Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms and a digital technology leader, announced the launch of the new BookingSuite App Store.
The BookingSuite App Store is a one-stop shop for Booking.com accommodation partners to find relevant software solutions for their property that they can implement in just a few clicks, including a free trial period for all products and services. It has been developed by BookingSuite, a division within Booking.com dedicated to providing software solutions that enable accommodation providers to grow their businesses online and deliver outstanding experiences for their guests.
As technology continues to advance, making new types of travel experiences possible, customer expectations are rapidly evolving. According to recent research conducted by Booking.com, nearly half (47%) of global travelers want technology to develop faster to help improve their travel experience*. In fact, when it comes to specific innovations, again nearly half (47%) are excited about the prospect of new services like keyless accommodation access going completely mainstream in 2019*. Despite this growing interest, of the small and medium-sized hotels that are currently leveraging technology at their properties, only 27% are using tech related to in-stay guest experiences, with only 11% offering keyless entry**. To ultimately support accommodation providers to meet this growing demand and empower them to deliver the seamless, technology-enabled travel experiences for their customers at a property-level, Booking.com has developed the new BookingSuite App Store.
The BookingSuite App Store is a valuable solution for accommodation providers to cut through a crowded and often confusing market of competing software solutions for their property and narrow in on the ones that are the best fit for their business, including the ability to test them out for free. For software solution providers, the App Store, the BookingSuite APIs and SSO products enable them with a scalable platform to reach new customers and markets through an integration via Booking.com, including secure and compliant transfer of data, translation of their product information into 40+ languages and easy tooling to manage their performance, data connection and fee collection.
A new way to shop for software solutions
The BookingSuite App Store presents handpicked solutions from industry-leading hospitality software providers in a number of different categories, to make finding the right solutions for a property’s business quick and easy. The BookingSuite App Store provides personalized recommendations for Booking.com accommodation partners based on their type (i.e. “popular for apartments”), size, location, past performance and industry benchmarking data. It also includes products and services specifically designed to improve the guest experience at their property, including solutions for guest communications, upsell and promotions, as well as online check-in, With applicable solutions for properties of all sizes, including apartments, guest houses, boutique hotels and everything in between, the BookingSuite App Store offers:
Quick and easy set-up for all solutions, as an accommodation partner’s Booking.com data is automatically imported into the new app in just a few clicks
A free trial for all products and services
All products sync with a partner’s existing Booking.com account, with no need to upload new payment details or remember multiple passwords
No long-term contracts: accommodation partners can cancel solutions at anytime, switching between products and services to find the right ones for their business
“At Booking.com, our overarching aim is to make the entire trip experience – whether you’re an accommodation provider or a traveler – as smooth and as seamless as possible,” said Pepijn Rijvers, Senior Vice President at Booking.com. “As with everything we develop through BookingSuite, the whole purpose of the App Store is to make it easier for our partners to quickly find and implement the software solutions that are just right for them so that they can easily manage, optimise and ultimately grow their business online. In a nutshell, we take care of the technology so that they can take care of their guests and focus on delivering the incredible experiences they crave.”
Scalability for technology providers
For hospitality solution providers, connecting to the BookingSuite App Store and SSO (Single Sign-On) product enables them to easily and instantly offer their services to millions of properties around the world. This includes easy integration with the BookingSuite APIs and a seamless SSO flow that allows properties to easily and securely share their data using their Booking.com credentials for a more relevant, personalised and connected experience. The BookingSuite App Store includes a provider portal to track performance, manage accounts and data connections, in addition to handling fee collection in over 50 currencies and translations of all relevant product information into more than 40 languages. Example BookingSuite App Store categories for hospitality software solutions include:
Property websites
Price optimisation
Guest reviews
Guest messaging
Online check-in
Upsell and promotions
In-stay services
The BookingSuite App Store is currently available for Booking.com accommodation partners and hospitality software solution providers in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Over the course of 2019, the BookingSuite App Store will be launched in additional markets in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
To learn more, Booking.com accommodation partners can visit the App Store section of the BookingSuite site. If the BookingSuite App Store is available for their market, they can also simply log in to their Booking.com account and visit the App Store tab in their Booking.com extranet. In just a few clicks, they can begin their free trial for any of the products and services they are interested in testing for their property.
