CCRA Chosen As Premiere Provider of Extensive Hotel Inventory Available Via Amadeus Hotel Shopper
CCRA and Amadeus expand partnership to provide even more Amadeus North American travel agents with easy access to rates and inventory at 160,000 hotels worldwide.
Online, June 8, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Amadeus and CCRA have expanded their partnership and now CCRA's extensive hotel inventory is available to North American travel agents using Amadeus Hotel Shopper via the Amadeus Selling Platform, Amadeus' flagship point-of-sale solution for travel professionals.
Under this expanded partnership, Amadeus agents can now access and book the hotel content available on CCRA's proprietary booking portal, CCRAtravel.com, which offers real-time rates and availability at over 160,000 hotels worldwide.
In 2010, CCRA was also chosen as the exclusive rate provider for Amadeus Vacation Link, Amadeus' one-stop booking portal that enables North American leisure agents to book high-profit, commissionable vacation travel.
Said Dic Marxen, President and CEO of CCRA Travel Solutions, "CCRA's proprietary booking portal, CCRAtravel.com, is unique in the industry featuring real-time rates and availability at 160,000 hotels around the world, and offering up to five rate categories for every hotel search. It's an honor to be selected by Amadeus once again as the exclusive hotel content provide for yet another of their travel agent tools."
Amadeus travel agents in the U.S. and Canada using the Amadeus Selling Platform can access CCRA's hotel inventory on Amadeus Hotel Shopper via the AgentNet portal "smart tab" on the Amadeus Selling Platform.
"Our agents told us what they needed to make more money and enhance their customers travel experience. They needed easy-to-use, one-stop solutions on their desktop. Amadeus Hotel Shopper was created to meet that need, and once again we selected CCRA as our hotel provider partner because their product aligned optimally to serve those customers' needs," said Tom Cates, Chief Commercial Officer, Amadeus North America.
Amadeus Hotel Shopper, in partnership with CCRA, offers agents a choice of up to five rate categories from a single search. Rate options include net rates which agents can mark up; online rates; CCRA negotiated rates; a wide range of GDS-available rates, and the new 15% enhanced commission rate.
Agents who book CCRA hotel inventory either through Amadeus Hotel Shopper or Amadeus Vacation Link also qualify for COMMISSION/ Express, CCRA's weekly commission reconciliation and payment program.
CCRA content is delivered to Amadeus agents through a secure, single sign-on technology that allows agents to seamlessly login, search and confirm reservations using real-time rates and availability.
Summarized Mai Meyaart, CCRA's VP and Managing Director, "CCRA first developed its booking portal to meet the needs of agents with no access to a GDS. We have continued to develop both our content offering and the technology that allows us so quickly and successfully to integrate our service with Amadeus' Hotel Shopper."
For more information on Amadeus Hotel Shopper, travel agents can contact their Amadeus representative, call 1.888.AMADEUS (in the US) or 1.888.611.5554 (in Canada) or e-mail salesinquiries@amadeus.com.
About CCRA
CCRA is a network of integrated travel solutions ideally positioned to meet the challenges of, and to realize the opportunities from, a global travel market.
Based in Ft. Worth, Texas, CCRA Travel Solutions includes: CCRA 24/7 Call Center Solutions, the country's oldest emergency call center numbering over 50 of the top 100 US travel agencies as clients; CCRA Hotel Partner Solutions with over 32,000 hotels enrolled in the 2011 negotiated rate program; CCRA Travel Agent Solutions representing the travel agent industry to travel suppliers around the globe; CCRA Global Network linking international agencies and suppliers and CCRAtravel.com the industries premiere hotel booking portal for non-GDS agents with real-time rates and availability at over 160,000 hotels worldwide.
CCRA offers a variety of marketing opportunities to suppliers interested in reaching the professional travel planner. For more information please contact Mary Wiley at (214)377-9846 or via email at mary.wiley@ccra.com.
About Amadeus
Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.
Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail, ferries, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and individual travellers).
The group operates a transaction-based business model and processed 850 million billable travel transactions in 2010.
Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters and marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations - data processing center) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Dubai. At a market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations through 73 local Amadeus Commercial Organizations covering 195 countries.
Amadeus is listed on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges and trades under the symbol "AMS.MC". For the year ended 31 December 2010, the company reported revenues of EUR 2,683 million and EBITDA of EUR 1,015 million. The Amadeus group employs over 10,270 employees worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.
To find out more about Amadeus please go to www.amadeus.com.
To visit the Amadeus Investor Relations center please go to www.investors.amadeus.com.