Egencia launches revamped hotel booking platform in Europe

June 20, 2012 | Online Travel

Mail article Print article Facebook Twitter

Egencia released to European clients a new hotel booking portion of its interface, designed to give travelers access to a larger hotel inventory, make rates more transparent and offer more tools for buyers to enforce travel policies.

Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. company, has today announced the launch of Egencia Hotel, an advanced business hotel solution.

Egencia Hotel consists of a comprehensive, intuitive booking tool specifically designed for business travel needs. Business travellers and arrangers are now able to quickly research, pinpoint and book the right hotel room at the right place and the right price from over 191,000 hotels worldwide. On the road or at the office, Egencia Hotel makes booking the right hotel faster and easier than ever before, while empowering travellers to find the hotel that best meets their needs, their personality, and the way they travel.

As with other Egencia features, Egencia Hotel is part of the whole Egencia booking interface. Thanks to this full integrated system, it brings a number of benefits to Egencia customers in Europe - in terms of:

Booker efficiency - from the booker perspective

- The new booking tool optimizes usability with increased performance and search improvements which empower users to find the right hotel more easily.

- Through the new navigation, all needed information (location, price compliance, quality and comfort, payment and cancellation terms…) is clearly displayed to the booker, making the booking easier and faster.

Traveller satisfaction - from the traveller perspective

- A large choice offering greater global coverage enables business travellers to spot the relevant hotel in the right place which ensures a high-quality stay matching their expectations.

- Exhaustive and detailed information are given for all hotels, including photos, reviews, terms, payment conditions, booking reference, all gathered in the same place. This information ensures the right choice, meaning more quality and comfort on site for the traveller while away.

Savings, Insight and Security - from the Travel Director perspective

- Corporate hotel programmes are easier to manage: new configuration capabilities will help companies tailor the display to subtly enforce their travel programme, resulting in more control on the spend for Travel Manager.

- Egencia customers benefit from unique Egencia Preferred Rates (EPR), secured by Egencia directly with hotels. These rate types are designed to meet travellers' needs by including additional services such as breakfast, Wi-Fi and free parking.

- By centralising the offer into one unique platform, Egencia Hotel gives the full overview over all bookings made through the system. This increases visibility and thus strengthened reporting capabilities.

- All hotel bookings made into the new interface are tracked through Egencia Traveller Tracking: based on this information, travel managers can easily know where their travellers are and quickly reach them out, in case of any potential issue.

"For a business trip to be successful, it requires preparation and finding the right mix of hotels, flights and other transport products. Now and more than ever before, Egencia makes it easy for the (self) booker to search the right hotel faster and more intuitively", said Christophe Peymirat, Senior Vice President Egencia EMEA & APAC. "With a revamped search and online booking experience, Egencia allows the traveller to know and pick better where they go, thus removing any potential tension on their travels, so that they can focus on business. Egencia Hotel brings peace of mind."

This launch is part of a global programme to create a consistent hotel platform for Egencia customers. Leveraging Expedia Inc. technology, the new solution brings easier access to comprehensive content that the group acquires across the globe.

Egencia Hotel will be launched in North America in the next few months.

You can take a look at the interface at YouTube