International Online Hotel Booking Systems Project

International Online Hotel Booking Systems
A project in cooperation with USAID’s SME Support Project

by Georgian Tourism Association (GTA) 3rd July 2008

Why register with International Online Hotel Booking Systems?

The future of hotel reservation in individual and business travel is online booking. The experience and the position of international online booking systems on the world market for hotel reservations are attractive for Georgian Hotels & Guesthouses for registration with several of the market leading systems. The increased visibility in the search engines make international systems advantageous compared to smaller national booking systems.

Which international systems?

hrs.com (Hotel Reservation System): the biggest in Europe, 360.000.000 page impressions on website per year, 12.000 operating companies, booking facility on more than 6000 internet pages, 31 languages and 225.000 Hotels registered worldwide. Clear procedures, good to start with: commission 10%, full payment made in the hotel, hotel administration system on the hrs-website after registration. Very cooperative. Interesting for small hotels due to flexible procedures. www.hrs.com

hotels.com: a very active booking system in terms of publicity “my hotel”, “wake up happy”. 80.000 hotels worldwide, 25 languages. Pre-registration easy (a little tricky), communication & cooperation are less easy. www.hotels.com

booking.com: 18 languages, 45000 hotels in 67 countries, 240.000.000 site visitors per year, 10,9 million room nights booked in 2006. Pre-Registration form is quite detailed (9 pages) making registration not so easy, final contract takes a lot of time (recommended as second or third booking system). www.booking.com

tobook.com: similar procedures as hrs.com; 10 % commission on finalized reservations, full payment at the hotel (secured by credit card number). Registration process is easy, with registration form, monthly invoice for commissions from tobook. More problems on website than others. www.tobook.com

whl.travel: international booking systems network committed to Sustainable Tourism and promoting a “Caring for the destination” approach. Active in more than 30 countries. Target group are individual travelers. Enables small guesthouses and hotels without own internet access to be booked online through a Market Place Operator (MPO). Especially interesting for hotels in regions of Georgia. www.whl.travel and www.travel-tbilisi.com

What is the service of Georgian Tourism Association (GTA)?

Georgian Tourism Association (GTA) offers hands on support with registration procedures, cooperation of hotels/guesthouses and tour companies and membership in GTA for hotels & guesthouses.
www.tourism-association.ge