ERS Connect Allows Live Access To Entire Hotel Inventory

Thanks to a new link installed by Mach Associates, tour operators and agents can now dynamically package the entire inventory of one of the industry’s most reputed on-line hotel banks.

Thanks to its ERS Connect link, any operator using Mach Associates’ MARS reservations system can link directly to HotelConnect and make live bookings from their accommodation bank in over 200 locations worldwide.

Because the link from the MARS reservation system to HotelConnect uses the latest standard technology XML gateway, tour operators can search for availability live and incorporate confirmed hotel beds into a dynamically created package quickly and easily.

HotelConnect specialises in independent, traditional, and family-run properties across Europe bringing a unique offering to the market that is ideally suited to the leisure traveller looking for a hotel with local character.

Said Emma McNamee, Head of Sales, Hotel Connect: “By using Mach Associates’ ERS Connect XML link, our clients can now search our entire inventory of hotels for any location or date, and they can show this availability on their web sites as if it were their own. Feeding from our specialist product knowledge and service empowers the agent or tour operator to be a specialist in their own right.

The XML communication standards used by ERS Connect are those laid down by the Open Travel Alliance*, a consortium of the world’s most important travel and software companies that is setting new global standards for the industry.

Said Bruce Hodge, Managing Director, Mach Associates: “HotelConnect can provide a truly specialist product for Europe, and we will to be offering even more choice in the very near future as other accommodation suppliers come on board”.

Released: 3 June 2006