This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for May 2016.
Wednesday 25 May 2016
HotelPlanner lands contract with the State of Louisiana
- The group-booking services provider, based in Florida, has been awarded a three-year contract with the State of Louisiana, to provide hotel sourcing and bookings for the state’s 90,000 employees. HotelPlanner will source, negotiate corporate rates and book hotel rooms for all state agencies, in addition to state contractors and subcontractors. The company handles 3,000 groups per day for all of its clients.
Thursday 19 May 2016:
Flightfinder flies with Worldpay
- Sweden-based OTA Uvet Nordic has selected Worldpay as its exclusive online payments provider. The company, which includes brands such as Flightfinder, Airfinder, FlayUvet and Travelstore, is planning to expand to new markets and chose Worldpay to help deliver a consistent experience across its local markets.
Wednesday 18 May 2016:Delta smiles with RouteHappy
- The airline will use RouteHappy Hub to manage and power content on indirect channels, covering merchandising such as seat class, airport, route and fare. Content can include photos, videos and 360-degree virtual tours.
Travelport reconciles with
Conferma- Travel management companies will now be able to settle hotel bookings using a Conferma-hosted virtual credit card, issued by eNett or another provider. The functionality will be integrated into the Smartpoint agency desktop platform.
eRevMax checks in with
NH Hotel Group- The chain, alongside HNA Hospitality Group, will use eRevMax to provide channel management technology and business intelligence services for their owned properties. The products include RateTiger Shopper & Channel Manager and the Managed Rate platform.
Geneva Airport claims
Blip-led passenger improvements
- Blip Systems has been deployed at the Swiss airport to continue improvements being made to passenger flow and waiting times at key points around the facility, such as check-in, security and immigration. The airport aims for 85% of all passengers experiencing less than seven minutes of waiting time in the security process and that no passengers are allowed to wait more than 20 minutes.
Tuesday 17 May 2016:Sabre strikes Amazon Web Services deal
- Sabre says it will use the AWS Cloud platform to place its airline availability software in a bid to increase booking rates and faster response times for its customers. Airlines will house their availability data in the AWS Cloud, with access opened via multiple shopping channels to the end-user.
Tuesday 10 May 2016KelBillet, the multimodal search engine, reports steady financial growth
Monday 9 May 2016:Sabre's Get There booking tool and Coupa Software's T&E tool integrate
- Sabre will soon allow companies that use GetThere to book travel to flow their data into Coupa’s expense management system and access an instantly created Coupa expense report for trips.
Wednesday 4 May 2016:Travix smiles at Routehappy
- The owner of a string of consumer-facing brands will use the Routehappy service to give web visitors a better indication of airline routes and carriers from an amenities and comfort perspective. The brands include CheapTickets, Flugladen and Vayama.
Ixigo reverse-bids taxis
- The India-based travel platform has created a process on its Cabs service so that desktop and mobile app users can send an alert for a taxi and then multiple operators (up to 25) can compete for the fare. The service is aimed at users wanting inter-city rather than local cabs. It was launched in ten cities in the country, including Delhi, Jaipur and Shimla, with some 2,000 cab queries a day already being passed through the system.
Refund.me creates corporate travel claim tool
- The Business Solutions service is aimed at travel managers and corporate agencies so that they can process air travel claims for passengers that have faced delays or cancellations. The company estimates some 11 million passengers per year are eligible for a refund on their ticket, worth around Euro 5.5 billion.
NB2: Travel systems image via Shutterstock.