Sabre Corp. is planning to test a white-label chatbot with two travel agencies. Sabre is developing a “virtual travel agent” powered by Microsoft Bot Framework and Microsoft Cognitive Services, a set of tools organizations can use to add intelligent and conversational features to their applications. It includes Language Understanding…
It is common in the consumer marketing world to engage with customers where they pass their time, spend their money and focus their attention. NB This is a viewpoint by Mike Slone, chief experience officer for Travelaer. This often involves employing a team of fairly articulate field marketing representatives…
As technology grows and continues to infiltrate every aspect of our lives, it increasingly blurs the line between work and home. Actively contactable at nearly every hour of the day, we are checking emails or taking calls at times previously unheard of. NB This is a viewpoint by Ross…
This is a roundup of product news and announcements related to travel distribution in July 2017. Tuesday 4 July 2017: HotelREZ adds Coast & Country Coast & Country Hotels, a 15-strong chain of hotels in the UK, will now sell via the GDSs for the first time after joining…
The next big thing in artificial intelligence will be “AI as a service,” according to a soon-to-be-released “Radar Report” from Sabre Labs. The opening up and growth of AI platforms will allow everyone to tap into existing AIs, building new functionality on existing services. That could be a real…
Any airline folk that haven’t heard of Fliggy, formerly Alitrip, might want to take note sooner rather than later. There are already impressive numbers coming out of the online travel platform, which acts as an online mall for brands and is part of China’s Alibaba ecosystem. The travel brand began life about…
HEDNA‘s mobile working group has identified and quantified “customer friction” in the context of booking hotel rooms on mobile. The trade body for hotel distribution knows better than most that mobile bookings for hotels, via brand dotcoms or third parties, are now mainstream. The research accepts this as fact,…
This is a roundup of announcements related to people moves and business expansions in July 2017. Monday 3 July 2017: HotelsPro turns to Turner The reservations technology specialist has appointed Robert Turner as managing director. Turner, who has previously held roles at Travco and onhotels.com, will be responsible for…
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has launched a new Search Smarter consumer awareness campaign aimed to put a halt to what it describes as misleading marketing strategies by online travel agencies and travel search sites, as well as to fight rampant bookings fraud. The group particularly focuses on…
The narration is familiar – a new shiny breakthrough in tech is announced, inks spill in its honour, and criticism and opinion pieces fly around. Early adopters rush in to lay their hands on it, and in a few months, the circus is dead; inks are scribbling new praises,…