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By Roman Townsend&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

For those of you who haven´t had the pleasure of visiting our global headquarters in Mallorca, we are based near to Palma airport in a building called ‘Mirall’.

And so I have the pleasure of writing another year’s missive from the vantage point of our offices overlooking the runway. What could be more travel central than a frontline view of the 20 million passengers who pass through the airport every year?

A year might not sound so long, but some years count more than others and this one has been transformational for Hotelbeds. When I look back at everything that has happened, I realise this really is a massive missive (to use a rather laboured alliteration).

Following Tourico Holidays and GTA joining us in 2017, this year we’ve been integrating them into our business and that process is now close to being completed. In fact in late October we announced a new brand architecture and identity for the company under a refreshed Hotelbeds brand. As part of this, we launched our new integrated retail travel agent offering under a refreshed Bedsonline brand too.

Over the year we have put in place a strong leadership team, starting with the executive level and more recently moving down to mid-level management. Combining the best talent from across our organization, we now have fantastic sales, sourcing, retail, marketing and product management teams confirmed across all of our regions globally.

As part of our clear strategy to focus on our bedbank core, in March we announced the sale of our Destination Management division – which focused on the provision of in-destination services – to TUI for 110 million euros.

Even more recently, in November, we confirmed that we have acquired HolidayTaxis, the transfer bookings company. This acquisition is a reflection of our desire to expand our Beyond the Bed product line, where we offer ancillary services such as transfers and tours.

There have been many other great highlights too, such as the launch of our Corporate Volunteering Program, the continued growth of China as a source market, and the partnership with Singapore Airlines.&nbsp;

Our achievements have been reflected by an increased industry presence for Hotelbeds. Whether it has been on the podium at leading events such as Skift, Phocuswright, ITB Berlin, and WTM London, or in the pages of leading publications such as Skift, Travolution, Phocuswire, or more, I´m proud to say that we are leading the distribution debate.

But as John Lennon sang in Happy Christmas in 1971, “another year over, a new one just begun”. Epic as the year has been, our New Year’s resolution to the travel industry remains once more unchanged: to be the world’s leading bedbank.

Happy New Year from all of us at Hotelbeds: may all your distribution dreams come true and technology resolutions remain resolute!&nbsp;


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Another year over? This year the missive from Mirall is massive

By Wei Wang, Media Relations &amp;Corporate Affairs—APAC

Everybody knows about how important a festival the Lunar New Year is for all Chinese people. But what happens at Christmas and the western New Year’s Eve period? And what do travel industry professionals need to know about it?

The good news for Christmas aficionados is that even though the country does not celebrate Christmas officially, you will hear carols in the streets and shops throughout the month!

Whilst almost everyone in China has heard of Christmas, or Sheng Dan Jie (圣诞节) as we call it in Chinese, most people in China don’t celebrate it in quite the same way as people do in the western countries.

Christmas is not an official holiday in mainland China and Taiwan. But Hong Kong and Macau celebrate it in a more European fashion, with each having two days off work.

In a family or home setting, few people will celebrate Christmas and only a limited number will have their house decorated. Nonetheless, more and more young people are celebrating the commercialized aspect of Christmas in the main cities by making the most of the joyous holiday spirit.

For example, many department stores, hotels, and theme parks (especially Disneyland in Shanghai and Hong Kong) are decorated with Christmas displays, trees, and lights. People enjoy the typical light displays, artificial snow, and Christmas music.

Hoteliers too really capitalize on the season to celebrate Christmas as one of the top events of the year.&nbsp; It’s not uncommon to see a Santa Claus, who is known locally as Sheng Dan Lao Ren (圣诞老人), at a hotel.

Hotels here usually hold the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the first week of December to promote their seasonal specials, festive hotel packages, including cocktail receptions, meals and entertainment. All the guests watch Santa Claus light the Christmas tree and kids write down their wishes on cards, then hang them on the Christmas tree. Chinese children don’t prepare milk and cookies for Santa like in America, but an apple is a popular gift here because ‘apple’ sounds like ‘Christmas Eve’ in Mandarin.

Many of those in Hong Kong and Macau, and those in mainland China who work in western companies that close their offices for a few days, do take advantage to go on short breaks either within China or to nearby Asia-Pacific destinations such as Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Phuket.

And with more and more Chinese people having relatives in western countries, not least the United States, some are taking advantage to visit their relatives during this period to sample an authentic western Christmas.

