Amadeus unveils landmark HRS agreement

·Amadeus is first to distribute HRS’s hotel content through the GDS channel, taking a major industry-level step towards efficient hotel content distribution ·By Q2 2012, Amadeus’ subscribers worldwide will benefit from integrated access to broader content with the addition of HRS’ 250,000 hotel properties, including more than 50,000 hotel properties which were distributed exclusively through HRS up to now.

Tobias Ragge, Chief Executive Officer, HRS, commented “This strategic agreement with Amadeus is a key milestone in our multichannel strategy to offer our hotel partners extended, integrated distribution reach from a single source. By distributing our content through the GDS channel for the first time, we will make our hotel partners bookable through more than 91,000 travel agencies and over 65,000 airline sales offices, which use the Amadeus system worldwide. HRS’s integrated end-to-end solution, which connects independent properties directly with the GDS, helps to reduce our hotel partners’ distribution cost by 10 per cent compared to competing solutions. At the same time we respond to the demand from bookers worldwide to find our vast choice of independent hotels efficiently through Amadeus distribution solutions. Our corporate customers will benefit from higher adoption rates when it comes to hotel bookings, as their travel agency partners now have also access to more extensive hotel content.”

Amadeus has already started the integration of HRS’s content into its distribution system to make it as easy and efficient to book as any GDS content. By Q2 2012, corporations and travel agencies will have access to this content via both Amadeus e-Travel Management – the online self-booking tool used by 5,200 corporations worldwide – and Amadeus Selling Platform – the point of sale solution used by Amadeus travel agents for traditional servicing. This will allow them to shop for hotels from different sources – GDS and HRS, quickly and easy from a single screen and with the highest level of mid- and back office integration.

“HRS is the ideal partner to complement Amadeus’ current hotel proposition to bookers. Offering integrated access to HRS’ vast inventory of unique ‘non-GDS’ hotel offers via bookers’ preferred channels marks a milestone in our ‘Multisource’ strategy to bring new levels of efficiency to the fragmented hotel distribution space.” commented Francisco Pérez-Lozao, Vice President New Businesses, Amadeus. “This partnership with HRS reflects our shared absolute focus on the needs of our customers and we are thrilled with this boundary-breaking alliance.”

Yves Galimidi, Global Travel Purchaser, Indirect Material and Services (IMS), IKEA, commented “For Ikea, the Amadeus and HRS partnership is nothing but good news. It means we can find the best rooms for our travellers at the best price, without labour-intensive hotel shopping. The extensive additional choice of hotel properties mean all of Ikea’s unique, quickly-changing needs will be met. We are very pleased.”

L-R: Hugo Ehrnreich, Head of Amadeus Hotel Distribution; Tobias Ragge, Chief Executive Officer, HRS

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