Articles tagged “global distribution systems”

As goes Amadeus, so goes the travel industry. The travel tech company said its June revenues were the best since the pandemic began. That was another positive signal for the sector as a whole.

Sonder has been misunderstood by some. It offers both short-term rental and traditional hotel lodging, and it has mostly appealed to leisure travelers, not business people, so far. The startup's outreach to business travelers could change all that.

The American versus Sabre lawsuit touches on bigger questions of how to fairly display ticket prices to agencies and consumers. Most tech providers and regulators must face these questions as airlines unbundle and repackage more airfares and upsells.

Adding channel managers to bypass global distribution systems Amadeus and Sabre isn't a super-duper game-changer for Tripadvisor Plus, but less friction and lower fees can lead to greater traction.

The commission's inference is that it's more a case of a lack of evidence, rather a compliance with the antitrust rules. Another case into computerized reservation systems is ongoing.

The best bets on where Amadeus would acquire a business are hotel and airport tech and software services. But pricey valuations of many target companies are eye-watering right now.

Sabre and its peers are finally accepting airline demands that distribution contracts should have incentives to build technology that boosts the upselling of travelers. The industry frames the move as providing value to flyers because it makes bundled services easier to buy.

It's hardly an accident that Tripadvisor is transitioning toward a direct-to-consumer business model after years of Google's hotel-comparison search eating into Tripadvisor's business.

Amadeus's deal with International Airlines Group shows a path forward in the contentious contract disputes it has had with many airlines over distribution costs and methods. The technology giant's earnings report on Friday was broadly in line with expectations.

It must be heartening to Sabre to win Louvre, Europe's second-largest hotel group, as a customer of its central reservation system. But Sabre didn't notch significant hotel enterprise wins in recent pre-Covid years. So it will need to sign other hotel groups in 2021 to sustain momentum.