The Advantage Travel Partnership appointed Pelin Dede in the newly created role of head of accommodation for the group’s Global Accommodation Programme.
She will be responsible for leading the transition as Advantage and Hickory Global Partners launch Global Stays, a joint venture for their GDS accommodation programmes in 2025, announced at the group’s annual conference in May.
She will also help drive the strategy for the group’s global accommodation proposition, expand the overall global accommodation content, and handle supplier contracts and negotiations.
More: Advantage and Hickory Global Partners create accommodation network
Advantage Travel Partnership net profit almost doubles to £1.2m
More than 15% of Advantage members plan shop openings this year
Furthermore, Pelin will be responsible for overseeing the corporate GDS accommodation programme of more than 60,000 properties – Global Stays – and managing commercial partnerships with serviced apartment providers and aggregator partners, which will all fall under the Global Accommodation Programme proposition in 2025.
Dede began her career in 2006 at Orbitz Worldwide in Chicago, then moved to London, joining the Expedia Group where she worked for six years. She joined CWT in 2018 as a senior manager within its global suppliers team.
Andrea Caulfield-Smith, global business travel managing director at Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “We are thrilled Pelin has joined the team to spearhead our Global Accommodation Programme (GAP) at a time of transition for us as we look to build on the strength of the programme and pursue our ambitious global strategy to enhance this fantastic member benefit.
“This market-leading global accommodation proposition will soon be strengthened through our relationship with US-based Hickory Global Partners with the launch of Global Stays.
“Global Stays will deliver significantly more properties for our collective membership as well as provide more opportunities for our hotel and serviced apartment suppliers.
“The accommodation sector is of significant strategic importance to our overall offering and an area in which we will look to leverage our size and scale further to deliver greater growth and continued member benefit.”
Dede added: “In my first few weeks, I have been meeting existing and prospective partners to discuss the potential of our global accommodation programme.
“I have already hit the ground running spending time with Andrea and the team to support plans to contribute to helping shape Advantage’s global accommodation strategy, while working on our product offering to take it to the next level to ensure our members further benefit from the programme and its content in the best way possible.”
Global Stays will become effective for the 2025 programme and will offer more than 60,000 properties worldwide and more than one million serviced apartments, bookable via the GDS.