16/11/2024
The Evolution of Travel Intermediaries: From Thomas Cook to Modern Bed Banks
Almost 180 years ago, Thomas Cook revolutionized travel by organizing his first guided excursion and creating hotel coupons to standardize accommodation prices. Fast forward to today, the role of travel intermediaries has evolved significantly, giving rise to bed banks, the backbone of seamless accommodation distribution in the travel industry.
So, what are bed banks?
Bed banks are specialized B2B online platforms that contract bulk accommodations directly from hotels at discounted rates. These rooms are then resold to travel agencies, OTAs, tour operators, and airlines, who market them to their customers.
✅ Why do bed banks matter?
For hoteliers: Bed banks provide a channel to expand their market reach globally without having to manage multiple relationships.
For travel providers: They offer real-time access to a portfolio of accommodations with updated availability, pricing, and visuals.
Bed banks create value by enhancing quality, connectivity, and profitability while simplifying the supply chain for all stakeholders.
Some of the world’s leading bed banks include:
Hotelbeds
WebBeds
Bonotel
Welcomebeds
Expedia
Agoda
And many more, providing inventory from hotels, villas, apartments, and even hostels.
How do they work?
Bed banks operate by linking directly to hotels through APIs like HotelConnect, syncing with the hotel’s Channel Manager to ensure real-time updates on room availability and rates. These platforms allow travel providers to access accurate, reliable data seamlessly.
Take Hotelbeds, for example—the world’s leading bed bank. They connect with 180,000 hotels across 185 destinations, empowering travel providers with high-value distribution channels and up-to-the-minute inventory updates.
At Aigent, we’re exploring opportunities to collaborate with bed banks like Welcomebeds to strengthen our platform, expand our accommodation network, and create even greater value for our partners and customers—while staying true to our mission of fostering sustainable growth in the travel industry.
Stay tuned for more updates as we take Aigent to the next level! 🚀
- Piyakead Soontallnon
Founder & CEO, Aigent