Bed bank

Bed banks (also called wholesalers) are B2B companies that purchase rooms from accommodation providers in bulk at a discounted, static price for specific dates and sell them to OTAs, airlines, destination management companies, or tour operators. Many bed banks go beyond selling lodging and offer other types of travel inventory such as activities, tickets, transfers, or car rentals.

Wholesalers can partner with accommodation providers directly and/or access their inventory via third-party suppliers or connectivity solutions (e.g., channel managers). Typically, they connect with suppliers’ property management systems to retrieve availability and rates and send reservation updates.

On the distribution side, most bed banks provide a booking interface and a set of APIs for their partners to connect to and have access to their inventory.

Some of the most widely known global bed banks with an extensive, diverse inventory portfolio are Hotelbeds, WebBeds, HPro Travel, Bonotel, Travco, and GRNconnect.