Spotlight on Open Systems and Cloud

Amadeus launches a new spotlight paper 

Open Source Software has been around for decades. Despite early scepticism, particularly from some corporate technologists, today Open Systems are making significant inroads into enterprises.  It’s nothing short of a revolution in the IT industry.  And it is a revolution that almost every major business will need to embrace, at least to some degree, over the medium term.  Open Systems are a key part of the relationship between proprietary systems and full public cloud and in some cases, part of the journey towards full cloud computing.

Clearing the Cloud is an industry report created by Amadeus that looks specifically at how hoteliers can benefit from Open Source Software and calls for them to embrace this technology to experience all the benefits of cloud computing without the associated risks. 

 

This report follows the publication in 2012 of Open for Business, a white paper sponsored by Amadeus IT Group, which focused on the history, advantages and transition challenges involved in moving from a closed to Open Systems architecture.

 

Whether you are a hotelier battling with unwieldy legacy systems, trying to reduce costs across your IT systems or looking for that something extra to gain competitive advantage, this paper illustrates how Open Systems can enable you to get the best from your business.

 

We hope you will find the paper interesting and will feel empowered to open your business.

  

You can download your copy of this paper by clicking here.

We’ve just made Amadeus Hotels Plus even better…. see for yourself!

We’ve been busy working on a few minor improvements to Amadeus Hotels Plus to keep our excellent hotel booking application as up to date as possible.  We work hard to constantly improve our technology and listen to our customers feedback, so we hope you like the new features we’ve added.

Progressive Results Display

Every single possible result for your search is now fully displayed in Amadeus Hotels Plus.  We have implemented a new ‘loading indicator’ so you can quickly see how many more hotels we have found matching your search criteria.

Notification Icons

We’ve also added new icons to show where you may be able to add more hotels to your results, depending on your applied filters.

On mouse-over of the bubble, a widget is displayed with the list of properties that can be inserted at this place within the hotels list. If you have applied filtering or sorted the results, these are taken into account.

On mouse-over of the bubble, a widget is displayed with the list of properties that can be inserted at this place within the hotels list. Again, ff you have applied filtering or sorted the results, these are taken into account.

Map Changes

The following changes on the Map View tab within Hotels Plus have now been applied:

• The hotel rate is now displayed on the marker, with a larger icon so that prices with three digits can be displayed. On the cluster marker, the lowest in policy rate among the hotels in the cluster is displayed.
• The controls of the map (“Centre Map”, “Full Screen View” and “Show only selected Hotels”) are now displayed directly on the map.
• The list of hotels on the right has been removed.

When selecting a hotel, a new link is displayed to select/unselect it in the hotel widget.  It is also possible to select/unselect the property in the hotel list from the Listing View tab.

Hotel Name Filter

Within Hotels Plus, it is now possible to filter by hotel name from the results page.  You have always been able to search for a specific hotel by name or Amadeus property code from the initial search page, but now you can filter your results by entering a specific name.

Hotel Details – Improved layout and information

We have improved the look and feel of the Hotel Details page to enable you to quickly pinpoint the key information they are looking for.  We have really focussed on enhancing the room information and meetings and conference facilities section to make this even clearer when your shopping for the perfect room and rate.

New Email Display

In line with the above mentioned new Hotel Details page, we have updated the email layout too.  Within Amadeus Hotels Plus you have the ability to send hotel information directly from the application to a given email address – we’ve now made a few minor modifications to this email layout.

Why not take a look today? 

For your chance to win £30 in Amazon vouchers, join us for a FREE Hotels Plus webex!

That’s right, simply attend one of our online trainer led, free Amadeus Hotels Plus webinars and you’ll be entered into a prize draw, where you could win an Amazon voucher.  We have designed these sessions to give you a key overview of our fantastic hotel booking tool so you make the most of all of our functionality and excellent hotel content.  You require no previous knowledge of Amadeus Hotels, cryptic entries or even IATA codes to attend.

Training Webinar Schedule

Thursday 6^th December – 10am    

Monday 10^th December – 4pm

Space is limited, don’t miss this opportunity to increase revenues and maximise customer satisfaction – book today.

Registering for one of our Hotels Plus webinars is an easy and quick process. Simply, access the e-Support centre via Amadeus selling platform and go to the training option. Once here, you will find a list of current training courses including the Hotels Plus Webinar.

What is Hotels Plus?

