Travelport has acquired hotel distribution technology provider Hotelzon.
The investment forms part of Travelport’s ongoing strategy to "redefine and strengthen" its hotel offering to both corporations and TMCs.
The travel technology firm said the acquisition also supports its drive to make booking independent hotels easier for business travellers.
Travelport’s focus over the past few years has been on growing its “Beyond Air” offering, which includes hotels, car rental and payments, has been in response to the growth opportunities it has identifies in these sectors as well as feedback from corporations, hotel providers and travel agency customers.
The hotel industry remains highly fragmented, with the top ten global hotel chains representing less than 20% of room revenue in every region except North America, Australasia and the Middle East and Africa, according to Euromonitor research.
Travelport said with only 30% to 50% of corporate hotel buying going through TMCs and many bookings still being booked direct by business travellers, the Hotelzon acquisition is designed to provide both corporations and Travelport-connected travel agencies with a booking tool with extensive independent hotel content.
Travelport president and CEO Gordon Wilson, said: “This acquisition is part of our realising our strategic plan to redefine travel commerce, with a particular focus on growing in both the hotel and corporate travel space.
“As part of our Beyond Air vision, Hotelzon is the perfect complement to our existing capabilities with the large, global chain hotels which we are progressively connecting to our system via direct XML capabilities and our aggregation of unmatched retail rates through our ‘Rooms and More’ offering based on meta search technology.
“With Hotelzon, we will now be able to offer special corporate negotiated rates and other offerings from independent hotels to corporations and their travellers as well as ensure a broader capability in the hotel distribution space for our TMC partners.”