Accommodation-only provider RateHawk is close to signing commercial deals with a number of agency groups and consortia as it looks to grow its business through the trade.
New head of business development UK & Ireland Chantal Tomlinson, previously of Flexible Autos and Holiday Autos, said contracts with new partners were very close to being confirmed.
She is building a team in the UK which numbers 18 in total and includes marketing and strategic business development manager Laura Harrison, five sales managers, five account managers and three junior sales managers.
Tomlinson said: “We’re quite unique in the way we structure our business. We have sales managers who sign up new agents and get them activated. Then once they’ve done one paid booking an account manager will take them over and nurture them.
“In the bed bank world, it’s not common to have that size of support team. The size of our team and what we offer service-wise is one of our USPs. We are solely based on building and nurturing relationships in the UK.”
Tomlinson revealed she had recently appointed Iain Raeper as her new area manager for Scotland, a new role for the company.
Tomlinson said RateHawk was also unique in providing a manual pre-check service of properties shortly before each booking’s departure date to give agents and their clients peace of mind that everything will be in place at the time of arrival.
“Some competitors have an automated service, but we’re the only ones who do it by hand and offer 24/7 support,” she said.
“Homeworkers in particular love that as it feels like a really personal service that every one of their bookings has been checked.”
Harrison said RateHawk provided the “full range of inventory” from B&Bs and apartments up to five-star hotels and said confidence in dynamic packaging was building again after the pandemic.
“There is still some caution out there but agents are definitely booking more accommodation-only again – and for us, it’s all about making it as easy as possible for them to do that,” she said, adding that RateHawk’s website made booking a very simple process.
“We’re a tech platform, rather than just a bed bank. Agents can book on our website or via an API,” she said.
Tomlinson added: “Our aim is to increase brand awareness in the trade to really build our profile, increase the number of partners we’re working with and of course to increase revenues and market share.”