Source: www.4hoteliers.com Friday, 9th January 2009 As of today, any hotel regardless of size, star rating or location, has the ability to create a profile, containing as much content and media as desired, and manage reservations and bookings, in a website that specializes in their destination – at absolutely no cost.
AboutAnywhere.com now offers the world’s first online distribution network that is completely free for the hotel industry.
The Company has dedicated the last year to building a network that operates websites in over 30,000 destinations across the globe, with AboutAnywhere.com serving as the Company’s main portal.
The hotel industry has been victim to the high cost of online distribution and the insurmountable commissions and fees charged by the online travel agencies (OTAs) – up to 35% in some cases – for almost a decade. Couple that expense with the economic downturn that the world is currently experiencing and the ending result could be drastically negative for smaller hotels and several locations of the larger hotel chains. But in adversity lies opportunity and with the evolution of the Internet and the proliferation of free websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, there is no logical reason that hotels (and all travel suppliers) should pay any fees in order to reach and conduct business with Internet-savvy consumers.
AboutAnywhere.com has already received requests from hotel executives and owners in various areas of the world – from major ski resorts in Colorado to small youth hostels in Jaipur, India.
“When we started this business, our intention was always to create the world’s first free online marketplace for travel,” says Ashwin Kamlani, CEO of AboutAnywhere.com. “The current economic climate should encourage hotels and hotel companies to reach out to us. We are working hard to grow traffic and bookings to every single destination that we cover. Those hotels that build their profiles early will get the most benefit. The beauty of this model is that smaller, boutique hotels that cannot afford to work with the OTAs will be more than happy to work with us since we do not cut into their revenue, and we will have truly global coverage.”
The process is simple. Interested hotel representatives should go to www.AboutAnywhere.com, find the geographical location of their hotels and click on “Create a FREE Profile For Your Hotel” found on the bottom left corner of the page. Self-explanatory instructions will become available and upon a qualifying call from a member of the AboutAnywhere.com team, the profile should be up on the site within a matter of days. Hotels will be able to update any portion of their profile at their leisure.
The team at AboutAnywhere.com has opened the door for every hotel in every corner of the world to take control of their livelihood and financial bottom lines. Whether working with an 8-figure operating budget or a 4-figure one; or whether located on a rural side street, or in the middle of a skyscraper-saturated metropolis – all hotels are encouraged to take part in and support this revolutionary effort. An effort that may be the catalyst to end commission-based online distribution.
