CASE STUDY

Travelpass Group boosts bookings with optimised distribution rates

With Rapid API, the travel agency increased bookings and earned higher commissions by offering travellers the competitive rates they were looking for.

Rapid API Travel agencies
55%

increase in bookings year on year¹

20%

higher commissions from distribution rates than other rates²

Challenge: Increase revenue without sacrificing platform performance

As a full-service online travel agency (OTA), Travelpass Group strives to create an outstanding traveller experience. To achieve this, they offer best-in-class travel booking technology and a team of support agents that travellers can access 24/7.

 

With aggressive growth plans, anchored by a new customer-centric booking platform, Travelpass aimed to increase its lodging revenues. In addition, they wanted to expand their services to offer personalised experiences such as activities and trip-planning tools. But they needed to accomplish this without sacrificing their platform’s performance and stability.

 

When we spoke with Travelpass President Austin Lowe, he explained that the company’s growth had to happen alongside the business’s drive to deliver positive traveller experiences through its platform—and its plans to scale.

“Expedia Group has a lot more resources and visibility on things that we don’t. We knew that if Expedia Group had access to our business plans and vision for the future, they could anticipate our needs and begin planning for those aspects in ways we might not have envisioned.”

Austin Lowe

President, Travelpass Group

Solution: Exceptional traveller experiences with Rapid API

Since 2020, Travelpass has used our lodging solution to offer a wide variety of global lodging options and competitive rates to provide every traveller with what they’re looking for when booking a trip.

 

Lowe knew that Expedia Group technology in combination with our competitive supply and strategic guidance would help Travelpass reach its ambitious goals. This collaboration solidified a strong partnership between Travelpass and Expedia Group as the teams were able to build strategies that would improve travellers’ experiences and maximise revenues.

 

To meet its goals, Travelpass used Rapid API, our fast and light API solution, to build a superior end-to-end traveller experience that delivered:

Extensive supply and content

With access to 700,000 global lodging properties, travellers can find and book a property that meets their needs. This content also includes 29 million property images, 57 million traveller reviews and more for travellers to know what to expect when they book.³ This content helps to ‘build a lot of confidence with the customer,’ according to Lowe.

Higher-margin rates to maximise revenue

Travelpass can tap into exclusive higher-margin distribution rates that are available at 21,000 properties across 40+ hotel chains, including notable brands like Marriott and IHG.⁴ Surfacing these rates more frequently to travellers and agents gave Travelpass the ability to boost revenue and easily accelerate their growth.

Reliable technology for a seamless experience

Rapid API’s industry-leading response speed and technical stability allow Travelpass to take care of its travellers in the way that it envisioned. ‘Our customers need attentive care, and I need assurance there will be no outages or booking failures,’ Lowe said. ‘With Expedia Group, we have that peace of mind.’

‘We can attribute a lot of our growth to optimised distribution rates. With those rates, both our profitability and conversion rates have increased.’

Austin Lowe

President, Travelpass Group

Results: Increased bookings and commissions

By implementing Rapid API in its platform, Travelpass saw overall bookings with Expedia Group increase more than 55% year on year.⁵

 

The travel agency also doubled its use of higher-margin distribution rates,⁶ and its commissions revenue from distribution rates was 20% higher than other commissions they received.⁷

 

Travelpass set its sights on delivering a superior traveller experience and scaling its business. It relies on Rapid API to provide travellers access to high-quality hotels worldwide and taps into higher-margin distribution rates to improve the company’s revenue.

 

To help them maintain an upward trajectory, Lowe knows that he can count on support from Expedia Group. ‘The account management team is exceptional and continues to elevate its performance. The team is proactive—they’re consistently coming up with new ideas, initiatives and innovative approaches to problem solving.’

 

To find out how Rapid API and distribution rates can benefit your business, contact us today.

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¹Travelpass Group data, Q2 2023 vs Q2 2022.

²Commissions as a percentage of booking volume, Expedia Group data, Q2 2023.

³Expedia Group inventory as of Q2 2023.

⁴Ibid.

⁵Travelpass Group data, Q2 2023 vs Q2 2022.

⁶As a percentage of Travelpass overall booking volume, Expedia Group data, Q1 2023 vs Q2 2023.

⁷Commissions as a percentage of booking volume, Expedia Group data, Q2 2023.