Privately held Sabre Holdings -- heretofore organized into Sabre Travel Network, Travelocity and Sabre Airline Solutions -- introduced a new business division, Sabre Hospitality Solutions, over the summer and is readying a "hard launch" of the unit in early 2010.
Felix Laboy, president of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, says the unit consists of SynXis, the CRS and hotel distribution company; Sabre media for hotels; E-site Marketing; and Sabre Hotel RFP.
With the team and organization currently being pulled together, hospitality solutions views its value proposition as being able to offer hotels a comprehensive array of products and services, including CRS and distribution, media, e-marketing, RFPs and consulting, Laboy says.
One of the early fruits of the creation of SHS is that the unit has been able to blend technologies from SynXis and E-site Marketing to offer hotels mobile websites and mobile booking capabilities.
Hotel Icon in Houston, using SHS solutions, has already introduced a mobile website, shown here, and mobile booking capabilities like this.
All of the GDS companies are trying to diversify beyond air, their traditonal bread and butter, and SHS is the latest manifestation of that push.
On its own, SynXis has been making considerable headway in the CRS and hotel distribution arena, presumably stealing some share from market leader Pegasus Solutions and Trust International, among others.
Consider SynXis' growth trajectory since Sabre acquired it in 2004:
- Its compound annual growth rate stands at 28%;
- The number SynXis properties, mostly independents and small chains, has grown 126% to 10,200 (with 700 more coming online as a part of the Preferred Hotel Group implementation early next year);
- SynXis has 45 chain codes, up from 16 five years ago, and will represent seven more with the Preferred Hotel Group implementation next year.
While the lodging industry has been whacked by the economic downturn -- in fact, a new
PhoCusWright study says hotel room revenue in the U.S. in 2009 fell for the first time since the company began tracking it more than 10 years ago -- Laboy says SynXis has been making investments and expanding.
In fact, Sabre Hospitality Solutions, which has offices in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, opened an office in Sydney, Australia, in July, and most likely will open one in India in 2010, Laboy says. Asia-Pacific is SHS' fastest-growing region, he says.
Just as it's a big deal when travel agencies convert to a new GDS, it is likewise a long-term commitment when a hotel picks a new CRS provider, Laboy says, adding that hotels appreciate Sabre's deep pockets when considering such a transition.
Laboy won't engage in any competitor-trashing -- despite my prodding -- but statements he made about Sabre's "concerted efforts" to investment in SynXis' platform and infrastructure seem to be designed to differentiate the company from Pegasus, which recently outsourced the day-to day management of its applications and data center to HP.