The bed bank market continues to be fiercely competitive with a large number of suppliers offering similar inventory in popular Mediterranean resorts. More recently, companies have expanded their product ranges to include long-haul and city destinations in an attempt to improve margin.
“It is very competitive and has been for a number of years,” says Getabed managing director Matt Stuart. “There is still a bit of consolidation to come, which will lead to further maturing, and then margins will creep up.”
Medhotels head of sales Andy Baker says bookings have started to bounce back in recent weeks, having been sluggish from mid-April when the ash crisis hit.
Turkey and Egypt continue to sell well and there are predictions Spain will make a comeback for peak season.
Meanwhile, the market continues to be dominated by late bookings. Lowcostbeds sales director Tim Buckman reports more than 60% of bookings are for travel within six weeks. However, he also notes growth in forward bookings with an upsurge in sales for travel in September, October, November and December.
Medhotels
In April, Thomas Cook announced that Medhotels would be its trade-facing bed bank while Hotels4u would become its consumer accommodation brand.
Medhotels focuses on the mass-market, volume end of the sector and claims its Thomas Cook-ownership enhances its buying power and gives it access to exclusive deals.
The trade-facing brand has in excess of 50,000 hotels, of which about 5,000 are directly contracted Mediterranean and worldwide beach properties.
What does it offer agents?
Agents have a login and password to the medhotels.com website. From here they can access and manage bookings, including any past Hotels4u bookings. They can also put together management reports and print vouchers and invoices.
Many agents also connect to the inventory via XML, which automatically generates emails and allows agents to view their commission level. There is also a facility to book transfers via hoteltransfer.com at the same time as accommodation or book the components separately.
Medhotels provides a support team in head office as well as a team on the road.
What’s new?
Medhotels is expanding its product range with cities and other worldwide beach destinations as well as ski resorts.
Lowcostbeds
Lowcostbeds is part of Lowcost Travel Group, launched by Paul Evans in 2004. The company claims market share of about 25% and is forecasting Lowcostbeds alone will turn over £125 million this year.
Group revenue last year was £109 million. The company says it takes bookings from more than 500 agencies per month. It specialises in Majorca, Ibiza, Turkey and Egypt and is seeing growth in Malta and the Canaries.
What does it offer agents?
The website enables agents to book, amend and cancel accommodation. It also enables agents to filter results by criteria such as free kids and early-booking discounts. Users can also book transfers via sister company Resorthoppa. And customers can connect via XML.
Both Lowcostbeds and Resorthoppa offer free cancellation and amendment, 15% as a standard rate of commission and promises to price-match if an agent finds the same product cheaper elsewhere. The brand’s sales team is soon to increase to five.
What’s new? The trade website was relaunched last September. Lowcostbeds has also expanded its long-haul and cities programmes and claims business in these areas has increased by 300% as a result.
Youtravel
Youtravel was launched by John Kent, previously of Medhotels, in 2006. The service’s main focus is the Mediterranean, with a slight bias towards Greece. It sells via agents as well as direct to consumers. It has a large team of contractors on the ground.
What does it offer agents?
Youtravel says it offers a user-friendly, quick and accurate system with good core technology. Agents can book either from the website or take an XML feed either directly or via third-party reservations specialists such as Multicom and TopDog.
Youtravel offers agents a standard commission of 15%. Alternatively, agents can opt for net rates and add their own margin. The company also incentivises its top agents on top of that.
Youtravel points out that prices are much more flexible and can be changed by the day and by the week, by agent and by product, enabling the company to be much more tactical. The company also offers support pre and post-departure.
What’s new?
The company has increased its long-haul product range in destinations including the US with new cities such as Las Vegas. Youtravel has also added to its programme in Italy and changed its product mix to take less committed stock.
Getabed.co.uk
Getabed is one of the smaller, trade-only bed banks but it has been trading since 1991. Unlike the newer entrants, which have all come from a Mediterranean base, the service has always offered long-haul and city accommodation as well as beach resort properties.
What does it offer agents?
Like others, Getabed offers commission of up to 15% or net rates for larger players. Agents access the inventory via a login and password and can make and cancel bookings, print vouchers and confirmations. Agents are supported by a sales team headed by a sales director and the company runs regular tactical promotions with individual agents.
What’s new?
Getabed relaunched its Australasia programme at the end of last year, adding about 300 hotels. It is also introducing its ‘Directors’ Choice hotels’ – its selection of two or three hotels in each destination that it claims represent outstanding value for money and high quality.
The company has also extended its transfer programme, which was predominantly in the US, to other destinations. And it has removed fees for cancellations and amendments.
Holidaybrokers
Holiday Brokers is part of On Holiday Group, which was launched by Steve Endacott in 2004. It is a trade-facing accommodation specialist offering beach, city and ski properties but with a particular focus on Mediterranean beach resorts.
What does it offer agents?
The company has improved cached data recently to help agents build last-minute offers as well as speed up response times on the website and via XML feeds. The company now claims response time of less than three seconds against an industry average of 10 seconds.
Agents can also now search the site by additional criteria such as beach hotels or spa facilities. A ‘News Flash’ banner has been added to the site with details of any changes, new offers or incidents affecting the sector such as the ash crisis.
In other moves, the company has been busy recruiting staff to bolster its sales support team to provide agents with a faster service. Plus, it recently surveyed agents to establish where it could improve and plans to implement changes based on feedback.
What’s new?
In the past 12 months Holiday Brokers has increased its accommodation in non-eurozone destinations by 60% and all-inclusive hotels by more than 100% in line with changing market conditions and agent demand. Holiday Brokers also launched ‘drinks inclusive’ as a new board basis across a range of self-catering apartments.