NEST Rolls Out Hotel Booking Engine

NEST, the Network of Entrepreneurs Selling Travel, launched NESTHotels, a proprietary booking engine for home-based travel agents.

The web-based system places a hotel inventory of 76,000 properties at the agents’ fingertips, all of which are bookable without a GDS, said Kathryn Mazza-Burney, president of the marketing organization for home-based agents.

An itinerary-builder shopping cart function allows multiple bookings in a single session, with guest information only being entered once.

Other key features include real-time credit card validation and e-mail confirmation for booking or canceling a reservation.

A commission-processing and reporting function automates the collecting of hotel commissions worldwide, said NEST. All currencies are converted to U.S. funds, and commission checks are sent monthly.