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To support your recovery in late July we launched a new tool called The Compass for our web clients.&nbsp;

One very important aspect of this powerful tool is its ability to provide you with live data insights on which are the top trending destinations for your particular source market. 

Here is what you need to know right now about the most in-demand destinations: 


	In Europe the top five most popular choices in order of demand are: the Algarve, Antalya, Crete, Tenerife, Marmaris – with an average lead time of one to seven days. That´s right, we´re seeing the traditional Spanish and Greek destinations falling in demand. More encouragingly we´re seeing a pick-up in lead time bookings of six months plus from Germany, France and the UK. 
	Meanwhile in Dubai and Saudi Arabia around half the bookings have lead times of one to seven days and the most popular are for Dubai, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi (in descending order). 
	Whilst in APAC we are seeing:
	
		Strong trend for domestic travel in both Australia and New Zealand, where the top five destinations in descending order are Darwin and surrounding areas, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, and Brisbane – all with lead times of one to seven days and up to three months. 
		In China the top trending domestic destinations are Shanghai and Beijing (Peking), again with lead times of one to seven days. 
		And in Japan the top trending domestic destination is Sapporo, with a lead time of one to three months. Encouragingly, San Diego (California) is a trending long haul destination with a lead time of plus six months for Japanese travellers.
	
	
	In the USA and Canada, 40% of bookings are for a lead time of one to seven days and there´s a strong preference for domestic destinations, with the top five (in descending order) being: Las Vegas, the Orlando Area, Los Angeles, Miami Area and Chicago. 
	And last but not least, in Latin America around 35% of bookings are for travel in the next three to six months, rising to even plus six months in Mexico and Colombia. The top five destinations for the region are Cancun, the Riviera Maya, Punta Cana, Puerto Vallarta and Dubai.



If you want to stay ahead of the changing market you can check right now the destination trends for your source market: click here (https://client.hotelbeds.com/compass) 

In addition to providing you with destination trends and lead times, The Compass also offers you a selection of the top properties available and features the very best rates and conditions.&nbsp;

Plus, The Compass also equips users with powerful marketing capabilities that enable you to automatically create personalised, branded promotional campaigns with your own selection of hotels that you can then directly target to customers via email, WhatsApp or other channels. 

You can access The Compass at no additional cost simply by logging-in to our website as normal – and if you have any issues logging-in simply contact your KAM and they´ll resolve this right away.


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Exclusive insight on trending destinations!

The successful upgrade of our Customer Call Centre began late last year and involved migrating all existing services onto a new cloud-based Salesforce contact centre solution platform, managed by Vonage (previously known as New Voice Media).

&nbsp;

As a result of this, our Contact Centre – which provides customer support for the Hotelbeds and Bedsonline brands, plus the Beyond the Bed portfolio – will now operate on a single unified platform and will offer you:

&nbsp;


	Greater call stability
	Improved audio quality
	Almost complete elimination of dropped calls
	Full integration with Hotelbeds’ CRM system, meaning that we&nbsp; will automatically access your details on receiving a call
	Improved call answer times and increased call answer rates
	Cost savings for you via offering local rate telephone numbers.
	&nbsp;


Commenting on the successful migration, our Global Operations Director, Marc Albert said: 

&nbsp;

“Whilst this had been scheduled for some time, clearly it couldn’t have come at a more important moment due to the unexpected challenges of COVID-19.

&nbsp;

“Therefore I’m very proud to confirm that the improved response times, CRM integration and overall greater call quality introduced by this upgrade has meant that we have been able to maintain our high-standard of customer service, despite seeing very significant spikes in volumes of calls during recent months.

&nbsp;

“On behalf of all my senior colleagues I would like to congratulate all those involved in this successful migration and thank them for their hard work. This is yet another great example to our partners of how we support them!”


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Upgrading our Customer Call Centre

As part of our commitment to you, we have launched a combined set of self-service tools called SelfSeT to simplify how you work with us.