Of course, overall December is the low travel season in most places in mainland China and western hoteliers and destinations shouldn’t be expecting a Christmas boost in Chinese tourists just yet.

But Santa has a great way of working his magic on consumers, so who knows maybe in five or ten years the most desirable Christmas gift amongst Chinese consumers will be a New Year’s holiday in Europe or America? Now could be a great time to attract the early trend-setters and lay the foundations for future success. &nbsp;


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What do Christmas celebrations mean for the Chinese travel sector?   

By Lauren Volcheff Atlass 

Everybody knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch, right? But somehow when it comes to Holiday Season planning and the offer of staying for free with a relative, suddenly we forget.

Disclosure alert: clearly, we at Hotelbeds benefit from the sale of every extra hotel room and this is an attempt at persuading you to book a hotel room for every trip….and a fun read!

Let’s start with accommodation rule #1: always establish the terms and conditions well in advance of ‘booking’ your accommodation.

And this is where the problem starts. When you accept to stay with your in-laws or relatives over the Holiday Season, there’s no terms &amp; conditions agreement, no guarantee of quality, not even a star rating!

Please don’t get me wrong, visiting family is always nice and even more over the holidays. Quality time together is where it’s at, no doubt about it. But I would put forward an argument for quality over quantity – meaning, you don’t actually have to stay at your in-laws’ home, or anyone else’s.

Firstly, consider that you can have too much of a good thing. Spending 24 hours a day together can turn into a stress-filled trip and cause you to evoke that cheesy-Monday-water-cooler-phrase ‘I need a vacation from my vacation’. And no one wants to be ‘that guy or girl’.

Secondly, consider all the benefits of having your own space. Some pleasures in life money cannot buy, but this, yes you can. Your hotel is judgement free zone. Leave your bed unmade, leave the toilet seat up, socks on the floor. It’s your hotel room! If you stay at a relative’s house, get mentally prepared to be on your best behavior until the day you leave. But when you stay at a hotel, leaving a pile of damp towels in the bathroom is not a problem.

Next, convenience and comfort benefits. Sleep better knowing you don’t need to worry about Uncle Harry snoring next door. Much better than sleeping at an air mattress or a basement pullout – your very own hotel mattress! No need to worry about sharing a bathroom or waiting until your niece or nephew is done fighting over who gets to go first.

And then there are all the wonderful luxuries a hotel can offer you that it would be a bit unfair to ask of your relatives: “Hey Aunt Julie, can you overnight my dry cleaning?”; “Grandpa, I’ll have my eggs over medium with a side of turkey bacon…sorry it’s 3am but I´m hungry”; “Where’s my warm cookie at check-in mom?!”. Concierge services for tickets or transfers, and much more are all available in a good hotel.

Ultimately, by booking a hotel you remain the boss, in charge of your own agenda. Feeling the need to flee? No problem, your hotel will give you an escape route.&nbsp; Whether you need to get away from your super cute nieces all under the age of 4, or avoid that guilt trip, you will have a hotel room to call your own.

Worried about hidden costs or poor service? Don’t worry, every Hotelbeds booking is part of a contract we have with our hotel partners. Plus, good luck complaining about your lumpy bed at Uncle Joe’s and Aunt Judy’s on social media. &nbsp;

But when it comes to relatives, even if you are brave enough to speak up, often the ultimate court of appeal is the eldest member of the family, and their impartiality could be massively affected by what present you bought them, or even worse, didn´t.

My colleagues in Spain often remind me of a great Spanish phrase when we are considering our budgets: if you buy cheap, it will cost you a lot. So if you’re being offered a free room this year from relatives, ask yourself: can I really afford this? When you look at the real price, you may decide it’s going to be a whole lot cheaper to pay out for a decent hotel.


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Can you afford the real price of staying with relatives this Holiday Season?

When you look at many of the biggest travel industry companies in the world, most of them were founded in the locations where people either travel from or travel to. And in many cases some of them still remain in the same location, for instance like Hotelbeds and our global headquarters in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

As the tourism industry has expanded way beyond anyone’s wildest expectations over the last thirty years, many of the most popular destinations have started to think about how to manage the welcome dollars in a more sustainable fashion.

Equally many travel companies have begun to think about what responsibility they have ensuring that today’s most popular cities and locations remain conserved for the next generation to visit.

