Lodging AI can help travel agencies improve hotel attachment rates, creating additional revenue opportunities and providing travelers with more personalized lodging options. Using Sabre Travel AI machine learning models, the new lodging capability analyzes property attributes, customer trip segmentation, and traveler and agency preferences to generate custom lodging options and serve up properties that are most likely to be booked.

“Artificial intelligence combined with data and insights, such as profiles and preferences, is a very powerful tool in removing friction from the travel booking process,” said Sabre Chief Product Officer Garry Wiseman. “As the next evolution of intelligent retailing capabilities supported through our strategic partnership with Google, Lodging AI brings more personalized results to enable agents to be more efficient in their workflows and to ensure travelers obtain the most relevant options available.”

The first two micro-services of Lodging AI are now available, with additional use cases to be added in the future.

• Alternate properties: During the shopping phase, if a specifically requested property is not available, this micro-service of Lodging AI facilitates lodging bookings by presenting up to 20 relevant options with similar characteristics.
• Cross-sell: This micro-service identifies appropriate air bookings or itineraries with no lodging attached and presents suitable lodging options to complete the trip.

Available via Content Services for Lodging APIs and Sabre Red 360, Lodging AI will help enable Sabre customers increase traveler value by offering relevant lodging options to accompany the air travel booking and help drive profitability by capturing a greater share of wallet. Corporate travel managers may also see improved duty of care and reporting with more trip components inside a PNR. Travelers can benefit through access to more customized options based on their needs and preferences.

“Ultragroup acknowledges Sabre as a leading partner in travel technology. Their consistent drive for innovation has been instrumental in transforming our company and the services we offer,” said CEO and Co-Founder of Ultra Group Andres Pelaez. “In our ongoing collaboration with Sabre, we are gearing up to introduce new AI integrations and we are implementing hotel suggestions based on flight itineraries for a cross-selling experience. Furthermore, we will present alternative accommodation suggestions based on user search parameters and preferences when certain accommodations are unavailable. These AI-driven tools are poised to substantially enhance efficiency and the customer experience across all our business platforms.”

Created by Sabre and utilizing Google technology as part of the two companies’ 10-year strategic partnership, Sabre Travel AI leverages state-of-the-art AI technology and advanced machine-learning capabilities. Sabre is integrating this proprietary intelligent technology into existing and new solutions to help customers to deliver highly relevant and personalized content more quickly and create expanded revenue and growth opportunities.

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Since the implementation of innovative solutions from Sabre’s SynXis platform, the partnership has generated overwhelmingly positive results for Alila, including an 82 percent increase in website revenue and a 50 percent growth in web traffic.

With properties located across Asia Pacific, the Alila experience is centered around a deep understanding of the needs of their guests who seek opportunities for intimate cultural interactions within curated, global destinations. “We needed to know how to capitalize on the personalized experiences that we offer at each resort, while promoting the brand,” said Alonzo Kaya, group director of digital & e-commerce, Alila Hotels & Resorts.

“Sabre’s deep industry expertise and cutting-edge solutions allowed us to upscale and align our digital marketing efforts and ensure that our investments provide a centralized source of data for all of our guests. This partnership gives us the ability to produce offers personalized to the guest profile, which has led to significant revenue growth for numerous properties,” he added.

Previously working within a highly siloed environment, Alila Hotel and Resorts chose to overhaul their digital strategy. Leveraging the consultative expertise of Sabre’s Digital Experience (DX) and powerful SynXis platform helped uncover discrepancies within their digital booking process which gave Alila Hotels & Resorts the ability to develop and execute a strategy to drive direct online bookings. This proved to be an essential step to centralize customer data and promote tailored experiences to key guest segments. Ultimately, taking full advantage of their own data helped the Alila brand appeal to a demographic who is motivated, not by price, but by the draw of handcrafted luxury.

“Today, Alila Hotel & Resorts can run targeted digital marketing campaigns, designed with the individual personality and performance goals of each property in mind. Instead of competing solely on price to drive awareness, the chain now has the visibility to leverage their data in driving brand recognition and loyalty wherever their guests may seek their next Alila experience,” said Frank Trampert, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer, EMEA & APAC, Sabre Hospitality Solutions.

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Solving for growing buyer demand and content fragmentation, Sabre Content Services for Lodging is designed to provide access to more options and a more consistent shopping experience to include the way content is displayed at the room and rate level. Sabre’s API-driven solution will deliver more efficiency and revenue with increased lodging choice, as well as improved capabilities to better manage preferred content. Travel agencies have full flexibility to choose the aggregator content they would like to access.

Driving the development of the solution is Sabre’s focus on “normalizing and structuring the shopping response” – in other words, making it easier for agents to comparison shop lodging options. To be sure, this has been a challenge for the industry.

In a usability study, Sabre found that product normalization helped agents reach a booking decision 30 percent faster. Another key benefit is that all bookings, even those through an aggregator, will be active GDS segments, making it easier for travel agents to service bookings.

The new API capabilities will be incorporated across all Sabre points of sale including Sabre Red 360 and GetThere. Additional API enhancements will be added to Content Services for Lodging over the next year. Sabre first announced the development of Sabre Content Services for Lodging, described as a technology solution that will integrate multiple sources of content including the Sabre global distribution system (GDS) and non-GDS sources such as aggregators, re-distributors, agency-sourced hotel content and other sources, in September 2017.

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It has been reported that InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will be one of the first major hotel companies to test drive the new solution. With nearly 800,000 guest rooms and 5,400 hotels across nearly 100 countries, IHG has a broad portfolio of brands, including Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Even Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Hualuxe, InterContinental, Kimpton Hotels and Resorts and Staybridge Suites. Earlier this year, IHG announced that it has agreed to buy a majority stake in Regent Hotels. IHG’s feedback will further shape the future of Business Travel Services as the company prepares to roll it out to other major hotel groups.

Sabre’s consolidated solution suite reportedly consists of three historically separate technology elements that connect both sides of the corporate market:

• Nexus platform: A system of record for hotel groups, used to manage all corporate contracts, sales performance and planning across teams and properties.
• Sabre Hotel RFP: An exclusive lead-generation tool that manages corporate business travel for more than 2,700 of the most traveled companies in the world. Corporate travel buyers make bids for properties to accept.
• Consortia Services: A tool that provides access and services to hotels looking to complete submissions to the top 30 consortia programs.

The goal with the new solution is to provide a more holistic approach to corporate hotel bookings. The suite brings together and further enhances Sabre’s existing offerings as a single platform.

Disclosure: The solution provider featured in this article is a current or past client of Starfleet Media, which is the publisher of Hotel Technology News.

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