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US consortium’s agents can bypass GDSs
Agents participating in the CCRA consortium will soon be able to book its negotiated hotel rates through the internet.
The deal means that members of the CCRA (Computerised Corporate Rate Association), who are predominantly US agents, will not have to access a GDS to book the 15,000, mostly US hotels signed up to CCRA. CCRA rates will remain on all four GDSs, but from mid-February agents will also be able to access rates through a website powered by 4oceans.
4oceans business development manager EMEA, Peter Thornton told TravelMole: “Agents will get the same commissions as before, but they get proper reporting and management. They will be able to reconcile invoices fater, and therefore get commission cheques faster.
“Previously the bulk of CCRA’s distribution revenue went to the GDSs, but now they are using our technology to exploit their relationships and shave off distribution costs.”
Mr Thornton said the deal provided a model for low cost distribution through 4oceans technology. He said the next move would be to load rates from 1,000 hotels in China onto the website, which Mr Thornton claims 4oceans has exclusive access to. He also said the company would be looking to expand the inventory of hotels in Europe.
Four agents are currently testing the web-based system in the US, and Mr Thornton told TravelMole that once it is finalised it should be ready for release in the first two weeks of February. All CCRA agents will be given the website address, password and user name.
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