CCRA Travel Solutions - a leading provider of business-related solutions for the travel professional – is pleased to announce a series of online enhancements to help travel agents boost their income in 2012. The company’s new, online CCRA Preferred Hotel Directory allows agents to quickly search for detailed information at over 32,000 hotels around the world that have agreed to offer negotiated rates through the GDS, including thousands that offer travel professionals rates that are better than the best available rate (BAR). 

CCRA also continues to offer travel agents its popular 15% Enhanced Commission program available at tens of thousands of hotels worldwide, exclusively for bookings made through the CCRAtravel.com reservation portal. In addition to offering this competitive rate category, CCRA pays agents their commissions earned for all bookings made through CCRAtravel.com on a weekly basis.

“CCRA’s commitment to travel agents remains steadfast and strong,” said Dic Marxen, President and CEO of CCRA Travel Solutions. “While several hotel programs and other consortia have recently proclaimed their desire to help travel agents be more profitable in 2012, CCRA continues to provide travel agents with the largest and most competitive selection of hotel rates and commission opportunities for online bookings, including our popular 15% Enhanced Commission rate category available through CCRAtravel.com, and our discounted “Better than Best” rates featured on our CCRA Preferred Hotel Directory.”

The proliferation of new, consumer-targeted, hotel portals may leave travel agents wondering if they are still able to offer the best hotel deals and rates to their clients.  Travel agents can rest assured that CCRA’s hotel partners strongly support the travel agent community and are committed to providing agents the most competitive rates available. CCRA regularly monitors the various hotel programs available to travel agents and has yet to discover one that offers higher commissions, without volume stipulations, than CCRA’s 15% commission guarantee. 

The CCRA Preferred Hotel Directory is a complimentary online resource for travel agents to easily access information for the more than 32,000 hotels worldwide that are enrolled in CCRA’s 2012 Hotel Program. Through this directory, travel agents can also search for thousands of hotels that are included in CCRA’s “Better than Best” program, which offers 5% to 30% off the Best Available Rate (BAR) to travel agents when they use the CCRA rate code in the GDS. Hotels listed in the CCRA Preferred Hotel Directory can be booked through CCRAtravel.com, or in all the major GDS.  Agencies wishing to book CCRA preferred hotels in the GDS must be linked to CCRA. Agencies can easily link to CCRA in the GDS by visiting www.ccra.com and clicking “get linked”.

The wide range of hotels included in the CCRA Preferred Hotel Directory can also be narrowed down by selecting from a variety of filter options including destination city, specialty listings (such as all-inclusive, luxury, boutique hotels etc.), hotel chain, star ratings and exclusive amenities offered (such as free breakfast, free WiFi, guaranteed upgrade and much more). Once the relevant filters have been selected all the hotels are mapped, and agents can browse the resulting list of hotels that includes colorful photos, short descriptions and hotel amenity icons.  Agents then simply click on a hotel name or photo to access more detailed hotel information including the agent commission percentage, GDS booking codes, the exclusive amenities offered, a local map of the hotel’s location and more.

CCRA’s 15% Enhanced Commission is available to all certified travel agents (who have valid travel ID’s, such as TRUE, IATA, CLIA or TIDS) who register on CCRAtravel.com. Registering for CCRA’s travel agent portal is free. CCRAtravel.com is a unique hotel booking portal that offers agents real-time availability for up to five different rate categories on a single search at over 160,000 hotels worldwide.  Agents can choose the best option for each client from GDS rates, Promotional rates, Internet rates, Net rates and the 15% Enhanced Commission rate categories. An additional feature allows agents to set their own commission by adding their own mark-up to Net rates.