A major expansion for SiteMinder has
come with the online distributor becoming the first global channel
manager to forge a two-way connection with India’s biggest travel site, MakeMyTrip, which has more than 3.5 million customers and books over 1000 hotel room nights each day.
The
new connection – one of the most significant yet for SiteMinder - is a
boon for the company’s hotel customers around the world keen to sell
their rooms in the rapidly growing Indian travel market, with
www.makemytrip.com boasting a 48% share of India’s burgeoning online
travel sector.
“SiteMinder is the first global
channel manager to achieve two-way booking connectivity with the huge
MakeMyTrip reservation site, which provides our global hotel customers
with ready access to this very lucrative online market,” said SiteMinder Partnerships manager, Duncan Waterman.
“As
India’s leading online travel agent, MakeMyTrip can now be managed by
hotels using SiteMinder’s channel management system, adding to the long
list of sites we are already connected to around the world,” Mr Waterman said. “Real-time
inventory can now be listed on MakeMyTrip and, in turn, bookings from
this site can now be delivered automatically back into hotels’ PMS and
CRSs, providing a seamless, two-way connection that will bring great
benefits to hoteliers keen to reach bigger online audiences such as
India.
“Our new partnership with MakeMyTrip is one of our
most important yet, confirming our ability to offer accommodation
providers a breadth and depth of online booking networks that can really
boost their business. The new connection also underlines SiteMinder’s
rapid growth as a premier distribution platform.”
Commenting on the partnership with SiteMinder, MakeMyTrip Senior vice president, Amit Saberwal, said: “Our
partnership with SiteMinder is strategically significant as it
establishes two-way connectivity. We see a lot of synergies and a
win-win proposition in our mutual association. As the local market
leader, we can and will leverage our considerable network to their
advantage. ”
MakeMyTrip was launched in India in
2005, revolutionising the way Indians bought travel. More than 40% of
MakeMyTrip’s 3.5 million customers are repeat clients. The website
attracts more than 4.5 million unique visits every month and 12,000
flight tickets and 1000 hotel room nights are booked on the site each
day.
SiteMinder is a multi-award winning online
distribution company whose products are trusted and used by thousands of
accommodation providers in over 90 countries worldwide to help increase
online revenue, streamline business process and drive down the cost of
acquisition. The cloud-based product suite continues to set the
benchmark in online distribution technology by challenging conventional
operating strategies. SiteMinder is redefining distribution.