And that’s why earlier this year Hotelbeds introduced its Corporate Volunteering Program, which had its initial rollout in Orlando and was finally launched worldwide last month. Through the implementation of the program, around 50 NGOs from all over the globe are now able to benefit from the company’s support.

We particularly believe in giving back to the local communities we work in and what more important city to focus on than Los Angeles, where millions or people stay in hotels booked via the Hotelbeds system every year?

Last Friday, me and my colleagues from the JBS team, a division with Hotelbeds, deployed its first volunteering initiative at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Our whole local team of 12 were busy helping the facility with its food sorting activities all afternoon.

We wanted to select a charity work that would help us get closer as a team, so members can go together and contribute together and be proud of the work we were doing, and this charity is very close to our heart. We firmly believe that for any team to be truly successful it has to engage in activities that bring them closer as a group and charity work is the perfect format for us.

Going forward, the plan is to volunteer on a quarterly basis as part of JBS team building activities and to start giving back to the local community.

As a result from the integration of GTA and Tourico Holidays brands into Hotelbeds over the last year, the JBS team has now become part of Hotelbeds and we are responsible for developing the China-US Corridor. Already we are responsible for over 2.5% of all inbound Chinese hotel reservations into the US market, but have plans to expand that even further!

Given our US and China focus, in the future we’d like to find some volunteering initiatives that combine these two great cultures. Does anyone have any suggestions for a charity event we can become involved with for around the Chinese New Year period?

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If volunteering were a travel destination, which location would you sign up for? 

Ever stopped to wonder where life’s journey is taking you? Perhaps you’ve thought of taking a mind-blowing trip, climbing Machu Picchu or meeting Mongolian goat herders, to reflect on correcting your course.

Today is International Volunteer Day and at Hotelbeds we’d like to ask all our travel industry colleagues to think about taking the ultimate trip: giving back.

Those of us lucky enough to work in this sector dedicate our whole lives to making sure that other people’s journeys go smoothly, from pre-booking to post-trip. But over the last few years many travel industry companies have begun to think about how they can help the wider community on their daily trek through the peaks and troughs of life.

That’s why recently at Hotelbeds we launched our very own Corporate Volunteer Program. We are encouraging all of the company's employees to participate actively in volunteer opportunities around the world, so as to contribute significantly to the communities where Hotelbeds employees work and live around the globe.

There are already more than 48 NGOs from all over the world that can benefit from the Hotelbeds Corporate Volunteer Program. The participating NGOs cover areas such as supporting children in need, the environment, fighting hunger, supporting people with disabilities, helping refugees and the elderly.

So far this volunteer program has also been launched&nbsp;in the offices of Hotelbeds in Orlando, Singapore, Bangkok, Cancun, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Palma, London, Shanghai and Beijing. It has&nbsp;reached a total of 3,000 of the 5,000 employees worldwide, with the participation of 1,051 employees so far.

In this program, there are many international NGOs such as Give Kids the World or United Against Poverty in Orlando; Waterways Watch Society in Singapore; the Thai Red Cross or the Lumphini Park in Bangkok, and Food for Life in Tel Aviv; AECC (Asociación Española contra el Cancer) or Cruz Roja.

We might just be starting on our journey as a volunteering organisation, but so far this year we have carried more than 150 activities around the world and we hope to have thousands ahead of us yet.

Give some thought to where giving back might help your organization to travel to this International Volunteer Day?



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Journey of a lifetime? Giving back could be the ultimate trip this International Volunteer Day

When is a consumer not a customer? This needn't be a philosophical challenge. Rather it should be an observation perhaps for many in the travel sector. Despite all evidence being to the contrary, everyone seems to always assume that all travel brands work directly with consumers.&nbsp;

At Hotelbeds we see things differently as we are focused on the B2B market. For us there’s a big difference between consumers and our customers: one of them is on holiday, the other is busy working to make that holiday perfect.

So if you are not a travel agent, or you don't care about the travel agent sector, then you may want to stop reading right now.

Why? Because our retail offering to travel agents, which we operate under the Bedsonline brand, only works with travel agents. That’s right, no consumers, no travellers: 100% B2B. Capiche?

You could understandably think that with a catchy name like Bedsonline and a sexy brand image, we do work directly with consumers. However, nothing could be further from the truth, we are not a consumer brand: we do not deal with the traveler directly. Ever. And have no plans to!