The Amadeus Hotels Plus solution is designed and built for you in order to quickly benefit your hotel booking process through an integrated solution. With the look and feel of a consumer website and the tools, data and functionality of a professional solution, Amadeus Hotels Plus will help you sell hotels like never before. Amadeus Hotels Plus is fully integrated with Amadeus Selling Platform and provides seamless integration with all other agency processes enabling the pre-population of rich data from customer profiles and policies.  And of course, with unrivalled hotel content from all over the world.

Why should you consider making more Hotel bookings through Amadeus?

Forget switching between tools. Amadeus Hotels Plus is fully integrated with Amadeus Selling Platform and provides seamless integration with all other agency processes enabling the pre-population of rich data from customer profiles and policies.

 Search for Hotels like never before

With 94,000+ hotels for sale 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you now have a wider range of corporate and leisure hotels to select from. Amadeus Hotel content also features the most comprehensive room availability, the Best Available Rate and all other rate types, both negotiated and public to ensure you can provide your customers with the most cost-effective accommodation. In fact, because of Amadeus’ best available rate guarantee for many hotel chains, Amadeus often beats other channels on price – even hotel websites and online booking tools.

Boost your operational efficiency

Faster than any other booking channel, Hotels Plus is user friendly and merges all search, shop and booking features within Amadeus Selling Platform. Our Hotels Plus product offers full descriptive and information including maps and photos for all major hotel chains as well as small, independent properties enhancing the booking process for you and your customers. The hotel sale is automatically integrated in the Passenger Name Record, front, mid and back office applications, saving time and reducing the chance of data re-entry errors.

Fast and effective comparison shopping

There is no need to waste time trying to find the perfect room – Amadeus Hotels Plus enables you to quickly filter and compare an unlimited number of hotels by price. The process of Searching and booking is simplified by giving you the ability to email a comparison of hotels to your customers directly from the shopping screen, using unique features such as the Shop from a map feature.

 An online experience in your office

Don’t give your clients just a name or a code: with Amadeus Hotels Plus, customers are able to experience a virtual trip, thanks to a realistic description from photographs, maps and local information. Find the perfect hotel in exactly the right location with our on-line reference points and maps.

To find out more about this solution, please download our Amadeus Hotels Plus Brochure (6 1).

Terms: A prize draw will be held for all trainees who have completed the webinar (1 x £30 voucher per class). A separate prize draw of £30 in Amazon vouchers will be awarded to one lucky winner upon completion of the short online survey. No purchase necessary. The judges’ decision is final.

New hotel provider content and upgrades for Amadeus Hotels [news]

Over the past few weeks, several hotel providers have implemented new Amadeus Hotels functionalities and we have some new hotel chains to announce too – here are all the details.

La Quinta upgrades to B.A.R – Using chain code LQ, this hotel chain now supports the Best Available Rate Programme (BAR) in Amadeus.  This covers the chains 868 hotel properties, mainly located in North America.

Motel 6 & Studio 6 change representation – previously represented by Accor (RT), these two brands will now be represented in Amadeus as two individual chain codes as show below.

MX – Motel 6 – with 1017 properties             SS – Studio 6 – with 56 properties

Leela Hotels upgrade to Enriched Single Availability Enhancements – Using chain code LR, Leela Hotels have successfully upgraded to support our Enriched Single Availability functionalities, including Daily Rate Type, Total Stay Amount, Tax Indicator, Cancellation Policies, Hold Time/Guarantee/Deposit indicators and Commission indicators.

Wyndham Hotel Group upgrade to Alternative Property Display – several brands of the Wyndham Hotel Group gathered under aster chain code TR, have been upgrading to our Alternative Property Display, enabling them to return a display containing up to five alternative properties when the hotel requested is fully closed.  This includes the following brands:

Baymont Hotels (BU)    Days Inn (DI)    Howard Johnson (HJ)    Kinights Inn (KG)    Ramada (RA)    Super 8 (OZ)    Travelodge (TL)

Chase Suite Hotels change representation and adds Amadeus functionality – this brand will now be using chain code WD and will now incorporate many of our hotel functionalities, such as Increased Occupancy Pricing, Total Pricing, BAR, Multi-Room Shopping & Booking and Enriched Single Availability.

Silverneedle Hotels joins Amadeus Hotels – this brand new hotel chain implementation is now live, specialising in Australian hotels, using chain code SD.  They will support many of our hotel functionalities, such as Total Pricing, Enriched single Availability and Mulit-Room Shopping & Booking.

