Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution (Channel Managers & Switches)

lastminute.com; Madrid; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

36h work week

Flexible hours

Work from anywhere

Travel discounts

Job summary

lastminute.com group is seeking a Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution (Channel Managers & Switches) to join our Global Hotel team. You will bridge technical and commercial needs between our hotel distribution platform and external connectivity providers, ensuring ARI flows and content mapping meet our standards.

You will collaborate with channel managers, switches, and aggregators to assess capabilities, read API docs, and drive improvements across Europe and Asia, while delivering

Qualifications

• 4+ years hands-on hotel connectivity experience (channel managers, switches, connectivity/aggregation platforms).
• Deep understanding of ARI flows, booking delivery, content mapping and connectivity protocols (XML/JSON, push/pull).
• Readable API documentation and ability to diagnose connectivity issues without coding.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical and commercial bridge between Global Hotel and connectivity providers.
• Lead subject-matter expert on channel manager connectivity and ARI flows.
• Engage with channel managers, switches and aggregators to benchmark capabilities against requirements.
• Read and interpret partner API documentation to assess fit and identify gaps.
• Diagnose recurring connectivity issues and determine root causes.
• Translate technical findings into business cases to justify upgrades or onboarding.
• Support commercial conversations with technical depth.
• Coordinate with Product and Engineering across Europe and Asia.

Skills

Hotel connectivity

Channel managers

ARI flows

SQL basics

Data literacy

Communication

Tools

XML/JSON

APIs

GDS integrations

Job description

Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution (Channel Managers & Switches)

• Full-time
• Department: Revenue & Operations

At lastminute.com, we live for the holidays. We are the European Travel-Tech leader in Dynamic Holiday Packages. With technology, we turn spontaneous thoughts into meaningful experiences, helping people travel the world.

We are looking for a Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution to join our team of around 1,700 people worldwide to help us power up the traveller's journey for millions of holidaymakers. If you have hands-on experience with channel managers, switches and hotel distribution connectivity, and are comfortable working with ARI flows, APIs and integration specifications, keep on reading, as you might be the perfect fit for this job.

Job in brief

Job Title - Connectivity Specialist – Hotel Distribution (Channel Managers & Switches)
Team - you will join Global Hotel, 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.
Level - Professional
Location – Europe

What your impact will be

• 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 (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 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.

Your expertise

• 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.
• 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.

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)
• A shorter working week (36 hours full‑time), with a half working day on Fridays in applicable locations.
• 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 platforms such as O’reilly, Udemy, Coursera (depending on the department), and to our internal platform offering bespoke training content

Other perks

• 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
• We support our employees through life's significant moments with leave options (e parental responsibilities, marriages, bereavements, relocations, etc.) in line with local laws.

Wish you were here? We do, too!

Selection process steps*

• HR interview (30 minutes)
• 1st interview (Manager): soft skills + technical knowledge
• Test step online or offline
• 2nd interview (Manager + team member): Test review

(*Please note the process can slightly vary. The recruiter in charge will share more details when setting up the interview)

Our commitment to celebrate diversity and generate belonging

At the heart of our culture is a commitment to inclusion across race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity or expression, and accessibility. We strongly believe in an equal opportunity space, which is welcoming and celebrates the uniqueness of everyone who works here. We value different lived experiences and respect viewpoints, as we know unicity drives innovation. We want to make sure our people reflect the communities across the world we help travel.

Eligibility criteria

By submitting your information and application, you confirm that you are legally authorised to work in the country of employment and that you do not require visa sponsorship to obtain employment visa status.