FILTER BY TAGS

Black Friday

Hotelier

Wholesale

We’ve just penned a new agreement with the Korea Tourism Organization which is great news not just for hotel partners in Korea, but also for our extensive network of US travel advisors who can now build on the US’ position of one of the top 5 leading source markets into the country.

Hotelbeds will work with the Korea Tourism Organization on a tailored campaign until the end of September to promote the destination across its USA travel industry partners in an effort to encourage more tourists to visit the country when the time is right.

We firmly believe that Korea has enormous potential to grow as a top Asian destination once mass international tourism resumes and our focus for this partnership is to market and improve the level of inbound US tourism into Korea, building on the already strong position the US holds there.

This marketing campaign aims to bring the Asian country to the attention of Hotelbeds’ travel trade buyers through its two main distribution channels: Bedsonline – targeting retail travel agencies – and Hotelbeds – focused on wholesale distribution.

Gareth Matthews, Marketing &amp; Communications Director at Hotelbeds, said: “It is a pleasure to partner with the Korea Tourism Organization once again. Over the years we have consistently strengthened our production in Korea, and we are excited that they are leveraging Hotelbeds' unique B2B marketing distribution to assist in their recovery efforts.

“This strategic marketing campaign targets one of our leading source markets, the USA. As the vaccination process continues to rolls out, we are seeing significant increase in searches for international destinations - a clear sign that there is significant pent-up US demand for international travel. We will promote Korea as a key destination in Asia and inspire the travel industry to drive significant incremental bookings once travel restrictions are lifted.”

Mr. Hocheol Ban, Executive Director at Korea Tourism Organization NY Office, added: “We are pleased to announce our partnership with Hotelbeds, a leader in the travel industry. As Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, we look forward to a strong recovery with support from Hotelbeds’ data driven campaigns and invaluable market trends intel. This is important to accelerate growth, increase customer engagement and to ensure success.”


TravelRoom_Korea.jpg

Hotelbeds partners with the Korea Tourism Organization to drive inbound US tourism

As Hotelbeds’ Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, transitions into a non-executive role on the Hotelbeds’ Board, he shares some reflections on his 32 year career, explains why he is confident about the future of the industry and pays tribute to the strong partnerships that have been part of the company’s success story.

Let’s hear from Joan...

“As you may know, I recently announced my decision to step back from the day to day running of Hotelbeds after 32 years and move to a non-executive role on Hotelbeds’ board, a move I had originally planned to make in 2020 but which I delayed when the pandemic hit in order to focus on navigating the company through the global crisis.

“Now though, as we start to see the early signs of recovery, I feel the time is right for me to step back and today, I wanted to reach out to you as one of our valued hotel partners in the industry, to thank you for all your support over the years.

“I am, of course, very proud of everything the Hotelbeds' family has achieved, together with our partners, over the years. From our early days as an incoming DMC in Spain, to our transformation to become a world leading travel-tech player, active in all major source markets and destinations worldwide - it’s been a real rollercoaster! In no small part, that success has been down to the strong partnerships we have across the industry.

“The pandemic has caused a seismic shift in the travel industry and has probably changed it forever in many ways. But as hard as it has been, and as challenging as it remains, there are huge opportunities ahead as we all look to capitalise on the enormous level of pent-up demand for travel.

“Even though there is general consensus in the industry that 2019 volumes are unlikely to return until 2023, as a company, we have made very good use of the global lock-down period - adapting with agility and accelerating our plans to increase efficiency and competitiveness through digitalisation and automation and this, together with a strengthened balance sheet means that in line with the gradual return of market demand, we are now in a good position to help our partners recover from the pandemic step by step.

“And for these reasons, I feel confident and optimistic about the future not just for Hotelbeds, but for our partners and the industry as a whole.

“I will continue to be very much be involved in the business going forward, as both a non-executive director on Hotelbeds’ board and as a committed shareholder, but I am handing over the reins for the day to day running of the business, to our newly appointed CEO, Nicolas Huss, who I will support over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.

