GenaRes Worldwide Reservation Services SM Ltd., announced that it is the first central reservations system (CRS) to be fully integrated with the Ez Yield V2 system. The Ez Yield V2 platform provides a way for…
GenaRes Worldwide Reservation Services SM Ltd., announced that it is the first central reservations system (CRS) to be fully integrated with the Ez Yield V2 system. The Ez Yield V2 platform provides a way for hoteliers to easily and automatically update and manage their rates and availability on the Internet wholesaler sites, also known as “merchant model” sites, such as Travelocity, Hotels and VirginHolidays.
GenaRes customer Flatotel, a contemporary hotel in Midtown Manhattan, was the first to use the integrated system. With most of its weekend business generated through wholesale and merchant sites, Flatotel experienced immediate benefits.
“Previously, managing Flatotel’s rates on all of the various distribution channels was a nightmare. Although the GenaRes CRS enabled us to easily manage our rate plans on the global distribution systems (GDS) and the retail and opaque Internet booking sites, we had to individually deal with each online wholesaler, manually updating each site one at a time,” said Flatotel Reservations Manager Clayton Channing.
“Occasionally we would load a discounted rate on one of the merchant sites we’ve contracted with, and then inadvertently neglect to load that same discounted rate in the GDSs. Unfortunately, this would cause our corporate travel agency clients to book our rooms via the wholesaler instead of the via the GDS, costing us more in commissions, not to mention extra work for the travel agency. Now, with Ez Yield and the GenaRes CRS integrated, we can ensure ‘rate parity’ across all channels, easily and in ‘real time’,” Channing said.
The third-party wholesaler sites that Flatotel manages using the GenaRes/Ez Yield channel management tool include Virginholidays, Quickbookm, HotelBeds, and ExpressReservations.
“The combination of these systems truly does put all the power into the hotel revenue manager’s hands,” Flatotel’s Channing continued. “GenaRes is one of the few CRSs where the hotelier can update the GDS inventory themselves at any time, which is a tremendous benefit. With our previous reservations company, we would have to wait several days before our rates were updated in the GDSs. This would create a major problem with our corporate clients when they could not find our discounted rates on their GDS. With the GenaRes/Ez Yield interface, from one screen, I can update all of my rate plans across all channels in real time, and ensure there are no errors or discrepancies. For a hotel revenue manager, that’s heaven!”
GenaRes and Ez Yield completed the integration last month. Ez Yield charges participating hotels a small monthly fee, and has nearly 1,000 hotels worldwide participating.
“We are always seeking added-value services to provide to our CRS customers, and Ez Yield was a natural fit,” GenaRes President Eugene Harris said. “Although we’ve always provided our hotel customers with the tools to easily manage their rates and availability on the GDSs and retail Web sites that we access via the Pegasus Solutions Online Distribution Network (NASDAQ: PEGS), the merchant model and wholesale sites have always provided a challenge for our hoteliers. bIntegrating the Ez Yield technology into our CRS will make managing those sites so much easier for our customers.”
Merchant model sites have become increasingly important for hotels as bookings through these channels continue to grow. According to industry estimates, bookings through merchant Web sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity channels in 2005 were up 34 percent over 2004, representing 9 percent of total online hotel bookings worldwide.
Ez Yield President and Co-Founder Edward St. Onge commented, “While we’ve established marketing alliances with several CR S companies, GenaRes is the first that we’ve integrated our system with. When we made it clear to the industry that we were ready to integrate the Ez Yield.com platform with one of the CRSs, GenaRes moved the fastest to participate. And, we’re glad they did – the integration was an incredibly smooth process.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
