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Supranational re-positions to improve electronic distribution
Hotel representation company Supranational plans a re-positioning to boost turnover to $200 million next year.
The UK-based group aims to enhance accessibility through GDSs and internet portals. It is abolishing a 30 year old “exclusivity guarantee” in January to make Supranational accessible in any country to all hotels of any size.
The objective is to achieve a 30% rise in individual online bookings in 2005, together with a 15% increase to 1,500 member hotels represented via GDSs and internet distributors.
The forecast growth next year is expected to result in a record annual turnover of $200 million, following an estimated 18% growth in 2004.
Supranational plans a series of measures as part of the re-positioning, including the $3 million acquisition of a full license to use Columbus reservations technology to make available “next generation” links to GDSs and websites.
The group is to promote more widely a “total pricing” approach to GDS customers offering rates inclusive of taxes and fixed service charges. A new GDS brand will be launched for small and off the beaten track hotels which tend to be excluded from major systems.
New hotels are to be recruited in Asia, eastern Europe and North America following the opening of new sales offices in the UK, Scandinavia and China.
Niels Pedersen, managing director of the group, which claims to be the fourth largest hotel representation company worldwide, called on hotels to standardise their tariffs and availability “using the formula of the best available rate for the day and adhere to this in all reservations outlets so not to confuse the market”.
He added: “Many have also been unfair in neglecting to pay justified agency commission, and so our automated payment system will enable them to remove the potential area of discontent from their travel trade relationships.”
But Mr Pedersen also urged agents to end booking hotel direct by telephone.
He said: “We are educating more agency staff, notably those in southern European countries who tend to be older and are perhaps less technologically-literate, to end direct bookings by telephone. Such reservations are wasteful of time and money, are unlikely to secure a more favourable rate, and consequently are a false economy based on wishful thinking.”
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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