“Nicolas is the former CEO of both Ingenico and Visa Europe and is a highly experienced board-level executive with a very strong reputation in the payments and financial services industries where he worked with some of the biggest brands in travel, as well as serving as a non-executive Director at Amadeus for 4 years.

“He brings to Hotelbeds extensive experience in leading technology and digital companies as well as a proven track record for driving organic growth making him a perfect fit for the company.

“I also think it’s fair to say that he will inherit a fantastic company, very well positioned to lead the recovery together with one of the strongest executive teams in the industry, including COO, Carlos Muñoz and Andres Garcia. “I am sure Nicolas will be in contact with you in due course and that we will also have many opportunities to meet in the future but in the meantime I wish you great success as we look forward to the continued recovery of our the industry.”

Joan Vilà


TravelRoom_Joan.jpg

Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, moves to non-executive role

There’s good news this month for our clients with customers interested in travelling to France, as we’ve just signed a deal with the Réside Études Group, expanding our French portfolio.

As part of this deal, Réside Études, one of the French leaders in investment property, will gain access to Hotelbeds’ 60,000 travel trade buyers, including travel agents, airlines, points redemption programs and tour operators while giving you access to great rates and offers from Réside Études’ properties across France.

Through this deal, Hotelbeds will further expand its hotel offering in France by adding three of the group's five brands to its portfolio - Séjours &amp; Affaires Apparthotel, their tourist and business residences, Residhome Apparthotel, their tourist and business residences within business areas and Relais Spa, their tourist residences with business, well-being and relaxation areas.

Jorge Cortés, Global Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds said: “The Réside Études Group has become one of the leaders in real estate investment thanks to their growing presence in the French hospitality industry. We are therefore delighted that this new strategic partnership will give our 60,000 travel clients in 140 source markets around the world access to great rates across the Réside Études portfolio.”


TravelRoom_Reside.jpg

Strategic partnership with Réside Études Group expands our French portfolio

As part of the recent news that our Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, was stepping back from the day to day running of the company to take a non-executive role on Hotelbeds’ Board, we also announced the appointment of Nicolas Huss as CEO.

Nicolas is the former CEO of Ingenico and Visa Europe and is an experienced board-level executive and CEO with a very strong reputation in the payments, financial services and travel industries, where he has led significant growth, transformation and innovation.

He brings to Hotelbeds extensive experience in leading technology and digital companies as well as a proven track record for driving organic growth.

A French national, Nicolas has a truly international background and has lived and worked in many countries, including Spain where he was previously based for seven years.

Nicolas Huss said: “I’m really looking forward to taking the reins at Hotelbeds, the market leader in its segment. Joan Vilà’s strategic vision and relentless drive to innovate and internationalise has created a wonderful company and a fantastic company with a truly dynamic culture.

“Together with Carlos Muñoz and Andrés García-Tenorio, and the rest of the highly experienced Executive Leadership Team, we are well positioned to continue delivering mutual growth together with our valued supplier partners and clients.

“As both a non-executive director at Amadeus for 4 years, and CEO of Visa Europe and Ingenico group, I have worked closely with some of the biggest names in travel, so I understand the challenges and opportunities the industry faces.

“In my role as CEO I intend to further build on the great foundations at Hotelbeds, to use data driven digital automation to support our partners to better respond to the seismic shift the pandemic has brought and that has probably changed the travel industry forever, in many ways.

“As I start on my journey with Hotelbeds its great to know that Joan will be supporting me over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition. I am looking forward to speaking to you all at some point in the near future!”


TravelRoom_Nicolas.jpg

Hotelbeds welcomes newly appointed CEO, Nicolas Huss

We’ve just penned a new strategic agreement with Banyan Tree Group, one of the world’s leading independent, multi-branded hospitality groups which secures exclusive offers and privileges at Banyan Tree Group’s 48 hotels across 22 countries.

