Extended stay specialist BridgeStreet has ramped up its proposition to the corporate travel market with the launch of Six Ways to Stay.
Its chief technology officer Aaron Turner told tnooz that the new platform “distributes in any way that the business traveller wants to access the inventory.”
The six ways to stay are broken down into: extended stay hotels, hotels, furnished homes, urban/resort vacation rentals, serviced apartments and design-led hostels, all of which are professionally managed. The launch co-incides with the addition of more “alternative accommodation” inventory with Turner keen to stress that there no private houses on its list.
Turner said that Six Ways connects directly into the GDSs and to travel management companies via APIs. It will also work with its existing channel managers partners SiteMinder and Cubilis.
Anther option is via what Turner described as “private client booking hubs” and “private apps”. He noted that the ability to “layer in a rules engine” between the hub and Six Ways meant that clients could factor in policy to ensure all bookings were compliant.
Individual “business transient” travellers without a TMC or corporate can book directly at bridgestreet.com.
“We retain our B2B focus but there is a significant volume of individual business travellers looking for extended stay accommodation so we need to be able to serve this segment to the same standard as our B2B clients.”
He also noted that the widening of the inventory, and the increased emphasis on instant confirmation opened up more use cases for extended stays.
“It’s not about Millennials or other age groups, even geographies. Certain project teams might like the idea of a design-led hostels – someone relocating with their family might want a professionally managed home. It’s about the use case and career or life stage of the traveller. For us its about making sure we not only have the choice of inventory but also that we make the inventory accessible."