This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel DISTRIBUTION in tourism and hospitality for September:
Wednesday 30 September 2015:
Duetto lands deal with the Trump Hotel Collection
- The startup, which sells profit optimization tools, will launch its services at nine Trump properties in New York City, Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami, Panama, Canada, and Ireland.
GetThere gives a leg up to
United passengers
- The Sabre-owned corporate booking has launched GetThere Air Extras so United customers can select and pay for higher market seats on the carrier during their existing process. This option will extend to letting customers use their own credit card to choose a Economy Plus extra-legroom seat when the option is out of policy.
VacationFutures rebrands as
rented- Founded in 2012 and rebranded today, rented has assets listed on 5 continents and more than 100,000 rental weeks listed worldwide. It has won Phocuswright’s Most Innovative Startup Award, and works out of Georgia Tech’s Technology Business Incubator, ATDC, in Midtown Atlanta.
Tuesday 29 September 2015:ResNet World gets content from Leonardo
- The hospitality distribution company has joined Leonardo's Vizlly Partnership Program to help hotel customers boost their online marketing and direct bookings with images and video content. ResNet is headquartered in Dubai and works with hotels in the Middle East, India and Europe.
Monday 28 September 2015:Qunar adds Starwood
- Chinese OTA Qunar has announced a deal with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, bring the chain's global portfolio onto Qunar's mobile and desktop transaction platform. Starwood has 1200 properties around the globe, with 150 in China. The deal is part of Qunar's plan to increase its supply of high-end domestic and international properties.
STA Travel partners with
Airbnb- Airbnb rentals can now be booked online or via a referral system in stores following a partnership with STA Travel. The youth travel specialist declined to say whether a commercial deal was in place or not. STA's UK division is leading the way and a landing page has been created for online bookings and STA is also offering a £20 voucher code for Airbnb website or app to first time bookers who come into a store.
Friday 25 September 2015:Amadeus signs Air Canada for distribution and merchandising
- The Canadian flag carrier has agreed a new, multi-year partnership to push its fares and seat availability to Amadeus-connected agencies around the world. The deal includes use of the Amadeus Fare Families and Ancillary Services tools.
Thursday 24 September 2015:Travelport AXESS developments
- Japanese global distribution system AXESS International Network is and Travelport are developing an improved agency desktop system to replace the existing CREA technology. The updgraded system will be driven by Travelport Smartpoint technology and called AXESS CREA Advance. The Japanese GDS also plans to use Travelport's Locomote technology for business travel management. Travelport acquired a 49% stake in Australia-based Locomote a year ago.
Wednesday 23 September 2015:Everbooked debuts its Pro product
- The company says this is the first subscription data service for professional managers and hosts of the Airbnb platform; the first to offer pricing, comps and market data all in one product; the first to update this data in realtime — all reports are ‘live’; and the first to offer unlimited data for a flat monthly fee.
Tuesday 22 September 2015:Tripping captures two distribution partners
Thursday 17 September 2015:Amadeus extends LogiTravel family
- The online travel agency will be first in Europe to implement Fare Families from Amadeus so that airlines can differentiate their offering by creating bundles of tickets and ancillary services. The fares will be available on Logitravel in November.
Sabre signs
Azul Brazilian Airlines- The long-term agreement will push Azul's fares, schedules and availability to all Sabre-connected agencies around the world. Included in the partnership will be the ability to issue e-tickets and the selection of services such as last-seat availability and booking changes.
Monday 14 September 2015:Etihad introduces Fare Families via Amadeus
- The UAE-based airline will use the system to "brand and differentiate" its products for travel agencies using the Amadeus GDS. Etihad's packaged fares will be available on all retailing interfaces worldwide, showing merchandising options available on each ticket.
Hotelzon expands to the Netherlands
- The Travelport-owned hotel distribution platform has opened a dedicated office in Amsterdam to help push its growth into countries around Europe. Headin the operation will Sebastiaan van der Kroon who has joined from a global sales executive role at aviation technology provider, MI Airline.
Friday 11 September 2015:Travelport freezes with Air Iceland for first time
- Fares and schedules for the regional division of IcelandAir will be available to Travelport-connected agents for the first time as part of the agreement. The airline, which operates flights around Iceland and to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, has also made its content available on Travelport's Rich Content and Branding system, part of its Merchandising Platform.
FareHarbor rides with Segway
- The Hawaii, US-based tours and activities reservation system will provide online booking facilities for all American affiliated tour operators of segways. FareHabor's system will include real-time and live availability, as well as give segway operators marketing tool to help boost online visibility and improve their websites.
Thursday 10 September 2015:Duetto, a startup focusing on hotel profit optimization technology, signs a deal with Leading Hotels of the World
- Duetto will provide its revenue strategy solutions to more than 400 hotels worldwide that are members of Leading Hotels, a luxury hotel collection. The startup provides insights on pricing and demand via a cloud-based software as a service model.
Rocketrip, the business travel platform, has signed a deal with
Virgin America- Virgin America will now enable Rocketrip customers to earn status and miles on Virgin. The startup wants to remove travel management friction. In one of its models, corporate travelers receive rewards for staying within company policy and/or budget. Rocketrip has received $6.2 million in funding, to date.
SiteMinder adds
HotelTonight to distribution portfolio
- The agreement means hotels connected to SiteMinder's Channel Manager system can distribute their real-time rates and availability to the HotelTonight mobile apps. Bookings will then be delivered directly to each hotel's individual property management system.
GoEuro launches in Switzerland
- The multi-modal search engine has secured partnerships with Swiss rail operator SBB and coach brand ExpressBus. Including Swiss options (four airport, 600 train stations and 60 bus terminals) will give GoEuro a presence in eight European countries.
Amadeus renews
AeroMexico partnership
- The long-term re-signing with the Mexican airline will include Amadeus services such as Fare Families and Ancillary Services. The carrier flies to more than 80 cities on three continents, including 46 destinations in Mexico, 16 in the United States, 15 in Latin America, three in Canada, three in Europe and two in Asia.
Boingo, the airport Wi-Fi service provider, is expanding
- In the first half of 2015, Boingo has signed agreements for eight new network builds and 16 network upgrade agreements at Boingo’s large-scale partner venues including major airports, sports and entertainment venues and transportation hubs. The company says, in a statement,
"Boingo’s leadership in Passpoint and Wi-Fi offload technologies, which includes the deal they announced earlier this year with Sprint enabling access to Boingo Wi-Fi networks in 35 major U.S. airports, is changing the airport Wi-Fi experience and making getting online a more seamless and secure experience for travelers."
Tuesday 8 September 2015:Austrian Airlines hires CarTrawler for car brief
- The Lufthansa Group-owned carrier will use CarTrawler to provide car rental options to passengers using its website. The airline flies to 130 destinations and currently handles around 11 million passengers a year.
Monday 7 September 2015:Amadeus partners with Shijie99
- China-based aggregator Shijie99 has sealed a multi-year agreement with Amadeus which gives it access to air content via the GDSs Master Pricer technology for points of sale outside mainland China. The partnership also includes hotel, car rental and rail content for customers in all marketing including China.
Wednesday 2 September 2015:Travelport renews agreement with Travelgenio
- The Spanish online travel agency has signed a multi-year partnership with Travelport, giving it access to travel content available on the distribution network. It includes branded fares and ancillaries from low cost and legacy carriers, as well as 650,000 hotels around the world.
NB: Travel distribution image via Shutterstock.