Leading Link is the customizable internet booking engine (IBE) for seamless integration into member hotels' websites offered exclusively by The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.
Trump International Hotel & Towers in New York is just one of the many members of The Leading Hotels of the World reaping the rewards of the newly enhanced Leading Link booking platform.
The service is provided on an à la carte basis to Leading member hotels and is increasingly popular, not only with independent properties, but also with hotels associated with their own established brands such as Dusit's Laguna Resort, Auberge Resorts' Inn at Palmetto Bluff, and Occidental's Royal Hideaway.
Integrating seamlessly into a property's own website, Leading Link provides complete reservations and distribution management services including:
- Real-time online booking and instant confirmation, modification and cancellation
- Direct link from the hotel's website to the Leading CRS
- Detailed user information about properties, rates and rooms - including pictures
- Reservation summary with options to alter selected guest or travel data
- Availability displayed on calendars
- Optional customer profiles for repeat guests
- Support for negotiated rate booking functionality, with restricted viewership
- Web analysis program, which can easily accommodate tracking codes from an external provider
True to The Leading Hotels of the World's position as the leader in global sales representation, Leading Link also offers the largest multilingual presence available with translations into 10 languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese and modern Russian.
One of the most notable advantages of Leading Link is the maintenance of a single database, simplifying the entire process, allowing hotels to ensure rate parity integrity across all channels, and virtually eliminating all room for error. The highly sophisticated and powerful TRUST Voyager CRS provides the hotel the optimal tools to maximize revenues via the hotel's own web site.
Furthermore, clients who participate in Leading Link can benefit from significant cost savings on all of their automated bookings (GDS and Internet). The GDS and Internet fee for members of The Leading Hotels of the World is based on a sliding scale according to production volumes. Leading Link volumes are included in the total production figure for purposes of calculating the sliding scale level.
"We have been very pleased with the production through the Leading Link platform," said Dianna Balabon, vice president, sales and marketing, Trump International Hotels Management, LLC. "In 2007, alone it generated more than 2,300 room nights, yielding over 2 million dollars for Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York. That represents a 48% increase in revenue, year over year."
She concluded by saying, "Based on those figures, we have chosen to use the Leading Link platform to support our new properties in Chicago and Las Vegas, and we anticipate similar results."
"We're very proud to have Trump International as a customer of Leading Link," said Tim Peter, managing director of Leading Interactive Reservations, LLC. "Their commitment to service, combined with the power and convenience of Leading Link, provides customers the seamless luxury experience they expect when staying with The Leading Hotels of the World."
