Travelport, VFM Expand Agreement for Hotel Photos

Travelport has streamlined hotel imagery providers across its three GDS platforms: Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan.

The company extended its existing agreement with VFM Leonardo, making VFM the exclusive provider of hotel visual content for Worldspan. VFM Leonardo already was Galileo and Apollo’s exclusive provider of hotel photos, virtual tours and videos.

Hotels can use VFM’s VScape Digital Asset distribution system to upload imagery to Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan simultaneously.

Hotels previously had choices when they wanted to upload photos, virtual tours and videos to Worldspan. The hotels could do so directly with Worldspan or choose third-party providers like VFM and Show Hotels.

When Travelport acquired Worldspan for $1.4 billion in 2006, it sought to uncover synergies across its three GDS platforms. Going with a single vendor for hotel imagery is the latest example.

On the airline front, Travelport likewise has been negotiating rolled-up content agreements on behalf of Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan.

With the Worldspan agreement, VFM now provides hotel visual content to Worldspan, Apollo, Galileo, Amadeus and Sabre.