InterContinental Hotels Group has begun adding its entire portfolio of four,600 properties all over the world to China travel retailer Ctrip.com International via a reservations system connection designed and implemented by DerbySoft.
“We are happy to have a successful reference to IHG through DerbySoft, and Chinese customers can easily reserve more global hotels through Ctrip,” said Maria Maohua Sun, Ctrip’s Senior Vp and Head of Hotel Business Division. Online travel bookings in China overall are expected to achieve nearly $14.4 billion this year, in keeping with PhocusWright.
With 160 operating properties and 30% of its global pipeline in China, IHG recognized the necessity to directly connect its central reservations system (CRS) to China’s largest travel portal allowing online booking of its properties for both outbound and inbound Chinese travelers. End result of the DerbySoft connection to IHG’s CRS, Ctrip users would be in a position to view real time availability and receive an instant booking confirmation.
“Having worked with DerbySoft since 2007 on quite a lot of technology projects, we were extremely confident of their ability to assist us with this complex direct connection,” said IHG Vice chairman of Distribution and Intermediary Sales Andrew Rubinacci. DerbySoft was the primary technology provider to attach an international hotel company’s CRS to Booking.com, the Amsterdam-based division of Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN), when it connected IHG to Booking.com in 2008.
The XML-based connection between IHG and Ctrip, facilitated by DerbySoft, went live this week. Over the subsequent several weeks, DerbySoft will continue rolling out IHG’s 4,600 properties onto the Ctrip system. “We are proud to have created this new reservations connection between these two major industry players,” said DerbySoft Vice chairman of Connectivity Keith Cotton. “Our distributed technology platform, which gives extremely flexible and unique solutions to deal with the various business rules of both partners, includes servers strategically positioned all over the world to offer reduced latency and exceptional system response times for both Ctrip and IHG..”
DerbySoft builds highly customized electronic “pipelines” that transmit accurate room availability, rates, and inventory (ARI) from the hotel companies’ CRSs to 3rd-party online booking channels, and in turn deliver the reservations made at the travel booking websites back to the hotel companies’ central reservations systems.