How we're helping companies adapt to a new era of travel.

I’m excited to announce the launch of our latest product, Impala Contracting. This groundbreaking product facilitates direct contracting between travel sellers like tour operators, travel agents and corporate travel platforms, so that companies can get up and running faster than ever before. Inertia in travel technology has held the industry back for far too long - at Impala we’re all about changing that.

Impala Contracting looks to eliminate all the headaches associated with the current ways of acquiring hotel supply. That means saying goodbye to multiple intermediaries, costly integrations and lengthy negotiation cycles. With a fully updated technology stack, we’re automating acquisition alongside connectivity and bringing direct contracting into the digital age. 

A process that used to take months can now be completed in just a few days. To illustrate why we believe an overhaul of direct contracting is required, let’s take a look at how supply is acquired today. 

ACQUIRING HOTEL SUPPLY TODAY

Today, the options for room sellers to acquire more hotel supply are most frequently to use affiliate programs by the largest online travel agents, using third party wholesalers like global bed banks, or contracting hotels directly. 

Key issues, mostly resulting from hotels not having a clear overview of where a guest booked due to layers of intermediaries include a deteriorated guest experience, a lack of variety of room types, bad content and no room for negotiation for room sellers, and risks of rate parity and lack of control for hotels. 

This can be particularly detrimental in our new era of constantly changing conditions for travellers, where a clear path to resolving any arising issues is key to providing a good guest experience. 

These issues have led travel sellers to look to bypass third parties and contract directly. This enables both travel sellers and hotels to generate volume, negotiate the best rates, and work together to create the best, unique guest experience. 

Direct contracting today however comes with its own set of challenges of costly, manual processes, often rendering it unfeasible and unscaleable for anything other than the few top hotels driving the largest volumes. 

For supply teams at tour operators, travel agents and corporate travel platforms, acquisition includes time-consuming and costly manual work in identifying decision-makers at hotel chains, management companies and independents. Contracting includes lengthy negotiations and includes endless emails, phone calls and PDFs sent back and forth. A lack of unified connectivity and requirements for hotels to set up codes across systems can lead to months from getting a hotel from signed to bookable. 

IMPALA CONTRACTING.

Impala Contracting is an all-in-one product that allows supply teams to acquire more direct contracts, faster. Using the most up-to-date technology, we’ve streamlined the process so that room sellers are no longer held back by third parties, endless logistics or high costs. They can focus on creating delightful, differentiated customer experience instead.

Some of the key benefits of Impala Contracting include:

• Quick acquisition. We’ve reduced the time to reach decision-makers for independents and chains from an average of 3 weeks to just moments. Superpower your existing sales team, or test entire new markets without setting up new teams.
• Quick contracting. We’ve got rid of laborious back and forths - it’s all done through our interface for both hotels and travel sellers, with one simple transaction. 
• Quickly run deals and campaigns. Our Deals functionality means that in just a few short steps, you can run campaigns and garner extra traffic without having to wait for hotels to negotiate or having to set up promo codes

Impala Contracting offers the flexibility for companies to get access to and negotiate with thousands of hotels already on the Impala platform, or bring their own contracts for a simplified onboarding with Impala’s combined Connectivity & Contracting.

We’ll manage all connectivity and campaigns and take the onboarding time down to 48 hours.

Here are some of the features that make hotel acquisition with Impala Contracting a piece of cake:

• Simple Connectivity. As soon as terms are agreed, bookings reflect related terms, immediately, including for multiple simultaneous campaigns. 
• Expansive Hotel Search Feature. We provide the ability to find live hotels that fit your prospective target markets. So if you’re after hotels in the Loire Valley, just specify using the search refinements and we’ll produce a list of our linked hotels.
• Presentation & Negotiation Feature. Through the dashboard you can upload logo and pitch deck so that you can differentiate your company and present yourself how you wish - all in one place for hotels to access quickly. Send deals to hundreds of hotels at the click of a button and get feedback and negotiations instantly. 

IN SHORT.

With Impala Contracting, just a click of a button gets everything done. Our advanced technology provides room selling companies with more agility than ever before. 

Companies can scale up quickly, connecting to thousands of hotels in a matter of minutes. Or they can bring their own hotels and use Impala’s connectivity functions to get live faster. We’ve gotten rid of all operational hassle, which reduces overheads and fosters better working relationships. And finally, our intuitive dashboard makes the whole thing a breeze to use. Before you know it, the onboarding process is complete and you can get on with creating amazing travel experiences.