How HotelHub Facilitated Multi-Market Expansion for an Existing Customer

The client

An existing HotelHub customer, this large global travel management company (TMC) was working with local agencies to expand its presence in the Middle East. Faced with fragmented booking systems and disjointed accounting processes, they looked to HotelHub to provide a solution that would unify these separate entities.

Key challenges

Lack of standardised booking and accounting processes for partner agencies

Sub-par operational efficiencies and compliance measures across markets

Industry background

Large TMCs with a wide geographic presence are challenged with standardising accounting processes to maintain operational efficiencies and compliance measures across offices. While it’s a critical requirement, it can prove quite difficult to implement because of the multi-channel, multi-market model.

Implementing a solution in a partner market that does not have the same systems and processes as the TMC requires a completely different approach and configuration. End-to-end content must be configured while also accounting for market-specific requirements like booking records, invoicing and accounting.

The problem

The TMC in question – who was already using HotelHub successfully in their main markets – wanted to implement the solution in its middle-eastern partner markets, such as Israel and the UAE.

Due to lack of direct presence in these markets, the TMC had been collaborating with a local agency to offer its services; however, these partners didn’t have any mandates to use specific products or follow a globally standardised process.

For a solution to be implemented successfully, HotelHub would need to consolidate the local agency’s back office systems and PNR set-up. Given the amount of change involved, the TMC had been in discussion with the partner markets for a long time but hadn’t actually implemented any changes.

The HotelHub solution

While the TMC assumed that partner market expansions would work similarly to their other markets, the reality was that the expansion involved HotelHub implementing the solution in a completely new environment.

A consultative approach to the expansion was adopted. Asking the right questions revealed issues and use cases that even the TMC was unaware of.
Leveraging the team’s expertise in setting up systems across TMCs of different sizes, levels of complexity and market models, the HotelHub team was able to identify the necessary capabilities.
With clear specifications established, the solution was built from the ground up to ensure all markets integrated seamlessly while meeting region-specific requirements.