Amadeus Hotel Bookings Up 13%
Amadeus today announced its
hotel bookings for the year to September 2004 grew 13% compared with the
same period last year. The company attributes this to the impressive
adoption of its Dynamic Access level of connection which gives travel
agencies real-time availability and prices at every stage in the booking
process. Currently, 82 hotel companies have signed up to Dynamic Access,
representing in excess of 100 hotel brands and nearly 23,000 properties.
These properties represent 70% of Amadeus’ total hotel bookings.
According to Wibke Haensch, Hotel Operations Manager, EMEA, TQ3 Travel
Solutions, “Dynamic Access offers seamless data right from the beginning.
Dynamic Access data is 100% reliable and that, of course, facilitates and
improves the consulting process enormously. The travel consultants tend to
shift business to those suppliers who are credible because they ensure up to
the moment accuracy of their information.”
But this isn’t the only thing Amadeus has been working on. Amadeus recently
announced an upgraded Hotels Pricing Display which leads the industry in
providing simple, accurate pricing information to busy travel agents. The
display, developed in partnership with leading travel agencies, including
TQ3 and Carlson Wagonlit, provides a Total Estimated Price which adds all
taxes and surcharges to the basic price. Thus travel agents can be confident
that their customers will receive no nasty surprises at check-out time;
clearly this is key to customer loyalty.
A year ago, almost to the day, Amadeus also announced its Hotels Multimedia
initiative, to allow travel agents to see pictures, maps and other visual
information concerning the hotels they offer to their clients. This kind of
rich content gives travel agents and their clients extra confidence that the hotel
they are booking will meet, or exceed, their requirements. Nearly 40,000
properties now have this kind of content available on Amadeus. But for
travel agents, bookings are nothing without commissions. In addition,
earlier this year, Amadeus announced the world’s first automated hotel
commission clearance service which is integrated with GDS and acts on behalf
of the travel agent. This ensures that agents get commissions for all those
extra hotel bookings they make thanks to multimedia. From the front office,
to the back office, Amadeus is improving the travel agent’s booking process.
And it doesn’t stop there. On 21 and 22 September, Amadeus invited 65 of the
world’s leading hotel providers to its Executive Briefing Centre in Nice for
an open session on product development…expect more great things from
Amadeus Hotels.
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