Agoda, Booking Holdings’ Thailand-based online travel agency, is introducing a wholesale distribution plan that will offer hotels more control over rates and distribution parameters.
With the new platform, hotel chains will be able to track where rates are shared through a comprehensive dashboard that they manage, allowing them to choose which suppliers can access their inventory. With greater visibility, the hotels can use the information to optimize volume and rates.
Damien Pfirsch, Agoda’s chief commercial officer, said the new platform represents the company’s belief in providing its hotel partners with the data and insights they need.
“With our wholesale distribution product, we address the pain points that abound in hotel chains around visibility and effective revenue management,” he said. “Our tailor-made, technology-led solution affords hotel partners more control over how, where and when inventory is consumed.
“As a result, our partners have the flexibility to be more dynamic with pricing, adjusting rates as demand or supply patterns change. Uniquely, partners also gain visibility – at all times and in real time – as to the source and volume of bookings.”
Among the platform’s offerings: sales monitoring, rate control analysis and optimization, partner-specific campaigns, seamless partner onboarding and customized solutions tailored to specific requirements.
Expedia Group expanded an optimized distribution agreement to all of its lodging partners in 2020, after launching it initially just for Marriott in 2019. That program gives Expedia Group distribution rights for the participating hotels’ wholesale and promotional room rates, availability and content to third-party travel providers such as bedbanks and a network of more than 100,000 travel agents while enabling properties to reduce the cost and complexity of redistribution.
