UK: BridgeStreet Global Hospitality has announced the launch of what it describes as the first OTA built for business travel.
The company describes the launch as “the next phase of its ongoing plan to connect the sharing economy with the extended-stay travel market”.
The BridgeStreet supply partner portfolio of more than 65,000 serviced apartments and homes in 60+ countries will be searchable on BridgeStreet.com while providing “easy connectivity to the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) that have traditionally been difficult to access for this sector”.
BridgeStreet.com will be available through many of the most prominent channel managers and accessible via the BX GDS code.
BridgeStreet describes the move as “a unifying step that instantly democratises the alternative accommodation world – bringing material improvements in revenue and supply, and providing the industry with much needed transparency”.
President and chief executive officer of BridgeStreet Global Hospitality, Sean Worker, said: “Our mission was to solve one of the industry’s most persistent problems; ‘simply offer wider choices – across a range of price points and hospitality accommodation experiences – with ease’. We’ve not only succeeded, here, we are uplifting the extended stay industry – and for the first time, giving travel managers – and business – exactly what they need: transparency, immediacy and unparalleled customisation.”
BridgeStreet has “curated” its suppliers – each operator is vetted, inspected, and must comply with a “BridgeStreet Guarantee ensuring that each stay is perfect: timely delivery of keys, clean and comfortable rooms and reliable wireless ready to go”.
“Up to now, the process for booking extended stay products such as serviced apartment and homes had been laborious, primarily because properties were difficult to book and hard to compare. BridgeStreet.com removes those obstacles and enables business travellers to book fun spaces and provides access to localised experiences with on-demand, real-time booking with a guarantee. Corporate travel managers will also be able to easily program their travel guidelines onto customised portals linked to BridgeStreet.com enabling employees to find the perfect space to fit their needs while remaining compliant with their company’s requirements,” says the company.
Aaron Turner, CTO of BridgeStreet, said: “Consumers and guests shape technology. It is our job to try and keep up with their needs by directly influencing guests and making it easy for the travel managers. Companies like BridgeStreet will have to continue to focus on quality for the services they provide while adding more services and amenities and doing it faster and cheaper and better than anyone else.”</p