If it seems that I am labouring the point, it is because recently it has been brought to my attention that some of our customers (travel agents, remember?) were under the misapprehension that we also compete with them to offer services directly to consumers. We have one focus and that is to provide the best content, platform and booking experience, both pre and post for our travel agent partners, and that is more than enough to keep us busy and happy.

Surely by excluding the end consumer you are limiting sales, I hear you say? Frankly, no. Instead this liberates us to focus on creating a service that is 100% designed expressly for the professional travel seller. We’ve developed tools and technology best suited to travel agents, for example search functionality, filtering tools, comparison options, PDF functions, vouchers and much much more; we’ve contracted special hotel rates and deals available for travel agents only; and we’ve deployed teams with local knowledge across the globe, who speak the local language and know the local culture.

In short, a 360 degree travel agent offering. And the business model is working out just fine, thank you. If you are one of the lucky chosen ones who have the delight of selling travel face-to-face to consumers, and you don’t yet work with us, then we’d love to hear from you. Click here to find out more on how to sign up.

Needless to say, if you are a consumer wanting to book your next holiday, we’d still love to hear from you as we can perhaps recommend you to our network of more than 60,000 (and growing) travel agents globally.&nbsp;


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Consumers aren't the only customers in the travel journey

Cross-selling travel products such as a transfer or car rental might be a secondary source of revenue for intermediaries, but their importance is increasingly becoming far from secondary.

Traditionally accommodation sales have played the protagonist role in the theatre of travel sales, with complementary sales playing a mere walk on part – quite literally ancillary to the main show.

But as the travel plot evolves in the digital age, so too do the roles played and cross-selling is taking a more central role – and one that is handsomely paid due to the high margins that products such as theme parks, tours and tickets can generate for intermediaries.

At Hotelbeds we have been following the lead of the airline industry, which in 2017 earned an estimated $82 billion worldwide from the sale of ancillaries. Last year our conversion rate for accompanying a hotel sale with a complementary product was roughly 20-25%.

Nonetheless, the road ahead remains long as the full potential of this product offering has not yet been realized. One of the big challenges is the personalization of content to make ancillaries more localized (including translation into local languages!); plus more digital loyalty and marketing strategies are needed in order to reach customers during the whole travel cycle.&nbsp;

Recently some of these very topics were the starting point of a panel which I conducted as a representative of Beyond the Bed – what we at Hotelbeds call our ancillaries product line – at the World Travel Market trade fair in London.

The panel was focused on ‘Distribution of ancillaries in the B2B environment: challenges and expectations', and I had the pleasure to count on the participation of Lydia Massoon, Global Strategic Business Developer of Prioticket; Olan O’Sullivan, CEO of Trekksoft; Abbas Datoo, Interim Head of Commercial Strategy at Major Travel; and Beatriz Motta, Head of International Hotels at Hotel Urbano.

Together we explored the value proposition of B2B solutions, both from the point of view of the supplier (such as channel managers / tech platforms) and the B2B buyer (OTAs, tour operators and travel agents). Alongside discussing the opportunities, it also covered the difficulties and technological challenges, and looked ahead to possible future scenarios.

The half hour discussion led to four main conclusions:&nbsp;


	The activities market, in contrast to accommodation, is very fragmented: in this context, B2B technology partners play a key role giving access to smaller players such as travel agents to a global inventory of local activities all over the world, that otherwise they would not have ever had access to.
	The distribution of such services in the B2B space represents a fast growing opportunity for the accommodation sector to boost benefits and client loyalty:&nbsp; &nbsp;they represent a huge opportunity to widen revenues of accommodation providers and also to increase customer loyalty and improve guest experience.&nbsp; But there are still lots of challenges in terms of distribution and selling.
	Transforming execution is key: when it comes to contracting, uploading product and reaching final consumer by content, technology will play the definitive role in this scenario. The end user must be approached locally, with the product in their own language.&nbsp;
	Advanced technology is one of the main ingredients to success in the B2B arena: whilst technology can create great content and give access to a huge range of great products, it has to do more than this to also manage operational challenges and after sales care too.&nbsp; End user clients are more reticent to use technology than they are with accommodation products – call centers receive more calls, asking questions about vouchers, conditions, and more. Technology reduces these manual interactions to a minimum.


Perhaps one of the best things about the travel industry is that the end destination in the travel journey is continuously changing. But for better or worse, it is now clear that technology will be our travel partner for the coming decades and nowhere is this more obvious than in the area of ancillary sales.

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Optional add-on or travel essential? Activies purchases are no longer an afterthought 

What better way for a city to exponentially increase its visitor numbers than to hold an Expo?

If you were a foreign visitor to Shanghai last week it was almost certainly to attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) as the expo had 800,000 visits. With over 3,600 companies exhibiting and over 4,000 reporters in attendance, it was always going to be a sure fire way to boost inbound tourism.

Nearly 8 years after the 2010 Shanghai Expo, last week’s event was held in the city’s National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) from Monday 5 to Saturday 10 November.

The six-day event consisted of two main attractions, the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment and the Enterprise &amp; Business Exhibition. Additionally, during the Expo the first Hongqiao International Trade Forum was held, an event that gathers government officials, well known business leaders, and international organizations from several countries.

Shanghai’s hotel infrastructure is well-prepared for just such a world-class expo. The Municipal Tourism Administration of Shanghai provided a recommended hotel list that included 1,711 hotels in Shanghai, with more than 256,607 rooms and 411,000 beds combined. In addition, hotels in nearby cities provide another 50,000 rooms to ensure accommodation availability.&nbsp;

The city holds a very special place in the heart of Hotelbeds, not just because it is an important destination in terms of the hotel bookings from inbound tourists worldwide, but also because we have an office of 100 employees in the city.

Over the last few years the enormous growth – exponential even – in China outbound travel has drawn the attention of the world. We all know now that China is the the largest outbound travel market in the world. But the inbound travel of foreign tourists into China has increased much more slowly. Last week’s event aimed to proactively open up the Chinese market to the world. And with a total of 172 countries, regions, and international organizations attending the show it certainly has achieved its objective.

I myself have worked and lived in China for over 3 years. Shanghai is a very charming city, famous for its unique culture, long history, tasty food, and modern city skyscraper views. These selling points as a tourism destination are boosted further by the fact that the city is a safe destination and as of recently it has introduced more convenient visa policies. Now, visitors from 53 countries can enjoy a 144-hour visa-free transit in certain cities, including Shanghai.

According to our booking data building up to the Expo last week we achieved a significant increase in room night sales for the city, which can only lead to one question from me: when is the next Expo?


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In the hotels sector the word ‘Expo’ is not just short for exposition – it can also be short for exponential 

Earthquakes in Los Angeles are not infrequent, only in April this year a quake in a nearby city rocked buildings in downtown L.A. area. But not everyone seems to have noticed the silent earthquake that took place in this destination’s hospitality industry recently.

If you are attending the Phocuswright Conference in Los Angeles this week – held in the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE&nbsp;in the downtown district from Tuesday to Thursday – you might notice that Chinese travelers have become the number one international visitor. According to the Los Angeles Tourism &amp; Convention Board, 1.12 million Chinese tourists visited L.A. in 2017.

This makes the destination the first ever US city to exceed 1 million tourists a year from China – and therefore probably the most popular destination in America for Chinese tourists. Just as importantly, Chinese visitors spent an average of 7.2 nights in what is also referred to as the City of Angels – this is not a short-break or multi-city destination for them.&nbsp;

As a hospitality center, needless to say Los Angeles ranks on a global scale. Precisely 1,023 hotels with a capacity for 102,338 rooms helped the city to welcome 48.3 million visitors in 2017.

So how do travellers choose a hotel from the over one thousand on offer? How do they make sure their activities fulfill their needs and budget? To answer those questions for our clients, Hotelbeds is loaded with information on things to do, great places to stay and more. Hotelbeds will demonstrate our solution in hotel distribution at Phocuswright conference this week in Los Angeles.

What comes to your mind when you think of Los Angeles? From the beautiful weather, star-studded Beverly Hills, the iconic landmark Hollywood sign, amusement parks, and recreational beaches, to the various museums and exhibitions, it's a dynamic city worth a visit.

In this respect, Chinese travellers are just like those visiting from so many other countries. They’ve seen the films and TV shows featuring the city and want to enjoy the tons of fun stuff to do and see, delicious treats to eat and drink, and comfortable hotels to stay in and experience.

With over 170,000 hotels in our portfolio, including many in and around the Los Angeles area, Hotelbeds is dedicated to provide high quality service and local insights to clients. So whether your clients are traveling for business or leisure, after a 12 hours trek from China to Los Angeles we are sure we have the answer to a happy trip for them.

