Sabre hospitality strengthens in EMEA

With the recent acquisition of Trust Group Germany by Sabre Corporation, the hospitality solutions arm of Sabre Corporation was further enhanced. Richard Wiegmann, MD, Sabre Hospitality Solutions in EMEA, speaks with TRAVTALK on this new initiative.

Q How will this merger help Sabre strengthen its hospitality presence?

This merger which is a little under one year will ensure great possibilities to all those involved. We are making quite a number of significant changes in the business and the merger brings a bigger opportunity to Sabre in total because we have a good customer base in EMEA with a special focus on the Middle East & Africa region.

It is a good opportunity to be closer to the customers so currently we are rearranging our organisation to bring more resources with a focus into the region with regards to account management, sales resources and operational resources. Our job is to distribute hotel rooms at Sabre Hospitality Solutions, but it’s very different to sell hotel rooms for instance in the UAE to selling rooms in Saudi Arabia or in Japan, Mexico or the USA. Therefore, we adapt to the local needs and bring in local resource which helps us in adapting to such needs. We are using the latest technology which would make not only the booking process but the arrival and check-in process smoother.

We want to serve beyond the distribution of rooms which is customer experience. This is where we see our focus, we want to give our customers (the hoteliers’ customers) that we serve with our technologies an absolutely amazing experience with the best booking process they can get and at any point the customer wants to book with the hotel.

Q What will be the future of the travel agents?

There has been a lot of talk in the past about the future of the travel agents and I’m very old school with that and I believe travel agents are very important, they are important to our customers, they are very important for us in Sabre. Travel agents just like everyone else in the travel ecosystems have to change, they have to adapt to the new rules, they have to adopt the new requirements by the customers, but especially on the hospitality side, travellers are very loyal partners and very important to the business but again they have to transform the business in order for them to be relevant just like we all have to.

I believe that the travel agent needs to become more of a travel consultant or more of an experienced consultant and that is clearly on the leisure side. I am a very difficult traveller, for example on a week I’m a road warrior, I’m just on planes and going to hotels, want to get into my rooms, want to get on the Internet and want to work. Where on the weekend or my holidays, I would like to get someone to organised perfect stay for me and my family. This is where the travel agents, when they become more of a consultant instead of an order taker, have a huge opportunity.

There is a need for the convergence of online and offline as traditional travel agents are mostly offline. Travel agents should look at merging their offline and online presence to meet their customers’ needs and demands.

Q Could you share the new announcements from Sabre?

We have decided to change our approach to the market. We will divide our hospitality business into regions, and we’ve identified three regions: that’s the Americans, EMEA and Asia Pacific. We’ve decided for our hospitality business to go into regions, and we’ve created the role of the regional GM, Regional MD for Americas, EMEA as well as for Asia Pacific, and for the EMEA region I will serve as the MD and CCO which is based on Frankfurt, Germany, but with the team we are currently enhancing and building up in whole region here.

We adapt to the local needs and bring in local resource which helps us in adapting to such needs. We are using the latest technology which would make not only the booking process but the arrival and check-in process smoother. We want to serve beyond the distribution of rooms which is customer experience. Richard Wiegmann Managing Director Sabre Hospitality Solutions in EMEA