Omnia Travel improved the quality and value of bookings with Rapid API

Omnia Travel comprises six distinct agencies across Belgium that span business, group and leisure travel. Their clients—mainly small and medium-sized enterprises with some larger clients—are price-sensitive, with diverse accommodation and location needs. 

Having grown their overall number of Rapid API bookings since their initial integration in 2018, they shifted their focus in 2024 to improving the quality of each booking to maximise profit and revenue. 

They needed to:

• Ensure they had access to competitive global inventory and compelling content to acquire new customers and grow their share of bookings. 
• Take steps to identify and activate the most profitable inventory to grow revenue.  

Rapid API allowed Omnia Travel to offer travellers more options from trusted hotel suppliers. 

Rapid API unlocked access to over 750,000 global properties, with detailed descriptions, high-resolution images and competitive rates that allowed Omnia Travel agents to meet the varied needs of a broad range of travellers with enough options to keep them coming back to book again and again.³

Rapid API gave Omnia Travel access to differentiated rate types so they could offer travellers greater value—and drive bookings. Some of the rate types they leveraged included:  

• Package rates that allowed them to offer package savings to travellers when booking a flight (their core business) with a hotel.
• Expedia business rates that included business-friendly amenities and greater flexibility around cancellations to address the needs of their primary audience.
• B2B distribution rates from selected properties that are typically equivalent to standard rates but offer higher margins.  

They also capitalised on additional commission incentives across 51,000 properties, offering deeper margins for specific booking and stay periods throughout the year.⁴

Omnia Travel and Expedia Group co-created educational content and trained their agents to prioritise properties and rates that had the ‘Distribution Rate’ badge in the booking tool. 

With a simple decision tree, they were able to create better awareness of the various rate types available via Expedia Group’s inventory, and it helped their agents determine which rate type they should select based on availability and potential value to their business. 

To ensure that Omnia Travel’s agents had access to properties offering B2B Distribution Rates, Expedia Business Rates and commission incentives, their Expedia Group Account Manager shared curated lists of properties, and they worked with their technology provider to ensure they were consistently requesting rates from these properties.

Omnia Travel’s overall Rapid API bookings increased by 45% year over year thanks to high-quality global inventory, competitive rates and the reliable handling of bookings.⁵  

‘While our overall company growth in 2024 is better than the general market, the specific Expedia Group growth far exceeded our expectations overall’, said Philip Claessens, Travel Technology & NDC at Omnia Travel. 

Their strategic focus on increasing the utilisation and awareness of high-margin B2B Distribution Rates was a key contributor to growth.  

• Distribution rates grew by 58% year over year faster than their overall business.⁶
• Their overall package path grew, with a 229% increase in packages that included Distribution Rates.⁷

Omnia Travel also saw strong growth in Expedia Business Rate bookings, which already represented 6.7% of their total Expedia Group bookings since they launched in May 2024. This ensured that Omnia Travel had the inventory and rate type coverage to meet the needs of their business travellers.⁸