This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for September 2015.
Monday 28 September 2015:
Amadeus to power Copa Airlines loyalty system
- The Latin American carrier will use the Amadeus Loyalty Suite platform to run its recently unveiled loyalty programme. The platform works by connecting the airline to members to view and manage their points and interact with various offers made available. Copa will also use the Amadeus Partner Management Service.
Transpay powers
HotelQuickly payment back-end
- The integration will allow HotelQuickly to fulfil payments to property owners in 15 Asian countries and 250 destinations.
Wednesday 23 September 2015:Triptease inspires Trust
- Trust International and Triptease are partnering to bring the Price Check widget to Trust's hotel portfolio. The Triptease functionality shows live pricing on a hotels website from three online travel agencies so that customers can see they are getting the best price and don't need to shop around. The widget can be activated through the Trust booking engine dashboard and hotels will also get access to the new Analytics Dashboard from Triptease. Watch the clip for more on the partnership.
Tuesday 22 September 2015:
TourRadar does a full integration with the G Adventures API
- The tours-and-activities platform for multi-day tours says it is the first multinational online marketplace to implement a full-featured integration with the API of the adventure travel specialist. The companies say the result is "industry-leading functionality" for agents and other shoppers.
Mystifly targets TMCs and corporates with travel management tool
- 247 TravelDesk is an advanced travel management tool from Mystifly for corporates and TMCs. It allows a traveller to merge a flight, hotel and car reservation into a super Personal Name Record (PNR), among other innovations. Mystifly will demonstrate the tool at stand number D12 at IT&CMA 2015, Bangkok, 30th Sep - 1st Oct 2015.
WEX targets airlines with payment service
- The WEX Solution for Airlines Payments tool allows intermediaries to fund debit card accounts and avoid payment surcharges from airlines on flight bookings. The payment and settlements work in multiple currencies and do not incur foreign exchange tariffs.
Expedia upgrades rewards programme
- Members can now use their Expedia+ points to redeem hotel purchases on the website. Previously users had to turn points into a coupon to apply it to their hotel choice. Expedia says it plans to extend the programme to flights and excursions.
Kayak renews review system with
TrustYou- The extension will see TrustYou power reviews for hotels on the metasearch engine for another two years. The Meta-Reviews system gives each property a review from an existing guest and includes a breakdown of opinions featuring service, location, wifi capability and other amenities in a hotel.
Friday 18 September 2015:Worldpay Group, the payment processor, said it plans to IPO
- Next month Worldpay will seek 890 million pounds, or roughly $1.4 billion, in an initial public offering (IPO). It processes about 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions a day and had revenue of 863.4 million pounds in 2014. It is owned by the private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital.
Sabre and
Infiniti group together
- The pair to jointly develop and push a group revenue management software package for airline, travel agency and corporate users. India-based Infiniti's system allows users to fulfil and manage booking requests, as well as handle fares, ancillaries and partnerships.
Trump Hotel Collection picks
Serenata for guest CRM
- The hotel chain will use the Germany and US-based company's NetHotel system to handle guest profiling and other customer relationship management services. The company has a string of hotel customers including Shangri-La, Movenpick, Four Seasons and WorldHotels.
Wednesday 9 September 2015:Marriott introduces Alipay options
- The payment system from Chinese web giant Alibaba will now be available to all bookers of Marriott branded properties. Guests at hotels can pay for rooms, food and other services using the Alipay option on their smartphones, initially at ten properties in greater China and then across Asia by the middle of next year.
Tourico Holidays connects cruise to distributors
- The XML technology will allow Tourico customers to book cruises at the same point as other travel products, essentially bundling the two into a single package. In addition, the first cruise operator as part of a brokering tool for intermediaries will be Viking Cruises.
Friday 4 September 2015:Razoom launches an exclusive platform for hotels and hostels at the Rio Travel Market
- During the Rio Travel Market, travel agencies, hotel concierges, and hostels saw a new platform that provides B2B access to Razoom's full inventory of 1,500 tours and attractions in Rio de Janeiro and other cities of Brazil. With such benefits, hotels and hostels will have access to updated information and the possibility to offer instant advance booking, ensuring even more convenience to their guests.
Thursday 3 September 2015:MakeItSocial gets friendly with version two
- The group booking service has created an API for third parties to integrate its technology into their existing websites. The move follows a capital raise of £215,000 this summer from US and UK-based private investors including tour operating veteran Steve Endacott.
Sabre releases Cuba travel tool for agents
- The Cuba Traveler Certification service plugs in to the existing agency desktops in the US, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands and automatically accesses the required documentation for travellers. It then passes on the data to relevant airlines on the trip.
Tuesday 1 September, 2015Amadeus unveils Automation Suite platform
- Barrhead Travel is the launch customer for the new service from Amadeus, giving agents and tour operators access to a series of tools to help boost productivity and handle administrative tasks. The suite includes ticket and scheduling tools.
Hainan Airlines agrees Digital Media deal with
Travelport- The agreement will see the Chinese carrier will use the Travelport platform to push particular fares and services to the desktop consoles used by agents. In particular, Hainan wants to push its new services between Beijing and Shanghai to San Jose, Seattle and Boston.
Triptease integrates with
Sabre- The partnership will mean hotels connected to the SynXis platform from Sabre will be given access to the Triptease Price Check widget. The tool allows hotels to display rates for the property from across multiple channels in real time.
NB: Travel systems image via Shutterstock.