About Katanox Trading

Partnerships

A partnership is a general, non-binding handshake agreement for how the two companies will work together. It sets out the basic framework of the working relationship. Both travel buyers and accommodation suppliers can initiate a partnership. The other party only needs to accept the partnership offer.

You can propose a partnership by navigating to the “partnerships” tab in your Katanox trading account, searching for your desired partner, and sending them a partnership proposal.

Contracts

After creating a partnership, the next step is to agree to a contract, which sets out the terms of the specific collaboration. You can have multiple contracts with the same accommodation supplier.

When a contract is proposed, the following parameters must be defined and can then be negotiated. If you’ve received a contract proposal from a travel buyer or accommodation supplier, you’ll also be able to negotiate their proposed terms.

• Commission: this is a percentage of the total booking amount that the supplier will pay to the buyer
• Duration: this is a date range that defines the contract length. This can be indefinite or _have an _end date which is specified by either:
  • (1) booking date - the date on which the booking is created
  • (2) stay dates - the dates between which the stay must take place

Contracts are additionally connected to specific rates and properties. For example, a buyer and supplier connection may have one contract that provides access to all European properties, and another contract that includes all American properties. Alternatively, the same combination could have one contract including non-refundable rates and a 10% commission, and another contract with flexible rates and a 12% commission. The negotiations and specific contract setup is flexible and entirely under the control of you and your potential new partner.

Bookings

Within the trading workspace, travel buyers can create, view, manage, and delete bookings. This can also be done via API. Accommodation suppliers can view bookings created via Katanox.

Katanox's system differentiates between bookings and reservations. A booking can contain one or multiple reservations.

Policies

Katanox's API includes information about booking policies in a standardised manner. For buyers, data about a rate's policies is always returned in the availability request. For suppliers with a PMS integration, policies are automatically imported along with your property and rate information.

More information about configuring policies can be found here [link to supplier section]

Rates

Within the Katanox system, there are two types of rates: rate plans and trading rates. Rate plans are defined on a property level. These can differ based on the specific dates, unit, the policies, and any applicable extra charges.

Trading rates are packages, or groups, of rate plans. These allow accommodation suppliers to combine different prices per buyer, policy, corporate clients, and other considerations. It also provides additional control and flexibility over which rates the supplier will offer to a specific buyer. For example, a supplier might have a specific commercial arrangement with a buyer to offer rates at a 10% discount. Alternatively, one trading rate might contain only rate plans that contain "non-refundable" rates, while another might contain only rate plans with "flexible" cancellation policies.

Accommodation suppliers can attach one or many trading rates to a contract. The contracted buyer will then be able to create bookings using those rates.

Corporate Negotiated Rates:

In addition to standard rates, [something] corporate negotiated rates (CNRs). The arrangement between the corporate, travel buyers, and suppliers is separately arranged between the relevant parties. In some cases, the supplier might offer the specific CNR via multiple buyers.

Implementing CNRs requires the accommodation supplier to set up their PMS/CRS to support these new rates. The supplier then needs to provide us with their desired rates and any additional details, such as a separate corporate code for this rate in the supplier's own system.

Once the CNR is set up in the Katanox system, the buyer will be provided with a corporate ID to include in their system's rate requests. When a buyer’s system asks the Katanox system for rates and includes a specific corporate ID, our system returns all the rates that match this code, plus any other publicly available rates. If the buyer’s system does provide a corporate code when asking Katanox for rates, then only publicly available rates will appear.

This implementation means that the buyer’s system only needs to ask for rates once, instead of making multiple requests for the CNR and any other applicable rates.