Post-COVID, hotels face numerous challenges in re-engaging offline channels, such as travel agencies, wholesalers and corporate travel intermediaries, which are important diversification channels for hotels to conduct discrete marketing/pricing and booking building strategies. Extensive manual engagement processes and payment collections, exacerbated by widespread staff shortages and turnover, have been major obstacles for hotels looking to rebuild or even grow their sales with offline channels

With this new partnership, Citadines Connect City Centre Singapore, an upscale hotel part of The Ascott Limited, will have access to TA Network's unique system to effectively convert offline reservations to online with its preferred agents, wholesalers and corporates, while also expanding its own online distribution channels efficiently. TA Network’s direct B2B solution enables hotels to provide traditionally offline contractors with real-time data on hotel room availability as well as dynamic and static rates, as well as benefit from various process automation features

"Our partnership with TA Network highlights our continued commitment to improve our relationship with our travel agencies, wholesalers, and corporates who form a strategic segment of our business," a representative for Citadines Connect City Centre Singapore stated. “Through TA Network’s digital payment solutions and direct hotel booking services, our contractors worldwide will be able to instantly access our best rates for their clients traveling for business and pleasure

Importantly, we will be able to streamline substantial offline, manual processes needed previously to contract, communicate room availability, capture bookings and collect payments. For example, all our static/dynamic rates can be pooled across all our channels and bookings automatically interfaced with our hotel system which also facilitates timely reporting and rate management. This collaboration will enhance our group yield management as well as the services we provide to our esteemed offline partners”

Trip Affiliates Network’s platform is made to take advantage of the technological solutions for hotels and implementation to streamline direct communication and automate inventory management procedures with their conventional offline contractors. In the absence of these solutions, both parties would have to manually update their booking records and obtain booking confirmations. This also avoids overbooking/ underbooking difficulties related to room allotments as well as any human faults in manually updating hotel contracts. Additionally, hotel clients can handle payments from their international contractors with the help of TA Network's digital payment solutions, which minimize cross-border and foreign exchange fees by providing virtual card or virtual bank account services

“We are excited to welcome Citadines Connect City Centre Singapore onto our expanding network of Asian hotels and channels looking to increase their direct online booking relationships effectively and productively”. According to Ho Siang Twang, Managing Partner of Trip Affiliates Network, "Our hotel clients also benefit our integrated suite of valued added services like e-voucher management which further broaden their direct booking capabilities with their customers