Eric Meierhans News Today

Corporate hotel bookings in Europe have nearly recovered to pre-Covid levels while lead-in times have also normalised, according to data from HotelHub. The hotel technology specialist said that international business bookings in Europe in the third quarter of 2022 accounted for 43 per cent of all hotel sales, which compared with a 44 per cent share of the market in 2019.

Hotel technology provider HotelHub is to increase its inventory of properties and rates through a deal to access content from Booking Holdings’ brands of online travel agencies. HotelHub, which supplies a platform to TMCs and an online booking tool, has announced an agreement with Priceline’s strategic partnership division.

Travel management company Corporate Traveller is to introduce its new hotel booking tool within its Melon online platform to UK clients later this year. The new booking hotel platform within Melon uses technology from HotelHub and has already been implemented for Corporate Traveller’s consultants and clients in the US and Canada.

European corporate hotel bookings surpassed pre-pandemic levels in June as the recovery has accelerated in the past two months.   The latest quarterly figures from HotelHub, which provides booking technology for TMCs and their customers, found that European hotel bookings in June reached 108 per cent of 2019 volumes.

Hotel bookings are expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels faster than previously forecast, according to the latest data from hotel technology specialist HotelHub. HotelHub, which provides technology for TMCs and their corporate customers, said that global hotel transactions reached 87 per cent of 2019 volumes in March.

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) has been finally introduced for online payments in the UK, which could lead to a new surge in “virtual” payments for business travel transactions amid fears that some corporate sales could be declined. SCA makes “two-factor” authentication mandatory for online sales, with those making the purchase required to verify their identity through being sent a unique one-time passcode, alongside their card details.

HotelHub saw a continued rise in global transactions into the fourth quarter of 2021.