HRS boss Ragge talks about the company’s latest deals and expansion plans within the global corporate travel market
HRS recently signed a distribution deal with Sabre – what was the thinking behind this agreement?
The old legacy world of GDSs is still heavily used by TMCs and basically we want to give the corporates access to our hotel content – whatever booking channels they choose to use. We already have a deal with Sabre’s Get There booking tool and it’s similar to what we have already been doing with Amadeus. The GDSs have a shortage of independent properties and we have 250,000 of them on our database. We chose to work with Amadeus first because they are by far the biggest GDS in the EU, which is our core market, while Sabre is very strong in the US and Asia. Booking hotels through the GDSs still accounts for 75 per cent of the corporate market.
How else are you working with travel buyers?
We are also offering sourcing for hotels using our own proprietary technology which will give the corporate client access to much more content. The traditional RFP processes tend to be with chain hotels and often some hotels do not always answer in time. We have more than 200 people around the world who are doing acquisition and nothing else. This sourcing is all about decentralised buying and getting access to local rates, particularly in countries such as China. We are seeing more big corporates who are outsourcing this service, instead of doing it themselves.
Will HRS continue to focus just on hotels or will you look at other travel products?
We want to stick to doing hotels which is what we do best – we have no intention of doing air or car rental. We don’t want any distractions and we are not trying to compete with TMCs. We have working relationships with TMCs where we share responsibility – it’s not about us or the TMC, it’s about what creates the best value for the customer. We have a very open approach as you can see from our co-operation with the GDSs.
What are HRS’s expansion plans in the next year or so?
We will be having a strong push in Asia and we have already opened an office in Beijing. We now have 14 offices around the world with people working in 50-plus markets. We want to offer a full range of services from sourcing to the transaction through to payment and expenses. Customers can take one piece of this process or the whole of it – it’s up to them.
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