Hotel Management — February 2012
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Room Key banks on brand-name equity
Can this brand-backed online booking engine offer the best of both worlds?
National Report—In mid-January, one more player joined the online booking fray and this time the company carries considerable brand-name recognition.
Six of the largest global hotel companies joined forces to launch RoomKey.com, a hotel search engine that allows visitors to shop for hotel properties that fit their criteria but drives booking traffic directly to the brand website at a lower cost to owners than online travel agent booking.
Room Key is a wholly owned joint venture between Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group, who all contributed start-up capital. The group tapped former BirchStreet CEO and Pegasus Solutions founder John Davis to join as CEO in January 2011.
The day after the launch, Best Western joined as the company’s inaugural commercial partner, bringing approximately 4,000 hotels into the site’s inventory.
“The booking sites were getting more and more confusing, but as bad as they are they’re still growing,” Davis said. “It’s a growing part of the business. Distribution costs were continuing to go up, [the founding companies] were looking for a solution that would drive down cost and grow profit margins for hotel owners.”
Each partner company sets rules regarding property-level participation, and for those who do participate, Davis said booking costs through Room Key are “more closely aligned to costs associated with Brand.com booking than to OTA sites.”
Davis said he expects the site to offer 80,000 total rooms by the middle of 2012. While the site currently focuses on U.S. bookings, plans call for global expansion.
Can this brand-backed online booking engine offer the best of both worlds?
National Report—In mid-January, one more player joined the online booking fray and this time the company carries considerable brand-name recognition.
Six of the largest global hotel companies joined forces to launch RoomKey.com, a hotel search engine that allows visitors to shop for hotel properties that fit their criteria but drives booking traffic directly to the brand website at a lower cost to owners than online travel agent booking.
Room Key is a wholly owned joint venture between Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group, who all contributed start-up capital. The group tapped former BirchStreet CEO and Pegasus Solutions founder John Davis to join as CEO in January 2011.
The day after the launch, Best Western joined as the company’s inaugural commercial partner, bringing approximately 4,000 hotels into the site’s inventory.
“The booking sites were getting more and more confusing, but as bad as they are they’re still growing,” Davis said. “It’s a growing part of the business. Distribution costs were continuing to go up, [the founding companies] were looking for a solution that would drive down cost and grow profit margins for hotel owners.”
Each partner company sets rules regarding property-level participation, and for those who do participate, Davis said booking costs through Room Key are “more closely aligned to costs associated with Brand.com booking than to OTA sites.”
Davis said he expects the site to offer 80,000 total rooms by the middle of 2012. While the site currently focuses on U.S. bookings, plans call for global expansion.
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