Booking.com's new plan: work both sides of the front desk at hotels. Photo: Wikimedia / opera cadet
Booking.com, possibly the biggest busiest on-line hotel booking site, is trying out a venture on the other side: Their BookingSuite software provides hotels with up-dated cloud-based websites that allow customers to reserve directly with the hotel or through a booking engine (either booking.com's or another).
The hotel doesn't pay an ongoing charge; it pays booking.com a commission when a reservation is made. Another part of the software suite focuses on mobile-optimized websites for the hotels. The software was built out from tools Priceline acquired last year when it bought Buuteeq and Hotel Ninjas.
The new initiative comes at an interesting moment; Booking.com was recently required by European regulators to give up contracts that required hotels to give booking.com the lowest rates it offered anyone. Now, it looks as if they're finding a way to make money even without that, and possibly on bookings made through other agencies.
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