Within this SelfSet initiative we have already launched two new tools across the great majority of our global markets, allowing clients to:

•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Meet Bedsy, our new virtual assistant chatbot for Hotelbeds clients that updates you on active bookings and can even provide &nbsp;supplier confirmation number. With Bedsy, we can point you in the right direction for many of your day-to-day booking queries!
•&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Consult with us via LiveChat: although Bedsy can answer most questions, you might still need to speak with us for more complex requests. This is where our LiveChat service comes in: the instant-messaging tool connects you with our experts and saves you having to contact us by telephone. &nbsp;


Other tools will come soon, watch this space!


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Chatbot and LiveChat launch

Hotelbeds, the world’s leading bedbank, has entered into a strategic partnership with Louvre Hotels Group, a major player in the global hospitality industry.

This agreement will further strengthen Louvre’s distribution reach via Hotelbeds’ network of over 60,000 travel trade buyers in 140 source markets, including airlines, points redemption schemes, retail travel agents and tour operators.

At the same time, Hotelbeds’ customers will gain access to preferential rates and availability from across Louvre Hotels Group’s portfolio of over 1,500 hotels in 54 countries worldwide, representing over 100,000 available rooms.

Hotelbeds’ travel trade buying partners will have access to the complete portfolio of six Louvre brands ranging from one to five stars properties, including: Première Classe, Campanile, Kyriad, Kyriad Direct, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip.

Meanwhile Hotelbeds’ portfolio of 60,000 travel buyers will offer Louvre Hotels Group a wider international reach and incremental bookings from end customers whose average profile means they typically book further in advance, pay more per room, stay for longer, have lower cancellation rates and spend more on property.&nbsp;

As part of this agreement, Louvre Hotels Group will distribute its hotel rooms through Hotelbeds’ two main sales channels: wholesale sales under the 'Hotelbeds' brand, and retail sales via the Bedsonline brand, that caters to retail travel agents.

Mark Redmond, Head of Global Chains at Hotelbeds commented: “We are delighted to sign a preferred partnership with Louvre Hotels Group, a major player in the global hospitality industry with a great portfolio that includes 1,500 hotels in 54 countries – and over 100,000 rooms available. They have a full hotel offering, spanning one to five star properties, with well known brands such as Première Classe, Kyriad, Campanile, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip, and Royal Tulip. Now, as the current restrictions on travel begin to ease I am certain that our 60,000 travel trade clients will be very excited to gain access to special rates and availability across Louvre’s full portfolio.”

Olivier Daurat, VP Sales and Distribution at Louvre Hotels Group, added: “This alliance is very important for us as thanks to Hotelbeds we can have access to one of the largest travel trade distribution networks available, including both wholesale and retail buyers. We look forward to working with Hotelbeds to grow our overall bookings together and more importantly to generate incremental, high-value reservations once travel demand picks back up again.”

Louvre Hotels Group is owned by Jin Jiang International Holdings Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading travel and tourism conglomerates and the second largest hotel group in the world.

Moreover, since the outbreak of the pandemic, Louvre Hotels Group has launched the “Clean &amp; Safe” reassurance program and implemented preventive measures through its Charter of Commitment for its 1,500 hotels around the world. The group has put in place a specific training program for all staff to ensure full compliance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the Government, and Regional Health Agencies. As clients’ well-being and safety are Louvre’s top priorities, the group’s safety procedures are bring overseen by two health and safety protection experts, Mérieux Nutrisciences in France and NSF International worldwide.


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Hotelbeds signs new strategic partnership with Louvre Hotels Group

We are very pleased to confirm that our successful partnership with OYO Rooms has reached the 100,000 room nights booked milestone.

OYO Hotels &amp; Homes is the world’s 6th largest hotel chain and last April we announced a strategic global distribution partnership together. The preferred agreement represented OYO’s first-ever distribution partnership with a bedbank.

We can also now confirm that by the end of this year we´ll have the full OYO Rooms portfolio live in our system and long-term together aim to distribute 500,000 room nights annually.

To find out more about booking OYO´s portfolio speak with your Hotelbeds manager today!&nbsp;


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OYO Rooms passes 100k landmark!

