Booking.com opts for partner route to expand tours and activities

A year after buying FareHarbor to spearhead its move into tours and activities, Booking.com is adopting an additional approach and working directly with rival software vendors.

First to be confirmed is Rezdy, the Australia-based distribution platform, which has integrated with the Booking Holdings-owned online travel agency.

Customers on the Rezdy network of suppliers will have distribution on Booking.com Experiences, as well as the ability to manage their inventory, pricing, availability and bookings within the existing Rezdy interface.

Connecting suppliers to an OTA via a distribution switch is not a remarkable development in the growing sector of tours and activities.

But Booking.com's strategy to open up the platform to other channel managers does follow its earlier acquisition of FareHarbor - a deal that was in part aimed at providing the inventory for Booking.com Experiences.

Another vendor is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

FareHarbor is known to have focused on certain regions, especially the United States, as well as specific types of products.

The addition of other vendors to the supply network is likely to be Booking.com's attempt to diversify the product range and give suppliers not currently on the FareHarbor platform and in other regions the chance to list on the OTA.

At the time of the acquisition in April 2018, FareHarbor claimed to have 5,000 suppliers using its tools for reservations and distribution to third parties.