Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, today announces the launch of Amadeus LinkHotel, a new distribution and marketing service aimed at small to medium-sized hotels and groups. At the heart of the enhanced service is the former Otedis, the representation company acquired by Amadeus in 2005. All new and existing hotel members will be migrated onto the new enhanced distribution platform. 

As well as offering advanced global and internet distribution systems (GDS and IDS) through an open standards platform, Amadeus LinkHotel also provides reservation tools, marketing services, and commission handling. The new distribution technology used by Amadeus LinkHotel is built on open standards. This means that the service is scalable and enables easy integration with other hotel systems, such as revenue and property management. Amadeus LinkHotel supports centralised rate and inventory management, and is one of the only services of its kind to offer automated commission handling to ensure intermediaries receive payment accurately and on time from member hotels. 

A key focus of the Amadeus LinkHotel offer is a range of consultancy services. Hotels are offered a complimentary Distribution Optimisation analysis to ensure they will benefit from GDS and IDS reach and following this a wide range of sales advice is offered to help customers generate the best advantage from the services and distribution reach offered.  Amadeus LinkHotel can help hoteliers keep up with the latest distribution trends ranging from capitalising on opaque business models, to advice on corporate contracting, and complying with BAR (Best Available Rate) programmes. 

New reach to emerging economies and specialised content

For travel agents, Travel Management Companies and online travel retailers and partners, Amadeus LinkHotel provides access to a rich range of new properties including sought-after independent and small chain hotels in primary and secondary business and leisure destinations such as the Asia-Pacific region, Central and Western Africa and Latin America. The LinkHotel service is focused on generating rich content in the distribution system to match the growth in demand for hotels in the emerging economies and the rising demand for niche content. In Western Europe the service will be focused on the business traveller and the supply of detailed information and options for this market. 

Reseller programme boosts choice and content variety

To fully respond to the increasing demand for smaller hotels Amadeus is expanding its network to include specialised resellers in targeted territories. 

“Amadeus LinkHotel creates a new approach to representation, benefiting both hotels and bookers, such as travel agents and corporate travel planners.  Amadeus LinkHotel enables any hotel whatever the size to have access to a worldwide audience of travellers and professional travel bookers, through a highly cost-effective single solution. Agents and bookers are getting very specific hotel requests from their corporate clients, such as requests for hotels near remote manufacturing locations or retail parks in emerging economies. The more detailed the request, the more you need the kind of rich, in-depth content LinkHotel offers. In addition hotels count on global distribution exposure to maximise sales around specific market opportunities like major entertainment or sporting events” said Hugo Ehrnreich, Head of Hotel Distribution at Amadeus.

Launch customer gets ready for boom in demand

Launch customer City Lodge Hotels is a four-brand chain of business and leisure-focused properties with 5,109 rooms and 45 locations in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Nelspruit, East London, Richards Bay, Polokwane, Kimberley, Potchefstroom, George and Bloemfontein. The group is currently developing another seven hotels that will all be fully operational by the end of this year, taking its number of hotels to 52 with 6,442 rooms.

City Lodge selected LinkHotel because it wished to capitalise on the global reach the service provides.

“Distribution trends and customer demand are difficult to judge, and we wanted to get the same reach and insight into the global travel market that some of the large international chains have always enjoyed. It is particularly timely because of the big boost in demand for rooms that the 2010 FIFA World Cup will bring. With Amadeus LinkHotel, our international profile is raised, and we can tap into Amadeus’ extensive distribution experience and wide reach to help fulfil our commercial objectives. There is expert guidance on hand and we have a one-stop shop for all distribution, reservation, sales and marketing requirements. Amadeus is a true business partner and they have been very flexible when meeting our requirements” said Peter Schoeman, City Lodge Hotels’ Divisional Director, Sales and Marketing.