CHEAPER WEB FARES PROMPT GBTA REVIEW OF SEARCH SOFTWARE
The Guild of Business Travel Agents has just completed an extensive review of web “search and scrape” products looking at eleven of the principal systems in the marketplace.
The analysis has come about as a result of a growing trend by airlines to place greater seat inventory on their own web-sites rather than on global distribution systems. This had led to a rapid increase in the number of web searchers available to travel management companies
The Guild's technology working party looked at aspects such as functionality, support, compatibility and pricing. Information has been collated into an easy-to-read summary and passed on to all of the GBTA's 35 members.
“Airlines are increasingly holding back inventory from the GDS systems and offering cheaper fares via their own web-sites,” explains GBTA technology working party chairman, Adam White of Business Travel Management. “Many small to medium size corporate clients are aware that cheaper flights can be found on the web. As a result they are going through the lengthy process of checking individual websites themselves for the best fare.
“We need to re-install confidence among clients and prove that we can save them time and find the best fares” adds Adam White. “The way to do this is for travel management companies to install web-search software which can scan airline internet sites quickly and come up with the best deal.
“More and more GBTA members will have to invest in a scrape and search product, but there has been massive development in this area. We felt it would be extremely helpful to our members to present them with more information about what is available in the marketplace.”
General comments emerging from the review included:
Galileo Custom Fare – disappointingly this product is not yet available for testing. It will only be accessible through Viewpoint, which is not a ‘user friendly' tool for agents.
Expedition – this is a good ‘user friendly' product, which will search from an FQBB command. It has some good easy setting options.
Cliqbook – this is really a ‘suite' of products including an online booking tool, profile management and websearch tool, all of which are very impressive and would suit a small independent looking for a total solution
Travelconsole – this agentware product is also a very good tool, but they still need to develop a solution for Amadeus and do not have a passive segment solution.
Farechase – is the most commonly featured search engine used by a number of suppliers. It claims to have the only technology capable of real-time automated online inventory aggregation on the global scale required for handling flights, hotels and cars”
Travelfusion – is the search engine selected by Galileo for custom fares. It includes GDS and Orbitz/Opodo and expects to have 50 sites.
e-flightseeker – is an independent based software package that scans no frills carriers and compares them to BA.com, El, Opodo and Expedia
Total Rates – the first screen after search parameters are set does not show actual flight details. It only shows carrier and cost.
Sidestep – is aimed at the US market. It may be of use to UK agents as it covers BA and main US carriers. Also useful for evaluating internal US flights.
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For further information: Vanessa Aves/Steve Dunne, Brighter PR, tel: 020 7603 2168, email: Vanessa.aves@brighterpr.co.uk