Expedia launches new direct connect technology for hotel partners

June 26, 2007 | Online Travel

Expedia officially launched Expedia QuickConnect, a reservation system interface that allows hotel partners to easily and efficiently link property management and central reservation systems to Expedia.

Expedia, Inc., today at HITEC 2007 announced the launch of Expedia QuickConnect, a reservation system interface that allows hotel partners to easily and efficiently link property management and central reservation systems to Expedia. Through Expedia QuickConnect, independent hotels and small- to medium-size hotel chain partners can now easily automate the exchange of room, rate and booking information with Expedia, Inc. sites.

Expedia QuickConnect allows a wider range of hotel partners to benefit from the cost, speed, accuracy and security advantages of direct connectivity with Expedia’s reservation system and enables hotel partners to strategically manage their reservation office by monitoring their room availability more accurately in real time. In addition, Expedia QuickConnect helps increase customer bookings to a property by allowing the hotel partner to offer a wider range of room types while also decreasing costs by eliminating the need to input bookings from fax reservations.

“Expedia QuickConnect is a win-win for our guests and for our hotel,” said Rob Gauthier, managing director of Parc Fifty Five, San Francisco. “Our guests have real-time access to Parc Fifty Five’s guest room availability, enabling them, for the first time, to book and confirm their preferred room, even at the last minute. Making reservations online is more seamless and hassle-free than ever before, and we can better manage room inventory, giving Parc Fifty Five a tighter hold on our revenue management.”

Expedia QuickConnect was developed to be less complex than standard customized integration projects. The new platform, designed with independent properties and small- to medium-size hotel chains in mind, enables all qualified Expedia Special Rate (ESR) hotel partners to quickly and easily access a full-featured application programming interface (API) with searchable specifications and sample code to facilitate deployment.

“We are very excited to be the first North American company to deploy our two-way interface between RSI’s RoomKey property management solution and Expedia QuickConnect,” said Charles Ku, president of RSI, a Web-based property management and reservation systems provider. “We can now offer our hotel clients one of the best sales distribution channels available on the Web, which will increase their market penetration, generate higher conversions and increase online sales revenue. Our two-way interface also eliminates manual room availability, rate management upload and reservation download as it is fully automated from guest reservation to guest check-out after their stay.”

“Expedia QuickConnect is yet another example of Expedia’s commitment to make it easier for our hotel partners to do business with us worldwide,” said Michael Reichartz, vice president of business development, Americas lodging, Expedia. “We distilled years of integration experience into an innovative, easy-to-use platform when we developed Expedia QuickConnect. As a result, more of our partners, regardless of their size, can take advantage of direct connectivity, which can in turn mean additional customer exposure to their hotel rooms and increased bookings.”