Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Commercial Officer, InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), stated that, ‘Rooms and More’ has been well received by the Indian travel agents. The product, he added, has been beta tested by over 300 travel agents in India and we received very encouraging response. Revealing the features of this product, Dwivedi said that ‘Room and More’ offer globally balanced and relevant content that meets the ever evolving demands of local, regional and global travel.
‘Rooms and More’ is available to all travel agencies in over 70 countries. If offers a multisource content integration previously not accessible by traditional GDS. “The most unique feature of this product is that it is open for all agents of the industry and it offers a fair and transparent system. Even a smaller agent can register on ‘Rooms and More’ website and avail the services,” he said, and added that Rooms and More is aimed at improving travel agents’ productivity through the availability of a wide variety of hotel booking options in the hospitality domain. As of now, a travel agent can have access search over 600,000 properties globally, locationwise and ratewise.
“We also have good India content. Almost all branded property and boutique hotels are available on this platform. We are further strengthening the India content and plan to have 30 city workshops to create awareness,” he said. ITQ already organised workshops in Guwahait and Bhuvaneswar. “We are going to advertise this product in all trade media, our website and through social media,” he said.
Citing Euromonitor’s report, he said that the travel trade is expected to of US$628 billion which is higher by 35 per cent of current year’s number. “Travelport also realised that this is the fastest growing sector,” he added.
‘Rooms and More’ also feature a streamlined commission payment process that delivers monthly payments in local currency. “Travelport is only displaying rates and make the bookings feasible between hotel and aggregator. There are multiple aggregators and we facilitate these bookings though these aggregators,” he revealed and added that Rooms for More offers the best rate.
According to him, ‘Rooms and More’ offers a level playing field to every agent. “Every agent is treated at par whether he is big or small. There is no differentiation between agents. It is a unique product offered first time by any GDS. So far, we have 25 aggregators which will grow to 50 by next year. Today, agents are looking for better content and real time information and transparency and ‘Rooms and More’ offers the same,” he added.
