Online booking tool GetThere suspended its mobile booking plans after scrapping its relationship with mobile technology provider Usablenet this spring, according to GetThere vice president of product marketing and user experience Suzanne Neufang.
GetThere announced the partnership in the summer of 2007 and scheduled full deployment of GetThere2go for later last year
(BTNonline, July 23, 2007). Usablenet already provides mobile adaptations of suppliers' direct Web sites, including several legacy airlines, but there were difficulties in adapting the model for the multi-supplier corporate booking tool. "We jointly discovered they work really well with Northwest Airlines, American Airlines and hotel sites, which have one flavor fits all, but we have 9,000 flavors fits all," said Neufang. "Each corporate version of the site or subsite was something that they couldn't handle. We learned a lot in the process and have been upfront with customers that expressed interest in it. That relationship with GetThere is no longer there. They just can't handle the type of white labeling business we run. They are really good at a B-to-C level, but not really at a B-to-B level."
Usablenet still has a relationship with other Sabre Holdings companies for such mobile offerings as Sabre Airline Mobile Check-in and Travelocity Mobile. According to a Usablenet spokesperson, "The testing of initial prototypes indicated more integration was needed on GetThere's side."
During the first half of next year, GetThere plans to pilot its own mobile solution for itinerary access and delivery, and "maybe rudimentary bookings," Neufang said. GetThere will use some of the features from mobile itinerary management tool TripIT, in which parent Sabre Holdings purchased an equity stake last April.