Tripadvisor announces new connectivity partnerships with SiteMinder
Tripadvisor Plus adds new connectivity options, enabling thousands of hotels to attract high value bookings
Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, announced today new connectivity partnerships with SiteMinder and three other leading hotel technology providers, enabling thousands of hotels to participate in Tripadvisor Plus for the first time.
Tripadvisor Plus is a new annual subscription that offers members endless travel savings, perks and VIP services. For hotels, it provides an innovative new way to fill beds and attract a new, high-spend customer audience. Participating properties receive enhanced visibility and special badging on Tripadvisor to attract Tripadvisor Plus members, as well as full access to all of the customer information from each Tripadvisor Plus reservation so they can build relationships with those guests after their stay.
Previously, individual hotels were only able to connect to Tripadvisor Plus via select global distribution system (GDS) providers. Now, hotels using technology provided by SiteMinder and other connectivity providers are able to participate in Tripadvisor Plus as well. Additional connectivity partnerships are expected later in the year.
“Since we launched Tripadvisor Plus earlier this year, we’ve heard from hoteliers who were very eager to join the program but weren’t able to do so easily based on the connectivity solutions we had in place while the program was in beta. Working directly with some of the biggest connectivity partners in the world will fix that for thousands of hotels,” said Daniel Mitchell, vice president, Tripadvisor Plus supply, “We have been able to solve for this so quickly by using a lot of the existing technology infrastructure we already had in place, including the technology used to power Instant Booking. And we’re not stopping there. We expect more connectivity partners to come on board soon as we continue to grow both Tripadvisor Plus membership and supply.”
“Tripadvisor has long played a significant role in the upper funnel for hotel reservations and, for hoteliers, this is an exciting evolution that allows them to tap further into the mass visibility and traffic that the Tripadvisor brand uniquely receives. Tripadvisor Plus will ultimately bring hoteliers another step closer to their guests, earlier in their booking journey – a capability that we at SiteMinder are pleased to support,” said James Bishop, senior director, global ecosystem, SiteMinder, “Through our long-standing partnership with Tripadvisor, hotel customers of SiteMinder can now not only participate more easily in the Tripadvisor Plus program, but gain more reservations and revenue at this critical time by reducing their costs.”
Today’s announcement follows the news that three hotel groups – Barceló Hotel Group (BHG), Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR) and Pestana Hotel Group – have become the first hotel chains to connect their portfolios directly to Tripadvisor Plus at the corporate group level. Over the coming weeks, select properties from each of the three chains will be automatically enrolled into the program, enabling Tripadvisor Plus members to book stays there at special room rates and with access to additional complimentary guest perks such as welcome gifts, dining and spa credits and late check-out.