DerbySoft Connects InterContinental Hotels Group to China's Largest OTA: Ctrip.com
All 4,600 IHG properties worldwide soon to be available for booking on Ctrip by Chinese travelers |
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DerbySoft Connects InterContinental Hotels Group to China's Largest OTA: Ctrip.com
All 4,600 IHG properties worldwide soon to be available for booking on Ctrip by Chinese travelers |
Category: Asia Pacific - China - Suppliers
- Providers
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2013-04-05
In a move this week that further demonstrates the importance that global hotel brands are placing on appealing to the Chinese consumer, InterContinental Hotels Group (LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG) began adding its entire portfolio of 4,600 properties around the world to Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (NASDAQ: CTRP), China's largest online travel retailer, thanks to a reservations system connection designed and implemented by DerbySoft Inc. Based in Dallas, Texas, and Shanghai, China, DerbySoft provides technology services to seven of the 10 largest hotel companies in the world and many of the world's largest online travel agencies (OTA). The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms.
This is DerbySoft's first such distribution channel connection to Ctrip, which is the largest OTA in China. Ctrip includes more than 250,000 hotels worldwide and services more than 60 million registered users. “We are happy to have a successful connection with IHG through DerbySoft, and Chinese customers can easily reserve more global hotels through Ctrip,” said Maria Maohua Sun, Ctrip's Senior Vice President and Head of Hotel Business Division. Online travel bookings in China overall are expected to reach nearly $14.4 billion this year, according to PhocusWright.
With 160 operating properties and 30% of its global pipeline in China, IHG recognized the need 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. As a result of the DerbySoft connection to IHG’s CRS, Ctrip users will be able to view real time availability and receive an instant booking confirmation.
"Having worked with DerbySoft since 2007 on a variety of technology projects, we were extremely confident in their ability to help us with this complex direct connection," said IHG Vice President of Distribution and Intermediary Sales Andrew Rubinacci. DerbySoft was the first technology provider to connect a global 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 next 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 President of Connectivity Keith Cotton. "Our distributed technology platform, which provides extremely flexible and unique solutions to accommodate the different business rules of both partners, includes servers strategically positioned around the globe to provide 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 third-party online booking channels, and in turn deliver the reservations made on the travel booking websites back to the hotel companies’ central reservations systems.
About DerbySoft Inc.Founded in 2002, DerbySoft Inc., provides the technology that connects many of the world's largest hotel companies to many of the world's largest online travel booking services. As Internet hotel bookings continue to grow worldwide, global hotel companies such as Hilton, Marriott, and InterContinental Hotels, increasingly rely on DerbySoft's distributed and cloud-based technologies to process, manage and optimize the multitudes of reservation transactions originating from online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Travelocity.com, and meta-search sites such as Roomkey, Kayak, and Google, all the while minimizing the impact on the hotel company's technology infrastructure and resources. DerbySoft's U.S. headquarters are in Dallas (Coppell), and its worldwide technology headquarters are in Shanghai, China, where it also operates one of China's largest hotel central reservations systems,China's largest hotel central reservations systems, providing reservation distribution services to more than 1,000 Chinese local hotel properties.
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)] (www.ihg.com) is a global organization with nine hotel brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, EVEN Hotels and HUALUXE Hotels & Resorts. IHG also manages Priority Club Rewards, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty program with over 69 million members worldwide. IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,600 hotels with more than 675,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories.
Ctrip.com International, Ltd. [NASDAQ: CTRP] is a leading travel service provider of hotel accommodations, airline tickets, packaged tours, and corporate travel management in China. Ctrip aggregates hotel and flight information to enable business and leisure travelers to make informed and cost-effective bookings. Ctrip also books vacation packages and guided tours. In addition, Ctrip corporate travel management services help corporate clients effectively manage their travel requirements. Since its inception in 1999, Ctrip has experienced substantial growth and become one of the best-known travel brands in China.
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