Golden Tulip Hospitality Signs Global Agreement

Golden Tulip Hospitality and Expedia have entered a global agreement involving a preferred marketing partnership that provides Expedia.com and Hotels.com customers with enhanced access and connectivity to over 400 properties that comprise the Golden Tulip Hospitality Group and alliance partners.

Hotels brands include Golden Tulip, Tulip Inn, Pacific International Suites, Pacific International Apartments, Pensione, Plaza Hotels, Grand Pacific, and Golden Tulip Resort.

Hans Kennedie, President & CEO of Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts, says, “We are very pleased to have entered into this agreement with Expedia. We strongly believe in offering our franchisees the latest in distribution technology. Having an affiliation with strong partners, such as Expedia.com and Hotels.com increases our hotel's market presence. Furthermore, by developing a direct connection between our central reservations system and Expedia.com and Hotels.com we can facilitate the process and furthermore enhance the quality and accuracy of property information distributed to 70,680,000 unique online shoppers worldwide across all Expedia sites on a monthly basis.”

Riko van Santen, Director of Electronic Distribution & Information Technology of the Golden Tulip Hospitality Group added, “Since signing the agreement, we have already successfully commenced Direct Connect implementation in key destinations including Rome, The Hague, Vienna, Lisbon and Florence. The technology, built on the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) standard, makes it more efficient and cost-effective for hotels to manage rates and availability on Expedia.com and Hotels.com through the Goldres central reservations system.”

Henrik Kjellberg, VP and MD Supply Europe for Expedia.com and Hotels.com, commented, “The structure of the travel market is changing rapidly as consumers demand global access from a range of channels. Working with the world's leading online travel service provides Golden Tulip with access to over 70 million online shoppers per month worldwide.”

Golden Tulip Hospitality B.V. with its head offices based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands and Lausanne, Switzerland, is the owning company of Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts, franchising some 250 hotels across 37 countries, with the majority of hotels being located in urban destinations across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. Golden Tulip's main assets include its intellectual property, hotel management division, franchise division and other shareholdings. Through its commercial alliance with TOP International Hotels, a German based hotel consortium, the French B & B Group and Australian Tourism Hotels & Leisure (THL), the combined portfolio comprises over 52,000 rooms in approximately 534 hotels. Golden Tulip offers a unique franchise concept for two brands, designed to implement international standards, whilst maintaining local flavours: Golden Tulip for the (superior) first class business and resort hotels and Tulip Inn for the limited service first class category. TOP International Hotels offers hotel reservations, marketing and sales services to independent hotels. B&B Hotels are comfortable two star hotels throughout France and Germany. THL operates three sub-brands brands Pacific International Suites & Apartments, Pensione and Plaza Hotels, in the three to five star segment in Asia Pacific. The Hotel Management Division of Golden Tulip Hospitality B.V. combines some thirty operations in the Netherlands, Central Europe, the Middle East & North Africa and the UK.