B4Checkin, the Halifax company offering SaaS hotel reservation systems, has received certification from leading hotel booking website TripAdvisor, greatly improving flexibility and efficiency for the startup’s clients.

The company issued a press release Tuesday saying the partnership with TripAdvisor, which has more traffic than any other hotel review site, will let hotels using the B4Checkin system route prospective guests directly to their own websites from listings on TripAdvisor.  These hotels will benefit from an increase in direct bookings without having to pay the additional fees and commissions that typically accompany third-party referrals, said the Halifax company.

“By partnering with the world’s largest travel review site, we’re able to deliver to our hotel clients a tremendously valuable class of potential customers – those who have already done the research and are ready to book – and best of all, this new revenue stream comes through their own proprietary channel as direct bookings so there are no OTA fees involved,” said B4Checkin President and CEO Saar Fabrikant.

B4Checkin has developed a suite of cloud-based software solutions that allow hotels and hotel chains to carry out online reservations, check-ins, feedback and other functions. The company earns money from customizing and installing the software for its clients — most of whom have been independent hotels or small chains — and in the monthly payments hotels make for using the software. It tripled those monthly payments in 2012 after doubling them in 2011.

Earlier this year, Fabrikant said the company would expand its sales team and was looking for people with experience in the hospitality trade. It had 12 employees as of April.

B4Checkin began in 2006 when Fabrikant and chief financial officer Martin MacKinnon teamed up to produce a reservation system for hotels that were overlooked by larger providers. They have since developed a suite of products and have been increasing revenues in part by cross-selling these new products to clients that initially bought just one.

They financed the company first with their own money, then with contributions from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and then with a group of angel investors. Since December 2010, these investors, which include the co-founders, former Imasco chairman Purdy Crawford, former Emera CEO David Mann and others, have sunk at least $1.7 million into the company.