German online hotel booking portal makes UK debut

Friday, 19 Jan, 2007 0

Online hotel booking portal Hotel Reservation Service has launched in the UK aiming to become the leading corporate online hotel booking agent within two years.

The privately-owned German company has been operating in Europe for 33 years and claims 54% of the hotel reservation market in Germany.

HRS has expanded over two years into France, China and now the UK. Globally the company has more than 12,000 corporate customers and access to over 180,000 hotels. In September last year, £50 million-worth of transactions were conducted through HRS, according to the company.

HRS claims not to collude in directional selling with its hotel partners to push customers towards particular brands.

“All hotels are given an equal presence and none are given preferential treatment over others, meaning that small independent hotels get the same billing as large hotel chains,” according to a company statement.

Hotels listed with the site have the ability to update their room rates using technology which gives them the opportunity to respond immediately to competitor pricing activity.

UK commercial director Grant Appleton said: “For too long the UK plc has been pushed into buying unnecessarily expensive hotel accommodation as travel management companies, hotel booking agents, hotels and online booking services have colluded to draw a shroud over hotel pricing.

“The UK corporate buyer has been badly let down by the accommodation industry but we intend to change that.

“We’re independent, we have no preferred hotel partnerships and we’re actively working with the UK’s independent hotels, which account for 70% of the UK market, to offer the best breadth and depth of service we possibly can to all our customers and partners in UK and worldwide.”

Report by Phil Davies

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Phil Davies

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