2.25.2025
The roomangel Foundation, a non-profit organization, has been established in London. The Foundation, structured as Company Limited by Guarantee CLG, invites hospitality stakeholders to join.
This groundbreaking initiative unites booking engine providers and lodging establishments for the first time, creating a fairer market by restoring distribution power to the industry and booking power to travelers.
In addition to providing consumer regulatory oversight, the Foundation will serve the industry with a suite of cutting-edge technology solutions, including:
- A trusted stamp for hotel brand websites to increase conversion.
- A revolutionary new hotel search and booking platform.
- An ecosystem of rich, actionable data to enhance decision-making and optimize demand.
These innovations are designed to disintermediate hotel distribution, protect consumers, and elevate the overall search and booking experience.
One of the key drivers behind intermediaries’ dominance in the travel space is the need for centralized search – a single, convenient place for travelers to compare accommodation options. While accommodation providers prefer direct bookings, they have struggled to compete with the convenience of the broad search offered by Online Travel Agencies, a difficulty compounded by large OTA marketing budgets and loyalty programs.
The roomangel Foundation seeks to address this longstanding challenge by providing a platform that offers a centralized hotel search designed for the customer while delivering reservations via the hotel’s direct channel, eliminating the need for third-party agents. “This is the first global initiative in our industry’s history to present a viable solution to a decades-old problem,” says Brian Reeves, founding member of the Foundation. “roomangel aggregates inventory intelligently in one place, removes the influence of commissions and persuasion and instead ranks results by best value, for travelers’ convenience. It also provides a reliable verification system, including an independent value-for-money calculation, which reinforces trust in direct hotel bookings.”
To achieve this, the Foundation is launching a new hotel search and booking platform that will be directly connected to the hotel partners’ booking engines. This pioneering partnership with industry-leading direct distribution providers, was introduced during the inaugural Booking Engine Summit held in Dubai in October 2024. At the event, a select group of industry leaders hailed the initiative as “the biggest change in the history of our industry.”