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January 28, 2002 - reprinted with permission from Travel Trade
Sabre Enhances Its '.Res' Online Booking Tools
Sabre has unveiled an enhanced suite of .Res online booking products designed to help agencies establish a compelling, competitive identity online.
"We believe it’s imperative that agents establish and maintain a strong bookable presence on the Internet to provide a competitive offering in the lucrative online channel," said Jeff Harmon, senior vice president of online travel solutions.
Based on customer feedback, Sabre has enhanced its existing range of online booking tools, and developed a new Sabre .Res product line. The Sabre .Res products enable travel agencies to create and/or enhance their own travel booking Web site that can connect clients to more than 450 airlines, 50 car rental companies, 50,000 hotels, 33 railroads, 228 tour operators and eight cruise lines worldwide.
The standard Sabre .Res package includes personalized site design; access to discounted airfares, as well as car and/or hotel negotiated rates; graphical seat maps to allow clients to choose their seats when booking; banner integration to develop additional revenue streams; service fee integration. Optional modules for building customer loyalty include: fare messenger to notify clients by E-mail when their specific flight and price requirements are met; express air to shorten "look-to-book" time; guest log-in allows customers to enter an agency site without entering personal profile information until ready to book.
Harmon said that the optional modules will provide agencies the ability to offer cutting-edge services at an affordable price — features which, to date, have generally been available only from the largest online travel players.
Sabre .Res is also available in a customized version that includes customer relationship management (CRM) tools, real-time messaging between agent and traveler, multi language Web sites and more.
"Sabre .Res gives travel agents what they want and need to compete today: an affordable presence in the online travel arena," Harmon said.
