Hotelbeds, the world’s leading bedbank, announced this month a new strategic agreement with Choice Hotels International, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors.

As a result of this agreement, Hotelbeds will now be recognized as a Preferred Wholesaler by Choice Hotels International. This strategic agreement provides Choice Hotels with access to Hotelbeds’ high-value distribution network of more than 60,000 travel distribution clients such as tour operators, retail travel agents, airlines and loyalty programs across more than 140 source markets worldwide.

At the same time, Bedsonline's customers will have access to competitive rates on its12 distinct brands and more than 7,000 hotel locations worldwide.

As part of this agreement, Choice Hotels will distribute its hotel rooms through Hotelbeds’ two main channels: its wholesale distribution channel that operates under the 'Hotelbeds' brand and its retail channel, Bedsonline, that exclusively caters to retail travel agents.

Mark Redmond, Head of Global Chains at Hotelbeds commented: “We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with Choice Hotels and grow our mutual business together.  This will be a strong relationship delivering special rates and availability across the Choice Hotel portfolio to our 60,000 plus travel distribution clients, while giving Choice Hotels access to a higher-margin, non-domestic niche segment of the travel market.”

Robert McDowell, Chief Commercial Officer at Choice Hotels commented: “We are very excited to expand our long-standing relationship with Hotelbeds Group through this strategic agreement. It not only provides incremental revenue stream opportunities and international exposure for our U.S. franchisees, but also strengthens confidence in Hotelbeds’ valuable wholesale distribution model. Choice Hotels is committed to maintaining rate integrity across all channels, while working to reduce the cost of distribution for franchisees. We believe this agreement improves our ability to achieve this long term, especially in key international source markets.”

To reinforce the message of health and safety, Hotelbeds has recently launched “Safe2Stay”, a filter category that consolidates and displays in the booking process the hotel properties that are following the different COVID-19 health and safety protocols and certifications that travel industry companies, tourism boards and lobby groups have recently created.

This filter category includes Choice Hotels’ Commitment to Clean, an initiative that builds upon the strong foundation of their franchisees’ long-standing dedication to cleanliness with enhanced training and best practices for cleaning, disinfecting and social distancing.