After conducting a beta test with Kayak, Fairmont Hotels and at least three other chains, Pegasus Solutions launched a new product, MetaSearch Services.
MetaSearch Services enables hotels to display rate and availability information accessed by Pegasus from hotel CRSs on metasearch sites such as Kayak, HotelsCombined, Nextag, hotelicopter, trivago and Wego and to take direct booking on hotels' websites.
Pegasus already had direct-connects to many of these metasearch sites through its UltraDirect interface, but only provided hotel access to the 6,000 or so properties on its RezView NG platform for which Pegasus provides reservations services.
But, with MetaSearch Services, Pegasus opens up the metasearch connection theoretically to all of the 90,000 properties worldwide that the company provides with various distribution and/or reservations services and leverages UltraDirect's access to their updated rates and inventory.
The caveat is that an individual property can only opt-in to participate in the program if it belongs to a chain or some kind of representation company or hotel group, says David Sjolander, Pegasus vice president of product management and distribution services.
With MetaSearch Services, Pegasus handles the consumer hotel shopping -- meaning rate and availability queries from the metasearch sites -- but isn't involved in the bookings, which take place on the hotels' websites.
"We never really separated the shopping from the booking before and it's really a new business model for us," Sjolander says. "At the same time we can help our customers connect easily to these metasearch sites."
Under the MetaSearch Services business model, hotel chains or groups pay Pegasus a fee per shopping message.
Sjolander declined to detail how much the fee is, but said it is less than a penny per shopping message or shopping transaction [i.e. not a booking].
The hotels then have to work out their own business relationships with the metasearch sites, which often charge hotels a transaction fee per booking or require compensation on a pay per click basis, he adds.
In theory, MetaSearch Services could be somewhat of an "equalizer" for hotels, many of which until now have found it difficult to participate in metasearch sites and to compete with online travel agencies.
Whether MetaSearch Services can play a role in tipping the balance back toward hotel websites remains to be seen.
One issue, Sjolander acknowledges, is that the hotel pricing to be displayed on the metasearch sites may include certain fees from some hotels, but those extras may be absent in displays from other properties, depending on how the hotel CRSs provide the information and the policies of the metasearch sites.
This could disadvantage some hotels in metasearch, where a few dollars or euros either way can greatly influence sales.
Sjolander says the beta with Kayak, Fairmont and several other chains, which he declined to name, went very smoothly, especially since Pegasus has already had the direct links with many of the metasearch sites for years.
Pegasus says the chains received a return on investment in the beta of "up to 5:1" for every U.S. dollar spent.
Switch-provider Pegasus hopes MetaSearch Services will position its hotel customers -- and Pegasus -- to better compete in the ever-changing travel distribution marketplace.
Note: Pegasus is debuting MetaSearch Services March 9 at ITB Berlin and you can see a demo at its stand 111 in Hall 8.1.