API, with our own company and our own office, [or] car rental companies.”
A Deeper Understanding of Industry Direction
Working with Hotelbeds helped Goway Travel understand emerging travel technology trends, including where the market was moving and how they needed to adapt: “[This partnership] has helped us with understanding what the market is, where the market's going, what we need to do on our side to become more technical; to understand how to connect everything.”
This allowed deliberate expansion and growth for Goway Travel, enabling them to align their goals with the state of the current landscape and where the most appropriate opportunities for them as a business.
Scalable Workflows across Multiple Product Types
The automation capabilities unlocked by Hotelbeds enabled Goway Travel to expand into diverse travel verticals without overwhelming internal teams.
Future Outlook
“The level of support and guidance that has provided to us over the years has been excellent,” Sacha commented, further revealing that “HBX Group is going to play a role in helping Goway Travel expand, not just in destinations, but the method that people want to travel in the future.”
Looking ahead, Goway Travel views Hotelbeds as a central partner in expanding not just where their customers travel, but how they travel. The future of the partnership will focus on enriching experiences, growing niche segments, and adapting to evolving market trends.
From luxury travel expansion or multi-destination bookings and journeys, to capitalising on secondary and emerging markets, Hotelbeds’ expanding ecosystem supports Goway Travel’s strategy of offering complete, end-to-end travel experiences. As traveller expectations evolve, Hotelbeds, and the wider HBX Group system, will continue empowering Goway Travel with the technology, product, and expertise to grow, diversify, and innovate.
Sacha mentioned that this is all with the view of “getting that instant availability and visibility, to not just the primary destinations... but all the secondary [destinations] that everybody wants to escape to today”, suggesting that, ultimately, when it comes to expansion, “HBX Group has got the product to help us get there.”
Conclusion
The partnership between Hotelbeds and Goway Travel demonstrates the transformative power of strategic collaboration. With reliable technology, real-time connectivity, and global product depth, Hotelbeds enabled Goway Travel to scale beyond regional boundaries and evolve into a leading global travel company.
As part of the wider HBX Group ecosystem – a leading global B2B TravelTech company – Hotelbeds is a dedicated B2B TravelTech partner for online travel distributors, wholesalers, suppliers and destinations.
Hotelbeds connects travel distributors to an expansive portfolio of travel products and solutions via HBX Group, including accommodation, payment solutions, mobility services and experiences, to local and global brands, empowering our partners, no matter their sector, to satisfy the growing needs of the end traveller:
Presence in 170+ countries worldwide – with 300,000+ hotels and 23,000+ in-destination experiences, global transfer route coverage and car hire.
Access to dedicated Account Managers, whose goal is your growth.
Expert sourcing and destination teams, negotiating vital rates and availabilities.
Seamless API integrations tailored to your business needs.
Intelligent campaigns – to assist in the capture of seasonal demand.
Take your business even further with Hotelbeds, and the wider HBX Group ecosystem.
Sign up today to see how we can optimise your success in the ever-evolving world of travel.
Sign up today to become a Hotelbeds partner