Banyan Tree Group operates five award-winning brands: Banyan Tree – an all-villa concept with understated luxury; Angsana – amazing destination playgrounds for families and meeting groups; Cassia – designed with the independent travellers in mind, a niche between hotel and apartments; Dhawa – contemporary casual and design-savvy hotels; and Laguna – featuring the Group’s three integrated destination resorts for dream holiday getaways in Thailand (Phuket), Indonesia (Bintan) and Vietnam (Lang Co).

With the strategic partnership, and in anticipation of the resumption of safe travel, Banyan Tree Group will benefit from expanding its customer reach, while giving Hotelbeds’ customers access to exclusive rates designed to inspire travel and help fuel the tourism industry's recovery.

Jorge Cortés, Global Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds said: “Banyan Tree Group is one of our key partners with amazing properties in top destinations worldwide. Thanks to an exceptional business relationship, we are looking to increase our business with them and in turn, provide our global travel trade buyers the opportunity to book and experience its amazing hotels once safe travel resumes.”

Bobby Ong, Vice President, Head of Growth from Banyan Tree Group said: “Hotelbeds is well-established in the hospitality industry for its extensive network. This strategic partnership highlights the collaboration of two forward-looking industry brands. With wellbeing and sustainability at our core, our Group’s multi-brand portfolio will cater to discerning customers with different need-states for travel post-Covid. With this partnership, we are pleased to strengthen our global reach to travel trade buyers and welcome more international travellers to our awe-inspiring destinations around the world.”


TravelRoom_Banyan_Tree_Banner.jpg

Hotelbeds signs strategic agreement with Banyan Tree Group

Did you know that Hotelbeds offers a great car rental portfolio through its Beyond The Bed product line, with over 40,000 locations, in 180+ countries from local and international car hire providers?

Although Hotelbeds is the largest bedbank in the world, we also do much more than sell accommodation. We provide high-quality ancillary products like transfers, activities, tickets, theme parks, multi-day tours, and car rental. We want to ensure that our portfolio provides you and your clients with the right car, in the right place, at the right price.

Improved customer experience
As you know we are always finding new ways to make the customer experience even easier and to ensure that our technology is state of the art. In most products, additional services such as infant seat, child seat, GPS, or booster seat, can now be selected during the reservation placement for all locations. This ensures a faster pick-up time as additional services can be booked and the supplier can prepare accordingly. Please note that additional services are not commissionable and payable at pick-up.

New cancellation policy
To give our offer an even stronger competitive edge, we have a new cancellation policy, that allows spontaneous decisions to be made to assure best service and satisfaction of customers. Instead of 48 hours before pick-up, customers can now cancel a booking up to 24 hours before pick-up completely free of charge. After that, a fee of only EUR 50 per booking applies, no matter how high the reservation cost added up to. Only if it is a No Show, without a cancellation before pick-up, will a 100% fee apply.

Rental tip
To assure a smooth rental experience and high customer satisfaction we highly recommend sending the flight number at the moment of placing the reservation, whenever applicable. This information enables the suppliers to check the flight status and find out if there is any delay or cancellation due to new restrictions. What are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for? Click here to check out our car rental options now!


TravelRoom_Car_Rental_Banner.jpg

Bag yourself a great car rental deal from Hotelbeds!

Ahead of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) taking place in Dubai next month, Hotelbeds has revealed that the prestigious city has consistently been within its top three destinations globally by room nights sold throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, Hotelbeds, despite the crisis, has largely recovered to 2019 volumes across the wider UAE as a destination in the year to date. Both early bird bookings and last-minute reservations characterise the majority of the room nights sold.

Regional Sourcing Director, Ali Taheri, commented: “While the whole of the travel industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, it is fantastic news that we can name Dubai as one of our leading destinations during this time, highlighting its enduring magnetism for travellers.

