This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for May 2015.
Tuesday 26 May 2015:
Gogobot releases API to supply third parties with content
- HomeAway, Leonardo Hotels and Kiwi collection are named as the three launch partners for the social travel network's API service. The partner sites pull in images, maps and other content from Gogobot to feature on their own sites, including reviews from Gogobot members.
AxisRooms joins
TripAdvisor TripConnect programme
- HotelXchange, AxisRooms's distribution platform, will provide connectivity into the TripConnect platform for independent hotels and bed & breakfast properties. Instant booking through TripConnect is currently only available to travellers in the UK and the US.
Thursday 21 May 2015:CarTrawler gets Swiss Air Lines rental task
- Visitors to the Lufthansa-owned carrier's website will be able to access car rental services, rail operators, shuttle bus, limousine and chauffeur drive vehicles as part of the deal. Products are available in 30,000 airport and city locations in 174 countries.
GuestLogix signs
Vayant and
Cathay Pacific- Both Cathay and Vayant will be involved in GuestLogix's OpenJaw t-retail platform, with the former taking on the service to bolster its retailing efforts online such as dynamic packaging, frequent flyer programmes and booking management. Vayant 's OneSearch platform, a fare pricing and shopping engine, will be shipped alongside the t-retail service as part of a preferred supplier agreement.
CheapOAir claims agency first with
Amadeus seat technology
- The North American online travel agency will see a graphical view of aircraft seats and prices, with an option to add baggage. Sister site OneTravel is also included in the with deal parent company Fareportal.
Tuesday 19 May 2015:Unisys to support Travelsky tech infrastructure
- The state-owned global distribution system will use Unisys's Clearpath Dorado technology to increase processing power for air ticket distribution and sales. The system will also include additional storage technology, a virtual tape library and OS 2200 operating-environment upgrades.
Sabre expands flight tracking technology
- The next phase of the AirCentre Flight Explorer tool has been bolstered by the integration with Planefinder service. The addition of Planefinder gives Flight Explorer further reach into Europe, Asia Pacific, and Central and South America where coverage was often limited. The ADS-B data enables airlines to track aircraft with increased awareness of conditions that could impact flights.
Monday 11 May 2015:Sabre and Worldpay unite for airline payments
- The pair will create an integrated system to allow carriers to run a single process for payments, in particular for those expanding into new markets and seeking new revenue opportunities. The system will support all card types and take payments in currencies from Europe, Latin American, Asia-Pacific and the US.
Thursday 7 May 2015:Sabre unwraps SynXis Booking Engine in-context suite
- The Dallas company says it is piloting the tool with some major hospitality brands. It enables a hotel or hotel chain to place booking capabilities throughout its website. Up until now, the "out-of-the-box" offer limited the booking widget to a few common places, such as the homepage. You can see the tool in action already at the website of the Viceroy Hotel Group, where the Synxis booking tool appears on the amenities page and on the photo gallery page. Viceroy says it saw a 10% bump in online revenues associated with the pages using the in-context capabilities.
Tuesday 5 May 2015:15Below secures Swiss passenger communications
- The national carrier for Switzerland will use UK-based 15Below to handle its entire passenger notification strategy, in a five-year deal. 15Below's technology will work alongside Amadeus's ALTEA platform as part of a communication hub for issuing itineraries and receipts as well as pre-departure, flight status and disruption alerts. The first phase, ahead of the carrier's switch to Amadeus in 2016, will include the issuing of e-ticket receipts via email, SMS and via the Swiss apps.
Ctrip connects with
eRevMax- The integration between the RateTiger-hosted system and Ctrip will give the Chinese online travel agency access to more international hotel inventory and rates. Ctrip currently has around 170,000 domestic properties and 510,000 overseas hotels.
Agentivity gets APAC distribution
- Travelport will give the Inside Group-run platform access to its Asia-Pacific agency network as part of the partnership. Agentivity gives agencies a web-based data platform to monitor their businesses, including daily operations, booking trends, revenue opportunities and emergency notifications. Agentivity part of the Travelport Marketplace.
NB: Send links or releases related to travel systems directly to Tnooz
via email.
NB2: Travel image via Shutterstock.