The city is constantly evolving and expanding. Currently 45 hotel projects are under development, which will deliver more than 9,500 rooms to area by 2020. But even at that rate of growth, will it keep up with demand?

It will be interesting to note if the new openings will be planned with Chinese audiences in mind. Successfully attracting Chinese travellers is not just about having Chinese language speakers or even food options. It extends to understanding the search engines they use, the different reservation needs and booking processes, preferred payment options, the configuration and features of a room, and so much more.

It might seem a cliché, but this week at Phocuswright ask at your hotel if you can pay using Alipay or WeChat. If you can then it might be a good sign that local hospitality sector has begun to recognize its number one international customer.


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If you are coming to Phocuswright in L.A. this week watch out for an unnoticed earthquake rocking the local hospitality scene 

In the English dictionary the word technology follows long after product. As so it was in the world of travel until very recently. But now that every company is a technology business, does this mean us travel professionals should all move to Silicon Valley?

In our sector one thing is for certain: even if we´re not uprooting ourselves to work near to Apple’s head offices, we´re definitely looking there for inspiration – and most importantly to recruit talent.

Already local companies such as Google and Tesla are intent on revolutionizing the transport experience, working on driverless cars (and even helicopters). Uber is based in the city too, along with countless other travel tech start-ups.

This week for sure San Francisco will qualify for global travel industry hub status: on Tuesday Skift is holding its first ever Skift Tech Forum in the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Given the line-up and turnout, almost certainly this will become a fixture in the calendar.

Speakers will include the President &amp; CEO of Sabre Corporation, Sean Menke, the Chief Technology Officer &amp; SVP of Expedia, Tony Donohoe, and the President &amp; CEO of Travelport, Gordon Wilson. They´ll all be on stage alongside senior technology, revenue management and digital leaders from Accor Hotels, Southwest Airlines, Hilton, Uber, Amadeus, Air Canada, United Airlines and Kayak.

We at Hotelbeds Group are proud to sponsor this event. If you are attending look out for the Hotelbeds Group area where you can charge your mobile phone or laptop. I´ll be there too and would be delighted to meet you all.

When Scott McKenzie sang his 1967 hit San Francisco (be sure to wear flowers in your hair) he sang “there's a whole generation / with a new explanation”: what started as talking about peace and love converted into the revolution of microchips and computer software.

Tuesday’s talks won´t convert the city into the premier travel industry hub overnight, but it seems that Silicon Valley is already an important destination on the travel industry map. Who knows what journey lays ahead?


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Silicon Valley as the new global hub for the travel industry? Tuesday marks the day

A road warrior without a final destination is simply lost, no matter how fast or far he or she travels. But what if that final destination were to find, rather ironically, a road map?

When I started in this role around one year ago, I set myself the objective of getting round all our major offices and meeting all our major clients. No small feat given our epic scale and geographic diversity.

Since then I have made&nbsp;almost 20 international long haul journeys, including crossing the Atlantic three times, two visits each to Australia, Dubai, Singapore, China and Japan, plus a host of other countries within both Europe and Asia Pacific.

Along the way I´ve been listening to our customers – who are made up solely of travel agents (contrary to the belief of some, we do not work with consumers in the direct channel and nor do we plan to!) – to find out more about their needs in this rapidly evolving market.

In response to this I have been reflecting – in my role as the Director of all the retail brands that Hotelbeds Group has: Bedsonline, GTA, TravelBound and TravelCube – on what kind of road map can best serve all of our travel agent customers globally.&nbsp;

The first decision related to our technology platform. It made sense for us to operate one technology platform only, not least as customers would benefit most. Due to the fact that Bedsonline had such a strong platform and that the feedback from travel agents was overwhelmingly positive, it seemed the obvious choice. Already we are gradually moving all our travel agent customers onto the platform, region by region.

The second decision stemed directly from the first and seemed an obvious choice. As a result of gradually shifting everyone onto the Bedsonline platform, region by region we are also moving to one brand identity only, that of Bedsonline.

The third decision also led from the first two and in many cases has already been implemented. As some of you may have recently noticed in the news, we have recently refreshed the Bedsonline brand. This includes an updated website and new imagery. We are currently hosting a series of events globally to update our travel agent customers on our new enhanced offering.

