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TUI’s AsiaRooms.com says good-bye to merchant rates

September 14, 2009 | Online Travel

TUI Travel's AsiaRooms.com has followed laterooms.com in dropping use of wholesalers in favour of an exclusively commission-based relationship with hotels.

Chris Morris, managing director of the business-to-consumer section of TUI Travel’s accommodation and destinations unit, told Travolution: “Using the merchant model, buying through wholesalers, we were able to get strong brand penetration for AsiaRooms, but the best long-term proposition for accommodation-only is the commission model, because hoteliers want control of rates and availability.”

AsiaRoom, which concentrates on English-speaking source markets in the Asia-Pacific region, now sits on the same platform as TUI Travel’s laterooms.com. Hoteliers load inventory via an extranet which allows them to set the rates at which both sites sell beds - and sell through both brands.

Morris said: “It is a fairly simple route to market for hoteliers looking for global reach.” He added that the commission model “gives us more information about customers” which is being used to improve pay-per-click returns.

Get the full story at Travolution

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