The new partnership gives additional exposure to accommodation providers and provides WIN partners with aggregated content on a user friendly platform.
London, 27 November 2020 – WIN Global Travel Network, the international network of corporate travel experts, of which the UK’s Advantage Travel Partnership is majority shareholder, has announced a partnership with HotelPlanner, an advanced, robust technology platform that aggregates accommodation from different sources, giving WIN partners live availability, a wide variety of property types and book now functionality.
HotelPlanner will be launched to WIN partners in 75 countries on 02 January 2021 with no sign-up fee, at the same time as the Global Accommodation Programme 2021 – by WIN is introduced. The HotelPlanner platform displays all the accommodation options, across all budgets, in one place, with pre-paid rates available and uniquely, in a first for an accommodation platform for WIN, Airbnb and VRBO apartments will be included. Travel management companies (TMCs) will benefit from reduced administration, automated commission collection, richer content and for the first time creating more of a personal feel to the traveller by having the option to personalise messaging via text.
Accommodation providers, including hotels and serviced apartments already signed up for the Global Accommodation Programme 2021 – By WIN, will benefit from increased Global Distribution System (GDS) bookings made by WIN’s agency partners. Accommodation providers will now also receive additional exposure on HotelPlanner, when their properties match TMC search criteria. The 2020 accommodation programme included 35,000 hotels worldwide and more than eight million room nights were booked through the programme in 2019. The new programme will substantially increase hotels and alternate accommodations available to WIN agents to book.
Leigh Cowlishaw, Global Supplier Partnership Director, The Advantage Travel Partnership said: “We understand that accommodation booking requirements have changed; our WIN partners are currently booking via a number of different channels, so we have partnered with HotelPlanner to provide them with a platform to house multiple content sources, including market-leading WIN rates. This further enhances our Global Accommodation Programme proposition, which currently includes global GDS bookable rates. Through offering the membership choice on which products suit their businesses we will grow the accommodation bookings allowing us to drive better values, rates and terms for our members across all channels.”
Tim Gunstone, Managing Director of HotelPlanner UK said: “We are delighted to be partnering with WIN, to provide access to diverse inventory to the vital agency channel. This partnership will really enable global agents to satisfy their corporate customers with choice.”