Hotel Booking Agents Association Signs Dual Data Deals
In two separate agreements this week, the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) signed
two Data Stream Agreements - with The ABC Connection for overnight accommodation
data and Venuedirectory.com
for conference data.
The deals cover three separate aspects:
1. The HBAA will stream data from both data publishing organisations to supply data for
‘searchable’ hotel and venue directories on the HBAA web site (www.hbaa.org.uk) to allow
visitors to look up property information on the hotels and venues owned by HBAA Charter
Partners and Charter Signees prior to directing them to the HBAA’s 55 agency members to
check availability and rates - and to make a booking.
The ABC Connection has hotel data, including information on bars and restaurants, credit
card acceptance and general hotel information on 15,000 UK hotels, guest-houses and
lodges. Venuedirectory.com
will supply conference and meetings data and has existing data
entries on 4,000 UK hotels and meeting venues.
2. All visitors to the HBAA’s web site will be able to access data for HBAA Charter Partners
and Charter Signees, but contact data (telephone, fax, email and web site) will be substituted
with an option for the visitor to contact their preferred HBAA agency member for bookings or
more information. Agency members of the HBAA will be able to access the full databases
via the Members Only section of the HBAA web site.
3. HBAA Charter Partners will get free basic entries and special reduced discounts for their
enhanced ‘paid-for’ entry. The HBAA Charter Partners comprise the major hotel chains such
as Le Meridien, Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels and Thistle as well as smaller chains and
independents such as Paten Hotels, The Berners and Chewton Glen.
These deals follow a thorough review of hotel data available through electronic publishers by
the Technology Committee of the HBAA, led by Dev Anand. “We were fairly surprised by the
lack of electronic publishers with seriously comprehensive data on hotels - in conference
terms, covering the in depth information required such as room measurements - and for
overnight accommodation, the range of hotels required, and so were delighted to find the two
parties; The ABC Connection and Venuedirectory.com, who were able and willing to a deal
with us. With over 55 members, each employing between a half and two and a half people on
maintaining property data on our various systems, much of which gives us no real
competitive advantage, these data stream deals are a very good example of how the
formation of the HBAA can benefit us all” said Anand.
Whilst both systems are largely UK based at this time, both companies have plans to expand
their data content to cover hotels throughout the world.
Signing the deal, at the Mandarin Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge during National Meetings Weeks were Angie Mason, Chairman of the HBAA and Richard Parkin, Managing Director of Venuedirectory.com
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