The three major global distribution system operators are
increasing investment in their hotel offerings, planning to improve processes
through enhanced technologies and, in the case of Travelport, potentially
creating a new economic model.
Travelport recently promoted Niklas Andreen, formerly
managing director for Eastern Europe, to a newly created position heading hotel
distribution and advertising. Andreen said Travelport has charged him with
increasing booking and advertising revenues as an "extra leg to stand on"
while Travelport becomes a more global business.
"Hotels always have been a subset of air, because the
GDSs originally were created for air. By accident, we happened to do hotels as
well," Andreen said. "If we want to have long-term success as a GDS,
we have to broaden our model away from relying on air as the majority of the
business. Hospitality is a very different product with different demands, and
as long as it continues to be a subset of the air business, it won't get the
attention it deserves."
Among his goals, Andreen would like to see increased
participation in best available rate programs and, ultimately, a move away from
transaction-based fees for hotels. "We could instead look at the value we
bring to hotels, driving business to them, instead of doing a transaction fee,"
he said. "If we get this right, there's a good chance the hotel can become
the role model for the airlines in the future."
GDS firm Amadeus, meanwhile, is seeking to grow its hotel
business revenues through technology offerings. The company this month launched
the Amadeus Hotel Platform, which it described as a single database that
consolidates information from both the property level and the central
reservation system level.
Many hotels today operate property management systems and
central reservation systems that are cobbled together and provide disparate
data, said Stephen Puente, Amadeus manager of business development for hotel IT
in the Americas. For example, a guest profile at the property level might lack
information that exists in the guest's profile in central reservations, he
said.
"This is a specialized, above-property solution with
technology up in the clouds, not at the property level, so there's a lot less
complexity there for hoteliers," Puente said. "Everybody has the same
view of guests, rates and inventory, and it's all accessible to everyone in the
span of the hotel." The technology also allows hotels to react quicker to
developments in the marketplace by creating dynamic pricing and rates that
adjust with market conditions, he added.
Also this month, Amadeus announced a partnership with
startup company Forward Data to provide airline data to hotels as a means to
measure and benchmark demand. A hotel could see, for instance, whether
increased room nights correlated to an equal increase in airport arrivals.
Meanwhile, Sabre Hospitality Solutions is completing its
first full year of operations. In that time, the division of GDS firm Sabre has
brought together multiple platforms, including the SynXis central reservation
system, Internet marketing and Web design supplier E-Site Marketing and RFP
technology firm BidStork, now Sabre Hotel RFP. About 700 corporations use the
RFP tool, according to Sabre Hospitality Solutions COO Stephen Fitzgerald.
Upcoming projects include the development of a graphical
display for agents using the Sabre Red platform, on which they can compare on a
map multiple hotels, rates and amenities. The project is slated to launch in
the second half of 2011, Fitzgerald said.
Sabre also is in the process of integrating with several
hotel aggregators in Europe to add thousands more properties to its system. Work
in 2011 will center on simplifying and streamlining the rate-loading process,
Fitzgerald added.
This report appears in
the Nov. 29 issue of Business Travel News.