Empire Int'l Introduces New Sabre Booking Interface

<B>Empire Int'l Introduces New Sabre Booking Interface</B>

By Lynn Woods

Empire International, the chauffeured car services firm headquartered in Norwood, N.J., has introduced a Sabre interface that enables corporate clients to make reservations through the global distribution service and receive an instant confirmation. The new interface, which essentially is a script created by Empire, has the added advantage of linking the car service booking with the passenger name record.

At least 15 corporations have signed up for the new booking service since it was introduced in April. "The phone's ringing off the hook," said Empire president David Seelinger, who added that customers have the choice of using the standard script or a customized version. Empire also is working on a script for Apollo.

Empire is the second major car services firm to offer expedited booking through the GDS. Everett, Mass.-based BostonCoach's AutoRez, also using Sabre, was rolled out two-and-a-half years ago. Recently, the firm debuted a version of the automated booking interface on Worldspan, and it just completed an AutoRez script for Apollo. According to Nancy Leeser, vice president of reservations, 32 percent of BostonCoach's bookings are through AutoRez. She added that BostonCoach is working with Worldspan and the other GDSs on development of Web-booking tools.

With Empire's system, available to customers making bookings through its corporate-owned locations, the arranger inputs the traveler's phone number--;which pulls profile information stored in Empire's database--;the flight number, perhaps the form of payment and the pickup place. A confirmation is returned within 10 seconds.

The arranger can fill in a time for pickup, but if the line is left blank, Empire will put in a pre-calculated time--;a feature that Stan Kirshenbaum, technical coordinator for travel at the Nutley, N.J., office of Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche, particularly likes. The ability to input flight changes or cancellations through the system also is a time-saver, he added.

Empire director of sales Bob Van Ess recommends, however, that changes made within 24 hours of pickup time should be done through the telephone.

Hoffmann-La Roche, which spends $1.6 million a year on ground transportation from the New Jersey location, already has reaped the benefits of the new automation. According to Kirshenbaum, staff at the firm's limo desk has been reduced from three to two because of the greater ease and time saved in booking cars quickly through Sabre. Although Hoffmann-La Roche uses five other limo suppliers, "Empire is getting the bulk of our business," thanks, in part, to the new automation, Kirshenbaum said.

More corporate clients are also booking Empire cars through the Web. Van Ess said most corporate clients have a hot link to Empire's Web site on their intranets; by using a password, they can book using their contracted rates through the site. One customer that switched from making reservations by phone to the Web is Superior Bank, based in Orangeburg, N.Y., which spends approximately $100,000 annually on Empire cars.

Since making the switch last year, a process that could take a half-hour or more now just takes seconds, according to Heather Patrone, travel coordinator at Superior and one of five people designated to make travel arrangements for the company's 300 employees. As with Sabre, to make a booking the arranger puts in the traveler's phone number, which immediately accesses the profile information--;name, address, billing information, car preference, etc.--;stored in Empire's database.

Patrone said one feature that would expedite the process further is the ability to make Web reservations in real time. Currently, the company has to call to make changes within 48 hours of pickup time. Van Ess said real-time capability is under development.

Though they work in similar fashion, there are minor differences between Empire's Sabre script and AutoRez. BostonCoach clients are advised to call BostonCoach with changes or cancellations to a reservation within six hours of pickup time, an improvement over Empire's 24 hours. On the other hand, AutoRez will not calculate automatically the time of pickup, as does Empire's script.

However, BostonCoach has moved ahead of the competition in another respect. Last fall, it rolled out an enhancement to AutoRez that not only enables clients to make automated bookings through the system from its corporate-owned locations, but also through any of its affiliates. The affiliates are linked to central reservations--;along with billing, invoicing and other functions--;through AFNet, an Internet-based networking system.

According to Chris Regan, BostonCoach senior vice president of marketing, e-commerce and strategy, 97 percent of reservations are handled over the AFNet system. This unique booking capability, enabling customers to electronically book a car from a BostonCoach affiliate location in France as easily as in New York, is spurring the car services company to "talk to clients about global deals," Regan said. "Everybody wants a worldwide network supplier. Now they need to look under the covers and see the infrastructure that's behind the network."

BostonCoach also is revamping its Web site, which mainly has been aimed at individual travelers, and in a month plans to launch a new site that will include features for corporations, Regan added. "We'll build different windows for different constituent groups, such as event and meeting planners," he said. Next January, the site will be enhanced further with the addition of password-protected customized pages, including reports for travel managers and a feature enabling them to view rides in real time.

While today many corporate clients have hot links on their intranets to BostonCoach's Web site, the vendor also plans to better integrate the connection so the client can perform Web-based functions right on the intranet--;without having to go to BostonCoach's site.

"We want to build out the total reservation channels," Regan said. "Our strategy is to provide convenient multi-channels." That includes wireless. The company this summer plans to launch wireless capability enabling customers to view reservations on a wireless device, including pickup instructions and time. This would help confused travelers looking for their driver to better locate the car. Eventually, Regan said, "We'll have a car status query on the device."

Meanwhile, Somerset, N.J.-based Genisys Reservation Systems, which has long provided an automated link between corporate clients and their suppliers, is continuing to add to the directory of suppliers it has created in conjunction with Sabre. Currently, 110 suppliers are listed, including Carey International, Dav El, Empire, LimoStation and other national networks, which enable travel agents to shop quickly for car services on the GDS.

After entering an airport code in Sabre, travel agents are presented with a list of providers on the Genisys page. When they book a car, the Genisys interface enables them to get a quick response on the rate and availability, which is stored in the Genisys database.

However, Genisys currently is testing a link that would provide real-time direct access into the service provider's own database, said Mark Kenny, president of Genisys. Confirmation time using the real-time interface would be approximately 10 seconds, compared with five seconds in the Genisys database, he said.

Initially, five large suppliers will use the real-time link. The engine developed by Genisys for the real-time interface also will support Apollo, Worldspan, Amadeus and wireless networks, Kenny said.

He added that the standard Genisys link automatically calculates the pickup time for clients through Mapquest, a server technology that calculates the relative mileage between two points and the time it takes to travel. The ability to "deliver back reliable pickup time" especially is valuable for clients booking cars in unfamiliar cites, Kenny said. Service providers can modify the drive times--during rush hour, for example, or in areas where there is construction--to ensure that the information is accurate, he added.