Accor Links Res System To Both Travelport GDSs

Travelport GDS and Accor last month globally launched a single XML connection between the hotel company's central reservation system and the global distribution firm's Galileo and Worldspan entities. Accor is the first hotel company to adopt the new connection, helping to pave the way for Travelport's evolving hotel distribution strategy, which eventually will include selling a la carte hotel services through the GDS.

Travelport GDS senior vice president commercial Flo Lugli called the Open Travel Alliance-compliant XML direct connection, "the first phase for our future hospitality product and strategy that will enable us to expand the content we'll be able to serve up to our customers. This connection will be the foundation of the way we'll do business in the future." Travelport expects to add direct XML connections with other hospitality organizations "later in the year."

Much like GDS efforts to enable unbundled and a la carte airline pricing, Lugli said the new hotel connection, when combined with an agency desktop set to launch next year, will enable the selling of "new product types, besides just selling a room," including "merchandizing opportunities, upsell opportunities, dining, transfers—all those point-of-sale opportunities that drive additional revenue to hotels."

Subscribers "now have the ability to see real-time rates and availability for all hotels coming from Accor's own central reservation system, right from the initial hotel search request," Travelport said. However, as Travelport GDS rolls out its new agency desktop—with a 2010 target for mass-market availability, following co-development with select agencies this year—the distribution firm "will enable a lot of workflow improvements and processes that we're calling our Hotel Hub," Lugli said.

Lugli said XML offers a "single connection into both Galileo and Worldspan" from Accor's central reservations system. She said the new XML connection, which replaces "direct EDIFACT connections or through a switch," enables new hotel selling and purchasing opportunities.

Lugli claimed the new connection has improved response time for Accor and almost eliminated timeouts in rate searches and reservations. Travelport said Accor can reduce distribution costs through the connection by "removing intermediary switch company fees," and "only supporting a single connection to both GDS platforms."