“As a region, and as a team, we have been able to maintain high levels of resilience during these unprecedented times and this is due to a number of factors. Firstly, having exposure to a diversified domestic and international client base protected us against the risk of lost volumes in closed corridors and secondly, we benefitted from uninterrupted cash flow while many players were facing systemic cash restrictions. And last but not least, the destructive nature of the pandemic brought out the streetfighter spirit in the team!

“We’re now looking forward to a strong recovery, not just in our region but across the sector globally, for our wonderful industry.”

Members of the Hotelbeds team who have been vaccinated are looking forward to attending the ATM show to have the opportunity to reconnect in person with partners and customers.


TravelRoom_ATM_Dubai_Banner.jpg

Dubai confirmed as one of our top three destinations globally during the pandemic

Global hotel chains IHG Hotels &amp; Resorts and Accor are the latest industry players to join our Green Hotels Programme, set up in October 2020, and designed to identify, highlight and promote sustainable accommodation within our portfolio.

Their properties join thousands of hotels who are now certified in our portfolio as sustainable and promoted as such to our 60,000 travel trade clients via the ‘green filter’ that also includes details of certifications and offer tags.

The Green Hotels Programme is a turn-key solution to bring Hotelbeds and its partners to the green economy and accelerate the transition of the travel industry towards sustainability – a topic whose importance has increased dramatically in light of the COVID pandemic.

This latest announcement comes just a few weeks after we became one of the first travel companies to join Amazon and The Climate Pledge Commitment to become net zero carbon by 2040 as well as actively participating in the World Travel &amp; Trade Council’s Sustainability Workforce.

Gareth Matthews, Marketing, Communications &amp; CSR Director at Hotelbeds commented: “It’s great news that we can officially welcome IHG and Accor&nbsp;to our Green Hotels Programme. They are obviously huge players in the industry and their involvement demonstrates the importance now being placed on sustainable tourism in line with the changing preferences of travellers."

“Giving our travel trade clients the ability to easily filter searches for green hotels is becoming increasingly important both for them, but also for hoteliers and chains such as IHG and Accor. As leaders in our field, we have a responsibility to make sure the services we offer are bang up to date with the booking trends we see.”


TravelRoom_IHG_Accor_Banner.jpg

Global giants IHG Hotels & Resorts and Accor join our Green Hotels Programme

Hotelbeds has extended its partnership with Vervotech, the leader in hotel and room mapping globally, in a deal which enables our 60,000 clients globally to receive unified, de-duplicated content through the UNICA Hotel Mapping platform at a discounted rate.

Clients accessing the platform will benefit from a content accuracy rate of 99.99%, greatly enhancing their sales opportunities.

The UNICA Hotel Mapping platform provides unified content that will enhance the user experience for Hotelbeds’ clients by using a standardised approach to the distribution of descriptive and illustrative content such as star ratings, amenities, geocodes, naming/branding, descriptions, images, local attractions, and other static content, improving the accuracy and depth of content, to drive sales and reduce misunderstandings.

Thanks to this agreement, Hotelbeds’ clients will benefit from:


	Real-time content updates and content insights.
	Improved conversion and de-duplication of inventory.
	99.99% mapping accuracy and 98% mapping coverage with reduced processing time.
	Opinionated content that delivers a more streamlined user experience.


León Herce, Global Sales Director at Hotelbeds, commented, “Duplicated inventory is one of the most common issues all travel suppliers face. We are committed to always providing the best services and tools to our customers and this partnership with Vervotech is an example of that, enabling our customers to benefit from the UNICA Hotel Mapping platform and the opportunity to access unified content with a very impressive accuracy rate. This is great news for our customers, in preparation for when booking volumes begin returning post-covid.”

Sanjay Ghare, Co-Founder &amp; CEO at Vervotech, said: “We started our journey with the goal to organize the world’s accommodation data while helping travel businesses succeed and move forward. Working with an industry pioneer like Hotelbeds assists us to deliver that. We are looking forward to working with the Hotelbeds team to together grow incrementally and helping others to do the same”.


