The power of Expedia's booking engine is hard to ignore. Omni Hotels & Resorts unveiled a new business offering, Vacations by Omni, to be available at nearly all of Omni’s 60 hotels and resorts in North America. Powered by Expedia, Vacations by Omni allows its guests to bundle their luxury hotel accommodations with a selection of flights without leaving the brand’s website, omnihotels.com.
Vacations by Omni provides travelers with the option to bundle their stays with air transport, and also allows members of Omni’s loyalty program, Select Guest, the ability to redeem their benefits including Wi-Fi, beverage service, pressing, customized room preferences, room upgrades and free night stays.
“Through this collaboration with Expedia we can provide what our travelers have asked for – the ability to book direct and receive their loyalty program benefits, while also bundling their vacation package,” Peter Strebel, chief marketing officer and SVP of sales for Omni Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement. “As a leader in the luxury hotel space, we are continually working to enhance the overall guest experience, and this enhanced relationship is the latest example of that.”
“Omni continues to be one of the innovators in the industry, and we are excited to build a more strategic relationship with them,” Melissa Maher, SVP, global partner group, Expedia, said in a statement. “As a technology company, we are committed to using our resources and working closely with our partners to create new product offerings that help them reach their goals, and packages are such a great way to reach incremental customers.”
Omni is one of the first North American hotel brands to collaborate with Expedia to offer its guests the ability to bundle direct from its own website. The online travel agency also entered into a partnership with Marriott International in September 2016 to integrate Expedia’s technology into the “Vacations by Marriott” packaging platform, which is hosted on Marriott.com. Just one month before that, Expedia partnered with Red Lion to offer RLH Corporation’s Hello Rewards member-only rates on RLHC’s website, as well as Expedia and Hotels.com. While this may hamper any attempts to drive for direct bookings, it doesn't matter if that isn't the company's end goal.