The Expedia group, a leading online travel company, and Rotana Hotel Management Company, have renewed their partnership. 

 

As part of the long-term agreement, Rotana’s 85 hotels across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe will take part in the Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP) programme, said a statement.

 

The ETP programme is designed to better serve travellers by offering them the choice to pay either at the time of booking (called Expedia Collect) or at the hotel directly (Hotel Collect). 

 

Rotana joins more than 50,000 hotels - including major international chains that have signed up to offer ETP booking choices to travellers.

 

Diego Lofeudo, senior director of market management in the Middle East and Africa, Exoedia, said: “Rotana is one of the most recognized hotel brands in the Middle East and Africa with aggressive expansion plans.

 

“Expedia group is delighted to introduce Rotana to our ETP programme, where we’re seeing incremental increases in demand for those hotels that are already ETP-enabled.”

 

The Expedia analysis of booking data from all hotels which were ETP-enabled on or before April 9 last year (approximately 42,000), shows an average increase of 10 to 15 percentage points in standalone travel demand growth 28 days after going live, when compared to the period 28 days before going live.  

 

About 47 per cent of travellers chose to pay for this hotel preference through Expedia Collect, which 53 per cent chose Hotel Collect, the analysis found.

 

When compared to the total production that Expedia provides hoteliers around the world which includes bookings from package, non-refundable and other channels, the percentage of Hotel Collect bookings is just a quarter (25 per cent), it said.

 

Vicky Varfis, corporate vice president sale and revenue of Rotana, said: “With Expedia we have a long-term, strategic partner with industry leading innovation and a global reach that delivers valuable guests to our 50 operating properties and the ones under development. We’re looking forward to rolling out Expedia Traveler Preference with our hotels and increasing performance as a result.” - TradeArabia News Service