CCRA Travel Solutions' agreement to provide products customized for Ensemble's 850 companies is the latest step in a CCRA plan to redevelop its business model, according to Peter Pincus, president of the company's Global Network Division.
CCRA for many years provided 24/7 emergency services for agency clients and a hotel program for agencies that included a proprietary booking portal.
About two years ago, Pincus said, management at the Fort Worth, Texas-based company determined it was time to take the business global and to step up the pace by working with agency groups.
Though long a preferred supplier for Vacation.com, CCRA has otherwise not emphasized group deals in the U.S. However, all expansion outside North America has been based on making CCRA services available via agency groups such as consortia, organizations CCRA refers to as distributors.
It signed the first distributor in South Africa in May 2011. Today, CCRA said, its overseas network includes 15 distributors serving more than 14,000 agencies in 28 countries. Ensemble will have a private-label version of the CCRA hotel portal, but contracts with overseas groups don't include that feature.
Also in May 2011, CCRA concluded its deal with London-based GlobalStar to develop GlobalStar's branded hotel reservations system, HotelStar, its first private-label hotel portal. Ensemble's is the second.
CCRA circled back to the U.S. for this newest relationship, but "Ensemble's extensive presence in both the U.S. and Canada was a key factor for us," Dic Marxen, president and CEO of CCRA Travel Solutions, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, CCRA's relationship with Vacation.com dates to 2003 when the trade group added the hotel booking engine to AgentNet, the member portal. AgentNet was replaced this month with a new portal, Agent Universe, but the preferred-supplier relationship continues, with Vacation.com agencies accessing the CCRA system directly, Pincus said.
History of serving retail
CCRA's global growth spurt represents a major shift in company planning.
The business was founded in 1974 by Jerry Goldberg as a 24/7 call center service to provide emergency services for clients of subscribing travel agencies. That was before agencies began to use GDSs in 1976. The business, called Reservation Center Inc. (ResCntr), was based in Agoura Hills, Calif.
It added new technologies as they became available, and in 1993, the company added a preferred-hotel program, also available to agencies on a subscription basis. The hotel component was called CCRA, an acronym for Computerized Corporate Rate Association. The hotel booking portal was introduced in 2006.
In the meantime, in May 2005, One Link 4 Travel, a startup technology company in San Francisco, purchased ResCntr for $6 million. The sellers were founder and CEO Jerry Goldberg and his son Cary, president, on behalf of their family trust.
By October 2006, One Link was in default to the tune of $4.3 million to a private Texas-based lender, OurLink. The lender immediately took over the business, put Marxen in charge, forced the sale of ResCntr at auction and bought it for an undisclosed amount in November 2006.
The new owners paid back bills, relocated the business to Fort Worth, changed its name and injected new vigor into the operation. They also sued Jerry Goldberg, Cary Goldberg and the Goldberg Family Trust, asserting fraud in connection with the sale of ResCntr.
The case went to arbitration in Texas and ended with an award to CCRA's owner, OurLink, of $3.5 million in actual damages and interest, $1.8 million in punitive damages and $120,730.25 in attorney's fees, for a total of $5.46 million, plus 5% annual interest from Dec. 19, 2009.
OurLink collected on the judgment, Marxen said, and "that chapter is behind us."
The backstory does not seem to have much relevance when it comes to operations or future planning.
Aside from simply growing the worldwide network, Pincus said it is a "natural evolution" for other suppliers to go through CCRA for efficient access to thousands of professional travel sellers.
He said the company is developing systems to enable travel agencies to make direct bookings electronically for products to which they don't generally have access.
For example, he said, CCRA would look at bringing new Turkish products to the screen for the Polish agencies that use its portal, because Turkey is a popular destination for Polish travelers.
Another product type, he said, is train travel in India and China. "We have the inventory, but we need to make it easier for agents" to book, especially in Europe, he said.
As for the U.S., he said, "Maybe we could offer scuba diving in the Maldives, or [perhaps] Burma product that is not generally available" and that would complement tour operator offerings to such destinations.
But, he added, "We take this one step at a time."