LeisureLink upgrades to B.A.R – Using chain code LI, LeisureLink now support our Best Available Rate Programme for all of their 492 hotels worldwide.

Amadeus Hotel Billback – the easy way to make hotel payments!

This week marked a great milestone – the full launch of Amadeus Hotel Billback!  After a very successful pilot phase with customers in the UK, our latest hotel based solution is now available for use.

We’ve created Amadeus Hotel Billback to simplify the process of paying for travellers’ accommodation and to save business travel managers and hotel booking agents time by completely automating payments.  The solution allows a direct payment to be made between a company or travel agency and the hotel using a secure virtual credit card.  This way, the hotel simply bills the card, not the traveller.

Our partnership with Conferma, the leading provider of reconciliation and settlement software in the UK, means trusted technology eliminates the need for the business travel manager or hotel booking agent to contact the hotel directly when making a payment.

Most importantly for you, this solution is simple to use and secure.  Afterall, we’re helping you to handle and protect highly sensitive data – unlike traditional billback methods, there’s no need to take any chances, like photocopying a real credit card to send across the world for processing.  The whole process has been designed to reduce risks and limit fraud at each stop of the process.

Ok, here’s how it works . . . .

Firstly, we’ve integrated Amadeus booking technology with a tried and tested virtual settlement technology from Conferma.  their technology is already used across the globe in key business travel markets.

A business travel manager or hotel booking agents makes a hotel reservation for an employee’s forthcoming business trip in the normal Amadeus reservations environment.  No need to get used to a new interface.  You continue to use the same, familiar booking display.

Behind the scenes however, the request is received and validated, and for complete security, a virtual credit card is created in co-operation with the relevent credit card company.  From increased customer choice, Amadeus Hotel Billback is compatible with a wide range of card providers including Barclaycard, American Express as well as business travel payment solution AirPlus.

What happens next . . . .

Once the booking is completed, the virtual credit card number is placed immediately into the hotel booking as a deposit of guarantee, and send to the hotel chain for processing.  The number, partially concealed for security, is then subject to normal checks.  To make sure the process really is seamless, we’ll even make sure that the booking details arrives with detailed instructions on how to handle a virtual credit card.  Back in your Amadeus PNR we add billback information to your hotel booking as well as to travel documents and invoices.

Benefits beyond booking. . . .

The benefits of Amadeus Hotel Billback continue beyond payment, because Amadeus and our partner Conferma have seamlessly integrated our systems.  Once a payment has been processed, you can easily reconcile hotel bookings made with virtual credit card transactions in the ‘reporting suite’.  This data will have already been automatically exported to your Amadeus system, allowing you to match bookings to billing and settlement data, stress free.

Getting started with Amadeus Hotel Billback

You’ll be pleased to hear that getting started with Amadeus Hotel Billback is easy.  There is no need for any software upgrades or installation and there’s certainly no need for visits from any technicians.  Because Amadeus Hotel Billback slots neatly in to the usual Amadeus Hotel booking process that you’re already familiar with, there is no training required.  We will provide you with a written guide to help you make the first booking though!

Please contact your Amadeus representative for more information.

Amadeus Hotels talks Olympics with Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge

With the Olympic Games right around the corner, London is going to be a very busy place.  At Amadeus, we have been talking about this major event for some time, and have recently been speaking to some of our hotel providers based in London about their own Olympic expectations and preparations – after all, this is going to be the biggest event in London for many years (and we are all praying for some good weather too).  Below, you can read an extract of the interview we have just had with Kate Fletcher, the General Manager of the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge.

Q:  Please introduce yourself to our readership, and your role at the Millennium London Knightsbridge Hotel

A:  My name is Kate Fletcher and I am the General Manager of the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge, one of the six Millennium & Copthorne hotels in London.

My hotel is situated on the famous Sloane Street, amongst many luxury designer shops and well-known restaurants. It is situated within close proximity of many museums and top London attractions, and is conveniently just a few minute’s walk from Knightsbridge underground station.

Q:  With the Olympics fast approaching, how are you preparing for this busy period?

A:  We have been working with retailers, businesses and government authorities in the local area to get into the spirit of the Olympic Games, and to ensure that things will run as smoothly as possible for both our guests and our staff over this period.  The team at the hotel are all very excited and are thrilled to be part of the action.

Q:  Have you been involved with LOCOG and providing a pool of rooms for the event?  How has this process worked for you?

