Expedia zeroes in on MICE market

Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, recently announced a partnership with Minor Hotels—a move it hopes will capture the burgeoning meetings and events industry in Asia Pacific.

Under the partnership, Minor Hotels’ leading brands Anantara and Oaks, will be integrated into Expedia’s online booking platform, allowing event planners to check availability, pricing and configure and book meeting rooms, accommodation, food and equipment.

Expedia's MICE platform aims to automate the booking process for meeting organisers and hotels in real time and will also be integrated into Anantara and Oaks hotel websites. 

Maxim El Masri, senior director, global partner group (Asia Pacific) at Expedia group, said: “Expedia’s MICE solution presents a huge technological leap from the manual, inefficient processes that still exist widely within the hotel meetings industry.

“We’re excited about this new collaboration with Minor Hotels, which sees us harness our expertise in technology for the benefit of our hotel partners. We believe this new solution will benefit many hotels across Asia Pacific and around the world.”

Minor Hotels is the first hotel group to launch Expedia’s ‘white-label MICE solution’ in Asia Pacific following the OTA’s success earlier this year with the Best Western brand in Europe.

Minor Hotels VP of digital, e-commerce and electronic distribution, Marcos Cadena, said: “Customers are becoming accustomed to immediate accessibility and will expect their brand experiences to be personalised and easy to navigate.

“By strategically automating our MICE business using Expedia’s best-in-class technology, we can drive greater MICE sales efficiency and deliver higher customer satisfaction across our brands.”