Accor enters direct connect partnership with Destinations of the World

Christophe Landais, Managing Director, Accor Middle East said: "Today’s digital-savvy generation are increasingly booking their hotel stays online. This behaviour has led us to adapt quickly by providing our trade customers with easy online access to our best available rates. Our Direct Connect partnership with Destinations of the World enables us to be at the forefront in servicing this market. We're delighted to be able to provide their 150,000 strong customer base instant access to the latest availability and dynamic pricing across our hotels."

DOTW's 150,000 travel trade customers are now able to directly connect to Accor's network of hotels across 90 countries via the online reservation system DOTWconnect. Customers can access rates, including Best Available Rates (BAR) and Advance Purchase Rates (APR), for hotels operating under Accor's broad portfolio of hotel brands such as Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio and ibis.

“We are delighted to supplement our distribution of Accor hotels with the addition of dynamic rates and inventory distribution,” said Keith Fernandez, Group Managing Director, Destinations of the World. “Our partnership with Accor provides our customers with seamless access to a world-renowned hotel operator and its wide-ranging offering of hotels globally – from luxury to budget – as well as the best available rates. This direct connect partnership with Accor is another significant step towards our goal to add an additional 50,000 hotels to our portfolio, and best meet the needs of a planned increase in distribution to over 450,000 points of sale globally, by the second quarter of 2011.”

Accor Middle East has strengthened its regional sales force under the leadership of Vice President of Sales, Distribution & Marketing Philippe Seguin, who drives Accor’s sales direction in the Middle East through a dedicated office in Dubai. The objectives are to support all travel agencies and corporate companies’ hotel needs for their customers and employees in the region or internationally.