Bedsonline, has announced plans to launch 'Safe2Stay' is a distribution filter category that consolidates and displays in the booking process the different COVID-19 health and safety protocols and certifications that travel industry companies, tourism boards and lobby groups have recently created.

The 'Safe2Stay' category covers both accommodation and providers of services such as transfers, activities, theme parks and car rental. All products with a listing in the category will feature a 'Safe2Stay' badge in the booking engine along with details of what this means outlined in a glossary compiling all protocols in one reference point.

All partners working with Bedsonline that have created their own COVID-19 health and safety protocols are eligible to include their information in the filter category and hotels partners can do so directly via MaxiRoom, Hotelbeds’ partner extranet.  

Global health and safety certifications from hotel chain partners such as Accor, Radisson, Hyatt and RIU Hotels and Resorts, as well as organizations such as the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Turismo de Portugal, will be displayed in the 'Safe2Stay' filter category alongside those of many other companies and institutions.

This category will be visible as a filter on the Bedsonline booking engine and the same information will be made available to all of Hotelbeds’ API clients to configure into their own systems.

Tobias Thibaut, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit & Sustainability Director at Hotelbeds, said: “Today more than ever, we need to focus on the safety and wellbeing of guests during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it becomes available in a few weeks our ‘Safe2Stay’ filter category will be very valuable for our clients when reserving a hotel for their customers or other ancillary products by giving them greater confidence and thus helping the tourism sector recover more quickly.

“As there are already many different standards and certification processes out there, it is important to bring them together under one category and for the information to be easily displayed in the booking process. We encourage all our supplier partners out there who have introduced their own standards or who are adhering to third party standards to input the details in MaxiRoom right away to gain the Safe2Stay badge”

This news follows the recent announcement that Hotelbeds has backed the World Travel & Tourism Council’s ‘Safe Travels’ initiative and is working towards making this available in Hotelbeds’ distribution process. Safe Travels creates global recovery protocols – including for hotels – for the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of industry associations, health experts and governments.