Following the acquisition of Fastbooking in 2015, AccorHotels has announced the acquisition of Availpro. Created in 2001, Availpro is the leader in France and one of the leading European software providers to hoteliers with more than 6,500 clients. The consolidation of these two major players will create the leading European digital services provider for independent hotels, ranked the third largest global player in its sector.
In an expanding and highly competitive sector, the companies in combination will work to benefit hoteliers who are increasingly calling for decision-support solutions and will now have access to a whole range of management tools and assistance services to enhance their online distribution and increase their revenues.
The ‘channel management’ solution, which provides an innovative management tool, together with various software packages developed by Availpro, will complement the products and services currently provided to hoteliers by Fastbooking.
Fastbooking provides services to independent hotels and has been the cornerstone of AccorHotels’ ‘digital factory’, a digital services division aimed at hoteliers, since its acquisition by the Group in 2015. Today the company helps more than 4,000 clients around the world increase their direct sales and has connected more than 2,000 independent hotels to the AccorHotels.com marketplace.
By combining the talents of these two companies – whose expertise is recognised in more than 50 countries worldwide – AccorHotels will be able to offer its hotelier clients an ever wider, more innovative and high performance application suite, enabling them to increase their online visibility and sales. Availpro clients will also benefit from the digital marketing know-how of the Fastbooking teams.
Steven Daines, CEO, New Business at AccorHotels said, “Today, two thirds of hoteliers are independent and the increase of their online visibility and direct sales is critical to their development. The acquisition of Availpro enables the Group to reach another milestone in its transformation by establishing the first B2B services division focused on hoteliers in Europe. Its combination with Fastbooking, now more than ever before, positions AccorHotels as an hotelier serving the hoteliers.”