Providing people with assurance about safety whilst travelling is a top priority right now for the whole industry.&nbsp;

Further to our announcement last month, we have now launched our new distribution filter category called Safe2Stay.

The filter provides details about each properties’ prevention measures and official certifications to fight against the spread of COVID-19 – and is available via both Hotelbeds and Bedsonline.&nbsp;

It works by grouping together both hotel chains certifications and the certifications and protocols issued by public authorities, tourism boards or other Institutions. We are also working hard to ensure that measures are being taken with our supplier partners across all product lines, including transfers and activities.

All partners working with Hotelbeds that have created their own COVID-19 health and safety protocols are eligible to include their information in the filter category and hotels partners can do so directly via MaxiRoom, Hotelbeds’ partner extranet. &nbsp;
Global health and safety certifications from hotel chain partners such as Accor, Radisson, Hyatt and RIU Hotels and Resorts, as well as organizations such as the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association and Turismo de Portugal, will be displayed in the Safe2Stay filter category alongside those of many other companies and institutions.
To find out more information speak with your normal Hotelbeds contact today!&nbsp;


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Keeping travellers informed about safety

The current and sudden high level of demand for domestic travel from the world’s biggest source markets is now widely recognized.&nbsp;

But exactly where, when and how will this take place? Harnessing big data analytical capabilities, at Hotelbeds we have been able to closely compare the main corridors, lead time, and length of stay for each source market to more accurately predict the characteristics of the surge in demand for domestic stays.

Armed with this information we are planning to add 10,000 new properties to our global portfolio of hotels by the end of the year.&nbsp;

As a first wave the initiative will be implemented in &nbsp;the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, with more countries to be included in the near future.

&nbsp;

Furthermore, we will build upon this increased demand for domestic travel by implementing several new initiatives, such as:


	Expanding our hotel portfolio in secondary destinations to include new leisure options that meet the needs of domestic travellers.&nbsp;
	Adding more property types to provide variety for these travellers, for example, resorts and rural hotels.&nbsp;
	Kick-starting the sector by helping customers book in confidence through increasing the availability of refundable rates.&nbsp;
	Reducing releases and minimum stay requirements to increase maximum availability for last-minute domestic travellers.&nbsp;
	Launching local marketing campaigns targeted at B2B travel buyers in these source markets to promote and secure availability for this summer season! &nbsp;


&nbsp;

Speaking about the plan, our Global Sales Director, León Herce said: &nbsp;“Following client feedback, and thanks to our own data analytics capabilities, we have detected not only the overall surge in domestic demand, but the requirement for more product in secondary destinations, across all different property types.”&nbsp;


&nbsp;“As you would expect, hoteliers in these destinations – many of them previously dependent on international markets that are unlikely to be travelling anytime soon – are very keen to capture the new domestic demand and we are working hard to sign them up fast.”
&nbsp;


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Responding to domestic demand 

We have signed a preferred partnership deal with Radisson Hotel Group to enable them to distribute their portfolio of 1,100 hotels to our 60,000 B2B travel buyers such as tour operators, travel agents, airlines and points redemption schemes.

This also means that our customers are now able to access preferential rates and availability across Radisson Hotel Group’s portfolio, which includes the Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson and Country Inn &amp; Suites by Radisson brands.

Talking about the deal, our very own Mark Redmond, Head of Global Chains said: “Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world’s largest hotel groups and we are delighted to sign a preferred partnership with them. Once restrictions are removed and travel begins to start again, I am certain that our 60,000 B2B travel buying clients will be very excited about gaining access to special rates and availability for Radisson Hotel Group’s well-known brands such as Radisson Blu, Park Plaza or Park Inn by Radisson.”

Whilst Eric de Neef, EVP &amp; Global Chief Commercial Officer at Radisson Hotel Group, added: “Through the alliance with Hotelbeds we have access to a leading and strategically important B2B distribution network, including both wholesale and retail distribution worldwide through Bedsonline.