A:  We have been working closely with LOCOG, along with our five sister hotels in London, to manage the flow of the large number of guests that we will be hosting over the Olympics, some of whom have been allocated rooms through LOCOG.

Q:  Operationally, what changes have you had to make to ensure the smooth running of the hotel?

A:  As the Olympics is such a huge event that has had a significant impact on the city, and of course on the hotel, we have had to adapt to the situation and put many different measures in place.

Security is obviously vital at this time and we are making every effort to ensure that our staff and guests are safe.  To minimise the impact that travel disruptions will have on both our staff and guests, we are ensuring that everyone is kept informed of any issues and is aware of the less congested routes around the city.  Information boards will be installed in key areas of the hotel, to inform visitors of travel updates, and the Concierge will be able to provide information on this too.  We are doing whatever we can to make sure that our guests can get around the capital, and to the Olympic venues, as easily as possible.

We will also be operating extended hours in our bar and restaurant, to cater for the needs of guests, and we will be offering additional food and beverage options to our usual service, to fit with what we believe our guests will want and require.

These are just a few of the things that we have put in place to adapt to the situation and to the requirements of guests and visitors to London throughout this time.

Q:  Do you have any last-minute availability over the Olympic Games that our Amadeus Hotels users could take advantage of?

A:  We do still have some rooms available throughout the period, and would be delighted to welcome Amadeus Hotels users to the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge, or to any of the other five Millennium & Copthorne hotels in London.  These are situated in the exclusive districts of Mayfair, Chelsea and Kensington, and offer easy access to many popular areas of the city.

Q:  Your hotel is based in one of London’s most affluent areas, with plenty of competition – what makes your hotel stand out from others?

A:  We are extremely lucky with the fantastic location of the hotel, on fashionable Sloane Street, and this is obviously a huge selling point for us. We are just a short walk from many designer shops and fashion houses, Harrods, Harvey Nicholls, as well as Hyde Park and some of the top sights and attractions that the capital has to offer.

I also believe that our staff have a huge impact on making our hotel stand out from others.  Every hotel offers bedrooms and the various amenities that go with them, however we have many loyal guests returning to stay with us, and recommending us, based on their experience and the service that they have received from our staff.  We are really looking forward to extending our hospitality to guests during this exciting time.

Our thanks to Kate for speaking to us about her hotels Olympic preparations – best of luck for this busy period!  And remember, there’s still availability in London over the Olympic Games - take a look in Amadeus today.  You can take a look at the property featured in this interview using chain code: MULONCHL

Brand Focus: Millennium & Copthorne Hotels

In this edition of Brand Focus, we look at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels – a hotel ownership group with over 100 hotels around the world.  Their brands include Millennium Hotels, Grand Millennium Hotels, Copthorne Hotels, Kingsgate Hotels, M Hotels, Biltmore and Studio M – with each of their properties as unique as the next.  To introduce some of these brands in more detail, we’ve put together a short fact sheet so you can get to know how these hotel brands could best fit your customers.

Millennium and Grand Millennium

Millennium Hotels and Grand Millennium Hotels are primarily four star deluxe and five star properties situated in premier locations in major international gateway cities or prominent business locations around the world.

The Millennium and Grand Millennium hotels form the largest part of the Group’s portfolio, with 44 hotels around the world and around 16,000 rooms.  The hotels offer travellers comfortable, stylish and interesting surroundings, which are sympathetic to the regional character of their geographical location.

The  hotels serve international business and leisure travellers and offer impeccable facilities and standards of service.  Each of our properties is unique and may offer selective facilities & services locally.

Copthorne and Grand Copthorne

Copthorne Hotels are midscale properties in major regional business centres or resort locations in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

At 31 December 2011, the Group operated 34 Copthorne hotels worldwide, with over 7000 rooms. A well established European brand, Copthorne’s international expansion started in New Zealand, where it has now become the country’s largest midscale hotel group.

Kingsgate

Kingsgate Hotels is New Zealand’s largest leisure hotel group with properties in all major cities and across both islands.

At December 31, 2011 the Group operated 14 Kingsgate Hotels, with over 1400 rooms. In May 2006 the first Kingsgate Hotel in the UAE was announced.

How do I find these hotels in Amadeus?

It’s really easy.  The master chain code for all of these brands is: MU   So whether you are using our Command Page or our fully graphical Amadeus Hotels Plus application, it’s simple to find what you’re looking for.  Remember, if you are using Hotels Plus, you can even search for properties using our interactive map shopping functionality.  Take a look!