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Medhotels to adopt principal status
Accommodation-only provider medhotels.com is to act as principal to provide travel agents with an increased level of legal and financial protection.
The lastminute.com trade-facing company says it is to establish a clear set of standards around health and safety and good practice on hotel descriptions and booking processes.
It hopes to have established the new status by June 1 after increasing health and safety processes, liability insurance and issuing new contracts to hotels and agents.
The move has been prompted by the rise in dynamic packaging by agents which has made it essential for accommodation-only specialists to make sure that retailers are protected and can offer peace of mind to their customers, according to the company.
The move to principal means that medhotel.com is helping travel agents protect their customers via appropriate health and safety checks, and in the case of legal issues, it will offer the opportunity for the travel agent to pursue a claim against medhotels.com as opposed to having to sue the hotel direct.
Commercial director Carl Burrows said: “By acting as principal, we are showing travel agents a high level of commitment and as industry leaders we want to set the highest standards.
“Medhotels.com will be a principal in our relationship with travel agents which means that we fully take on financial and legal risk.
“We are taking full principal responsibility and we want to make this position very clear to our travel agents. To put it simply, if a travel agent has a claim in relation to a hotel we supply, we will be contractually and financially liable for it.”
by Phil Davies
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