"As we start to re-boot, re-shape and re-boost the business after the peak of the crisis, we want to continuously extend our sales reach, and Hotelbeds is the right partner to achieve this. We look forward to working with Hotelbeds and to not only grow overall bookings together, but more importantly to grow incremental, high-value bookings.”
&nbsp;


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Preferred partnership with Radisson Hotel Group

The successful upgrade of our Customer Call Centre began late last year and involved migrating all existing services onto a new cloud-based Salesforce contact centre solution platform, managed by Vonage (previously known as New Voice Media).

As a result of this, our Contact Centre – which provides customer support for the Hotelbeds and Bedsonline brands, plus the Beyond the Bed portfolio – will now operate on a single unified platform and will offer you:

&nbsp;


	Greater call stability
	Improved audio quality
	Almost complete elimination of dropped calls
	Full integration with Hotelbeds’ CRM system, meaning that we &nbsp;will automatically access your details on receiving a call
	Improved call answer times and increased call answer rates
	Cost savings for you via offering local rate telephone numbers.&nbsp;
	&nbsp;



Commenting on the successful migration, our Global Operations Director, Marc Albert said: “Whilst this had been scheduled for some time, clearly it couldn’t have come at a more important moment due to the unexpected challenges of COVID-19.


“Therefore I’m very proud to confirm that the improved response times, CRM integration and overall greater call quality introduced by this upgrade has meant that we have been able to maintain our high-standard of customer service, despite seeing very significant spikes in volumes of calls during recent months.”

“On behalf of all my senior colleagues I would like to congratulate all those involved in this successful migration and thank them for their hard work.&nbsp;
This is yet another great example to our partners of how we support them!”


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	New redesigned API portal makes APItude even easier to use and more powerful for clients such as tour operators, airlines and points redemption schemes.
	APItude can now handle up to 14 billion searches a day during peak periods.
	New functionalities include a real-time dashboard, automated documentation, and faster integration with the Hotelbeds APIs via a simple four-step onboarding process.
	
	&nbsp;


APItude is Hotelbeds’ API that allows travel trade buyers such as tour operators, airlines and points redemption schemes to directly integrate Hotelbeds’ 180,000 hotel properties and ancillary services into their platform.&nbsp;

The new portal has been through beta testing with selected clients for the last two months and now is ready for launch, featuring a completely renewed design and new functionality.


As a result, APItude is now even easier for clients to use, due to features such as:


	Real-time dashboard: clients will have full control and visibility over their current API status and usage in real time. There is also a new stats dashboard, providing near real-time insights of API usage, powered directly by Hotelbeds’ Business Intelligence data warehouse.
	Automated documentation: &nbsp;Hotelbeds has built modern, automated OpenAPI generated documentation to ensure the documentation always remains updated for our clients.
	Faster integration with the APIs: new integrations will go from testing to production in just a few days, with a simple, new four-step process. This turnaround time to execution makes APItude far more appealing.



The audience for this new API Portal will no longer be just developers, but also members of the sourcing, product and sales management teams of Hotelbeds’ clients that are aiming to boost their commercial performance via APItude. In order to achieve the above, and in &nbsp;addition to today’s launch, by the end of 2020, the API Portal will feature an optimization centre providing tailored hotel recommendations based on current market data, &nbsp;which will enable the Hotelbeds’ clients to receive a competitive edge and to provide better product to the end customers.

León Herce, Global Sales Director at Hotelbeds, said: “With the first signs of recovery in the market beginning to emerge it is even more essential to provide our clients with the best available tools &nbsp;by enhancing the developer experience and making the whole process even faster and more intuitive. We believe that this latest version of APItude does just that and I´d like to thank all the team for their hard work and commitment in delivering this on time to meet the very urgent needs of the market.”

APItude is the fastest and lightest hotel distribution API in the market. It enhances the developer experience by making the integration process easier, faster, and more intuitive – allowing partners to develop their own travel website or mobile app using Hotelbeds’ product portfolio more easily than ever before.

Forming part of Hotelbeds’ commitment to innovation, APItude was launched by Hotelbeds at World Travel Market (WTM) in 2015.

