The weekly news roundup: Expedia’s partnership with Sabre and Travelport, awards for AGORA Hospitality
SECTORS: More hotel choices for travellers in Sabre-Expedia partnership
Hotels in the Middle East among the new offerings. (Image credit: rebius/iStock)
Travel agents across Asia Pacific have more hotels to offer to their clients with the addition of 63,000 new properties to Sabre travel marketplace, made possible through a participation agreement between Sabre and Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN).
The new hotels are in all regions, with many in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East where hotel property content is more fragmented.
Travel agencies now have access to the EAN rates and availability through the Sabre GDS due to the new partnership.
Agents can shop and book properties through the Sabre Red Workspace. The additional properties are a wide range of property types, including full-service hotels and resorts, B and Bs and small inns, airport hotels, boutique hotels, budget hotels, and serviced apartments.
“Travel agencies will have more hotel options to offer their customers. Additionally, more hotels in the Sabre travel marketplace will have the ability to merchandise their products, property attributes and personalize offerings to travellers,” said Shelly Terry, vice president of travel product solutions, Sabre Travel Network.
“These are just a few ways Sabre provides hoteliers products to differentiate themselves and that is a powerful tool for travel buyers.”
The additional rates and availability from EAN expands Sabre’s hotel content of more than 750,000 properties, through the combination of its travel marketplace and network of hotel aggregator partners.
HOTELS: AGORA wins in the luxury hospitality space
Kyu Karuizawa Hotel –Luxury Rural Retreat of the Year for Japan (Image credit: AGORA Hospitalities)
Tokyo-based AGORA Hospitalities Co.Ltd., with its vision of “A Collection of Beautiful Japan,” is transforming hotels and ryokan (Japanese inns) to offer a higher-value experience and deliver the beauty of Japan to its guest.
The company operates the AGORA Hotel Alliance comprising 12 hotels with 938 rooms throughout Japan.
To achieve AGORA’s vision the hotels operate facilities that contribute positively to their regions and strengthen partnerships. They also share management resources and strategies so their staff can dedicate themselves to delivering the “omotenashi” (gracious hospitality) recognised worldwide as a symbol of “Beautiful Japan”.
These efforts paid off as AGORA Hotel Alliance was recognised in the Luxury Travel Guide Award 2016, winning the “Luxury Hotel Group of the Year for Japan”. Its Hotel Alliance member, Kyu Karuizawa Hotel, was the winner in the “Luxury Rural Retreat of the Year for Japan” category.
In both cases, it is the first time a Japanese enterprise has received an award in the luxury category.
Aya Aso, president and CEO of AGORA Hospitalities, said it was a great honour for Kyu Karuizawa Hotel to receive the prestigious accolade in its first year of operation.
“We intend to build on this achievement to continue attracting people from all over the world to a wide range of beautiful Japanese destinations,” she added.
TECHNOLOGY: Travelport increases cooperation with Expedia in Europe
Expanded partnership in Europe between Travelport & Expedia. (Image credit: et_Noire/iStock)
Travelport and Expedia have strengthened their European collaboration, which sees the latter extend its use of Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform in multiple countries on the continent.
Expedia and its brands, including its corporate arm Egencia, will continue to use Travelport’s Universal Application Programming Interface (Universal API) to access hotel and car content, and to power new services for their customers to book online travel.
Expedia will also utilise Travelport’s Rapid Reprice and ePricing technology, two products which have been designed to improve the speed and efficiency of the overall air shopping experience for consumers.
Steve Jarvis, vice president, strategy & business development at the Expedia group, said: “Expedia’s commitment is to be the very best place to shop for travel, and Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform offers innovative technology and particularly extensive hotel and car content.”
• Featured image credit: lsantilli/iStock