Sabre leads the pack with tech solutions

Sabre Corporation has launched Sabre Marketplace Analytics, a new data analytics solution that will enable airlines to capitalise on travel demand within the Sabre Travel Network marketplace. This first-of-its-kind capability will provide airlines with information to drive incremental revenue and increased yield.

Until now, airlines have had little-to-no visibility into the shopping activity and travel demand patterns in the global distribution systems (GDSs) and historically were only aware of a portion of that demand once a booking is made.

The Sabre marketplace provides airlines the insights necessary to help boost their business and amplify the value of this distribution channel. With Sabre Marketplace Analytics, airlines will now have visibility into shopping activity within the Sabre travel marketplace for their routes, including how well they are converting travel demand into bookings, a critical driver of revenue.

For example, an airline using Sabre Marketplace Analytics to monitor shopping data may see a surge in shopping activity for flights from Riyadh to Cairo. If the airline is not converting the demand to bookings, it could leverage these insights into action by adjusting its product offering on that route, increasing its local marketing in Riyadh or using promotional media options within the Sabre travel marketplace to capture a higher percentage of bookings and revenue.

Using analytical dashboards and heat maps, Sabre Marketplace Analytics visualises shopping activity for travel up to a year in the future and as far back as 120 days in the past, allowing airlines to track historical travel shopping patterns and anticipate future travel demand. In addition, the solution provides actionable insights on that shopping activity including data on the type of travel, length of stay, and the region and sales channels from which the demand originates.

Wyndham signing

On the hotel front, Wyndham came to an agreement with Sabre making it the exclusive global central reservation system provider for the hotel company, while making Wyndham the first global company to leverage the overall Sabre SynXis Enterprise Platform.

The arrangement expands on a strategic property management services agreement forged last year, to migrate 4,500 Wyndham-branded properties to Sabre’s ‘software-as-a-service’ property management system, SynXis property manager.

The process of migrating all 7,600 properties to the web-based central reservations function is due to start by the end of the year and will take up to 24 months to complete.

Geoff Ballotti, president and chief executive of Wyndham, said: 'By leveraging the entire Sabre SynXis enterprise platform, hotels within the Wyndham family will be able to more effectively manage their pricing and inventory, enjoy connectivity to an unmatched number of global distribution partners, utilise a broad array of currency and language capabilities and have access to a fully integrated customer profile and history that is tied into our new Wyndham Rewards programme.

'For our economy and midscale brands, this creates a strong competitive advantage by allowing them to deliver superior service and a memorable experience to guests.'

SkyTeam and Sabre

Sabre has become the first marketplace to offer automated Round the World (RTW) and Circle Trip (CT) airfares – those that start and end in the same destination, but include more than one stop-over.

Developed in collaboration with global airline alliance, SkyTeam, and Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO), the new industry standard for purchasing RTW and CT fares helps reduce administrative costs associated with updating and managing RTW products.

Until now, when booking multi-destination RTW itineraries for travellers, agents had to manually add up the prices of each segment of a journey. New Sabre technology automates this process, providing a complete fare price for the passenger’s entire journey.

Agencies will also benefit from reduced Agency Debit Memo costs (ADMs), sent by airlines when there is a discrepancy between the fare offered and the airline’s published price. This new capability will be immediately available for SkyTeam’s Go Round the World (RTW) and Go Round Asia & Southwest Pacific fares.

Daniel Naoumovitch, CEO, Sabre Travel Network ME, said, 'Booking RTW tickets has been a pain-point for airlines and agencies for some time, and a challenge we have been eager to help solve. Using our latest technology and working alongside ATPCO and SkyTeam, Sabre has established a new standard for purchasing RTW itineraries that makes it easier and more efficient for everyone involved. SkyTeam is a great first alliance to have on board and we fully expect this new standard to drive more RTW fares for carriers.'