To learn more about the new developer portal please visit https://developer.hotelbeds.com/


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Innovative API portal launch for APItude 


	Free monthly webinar series hosted by Hotelbeds will offer insights into how to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.
	Each Travel Talk webinar will feature a panel of leading travel industry experts.
	First edition on June 18th to explore ‘What does the journey to recovery look like?’.
	&nbsp;


The free monthly webinar series will provide insights into the COVID-19 challenges currently faced by the whole travel industry, as well as recommendations for both identifying and capturing opportunities for recovery.

Each month Travel Talk will be hosted by Hotelbeds and will feature panellist of leading experts from across the industry such as hoteliers and lobby groups, plus travel buyers such as tour operators, airlines and point redemption schemes.

Travel Talk’s first edition will take place on June the 18th at 5pm CET/11am ET and the topic will be ‘What does the journey to recovery look like?‘.

This first panel will address key issues such as how to look out for the signs of recovery, how travel companies should adapt their business for when the recovery begins, and a debate around the biggest challenges the industry faces, both now and in the future.&nbsp;

Paul Anthony, Commercial Excellence and Global Partnerships Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds will moderate the panel and will be accompanied by the following speakers:


	Maribel Rodríguez, Senior Vice President at World Travel &amp; Tourism Council (WTTC)
	Michael Savage, Director at American Airlines Vacations
	Cheryl Williams, Regional Vice President at Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach and HIGHGATE Hawaii.
	&nbsp;


Gareth Matthews, Director of Marketing &amp; Communications at Hotelbeds commented: “For some time we´ve been working hard behind-the-scenes to help our partners respond to the challenges of COVID-19. But we felt that the combination of our strong industry knowledge and global portfolio of leading industry partners places us in a unique position to produce significant insights and advice for the industry as a whole – and one of the most appropriate ways to present this is via a programme of free webinars that everyone in the industry is welcome to join. We have some impressive guests planned for both this first edition and the future webinars that will form part of the programme. Watch this space.”&nbsp;

The webinar is open to anyone in the industry to attend via the following registration page: https://joinus.hotelbeds.com/traveltalk1-the-journey-to-recovery/


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Hotelbeds launches Travel Talk webinar series to help industry recover from the challenges of COVID-19

Safe2Stay is a distribution filter category that consolidates and displays in the booking process the different COVID-19 health and safety protocols and certifications that travel industry companies, tourism boards and lobby groups have recently created.

The Safe2Stay category covers both accommodation and providers of services such as transfers, activities, theme parks and car rental. All products with a listing in the category will feature a Safe2Stay badge in the booking engine along with details of what this means outlined in a glossary compiling all protocols in one reference point.

All partners working with Hotelbeds that have created their own COVID-19 health and safety protocols are eligible to include their information in the filter category and hotels partners can do so directly via MaxiRoom, Hotelbeds’ partner extranet. &nbsp;

Global health and safety certifications from hotel chain partners such as Accor, Radisson, Hyatt and RIU Hotels and Resorts, as well as organizations such as the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association and Turismo de Portugal, will be displayed in the Safe2Stay filter category alongside those of many other companies and institutions.

This category will be visible as a filter on the Hotelbeds and Bedsonline booking engines and the same information will be made available to all of Hotelbeds’ API clients to configure into their own systems.

Tobias Thibaut, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit &amp; Sustainability Director at Hotelbeds, said: “Today more than ever, we need to focus on the safety and wellbeing of guests during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it becomes available in a few weeks our ‘Safe2Stay’ filter category will be very valuable for our clients when reserving a hotel for their customers or other ancillary products by giving them greater confidence and thus helping the tourism sector recover more quickly.

“As there are already many different standards and certification processes out there, it is important to bring them together under one category and for the information to be easily displayed in the booking process. We encourage all our supplier partners out there who have introduced their own standards or who are adhering to third party standards to input the details in MaxiRoom right away to gain the Safe2Stay badge”

This news follows the recent announcement that Hotelbeds has backed the World Travel &amp; Tourism Council’s ‘Safe Travels’ initiative and is working towards making this available in Hotelbeds’ distribution process. Safe Travels creates global recovery protocols – including for hotels – for the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of industry associations, health experts and governments.


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