Expedia launches commission based hotel program in Europe

May 19, 2009 | Online Travel

Merchant programs based on pure net-rates are a tough sale with hotel marketers these days. Especially in Europe, where big players like Booking.com, HRS, and Hotel.de all offer commission based partnership models. So it was only a question of time until Expedia & Co. would follow with their version of a commission based model.

Expedia today announced the introduction of the Expedia Easy Manage program, a commission-based partnership option for qualifying hotels in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA).
“In a time when suppliers need customers in their rooms more than ever, we recognized the need to move beyond a one-size-fits-all model,” said Matthew Crummack, senior vice president of Lodging, Expedia. “Expedia is uniquely positioned at the intersection between travel supply and the world’s largest audience of online travel shoppers, and we’re focused on bringing those travel shoppers to hotels in a way that addresses their revenue objectives and the specific dynamics of their market.”
Now, eligible hotels can quickly and easily sign up to offer their property on more than 70 Expedia and Hotels.com® sites worldwide, as well as on Venere.com and thousands of active affiliate sites. Hotels that partner with Expedia get access to online travel shoppers worldwide and multilingual property assistance, all with no registration fees and no fixed costs. Expedia Easy Manage offers hotels a set of straightforward online distribution tools for managing rates, inventory and content.
The introduction of the Expedia Easy Manage program represents the extension of Expedia’s global online travel marketplace to even more hotels in even more locations. Expedia Easy Manage complements the long-standing Expedia Special Rate (ESR) merchant model program, which provides hotels marketing opportunities and strategic revenue management support from a locally-based Expedia market manager. The Expedia Special Rate program offers numerous ways for hotels to align their distribution and revenue management strategies and optimize RevPAR.
This news also represents the integration of the Expedia and Venere.com supply portfolios following Expedia’s acquisition of Venere in 2008.