Galileo Begins Search For New CEO
Galileo International CEO Mark Miller has given up his position to become president and COO of Equifax, best known for consumer credit management services, which is based in Miller's hometown of Atlanta. "The HR people have the wheels in motion" searching for a replacement, a Galileo spokesperson said. Galileo chairman and Cendant travel division CEO and chief strategic officer Sam Katz is serving as interim CEO for Parsippany, N.J.-based Galileo. "Equifax is a dynamic company made up of great people, and I couldn't be happier about joining its management team," Miller said in an Equifax statement. Sources said Miller is making the move to bring his family closer together. "In the five years since Mark joined Cendant, he has made significant contributions in each business he has led," Katz said in a Galileo statement. "As Galileo's CEO since the October acquisition, Mark has put in place an outstanding leadership team, which has delivered strong results and will continue to serve our constituents well. We're sorry to see Mark go, but pleased for him to have the opportunity to be COO of a publicly traded company and bring his family back home to Atlanta." Miller will leave the travel industry after nearly a 20-year career that included work with Cendant's Avis and Wright Express divisions, GE Capital and American Express.
GDSs Pursue Tax Disclosure
Amadeus and Worldspan recently announced separate initiatives to improve the visibility of taxes, surcharges and other traditionally obscured costs associated with car rental and hotel bookings, respectively. Madrid-based Amadeus last month said it launched an enhanced solution for travel agents to search for and fully price products within the car rental provider's database before booking, allowing travel agents and their customers greater transparency on both availability and the full cost, including taxes and additional charges. Traditionally, noted Amadeus, "clients need to wait until a car has been booked to obtain the full rental rate or have to calculate separately the supplementary charges and relevant taxes before booking." Amadeus also introduced a two-tiered display based on whether or not the car rental vendor returns an estimated total price. Avis late last month became the first vendor to use the service, called Complete Access Plus. Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Worldspan last month announced the introduction of new technology that discloses all hotel taxes, surcharges and any other fees, along with the basic room rate, when travel agents use the system to book a room. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide became the first vendor to participate in the program.
Amtrak In Talks On Corp. Booking Site
Amtrak's travel booking site may be expanded to offer data tracking, according to a source familiar with the rail line's relationship with its online booking provider, Dublin-based Datalex. Amtrak last month announced that online passenger transactions had more than doubled year over year as of May, to 17 percent of all sales. Datalex, which has been under contract with Amtrak for more than two years, last fall had to double the site's capacity to accommodate unexpected demand growth after Sept. 11.
Carlson Deal Bolsters Pegasus
Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions Inc. last month announced it had signed an Internet distribution agreement with Minneapolis-based Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, whose brands include Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Regent International Hotels and Park Plaza and Park Inn Hotels. The deal means Pegasus and Carlson jointly will develop a direct connection to Carlson's central reservations system, enabling Carlson's more than 800 properties to receive online bookings via such Pegasus-backed Internet sites as Orbitz. "We can now offer our Web site customers and their consumers booking access to the 50 biggest hotel brands in the world, along with thousands of smaller chains and independent properties," said John Davis, Pegasus CEO and chairman. "As a result of this contract, we now have the 15 largest hotel companies in the world as customers."
AgentWare, SynXis Partner To Show Hotel Web Rates
Elsewhere in online hotel booking, Internet travel technology companies Atlanta-based AgentWare and McLean, Va.-based SynXis last month said they partnered to bring Web-only hotel rates and availability from 2,500 SynXis hotel property customers to travel agents using AgentWare's Travel Console software. About a dozen large travel management companies—including Minneapolis-based Northwestern and New York's Stevens and Tzell—recently selected Travel Console to tackle the Web fares issue.