One-on-One with Carino Collection's Joe Carino: Hotel Rep Firm To Evolve With New GDS Code

Joe Carino, president of hotel representation firm The Carino Collection, recently spoke with Business Travel News hotel editor Michael B. Baker about the firm's outlook for the year ahead—in particular, its planned January launch of a global distribution system code—and its name change.

Business Travel News: What will the creation of a GDS code mean for the company?

Joe Carino: We've been primarily known as a sales and marketing organization for hotels. We're expanding the company and taking it to the next step: reservations. It puts us completely on par with Leading Hotels of the World and Preferred Hotel Group.

BTN: How many properties do you expect to use the code?

Carino: Right now, of our base of 80 hotels, half are already with companies like Leading or Preferred, and they can outsource to us from a sales standpoint. From a reservations standpoint, they can only take on one code, so they'll have to make a choice. Within the first and second quarter, you're going to see a major push. It's sort of what happened in the first year of our hotel company. In the beginning, when we started seven years ago, hotels were hesitant. Within our first year, we had more than 30 hotels sign up with us. Hotels are creatures of habit and look at what the others are doing. We're going to start out slow, but it only takes a few to get on board. By the second and third quarter, we'll have a lot of hotels on our code. Financially, we have to, because there are a lot of investments going in to make sure that it works. It's a risk, because a lot of hotel companies are cutting back.

BTN: Will this help with the rate-loading process?

Carino: Yes. Right now, we have to turn around and rely on GDS providers to make sure the rates are loaded, and it's a nightmare. Now, we've got the right people in place. We're partnering with SynXis, which will be our booking engine for the whole thing.

BTN: How is business holding up amid the economic downturn?

Carino: Hotels need more help, and in times they need help, they need companies like ours, so we've become a major revenue source for hotels. As a company, we're doing very well. It's a good time to expand the company right now, because hotels are reevaluating every aspect of their business. Whether it's reservations, sales, marketing or distribution, they're doing it now. We want to be a part of that. We already have eight hotels that have proposals for being part of our new business model and we haven't even launched it yet.

BTN: What sort of growth are you expecting for the collection?

Carino: I figure we'll be at about 100 hotels in the next few years. Our focus will still be the city center business hotel, which has always been the perfect match for us. Right now, we're in more than 20 countries. That might expand as we grow, because we need hotels in other parts of Asia, which we'll be looking at getting eventually. Europe is a big focus for us. We already have hotels in South America, but we could use more. Looking at the globe and the major cities around the world, eventually, it will be 100 to even 150 hotels.

BTN: Do you have any other big plans for 2009?

Carino: We're rebranding and changing the name of the company starting in January to Carino Hotels & Resorts. We're changing up the logo a bit, changing the image, the branding, the positioning and the whole look and feel of the company.