hotel.info, the leading online hotel reservation service for more than 210,000 hotels worldwide, obtained a positive impression from its review of the world's largest tourism fair, the ITB 2010 in Berlin.

An overall change in mood for the better was evident, and on the basis of numerous discussions with international hotel chains, especially those based in the USA, it is possible to speak about a significant recovery in the accommodation sector. In particular, there was a definite impression that the corporate travel business has also recently started to recover, notably with business travel to foreign destinations rising.

Reinhard Wick, Distribution Director of hotel.info, confirmed this impression of the trade fair, saying "We are over the worst. Business, both on the domestic and international fronts, is improving noticeably. Our partners in the hotel industry are reporting tangible rises in the average length of stay per guest. In addition, room rates have stabilised and in some cases even increased recently. These are real signs that 2010 will be a better year for the travel sector."

Identifiable trends in relation to the distribution of room allotments include the continuing developments towards integration of channel management systems and the opening up of CRS systems for direct connection to end-customer platforms like hotel.info. In both cases, the wide array of languages and the consistency of methods for presenting hotel information to the benefit of the end customer are of primary importance.

At the hotel.info booth particular interest, especially among foreign hotel operators, was shown in the new 14 language "Hotel Centre" which was unveiled at the ITB. As Wick reported, "Things we could hardly have imagined just a short while ago are now considered absolutely normal. Modern hotel operators are actively searching out booking portals that provide access to the international arena. They simply enter the information about their hotel, register an allotment of rooms online and within a very short period of time these rooms can be booked through us. It is not unusual for hotels to receive their first booking through our platform within just a few hours of making the initial contact with us."