Booking.com is now the Premium Partner for hotel bookings made through Air Berlin.The second largest airline in Germany has extended its high-traffic website via an XML interface to Europe’s market leader for online hotel reservations. This means that, as of 1st July, all of the hotels listed on Booking.com will be bookable directly and securely through airberlin.com. “We have chosen to work with Booking.com because their portal has the most impressive selection of directly cooperating hotels”, says Johannes Ganser, the Director of Loyalty & Partnerships Air Berlin. “In addition, we have been convinced by both the volume and the highly professional presentation of their information, as well as the great speed with which a search query can be resolved”, Ganser continues. This rapid processing is facilitated by highly flexible software components, which Air Berlin has used to create a customised XML interface with Booking.com. “This Premium Partnership with Air Berlin is above all of benefit to our partner hotels, who are not only represented on the airline’s website, but are also integrated into many of the company’s marketing activities,” says Gillian Tans who, as Managing Director of Booking.com in Germany, has responsibility for the German hotels listed on booking.com. Accordingly, the offers of over 45,000 hotels have been integrated into the most popular webpages of airberlin.com, through the use of destination-specific banners and a direct booking tool. In addition, the hotels on Booking.com are to be shown in a separate hotel booking section of the Air Berlin website. Once a customer has booked a flight, they will be given the opportunity of booking accommodation in the relevant destination. Last but not least, Booking.com will benefit from having its brand represented via logos at Air Berlin’s ticket desks, check-in counters, aircraft entrances, and on on-board TV programmes.
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