Sabre Travel Network is launching a product aimed at helping hotels and travel agencies manage hotel booking commissions more effectively. The new Web-based product is called Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager and was developed in conjunction with Seville-based Worldwide Payment Systems (WPS). It will be introduced at next week’s HEDNA Conference in Florida and implemented with Sabre’s hotel customers during December.

Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager will be available to hotel operators around the world and will give them a new ability to track commission payments to travel agencies on a global scale, while enabling agencies to track, manage and ” where necessary” claim commissions easily and efficiently.

The lack of an industry-wide standard has so far prevented technology providers from developing products to do this effectively.  By teaming with Sabre Travel Network to develop this product and make it available to more than 76,000 hotels and the huge worldwide network of travel agencies that use the Sabre GDS (global distribution system), WPS believes it will generate the impetus and scale to make this product the global commission management solution of choice.

“Between Sabre Travel Network, Travelocity, lastminute.com, Site59.com, the Jurni Network, Nexion and SynXis, Sabre Holdings has one of the largest hotel inventories of any company anywhere,” said Pedro FernÌÁndez-Salvador, chief executive officer. “Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager will contribute by enhancing this hotel offering still further”.

Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager is the latest in a series of tools and services (some outlined in detail below) from Sabre Travel Network designed to help hotel operators increase sales, encourage travel agencies to book accommodation through the Sabre GDS, create operational efficiencies for suppliers and agencies, and give travel agents the most comprehensive collection of bookable leisure and business travel products. The company intends to unveil early next year other products to make it even easier for travel agencies to book hotel accommodation through Sabre.

“Managing commissions and dealing with payment enquiries has been one of the biggest booking bug-bears facing both travel agencies and hotel operators,” said Richard Adams, Sabre Travel Network’s senior vice-president for the EMEA region.“By providing this solution we hope to ease the situation for all concerned, stimulate travel agencies to boost the number of hotel bookings they make in the GDS, and so make Sabre a preferred distribution method for hotel operators.”

Hotel chains and independent properties that use the tool will receive regular updates about their commission status. Sabre Travel Network will export to Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager on a monthly basis all booking information such as reservation numbers, check-in and check-out dates, rates and commissions.  Hotel operators can then access and manage this information in several ways, including on the Internet.

Sabre Connected travel agencies will be able to track their commission status online. A high-level summary provides an overview of all the previous months’ commissions for the bookings done through the GDS, grouped by their status. A tracking tool enables the agency to check the commission status of different reservations, while a claim tool eases considerably the communication between hotels and travel agencies about pending commissions, saving administrative work on both sides and making the exchange of information more efficient.

Sabre Worldwide Commission Manager will be launched initially to a limited number of travel agencies as part of a pilot project.  It is available in several languages and able to process multiple currencies. To date English, German, French and Spanish are enabled. An Italian version will follow shortly.

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