Control All Important Web Booking Channels via the Extranet of ehotel

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 16, 2008 – In Germany, online hotel bookings are booming, with no sign of slow down insight. Ehotel AG, one of the leading hotel booking platforms, increase both the number of hotels and bookings from month to month! Today, more than 210,000 hotels worldwide are bookable on ehotel.de.

For the hotels, the data administration has been renewed and more simplified. The brand-new hotel data system of ehotel has become a single inventory solution, in strong co-operation with Cultuzz Digital Media, a travel technology company for Web booking business. Based on a single inventory all hotel data will be distributed automatically to all leading German web platforms like HRS, hotel.de, Booking.com or eBay.

"The innovative hotel data administration via the 'CultSwitch' system of Cultuzz means enormous savings of time for hotel management," Fritz Zerweck, CEO of ehotel AG, says. Hotel prices and descriptions will be saved on a secure web server of Cultuzz and distributed via OTA-standard interfaces to several booking partners. The advantages for the hotel management are clear: Rate parity and no more overbookings are guaranteed.

The booking system of Cultuzz offers more optimizations: The single inventory database can be administrated directly via the hotel-own Property Management System (PMS). In addition, the channel management system allows the administration of multiple distribution partners. With the yield management feature all hotel rates can be managed exactly by date, channel and customer. In comparison to other channel management systems the costs are very low: Only 0.8 percent of the booked room rate will be charged by Cultuzz.

The data access is provided by a powerful server architecture and is based on the OTA data standard (OTA = Open Travel Alliance) which means full flexibility on tourism data exchange in the electronic distribution systems.

Win-win-win situation
"The extranet system for hotel clients of ehotel.de is setting new standards for the data administration of Web booking engines," says Dr. Reinhard Vogel, Managing Director of Cultuzz Digital Media. "The co-operation with ehotel is a win-win-win situation", he continues, "The hotel manager gains more time by only having to maintain their inventory once. For ehotel the new distribution system means an exclusive service. And for Cultuzz it is most important to connect the strongest Web booking engines to our system."

PMS-Partner
Following Property Management Systems (PMS) are available via "CultSwitch": Velox, Hotline, Deltra (HS/3), at-on (HotcheckWin), Konmar (HVW), Medusa, Citadel, GMS und CDSoft. With these PMS partners more than 9'000 hotels, mainly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are connected with the "CultSwitch" Web service of Cultuzz Digital Media.

Distribution Partnerships
Via "CultSwitch" the Web booking engines are updated automatically with all data of the connected hotels. Today, connected to the "CultSwitch" system are ehotel, HRS, hotel.de/TravelRes, eBay, Booking.com, and the hotel booking engines of Europe's No. 1 tourism firm, TUI. In addition, Cultuzz' own booking platform "CultBooking" is part of the "CultSwitch" system, too. "CultBooking" is an online booking engine - free to use for hotel websites.

About ehotel.de AG:
The web booking company based in Berlin/Germany is well-known for technical improvements within the electronic distribution systems. Via www.ehotel.de more than 210,000 hotels worldwide are bookable for individual guests, business travellers and group booking requests. In partnership with RADIUS, one of the worldwide greatest hotel room purchase networks, ehotel.de provide over 10,000 top hotels with special rates.

About Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH:
Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH is one of the leading provider of information technology solutions for the hospitality industries. With more than 2'000 hotel partners auctioning more than 10'000 successful auctions per month Cultuzz is the worldwide leader in selling hotel rooms on eBay. Clients include international hotel chains and private managed hotels. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH operates subsidiaries in Switzerland, India, UK, USA and Australia.