Technology

Amadeus has a vision for the global accommodation industry – to revolutionise the software behind every aspect of hotel operations in the same way it has driven change in the aviation sector. Amadeus’ Altéa suite, now used by scores of carriers across the globe such as Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Finnair, has pioneered the concept of “software as a service” allowing on-demand access to a full suite of options from reservations, ticketing and airport kiosks right through to departure control and revenue management. Amadeus Hotels, headed up globally by Peter Waters ( is currently developing a full suite of similar products which can be used by hotel managers, with a major launch customer in the form of Intercontinental Hotels Group which expects to start a worldwide rollout of its new Amadeus reservation and property management system sometime next year. The next-generation Guest Reservation System (GRS) will utilise the first cloud-based community model for the hotel sector, with IHG working with Amadeus on the design, functionality and evolution of the system which will eventually replace IHG’S in-house Holidex proprietary software. That’s on the hotel side, but Amadeus’ accommodation aspirations go much further, with the Amadeus Hotels platform already offering a huge variety of content and simplified shopping for travel agents to help them find the right property for their client. The process has the prospect of being significantly more complex than for airlines, with a distinct lack of standards meaning Amadeus has worked hard to develop a platform for room descriptions and other options. In order to facilitate a wide take-up of these new standards Amadeus is providing details to other providers to ensure that the industry all “speak the same language” when it comes to developing interfaces to the open platform. During a visit to Australia last month Waters expanded on the vision, telling travelbulletin about the flexibilty of the plaftofm which offers interfaces to a range of accommodation aggregators including Australia’s Lido Group, Amadeus aims to provide global distribution for hoteliers, describing the system as the “ultimate hotel marketplace”. “It empowers travel sellers by providing access to a world of properties and room options from one integrated shopping

It empowers travel sellers by providing access to a world of properties and room options from one integrated shopping window’

window,” Waters said. The standardisation means travel consultants can compare and find clients the best rates for the right hotel no matter what the destination or style of travel, he added. The fully flexible system can be tailored to reflect a range of business models to manage content in real time at different points of sale, such as commission-based, net rates or contracted pricing depending on who is booking. Waters said Amadeus currently offers more than 420,000 unique properties across the globe, with Lido alongside other providers including HRS, The Hotel Network, Travelcube, Webjet’s Sunhotels, Destinations of the World and more. It’s been configured to allow access to a full range of rates too – such as prepaid, post-paid, promotional, negotiated and private tariffs along with costs for half- and full-board and even childrens’ pricing. Because of the standardisation content from all sources can be seamlessly integrated into a single format within the platform, making comparison shopping quick and easy. There’s also a range of flexible payment methods and a number of partnerships for commission remittance. Amadeus Hotels continues the company’s vision for the global travel ecosystem, bringing together an ever-growing host of hotel content suppliers from many different providers and channels to provide unbeatable choice and flexibility for both leisure and business travellers. Amadeus simply aims to provide the platform for hotel commerce in whatever form the industry wishes it to take.