Galileo heightens Best Western connectivity
Galileo International has signed Best Western to the highest level of GDS connectivity.
Best Western becomes the 100th hotel company to implement Galileo’s “next generation” Inside Shopper technology.
Best Western, a membership association of independently owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational support to its members, claims to be the world’s largest hotel brand with more than 4,000 properties in 80 countries. The deal with Galileo brings Inside Shopper implementation up to 30,000 properties worldwide.
Inside Shopper connects directly with the hotel group’s central reservation system, providing travel agencies with access to real-time information on rates and inventory.
Ric Leutwyler, Best Western’s senior vice president of brand quality and member services, said: “The real-time connection with Inside Shopper gives us the advantage of providing our true availability directly from our central reservation system. This allows us to properly market all of the available Best Western hotel rooms in an agent’s desired search area.
“With Galileo displaying the most comprehensive listing of our available rooms, we have increased visibility during an agent’s GDS search, which will ultimately lead to more bookings and greater revenue generating potential.”
Eileen Kennedy, vice president of marketing, Galileo Americas region, added: “Inside Shopper requires less time in the ‘shopping’ mode, leaving more time dedicated to other revenue-generating services, ultimately improving productivity for travel agencies.
“The response to the program has been extremely favourable, with the properties realising increased bookings since implementation. Participating chains now represent 60% of Galileo’s traffic worldwide.”
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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