Houston's Valencia Group has realized gains in valuable global distribution system (GDS) bookings working with Pegasus Solutions. Tapping into Pegasus for foundational connectivity to the GDS and online sales channels, as well as global demand marketing available through Pegasus Connect+, the group increased best available rate (BAR) bookings at one property by 65% in a year.

Currently, the company has three upscale hotels under ownership, including Hotel Valencia Santana Row in San Jose, Hotel Valencia Riverwalk in San Antonio, and Hotel Sorella CITYCENTRE in Houston, as well as the Lone Star Court under development in Austin, Tex. and the Hotel Sorella Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO. Valencia initially switched to Pegasus to leverage the company's global preferred relationships with major travel management companies (TMCs) to tap into previously inaccessible sources for business.

"One of the things we discovered was that most of our business was from local negotiated accounts," said Wendy Norris, corporate director of revenue and ecommerce for Valencia Group. "Other companies try to sell you on the GDS chain code in order to be found, but travel agencies weren't searching by chain code. They searched by location. But, we examined the costs of distribution and found GDS and online travel agencies were the majority of our expenses. We explored our options, including our own chain code, but found what we needed with Pegasus."

In the first year using Pegasus' UI chain code, Hotel Valencia Santana Row in San Jose saw a 10% increase in consortia business, and a significant 65% jump in BAR bookings. Houston's Hotel Sorella CITYCENTRE became #1 in its comp set in the GDS within its first year of opening, while the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk in San Antonio maintained solid revenue as new competition emerged and a major source of business moved its headquarters from the city.

"Together we discussed Valencia's growth goals for corporate managed business, and crafted a solution to appeal to the premier TMC's most able to support those goals," added John Owens, senior vice president, global sales for Pegasus Solutions. "The positive results thus far are exciting to see take shape."

About Pegasus

The new Pegasus is a game-changer for hotels, combining innovative technology with five-star support to give hoteliers more control over their revenue and distribution strategy than ever before. Following a recent merger with Travel Tripper, Pegasus now enables hoteliers to better connect with their guests through an innovative and flexible platform of Reservations, E-commerce, Global Sales, and Business Intelligence solutions that help hotels drive demand and increase revenue and profitability.

With more than 30 years of experience in global distribution, Pegasus serves hotels across 120 countries from eight offices worldwide in New York, Scottsdale, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Hyderabad. For more information, visit pegs.com or follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Bill Taysom