Travelport Launches ‘Lowest Public Rate’ Hotel Programme

Leading hotel groups guarantee Travelport agents the lowest public rates

Langley, UK.  3 November, 2011: Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, has recently launched a new hotel programme that gives Travelport GDS-connected travel agents guaranteed access to the lowest publicly available rates from a wide range of global hotel groups.

Launched recently on both the Galileo and Worldspan GDS, the ‘Lowest Public Rate Programme’ already has more than 40 participating hotel brands signed up, including Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Preferred Hotel Group, Leading Hotels of the World and Marriott International amongst many others, representing thousands of properties worldwide. With interest in the programme building momentum many other chains are expected to be added by the end of the year.

Agents booking via Travelport’s ‘Lowest Public Rate Programme’ have the ability to find and book the lowest public rate of the day offered anywhere by the participating hotel, including pre-paid rates and special promotional offers regardless of whether the rate is flexible or has restrictions.  This means that no additional searching is required by the agent to find the best rate of the day, thus enabling them to save time, whilst satisfying their customer’s needs.

“By offering complete rate parity, hotels participating in ‘Lowest Public Rate’ stand to boost their brand awareness and loyalty amongst travel agents, many of whom prefer booking through the GDS channel,” said Niklas Andreen, Group Vice President, Hospitality & Partner Marketing, Travelport. “This is a win-win partnership that enables our hotel partners to expand their sales opportunities, whilst giving agents confidence that they have secured the lowest rate of the day.”

Available to all Travelport travel agency customers, the introduction of the Lowest Public Rate Programme follows a number of other recent announcements from Travelport related to its ongoing drive to invest in and enhance its hospitality offering. Recent investments include the development of Travelport Rooms and More TM, a hotel booking engine for travel agents, a larger, specialist hospitality team and new dedicated helpdesks for hotel and car supplier customers.
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About Travelport (www.travelport.com)

Travelport is a broad-based business services company and a leading provider of critical transaction processing solutions to companies operating in the global travel industry.
With a presence in 160 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and reported 2010 revenues of $2.2 billion, Travelport is comprised of the global distribution system (GDS) business that includes the Galileo and Worldspan brands; and Airline IT Solutions, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines.

Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company. Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Travelport management.
Follow Travelport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/travelport

Media Inquiries:
Zina Zhang
PR Manager, Asia Pacific
Travelport
Tel: +61 (0) 2 9391 4059
Email: zina.zhang@travelport.com 

Posted on Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011