Eric Altschul
The beautiful Fairmont Royal York ballroom
While
he was in charge of a number of Thomas Cook distribution channels in Canada,
Eric Altschul observed what he now
calls “a nice little business". So when the chance to buy ABC Global Services from
TCook arose, he found some backers and jumped on the chance. The rest will soon
be history.
At ABC's recent “Up Close" event
in Toronto, Eric reminisced about his Canadian roots - by marriage - and about
the success story he is building on. “I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur,
and when the situation presented itself I thought who better to take a business
I've been involved in to the next level? The company already had a great
reputation and the longevity of 36 years in business, so it's not like there
was a big risk."
Based in Boca Raton, ABC Global
Travel Services provides North American corporate and leisure travel agents
with hotels. 600,000 hotels – give or take a few.
Under the ezBook umbrella, travel
agents have access to the largest hotel inventory in the world -- from budget
to 5 star properties. The booking engine aggregates hotels from the GDS,
Booking.com, web discount rates and net rates. They also provide TripAdvisor
reviews under the same platform.
ABC's core product is the corporate
channel where they provide GDS rates for 33,000 properties in 160 countries.
According to Altschul “We already
have a great base in the Canadian market, but we're doubling our efforts here.
We just hired superstar BDM Nina Mays for the Canadian market and we expect a
really positive response to some of our new products such as the Hush
collection."
Over a fabulous Royal York ice
cream Sunday, I heard about the
Hush
Collection
launching this May with a series of boutique hotels and
hideaways which agents would normally have to book directly, assuming they even
knew about them. Working through ABC, the booking and the commission are
guaranteed for the agent. The collection is launching with under 30 properties
mainly in the Caribbean and will expand to other countries, including Europe
over the next year.
Under the steady direction of President Beverlee
Patterson, Altschul says the company has built a strong reputation with both
suppliers and agents. Helping Eric run the business from the marketing side is
industry vet Patti Paton who some agents will remember from her days in Toronto
at Alamo.
