Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution (Channel Managers & Switches)

lastminute.com

14d • Remote

About The Position

At lastminute.com, we are the European Travel-Tech leader in Dynamic Holiday Packages. We are looking for a Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution to join our team of around 1,700 people worldwide. This role involves acting as the technical and commercial bridge between Global Hotel and the channel managers, switches, and connectivity providers that power our hotel distribution. You will be the subject-matter expert on channel manager and switch connectivity, including ARI distribution (availability, rates, inventory), booking delivery, content and mapping, and rate/availability push and pull. You will engage directly with connectivity providers to understand their capabilities, limitations, and roadmaps, and benchmark them. You will also identify technical gaps, diagnose connectivity issues, and translate technical findings into business cases to justify upgrades or changes. This role requires partnering with Product and Engineering teams and coordinating with external partners across Europe and Asia.

Requirements

• 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 knowledge.
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical and commercial bridge between Global Hotel and the channel managers, switches and connectivity providers that power our hotel distribution.
• 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 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 on coverage, competitiveness, error reduction and 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.

Benefits

• 2 paid days off per year for volunteering purposes
• Occasional social events to foster connections among colleagues
• Travel industry discounts and flash exclusive staff fares
• Leave options for parental responsibilities, marriages, bereavements, relocations, etc. in line with local laws.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed