This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for November 2015.
Friday 27 November 2015:
Concur gets some Velocity
- Business traveller users of the Velocity system, a digital hospitality service that has high-end restaurants and nightclubs on its books, will be able to pay bills from within the app and send receipts direct to their existing expenses management tool within Concur.
Thursday 26 November 2015:KDS gets Education First extension
- The global education company, which has 500 schools and offices in 53 countries, will deploy the Neo door-to-door booking product from KDS in Canada. The extension comes after the introduction of the tool in Europe, Asia, US, Central and South America.
Wednesday 25 November 2015:Lion Travel selects Sabre for IT services
- The six-year agreement is an extension of an existing partnership between Sabre and the Taiwan-based online travel agency. Included in the deal is provision to use the forthcoming online shopping tools, Ticketing Express and Sabre Red Workspace.
Travelport upgrades
Eurostar tools
- New maps are being introduced ahead of the launch of new trains on the London-Brussels-Paris network operator. The map app will be available to Travelport-connected travel agents via the Smartpoint desktop platform.
Monday 23 November 2015:Emirates claims next-gen in-flight entertainment
- The airline is installing new systems with screens at 32-inch for first class and 13.3 for economy, larger media storage to house content, 14 languages, and new handsets. The new IFE systems will be on its newly delivered Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s.
Friday 20 November 2015:Concur automate refund claims in EU
- Partnerships with both AirRefund and RefundMyTicket, services now in the Concur App Center, will allow customers to face delays, cancellations or overbooking to claim compensation under existing EU legislation. The systems will be integrated into existing Concur travel, expense and invoicing products.
Sabre launches virtual payments in Mexico
- Working through technology provided by payment system partner Conferma, agents in Mexico will now be able to use Sabre Virtual Payments for business travel services, including the ability to avoid exchange fees despite using Mexican Pesos. The system has so far been launched in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
Thursday 19 November 2015:Tripomatic organises trips for groups
- The travel planning website will now let individuals invite friends or colleagues into an itinerary. The feature is targeted at school trip organisers or agencies that have multiple guests to cater for and will also be available on the brand's mobile applications.
LogNet Travel upgrades WebGuru platform
- The new version of the LogNet booking engine gives travel agencies the ability to dynamically package and create customised trips for customers. Content comes from flights, hotels, car rentals, tour packages and event providers, and includes ancillary products such as upgrades and add-ons fro other third parties.
Wednesday 18 November 2015:AirAsia signs eNett deal
- The Asian low cost carrier says the agreement with virtual account number provider eNett will cut agency credit card fees by up to 70%. All surcharges usually applied to credit card payments coming via intermediaries will now flow through the eNett platform. Rolled out in Australia in the early 2016 for AirAsia X flights, other routes and the main AirAsia network will be before during 2016.
TripAdvisor launches vacation rental dashboard
- The owner platform will include new features such as message and prioritisation tools for incoming emails, booking calendar, and will be available across all the brand's subsidiaries such as FlipKey and Niumba. Users will also be able to edit their property descriptions and use a new system for mapping a property's location on the various consumer-facing services.
Monday 16 November
Uber hits on TomTom for maps
- Uber has signed a global, multi-year agreement with Dutch navigation and mapping business TomTom. TomTom covers more than 300 cities worldwide, and reports says that TomTom will not replace Uber's existing providers , including Google Maps.
Travelport means business for EVA
- Taiwan-based and Star Alliance member airline EVA Air has signed up for Travelport's business intelligence tool Airline Insight. EVA serves 60 cities across Asia, China, Europe, North America and Oceania and says the Airline Insight tool will be of specific benefit to its agency sales, revenue management and network planning teams.
Friday 6 November 2015:Egencia wants to make travellers happy
- The corporate travel agency is integrating the RouteHappy system into its search and booking platform so that travellers or their travel managers can select products based on meal options, wifi, legroom, etc. RouteHappy already has a similar deal in place with Egencia's leisure agency sister site, Expedia.
Carlson Wagonlit Travel to launch disruption platform
- The corporate travel agency will unveil the CWT Trip Disruption Services tool in January next year. CWT says the platform will monitor trip schedules and delays, then pro-actively rebook flights, hotels and ground transportation for the traveller.
Tuesday 3 November 2015:Revinate upgrades marketing platform
- The corporate-level functionality allows management groups and brands to collect and analyse guest data from multiple properties in order to better target loyalty and revenue processes. One of the early companies to use the system is Provenance Hotels in the US.
Monday 2 November 2015:BD4Travel nails Giata partnership
- The hotel content database will use BD4Travel to allow customers to analyse and act on customer information generated during trip searches. Germany-based Giata will then use the data to provide personalised offers and services to potential travellers.
Xotels and
Busy Rooms unite for revenue management dashboard
- The platform, known as Hotel Scienz, will give provide relevant management information and revenue tools to hoteliers for both individual and chain properties. Features include competitor rate shopping, demand and supply analysis, event calendars and budget indicators.
NB: Travel systems image via Shutterstock.