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e-commerce platform.“ One of the greatest impacts on directbooking profitability is the gap between the website and the booking engine,” said Rafael Cardozo, founder and CEO of Tambourine.
Cardozo suggested that the disconnect between hotel websites and booking engines not only impacts conversion rates, but it also drives up direct booking costs.“ Because hotel websites are typically purchased from one vendor and the booking engine from another, hoteliers are forced to pay two separate fees for what should be a single e-commerce experience.”
Tambourine One combines the two functions within a single platform. According to Cardozo, the approach is intended to streamline the booking process while reducing technology costs. The unified experience is yielding tangible results, according to the company. In a study of more than 50 hotels, Tambourine One saw desktop conversion rates double, while mobile conversion rates nearly tripled.
Frisco, Texas-based Aven Hospitality, formerly Sabre Hospitality Solutions, has
Ken MacLeod, principal and product manager, Aven Hospitality
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Robert Habeeb, CEO, Maverick Hotels & Restaurants
expanded its SynXis CRS platform with a new booking engine designed to modernize the guest-facing reservation experience. Rather than replacing the underlying booking infrastructure, Aven introduced a new booking layer that is embedded directly within a hotel’ s website. The booking engine operates on a shared orchestration layer powered by GraphQL.
“ The new booking engine provides a strong foundation for the future— combining performance, flexibility and AI readiness in a way that helps hotels drive more value from their direct channel,” said Ken MacLeod, principal and product manager at Aven Hospitality.
MacLeod said the company sought to address the booking experience while maintaining the existing CRS infrastructure. According to the company, page load times are more than three times faster than those of previous-generation solutions, which can help reduce abandonment and keep guests engaged longer during the booking process.
Navarino Services, which provides technology solutions to
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independent hotels, was among the platform’ s first pilot partners. According to Aven, the company reported revenue growth of more than 30 % during its first month using the new booking engine without additional demandgeneration activity.
Aven plans to expand the platform’ s capabilities with additional retailing functions, stand-alone offers, an incontext booking experience that includes checkout, multiproperty search and deeper payment integrations, according to MacLeod.
Oracle Hospitality’ s investment in booking technology is part of a broader strategy to connect hotel technology functions within its cloud platform. The Austin, Texas-based company views booking as one component of an ecosystem that includes property management, guest profiles, payments, loyalty and hotel operations.
Tanya Pratt, global VP of strategy and product management for Oracle Hospitality, said the OPERA Cloud booking engine was developed in response to customer feedback. The booking engine is currently in
Tanya Pratt, global VP of strategy and product management, Oracle Hospitality
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Rafael Cardozo, founder and CEO, Tambourine
the early adopter stage and is primarily targeting independent hotels, which Pratt said are“ mostly underserved.”
Pratt said the system is designed to use a single source of rates and inventory, allowing hotels to merchandise and distribute products through the booking channel while maintaining the same information available through the property management system.
“ This means that the hotels can merchandise, distribute and monetize everything that they could as if a guest was to walk up to the front desk,” she said.
Pratt also pointed to the integration with Oracle’ s existing technology infrastructure as a key element of the product’ s development.“ It’ s like decorating the house, because the foundation is solid,” she said.
The foundation of direct booking platforms, meanwhile, continues to be reinforced. As providers increasingly integrate booking engines with websites, CRS and PMS platforms, hotels will have more options to consolidate technology while improving the direct-booking experience.
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Oct / Nov 2026 hotelsmag. com 77 |