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Have you ever quoted clients a rate for a particular hotel, only to have them tell you that your quote was higher than the price they were looking at on the web? That’s happened to virtually every travel agent out there, but the question is why? More than 95 percent of hotels are parity priced, meaning you can’t find a better price than the ones the hotels have on their hotel websites. How does this price mismatch trip up travel agents, time and time again?

In many cases, the price difference comes down to GDS inventory versus the hotel inventory found on websites such as Expedia, Orbitz and even the hotel’s own website. The numbers, in some cases, don’t match up. Any smart customer is going to go to a major hotel or online travel agency to double-check the price you are quoting. The customer may have even pulled it up while dialing your number.

But you can avoid any difference in pricing by accessing the same exact inventory and prices that the consumer has access to, in real time. Instead of complaining about sites such as Expedia, why not use their technology and inventory to build your own business? With its purchase of Orbitz and Travelocity earlier this year, Expedia is only getting bigger. When most businesspeople see this type of growth, they try to emulate it, or at least, try to leverage it.

Get OTA Inventory and Prices
That’s where HotelRewards.com comes in. HotelRewards gives travel agents the same inventory, at the same price, as the OTAs to level the playing field. It becomes less about making excuses for losing business to the “big guys” and more about beating them at their own game instead of fighting them.

Their game is quite simple: Give consumers easy access to shop, compare and buy a hotel room at the click of a button. They offer other travel products, but hotels are where the vast majority of online travel sites make their profits. It is quite ironic to see the online travel sites making money as they sell billions of dollars in hotels — all while traditional travel agents lament their inability to compete.

Take a moment after reading this article and do a search on HotelRewards.com. Explore the inventory, the booking ease and the pricing. You are shopping the same hotels, at the same rates, that your clients are looking at. That’s because it’s the same dynamic inventory that your customers are seeing on Expedia.

With parity pricing, as mentioned above, any published rate in the market is going to be equal to the rates you are seeing. There is a catch, though, as HotelRewards.com will pay you 10 percent commission on your completed bookings.

Advantage for the Consumer
The catch — and the big advantage — for the customer is the ability of the travel agent to provide additional value and service to enhance the overall travel experience. Your involvement in the transaction could come down to simply making a reservation, as the traveler is on a quick “in and out” experience. On the other hand, you could make some changes to the hotel booking, make dinner reservations for the client or simply offer to be a personal concierge. In any of these cases, the worst thing that can happen is that you walk away with a customer who appreciates you even more, even if you don’t add any value to the transaction beyond making the reservation.

How to Sign Up
So, how do you start making money? First, you’ll want to register an account with HotelRewards — it’s free to register and takes less than one minute to complete the sign-up form. You will then receive immediate access to the HotelRewards inventory and booking portal.

So at no cost to you, and with a process that takes under one minute, you can begin making money on hotel bookings instead of loosing those sales to the online travel players.

Speaking of making money, HotelRewards pays your commissions at the end of the next month following the checkout date of a booking. So, for example, if the booking is made in April and travel is from June 12 to June 15, the commission is processed and mailed at the end of July. Payment is always made based on the travel dates, regardless of when the booking was confirmed, and the commission is paid at the end of the following month.

Both the 10 percent and the 5 percent commission rates are based on the net rate (not total rate) of a hotel booking, which is the cost of all room nights before taxes and service fees are applied.

When it comes to support, the HotelRewards program ensures that agents get the help they need.

Register today at www.hotelrewards.com.