A travel consortium is best defined as an organisation of 100’s of independent travel agencies that join together to leverage purchasing power and marketing opportunities.
In the hospitality sector, hotels have the option of joining a variety of travel consortia programmes to receive more visibility and increase hotel bookings, but they can be a high cost to join.
As one of the largest companies dedicated to connecting independent properties with bookers around the world, HotelREZ have both experience and extensive knowledge about consortia programmes, and offer a wide variety of choice for consortia programmes for our member hotels. We’ve listed three benefits hoteliers should consider when debating which travel consortia programmes to join:
Join the Programmes with no annual fees
HotelREZ has secured “pay as you go” performance agreements with some of the leading consortia and TMC’s that means properties do not have to invest in the annual fees and can
join up to a travel consortia programme to greatly increase the visibility to a worldwide audience, giving you access to different markets of business and help gaining revenue at a lower cost of sale and no annual fees. Just one reason why HotelREZ and the HO chain code are a good choice for independent groups, properties and private label clients who need extra exposure on the distribution systems.
Greater exposure on the GDS means that your hotel will be displayed to a wide range of agents booking for both corporate and leisure sectors. This will allow worldwide travel companies to access your rates and availability and you can also have access to their offices.
At HotelREZ, we work with your hotel to make sure your GDS representation is fully optimised. Our team advises all of our member hotels on how to get the most out of the GDS channel to increase revenue through competitive pricing strategies. Find out more about what GDS distribution can do for your hotel.
Many consortia programmes also offer additional “routes to market” marketing exposure. This can further increase awareness of your hotel through various promotional activities such as PR, social media marketing and advertising. The HotelREZ has a great calendar of activities with our consortia and TMC partners and offer you the option to take part in dedicated GDS marketing. If you wish to explore this route, we can help you get your message across to the right people, at the right time. Have a look at our hotel travel trade marketing services.
Greater booking potential
Once your hotel is live on the GDS, you’ll be able to provide thousands of independent travel agents and companies access to your consortia rates with higher viewership on our HO GDS chain code.
By offering agencies special rates, their clients can receive benefits and special promotions not open to the general public. In return, hotels get a ‘preferred supplier’ status, meaning higher viewership on the booking screens of travel agents. This will almost guaranteed lead to more bookings.
Choosing GDS distribution with HotelREZ gives your hotel access to half a million travel agents that use the Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo/Apollo or Worldspan Global Distribution Systems, and to many more bookers that use websites powered by them on our well respected HO chain code.
More profitable bookings
By joining a travel consortia programme, hotels usually find they are bringing in higher-yielding business than before. Why? Two main reasons: travel agents generally tend to make higher average daily rate (ADR) bookings, and consortias allow a hotel to receive more business from the high end leisure sector.
What’s more, travel consortia programmes often result in hotels receiving more business from the corporate sector by helping them get on to key Corporate Request for Proposals (RFP) programmes. Corporates use RFPs to identify hotels they may want to work with, decide if the hotels meet the programme criteria and negotiate rates. As a consortia member, the RFP process becomes less complex as your hotel won’t have to spend time responding to bids, worrying about missing deadlines or dealing with incomplete RFPs. At HotelREZ, our team works with travel managers to ensure that your hotel is sent RFP invitations whenever relevant. Here’s how to get more corporate business as an independent hotel using RFPs.
How the HotelREZ travel consortia programme can benefit your hotel
At HotelREZ, we currently provide quality distribution, representation, marketing and consultancy services to more than 1,000 hotels in over 40 countries. We provide properties with GDS representation under our own HO chain chode, and help market hotels to thousands of travel and MICE agents and partners worldwide. Find out why HotelREZ is listed among the world’s top 25 hotel consortia.
If you want to find out more about how we help hotels stay independent, compete worldwide and increase online bookings, have a look at our services or get in touch today.