<B> Car Res Goes Direct</B>
<I>Car, Limo Suppliers Link To GDS In Real Time</I>
By Lynn Woods
Ground transportation companies are taking their products global--and into real time--thanks to new direct connection options being offered by the global distribution systems. As a result, reservation agents looking to rent a car or book a limousine increasingly are finding that their GDS allows them better access to more data from anywhere in the world.
Avis Rent A Car recently expanded its Direct Connect Availability with Sabre from just domestic rentals to bookings worldwide, following a similar move by Budget Rent a Car. Alamo Rent-A-Car, Ace and Thrifty Car Rental also are either already using, or in the process of committing to, DCA.
Not to be outdone, the limo companies also are moving distribution to the global systems.
Seamless connections with the global distribution systems allow travel agents to directly access the car rental company's inventory, rather than a database of rates. Agents can shop all the rates rather than the more limited selection stored in the GDS, to get immediate confirmation of availability and to access more rate information, such as special restrictions, at the time of reservation.
Befitting its role as the tech leader in the industry, Avis, which gets about half of its bookings through the GDSs, was the first car rental firm to sign up for Sabre's Direct Connect Availability when it was introduced in 1995.
Worldspan became the second GDS to offer seamless connectivity to the car rental firms with the introduction of its Car Source product in December. So far, Avis is the only participant, though Alamo, Budget and Thrifty will sign on by the end of the year. Amadeus also is developing a seamless product, to be called Complete Access Plus, leaving Galileo as the only GDS without plans to go the seamless route.
One advantage of seamless connectivity for corporate buyers is the ability to compare multiple rates, such as the corporate negotiated price and discounted leisure rates, before making a booking. This is an improvement over the standard procedure, which requires agents to input the corporate discount number, make the booking and get confirmation before finding out the actual rate, noted Bob Bridges, strategic account manager for car rental marketing at Worldspan.
The most important benefit of seamless functionality is the "total reliability" of real-time information on the availability of rates and cars, said Avis director of marketing automation and travel agency support Tom Grubbs. In the past, car rental companies periodically updated their rates in the GDS, so there often was a lag between the rates that actually were available and those that were listed. In addition, "not all car rental companies populate the GDS with all their rates, such as one-way fees," Grubbs said.
As more companies sign on for seamless connections, travel agents also will be able to compare a corporation's negotiated rates with different vendors, said Bridges.
Budget, the first car rental company to sign up for Sabre's DCA on a global scale, cited the ability it gives agents to customize orders, such as specific car types and equipment, and to provide "additional information on upgrades at individual Budget locations and one-way rentals," said Mary Lou Johnson, vice president of reservation support services.
Thrifty, which gets 60 percent of its reservations through the GDSs and is in the first phase of implementing DCA and Car Source, until now has been able to display only retail rates in the GDSs. Seamless connectivity will enable it to offer corporate rates as well as to communicate marketing messages. Now, said staff vice president of reservations Bob DuPont, "We can tailor discounts to specific audiences."
The Hertz Corp., which has 55 percent of total bookings and 71 percent of corporate bookings coming through the GDSs, is developing an application for DCA.
Of the majors, only National Car Rental, where 65 percent of total bookings are made through the GDSs, isn't biting. Director of travel agency sales Mark McNamee acknowledged that while the ability to display one-way rates would be a real advantage, the cost didn't justify the benefit. The GDSs "charge more, but they only act as a switch," he said, "and we don't feel we should pay a premium for it."
Grubbs, who noted that Avis has seen increases in GDS bookings due to DCA and Car Source, although he declined to give figures, said his firm hoped to negotiate the fees. Avis is still loading rates into the Sabre and Worldspan databases as a backup, but eventually he expects that to decline, resulting in a reduction in the storage required in the GDS and its cost. Also, the greater ease and reliability of booking through the seamless system should result in higher volumes for the GDS, further reducing Avis's expense, he said.
The ground transportation companies also are moving their distribution to the global systems. Empire International, the New Jersey-based limo network, has just signed on with Sabre. At the same time, it has provided its partner, Japan Airlines, and a New Jersey insurance company with software for direct booking and instant confirmation.
BostonCoach, the Everett, Mass.-based ground transportation network, signed on with Worldspan in April. The firm's AutoRez system, the first direct-booking system from the ground transportation industry, recently was enhanced to include roundtrip bookings. AutoRez currently has nearly 100 users, according to Nancy Leeser, BostonCoach's vice president of reservations and customer service.
Meanwhile, Genisys Systems, the ground transportation reservation system for sedan and limo bookings, has lowered its fees for high-volume users. Forty to 50 percent of the 75 ground transportation companies that use the system are passing the lower fees along to their 130 corporate customers, said Genisys president Mark Kenney.
Limo and sedan companies that book 25 reservations or less per day now will pay a fee of $2.35 per transaction. Those booking 50 reservations or less pay $2.15, while those booking a 100 or more reservations a day pay $2 per transaction.