Dallas, TEXAS – April 5, 2013 - In a move this week that further demonstrates the importance that global hotel brands are placing on appealing to the Chinese consumer, InterContinental Hotels Group (LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG) began adding its entire portfolio of 4,600 properties around the world to Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (NASDAQ: CTRP), China's largest online travel retailer, thanks to a reservations system connection designed and implemented by DerbySoft Inc. Based in Dallas, Texas, and Shanghai, China, DerbySoft provides technology services to seven of the 10 largest hotel companies in the world and many of the world's largest online travel agencies (OTA). The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms.
This is DerbySoft's first such distribution channel connection to Ctrip, which is the largest OTA in China. Ctrip includes more than 250,000 hotels worldwide and services more than 60 million registered users. “We are happy to have a successful connection with IHG through DerbySoft, and Chinese customers can easily reserve more global hotels through Ctrip,” said Maria Maohua Sun, Ctrip's Senior Vice President and Head of Hotel Business Division. Online travel bookings in China overall are expected to reach nearly $14.4 billion this year, according to PhocusWright.
With 160 operating properties and 30% of its global pipeline in China, IHG recognized the need to directly connect its central reservations system (CRS) to China's largest travel portal allowing online booking of its properties for both outbound and inbound Chinese travelers. As a result of the DerbySoft connection to IHG’s CRS, Ctrip users will be able to view real time availability and receive an instant booking confirmation.
"Having worked with DerbySoft since 2007 on a variety of technology projects, we were extremely confident in their ability to help us with this complex direct connection," said IHG Vice President of Distribution and Intermediary Sales Andrew Rubinacci. DerbySoft was the first technology provider to connect a global hotel company's CRS to Booking.com, the Amsterdam-based division of Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN), when it connected IHG to Booking.com in 2008.
The XML-based connection between IHG and Ctrip, facilitated by DerbySoft, went live this week. Over the next several weeks, DerbySoft will continue rolling out IHG's 4,600 properties onto the Ctrip system. "We are proud to have created this new reservations connection between these two major industry players," said DerbySoft Vice President of Connectivity Keith Cotton. "Our distributed technology platform, which provides extremely flexible and unique solutions to accommodate the different business rules of both partners, includes servers strategically positioned around the globe to provide reduced latency and exceptional system response times for both Ctrip and IHG.."
DerbySoft builds highly customized electronic “pipelines” that transmit accurate room availability, rates, and inventory (ARI) from the hotel companies’ CRSs to third-party online booking channels, and in turn deliver the reservations made on the travel booking websites back to the hotel companies’ central reservations systems.
