One year after relaunching its website as an "online
travel agency for business travel" focused on corporate housing and
alternative accommodations, BridgeStreet Global Hospitality is reporting growth
in both its volume of corporate clients and the number of units on the platform.
Bridgestreet.com, which went live in February 2017,
aggregates supplier content from its own leased and managed properties and from
other alternative accommodation providers and enables instant online booking, a
divergence from how these products historically have been booked.
The platform launched with 65,000 properties across 60
countries. Today, there are approximately 120,000 properties or units on
Bridgestreet.com, according to chief technology officer Aaron Turner. Another
240,000 units are in the pipeline to join in 2018. "It's blown up because
we made it easy for suppliers to list on our site … allowing bookings and
reservations to flow seamlessly to their central reservation systems,"
Turner said.
BridgeStreet plans to increase its current sales and support
staff by 20 percent, and over the coming year, it is opening additional
regional offices in such markets as Dallas, Boston, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and
Dublin.
On the corporate side, BridgeStreet's client base has grown
from about 4,000 companies to 5,000 in the year since the new site launched,
and the company is on pace to sign on 500 new clients per quarter, according to
CEO Sean Worker.
How It Works for Supplier
Partners
Bridgestreet.com hosts alternative accommodation providers,
which Worker defines as multifamily properties, extended-stay hotels, corporate
housing, serviced apartments and home operators. The company struck a content-sharing
deal with the AccorHotels-owned Onefinestay in late 2016. The content from such
providers is available not only on Bridgestreet's site, but also through global
distribution systems via the code BX. Properties also are available via
customized client portals BridgeStreet has built out for a number of its clients.
Distribution has long been a thorn in the side of corporate
housing and serviced apartment providers. According to the 2016-2017 Global
Serviced Apartments Industry Report, published by The Apartment Service
Worldwide, only 72 percent of providers had online-bookable inventory.
In addition to getting content on the GDS, BridgeStreet is
working with booking channel managers like eRevMax's RateTiger, Cubilis and
SiteMinder to grow BridgeStreet's supplier base and to open the company's
existing supplier partners up to additional distribution channels. "When
we surveyed the different constituents on the supply side, they clearly
indicated there was a need for what we wanted to build," Worker said.
BridgeStreet charges 12 percent commissions to its supplier
partners. According to the 2016-2017 GSAIR, GDSs and OTAs typically charge corporate
housing and serviced apartment providers 15 to 24 percent.
How It Works for
Corporates
In the early stages of building out Bridgestreet.com, the
company spoke with corporate clients and travel managers. While there was
demand for this type of platform, Worker also learned it needed to be
"nothing special." He said: "It had to be easy for them to book,
and it had to be available in the way they access inventory, whether it be for
car, for air, for train, even for hotels. So it had to be accessible across the
GDSs, through Concur and even on a bespoke basis through their company
app."
BridgeStreet can integrate with online booking tools and also
offers an open application programming interface. The company has also built
approximately 200 client portals that allow corporate travel programs to customize
content and overlay travel policy guidelines to guide bookings.
All the properties on Bridgestreet.com have been vetted and
inspected for safety and quality. "Travel managers don't have to worry
about duty of care," Turner said, "and business travelers don't have
to worry about not mapping to their corporate travel policy."
Though BridgeStreet struck a content-sharing
deal with Airbnb in 2015, Worker said Airbnb inventory is not available
through the platform for instant bookings.
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Correction Jan. 11, 2018; 9:34 pm - A previous version of this article stated that BridgeStreet charges 10 percent commissions to supplier partners, the correct commission rate is 12 percent.