The second try

Madrid/Cologne. The dam is bursting in hotel distribution: For the first time in history, a global distribution system has formed a direct alliance with an online travel agent. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Frankfurt, Amadeus and HRS announced a strategic alliance. The move will involve HRS linking the 250,000 hotel in its database with Amadeus; 50,000 of these are individual hotels which have up to now only been bookable through HRS. Now, the hotels will also be open for booking by Amadeus travel agents and corporate clients. At first glance, GDS seems to benefit more than HRS, as up to now Amadeus has counted only 110,000 hotels in its reservation system. Yet both sides are extremely satisfied with the deal. The new additional distribution channel requires no extra commission from HRS-affiliated hoteliers. Yet on Tuesday evening, in a separate release, HRS announced that commissions will rise effective from March 1, 2012 - also for hotel.de and tiscover.

Augsburg. For a week, it is presumably not only European hoteliers who are once again thinking about new forces in hotel distribution. But, the news of the foundation of the online hotel portal, Room Key, in the USA only briefly provided for an optimistic "wow". After one week, European hoteliers are viewing the company considerably more soberly. Then feelings ran high, particularly in the German market, when the online travel agent from Cologne, HRS, flexed their muscles: They tossed other distributors out of the running through their alliance with Amadeus while at the same time, confronted their current 250,000 hotel partners with an additional two percent commission. HRS has flexed their muscles - and the brand-new market player, justbook, that since Monday, also markets hotel offers via Apps was also permitted to feel this promptly. Reactions from the hotel industry on the latest events in distribution.

Dallas. Six of the world’s leading hotel companies  - Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, and Wyndham - announced on Wednesday the launch of Room Key, an innovative new online hotel search engine. Yesterday, the first external partner signed the contract: Best Western Hotels adds another 4,000 hotels to the pool. Until the middle of 2012, the site is expected to list 80,000 hotels. Is this the answer to Google?