All three of these decisions are about enhancing the offering for our travel agency customers by taking it to the next level. In fact the word ´road´ doesn´t sufficiently describe the path needed, perhaps better to call it an ‘information superhighway’ map.

For example, for customers of TravelBound or TravelCube, this means that the number of hotels available to them has now increased from 55,000 up to 170,000. A significant increase, I´m sure you’d agree? Meanwhile we’ve cherry-picked the best technology functions from across the brands to create one super-charged platform. For example we’ve improved search parameters such as districts, hotel standards, ‘distance from’, points of interest, and so on; this allows for filtering functionality, integrating ancillaries and much, much more.

We’ve also put together a great leadership team for Bedsonline, combining the best talent from across Hotebelds Group, following Tourico Holidays and GTA joining the Group last year. These positions have now all been closed and you´ll be seeing more news soon in the media confirming more about who is covering each region.

For the coming months we´ll be busy supporting customers as they migrate onto the new Bedsonline platform; but after that we´ll be busier still helping them to sell more hotels, at higher margins, as well as cross-sell products such as tours and transfers.

And where does the road map lead after that? Look out for more exclusively negotiated prices and content not available elsewhere, more local hotels through partners, greater rewards to thank you for your loyalty, and a continually enhanced service.

Perhaps one of the best things about the travel industry is that the journey never ends – but for sure our journey will involve only and solely travel agents, who for us are the only destination worth visiting.


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What’s the best way to create a road map? Start with a road trip 

Ever found it hard to get a decent hotel room located near to a major travel trade show event? Most of you would be happy to find just one good room, at a fair price. But when I go to a travel trade show my objective is to find thousands of hotels rooms and then occupy them as often as I possibly can.

Who needs thousands of rooms? At Hotelbeds Group that’s our raison d'etre: we consolidate hotel accommodation and I´m in charge of contracting the right hotels, at the right rates across Asia Pacific.

If you want to find out more about how we go about doing that, this Thursday at ITB Asia I will be participating in a panel discussion called The future of travel distribution. The debate will be hosted by Duncan Horton, CEO of Travel Weekly Group – part of Jacobs Media Group – &nbsp;and participating will be industry colleagues from Booking.com, KAYAK, Skyscanner, and Triptease.

We’ll be discussing what it takes to succeed, and how to keep succeeding as the industry continues to move forward. What do you think will be the next big thing? Come along and join the debate, we´ll be taking questions from the audience; it kicks off at 10am in the Knowledge Theatre at Sands Expo Convention Center B2.

During the rest of the three day conference – starting Wednesday and finishing Friday – my colleagues and I will be busy meeting with our hotel partners, who now number over 170,000 globally since both Tourico Holidays and GTA joined our Group last year.

In particular, I´m going to be speaking with hotels about how we can help them boost incremental sales by reaching niche B2B buyers such as airlines or points redemption schemes. Additionally, I´ll be speaking with them about how to increase margins on those B2B sales by finding customers that cancel less, return more often, and spend more whilst in destination.

As always, this week we are also looking to negotiate more exclusive and unique deals with hotel partners, especially helping partners to stand out from the crowd. This is very important for the over 60,000 travel intermediary subscribers to our platform who crave differentiated content for their customers. What better way to attract special B2B buyers than by offering them something special for their customers? &nbsp;

For many hoteliers around the globe, but particularly those based in Asia Pacific, a significant part of their growth strategy going forward is focused on capturing Chinese travellers. For us at Hotelbeds Group we´ve been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and already it is our fourth biggest source market globally.

We´ve achieved success in the Chinese source market by embracing technology changes and working with our hotel supplier partners globally to help them adjust their offering accordingly.

For example, Chinese travellers require certain types of information about a hotel room – such as the room size or whether or not it has a kettle – that most hoteliers don’t display; Chinese travellers also book much more last minute than hoteliers are familiar with. It’s just as important to make sure that we have the right content on our platforms in the Chinese language.&nbsp; We achieve this by translating our hotel descriptions on our Bedsonline retail platform, as well as working through distribution partners.

As Chinese travellers increasingly travel less in groups and slowly become fully independent travellers, technology becomes more important still. At a moment when Chinese travellers are still having their first tentative experiences – ones they could repeat with the same destinations and brands – it will be technology that either makes or breaks hotels in capturing them. Is your technology up to the job? Only time will tell, but in the meantime meet up with us and we can share our experiences.

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Finding hotels at ITB Asia this week is about more than just a place to stay for some 

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