Active Hotels
, a provider of confirmed online reservations to the UK hotel industry, has developed an instant hotel online booking service for travel agents.

The new service will enable travel agents to book independent and group hotels with instant confirmed availability and guaranteed reservations. Travel agents will be able to charge commission up front with no requirement for paperwork.

 

Active Hotels claims the booking service opens up a whole new market segment of independent hotels to the travel agent and ultimately the tourist. Active Hotels aggregates price and availability from over 2,000 UK properties, and its says there are hundreds more enrolling every quarter. It has approximately 16,000 rooms available every day, which it claims are often at very significant discounts.

 

Active Hotels said it has worked closely with ABTA`s UK Tourism and Leisure Group and numerous travel agents to develop the service. It said that its custom built solution for travel agents promotes domestic tourism in the UK, helping to support ABTA`s `Book Britain` campaign.

 

Daniele Broccoli, Chairman of the UK Tourism and Leisure Group, said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first service that has been designed by travel agents for travel agents and the benefits are obvious. In particular, the simplicity of the offering and the ease of processing commissions provide significant advantages to travel agents. I am delighted to have been involved in its development and have already adopted the system in my agency.”

 

Andy Phillipps, CEO, Active Hotels said: “Active Hotels is enthusiastic about continuing to collaborate with ABTA and agents to develop optimum product offerings for British travel agents. Our focus on the needs of both hotels and the travel agents means that we have developed a service by which the whole industry can benefit.”

 

Active Hotels says the key features of the service include:

- The travel agent charges commission upfront, with no paperwork required

- The full commission of 10% is retained even if the booking is subsequently cancelled

- Hotels that meet the guest`s requirements can be easily identified and located, using a rapid and very simple facility to locate appropriate hotels. Search results can be displayed on an ordnance survey map to help agents and guests identify appropriate properties

- Each hotel has numerous photographs, detailed maps and extensive descriptive data, enabling the guests to make informed selections in conjunction with the agent

- The hotel can be reserved and confirmed instantly on-line, with the confirmation documentation printed immediately onto the travel agents notepaper.

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