Hotel Connectivity Specialist (Channel Managers & Switches)

Global Hotel is lastminute.com group's hotel sourcing and distribution division, managing direct contracts with 23,000+ hotel properties worldwide. We operate sophisticated B2C distribution through the group's consumer brands and are expanding our B2B capabilities through strategic partnerships and technology platforms.

We are looking for a Hotel Connectivity Specialist to act as the technical and commercial bridge between Global Hotel and the channel managers, switches and connectivity providers that power our hotel distribution. This is a hands-on specialist role, not a product or engineering position. You will be the go-to expert who understands how channel managers and switches work in practice, speaks the technical language of our connectivity partners, and translates what you learn into clear technical gaps and simple, credible business cases for upgrading or expanding our connections.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the subject-matter expert on channel manager and switch connectivity: ARI distribution (availability, rates, inventory), booking delivery, content and mapping, and rate/availability push and pull.
• Engage directly and technically with channel managers, switches and aggregators (e.g. SiteMinder, D-EDGE, Cloudbeds, RateGain, DerbySoft, Availpro) to understand their capabilities, limitations and roadmaps, and benchmark them against each other and against our distribution requirements.
• Read and interpret partner API documentation and integration specifications to assess fit against our needs.
• Identify technical gaps and limitations in current connections that affect content quality, availability, competitiveness, conversion or operational efficiency.
• Diagnose recurring connectivity issues and pinpoint root cause on the partner or protocol side.
• Translate technical findings into simple, credible business cases to justify upgrading, replacing or onboarding channel managers and switches, quantifying expected impact coverage, competitiveness, error reduction, operational savings — with data and analytics colleagues.
• Support commercial and partnership conversations that require technical depth.
• Partner with Product and Engineering during discovery and integration work, coordinating between external partners and internal teams across Europe and Asia.
• 4+ years working hands-on with hotel connectivity (channel managers, switches, connectivity/aggregation platforms) on the OTA, bedbank, channel manager or hotel-tech side.
• Deep practical understanding of ARI flows, booking delivery, content mapping and connectivity protocols (XML/JSON, push/pull).
• AI knoweldge
• Comfortable in technical conversations with connectivity partners: reading API documentation, understanding integration constraints and diagnosing connectivity issues, without needing to be a software engineer.
• Commercial awareness: able to see the business impact of a technical gap and frame it in a clear, simple business case.
• Strong communication skills to bridge technical and commercial stakeholders.

Desirable

• Detailed familiarity with the channel manager and switch landscape and its key players.
• Basic SQL and data literacy to support impact analysis.
• Exposure to GDS, OTA integrations or property management systems.
• Additional European languages.

What we offer

By joining our company, you will have the chance to:

• Join a dynamic team in an inclusive-international environment
• Grow thanks to the career journey and our internal mobility perspective
• Manage your own schedule thanks to the flexible start and end of the working day
• Work a shorter working week (36h), of which 4 hours on Friday morning
• Get focus time for learning, development and deep work on Friday mornings
• Work partially or fully remote according to local laws
• Enjoy continuous training thanks to our company platform
• Benefit from employee discounts on travel
• Receive 2 days off per year for the purpose of volunteering
• Receive a voucher after some years in the company
• Get free snacks / fruit / hot drinks / water / beverages at our offices
• Welfare platform (Corporate Benefits) where you will find dedicated discounts with more than 1500 partners

Perks of working with us :

How we work together:

• An inclusive, friendly, and international environment (you’ll be working with colleagues from +10 countries and over 48 nationalities)
• Shorter working week (36h as full time), with a half working day on Fridays
• Flexible start and end of the working day, with core hours from 10:00 to 4:00 pm
• Possibility to work from anywhere for a period of time per year defined according to local regulations

How we learn together :

• Fri-Yays: half a day on Friday morning with a no-meeting mandate and dedicated to deep work, personal growth, learning and training and/or focus time.
• Professional and managerial skills development training paths, access to e-learning …