New Amadeus’ traditional hotel booking interface expands from a pure reservations platform to a multisource’ marketplace.
MADRID, SPAIN – Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, announced a new-generation hotel distribution marketplace for the travel industry that will bring buyers and sellers of hotels together more efficiently. The marketplace can be accessed via Amadeus’ travel agency retail platform (Amadeus Selling Platform), our corporate online booking tool (Amadeus e-Travel Management) and by any third party through our web services.
The ‘multisource’ marketplace now provides seamlessly integrated content from all hotel sources into one format within the platform, so bookers can access all their favourite providers through a single interface. The depth of integration means bookers’ search results appear in a standardised format, which makes comparison shopping quick and easy. This allows the agency to get the best offer for their customers in record time as well as providing them a more efficient service. Sophisticated search algorithms, caching technology and progressive display features deliver sub-second response times.
Unlike other systems, the marketplace will be adaptable to reflect its customers’ different business models: content can be managed in real-time at different points of sale to reflect a commission-based model, a service charge or net-rate/mark-up model, or negotiated rates, depending on the booker.
Andreas Posmeck, Managing Director, GIATA, said: “Amadeus’ hotel marketplace brings together hotel content from many different providers and channels. Our analysis of this content shows that the level of accuracy is unbeatable. No other distributor that we are aware of has such a wide hotel offering.”
Barry Higgott, Operations Manager, Horncastle Executive Travel, said: “We’ve been piloting the new version of Amadeus Hotels for two months. Being able to search, compare and book hotel offers via a single interface drastically cuts the time needed for our agents to find the right hotel deal. Having everything in one place and fully integrated also means we can manage our customers’ trips end-to-end more efficiently and deliver even better service and customer care throughout.”
Massimo Callegari, Air and Sea Director, Costa Crociere, said: “As a travel retailer, the latest upgrades to Amadeus Hotels give us quick access to a huge range of hotel properties and rates that fit perfectly in our staff hospitality needs. These upgrades will allow us manage our hotels business more profitably as the solution accelerates and simplifies not just the search, book and payment process but also our mid- and back-office operations and hotel contract management.”
Amadeus has over 690,000 hotel shopping options in production covering over 235,000 unique properties. This comes from agreements with regional and global hotel providers such as Albatravel, Bedsonline, Despegar.com. Destinations of the World, GTA, hotel.de, HRS and Transhotel. Further partners in the pipeline include Sunhotels, Teldar, Travelboutique and Travelguru. This is in addition to almost 300 hotel chains, representation companies, and thousands of independent properties.
Peter Waters, Director, Hotel Distribution for Amadeus, said, “Amadeus has responded to the clear industry need of providing all types of hotel content – to suit both leisure and business travellers – in a single marketplace. This hotel content can then be distributed, with integrated booking capabilities, through all online and offline channels. This combination of broad, rich content, advanced technology and the ability to tailor the commercial model to the needs of individual customers is unique in the industry.”
Four major airlines choose Amadeus to offer car rental services on their websites
Amadeus also announced that four major airlines – Air France, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and TAM – have recently implemented Amadeus Cars which will enable them to generate additional revenue by offering their clients car rental services through their websites. With these four new implementations, a total of 14 airlines worldwide now use Amadeus Cars.
Amadeus Cars comprises of a wide range of online solutions that allow airlines maximum flexibilitywhen offering car rental to their customers, and which can be adapted to match the airline websites’ look and feel. The airline is able to integrate the car rental services at different stages of the booking process: from the moment the travel buyer enters the carrier’s website, through the various steps of the ticket purchase and up to the post-flight sales. Amadeus Cars provides access to real-time rates and availability from 33 providers with over 37,000 locations worldwide.
By partnering with Amadeus, airlines are able to offer travelers the benefits of a one-stop-shop solution, which integrates trip details in a single itinerary, facilitating travel planning and organization. Car rental companies, in turn, can increase their reach through the airline websites which could lead to a substantial customer growth.
“The fact that four major airlines have chosen Amadeus Cars to implement rental car booking on their websites reinforces our position as market leader, and shows that the Amadeus solution responds to the carriers’ need to differentiate their offer and to generate new revenue in an environment of tight margins,” said Peter Altmann, Head of Amadeus Cars.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.