What Hospitality & Travel Industry has to do with their inventory distribution

Linkedin, 28 March 2014 ---- The hospitality and travel Industry is very interesting as well as challenging; its growth, trend, demand, supply, they all different from one destination to the others. And industry professional is keep trying to find a better way to distribute their products; accommodation / room, sightseeing / excursion and packages in real time to all the potential buyers. For hotel, it is easier now to manage their distribution channel with some channel manager systems which are available on the market. However, these existing channel manager systems mainly can manage accommodation supply to Online Travel Agent ( OTA ) whether it is a B2B ( Business To Business) or a B2C ( Business To Client) platform. However, we still have a huge business opportunity out there from some suppliers and potential buyers who has no access to the distribution and its technologies so they can't maximize the potential business they have to become a real business for everyone. Some accommodation suppliers ( B2B or B2C) only can connect with a channel manager system once they have shared the API code and on the other hand the channel manager system will have their own consideration if they want to connect with those suppliers ( the consideration might be on the web traffic and number of hotel as well as room inventory, etc) Therefore, for new / small accommodation supplier it will be quite challenge to be able to connect with a channel manager system and then, if a supplier has not connected with a channel manager it will be very hard for them to improve their number of room inventory into their system as hotel will has their objection to managed separately those specific supplier which are not connecting with the channel manager. Connected to a channel manager for a room supplier will become a crucial issue as hotel will most probably want to work with suppliers who has connected with a channel manager system as the hotel staff will be able to managed their inventories and prices only in one door. Therefore the XML or / and API connection with the big suppliers will be the only choice for a new supplier to grow their room inventory into their system, but then it will make their selling price to the end user relatively higher on the competition compare to the one who has a direct contract with the hotels. Therefore, I am looking at a place where everyone involving in hospitality and travel industry; travel agent / tour operator/ retail/ destination management company, online travel agent ( B2B and B2C), and corporate can be together in a business platform where they can connect to each other, share their details including product inventories and prices, doing selling and buying process in a real time. It will be very effective and efficient for everyone to manage their business. Having this system will make everything possible and will create more business opportunity for everyone in the industry as it will allow even small travel agent or small lodge in beautiful Tanjung Bira Beach can be exposed on the marketplace by connecting with every players on the industry from all over the world. This idea simply can be implemented having a simple system based on the above mentioned business logic and it will only need internet connection.