TravelRoom_Vervotech_Banner.jpg

New partnership with Vervotech set to enhance sales opportunities

We recognise that flexibility and peace of mind are a MUST right now for travellers and with that in mind, our latest sales campaign gives you everything you need to inspire your customers and plan the perfect trip – as well as offering 60% discounts on hotel rates!

We’ve got book now pay later options, flexible rates, no deposit required on bookings as well as all the tools you need to provide a stress-free booking experience that will allow your customers to look forward to their return to travel!

How can I spot a Sales Booster deal?


	Use the 'Sales Booster 2021' promo filter on the left-hand side of our booking engine to quickly find the offers.
	Hotel offers are highlighted by a green 'Sales Booster 2021' tag above the price.



TravelRoom_SalesBooster_Blog.jpg

Are you ready to be inspired? We launch new campaign with flexibility in mind!

As Executive Board Members of the World Travel &amp; Tourism Council (WTTC), Hotelbeds are pleased to invite you to virtually attend the highly anticipated WTTC 20th Global Summit taking place in Cancun, Mexico.

The Global Summit, in partnership with the Government of Quintana Roo, will take place from 26-27 April 2021 with the theme ‘Uniting the World for Recovery’.

WTTC is the body that represents the private sector of the travel &amp; tourism sector. Their members include over 200 CEOs, Chairpersons, and Presidents of the world’s leading travel &amp; tourism companies from all geographies and industries, including Hotelbeds’ very own Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, a member of WTTC’s Executive Committee.

The annual Global Summit is the most influential travel &amp; tourism event in the calendar, where the highest-level industry leaders meet with key government representatives to take action on the biggest and most important issues across the international agenda. This year, the Global Summit will be exploring the challenges ahead and providing a platform for the recovery of the sector.

To register your interest in receiving further information about how to tune in virtually to the Global Summit, please click the following link: https://wttc.org/Global-Summit


TravelRoom_WTTC_Blog.jpg

Your chance to join the calendar’s most influential travel & tourism event 

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 12 months since the COVID pandemic began and turned our industry – and our lives – upside down.

I am sure back in early 2020, none of us could have imagined that the crisis would develop as it has and that we’d still be experiencing the consequences, and managing the challenges, it has brought.

Here at Hotelbeds, we pivoted swiftly to make sure we were doing all we could to support you. We switched our call centres to remote working extremely quickly and launched a suite of self-service tools to help manage the significant demand caused by the ever-changing situation.

We also took the time that the cessation in travel brought to look closely at ourselves as a company, to take stock, to reorganise and to focus on the things we know matter the most to you, recognising the need for us to work together.

Undeniably there is a long road ahead until we return to the volumes we have enjoyed in the past, but with vaccine programmes now underway across the globe and governments starting to indicate relaxations in restrictions, we are starting to see some positive signs.

There are improvements in the US, Mexico, Brazil and UAE markets generally, and in respect of domestic travel, room nights in Brazil are up by 43% compared to the same period last year and up by 12% in the US, where there is also strong demand for the Spring break.

The pent-up demand for travel is also increasingly evident and we have a responsibility as leaders in our field to make sure travel is as safe as possible when it resumes as this will be of the utmost importance to people. Initiatives such the Safe2Stay Scheme are important factors in helping to boost traveller confidence in this regard.

These past 12 months have been the most difficult in the history of the travel industry but it is my strong belief that it will bounce back, and bounce back in a way that is perhaps even more sustainable that it was pre-COVID.

Together, I look forward to moving more positively through 2021. Optimism will indeed drive recovery albeit the speed at which this will happen remains uncertain.

Thank you for your on-going collaboration and remember that our teams are here to support you so please do reach out to them.

Carlos Muñoz


All

Search