Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, has completed the migration of 75,000 hotel properties onto a next-generation distribution technology platform.

The open systems technology allows Amadeus to introduce new search capability and provides the foundation for even more advanced search capability in the future, said an official.

“This announcement is a major milestone in the roll-out of Amadeus’ next generation hotel platform which is designed from the scratch to help hotels reduce costs and increase revenue by centralising their technology infrastructure and preparing their businesses for the next wave in the online evolution of the travel industry,” said Ghulam Saleh Al Bloushi, general manager, Amadeus Gulf.

Amadeus’ hotel GDS application now runs on the Linux operating system and uses OpenTravel Alliance XML   standards to enable more sophisticated interactions with other systems.

'The new distribution architecture immediately doubles the search flexibility for travel agents. Hotels are now categorised according to 100 separate attributes giving travel agents much more precision when matching a hotel with their customers’ requirements. This makes it possible to search for 'hotels in France with a swimming pool', for example,' he noted.

The flexibility of the new architecture also allows Amadeus much greater freedom to introduce advance search features as hotel distribution continues to evolve. Soon it will be possible to search for “hotels in Thailand which were rated highly by families”.

Amadeus’ new platform also offers much clearer and richer display of information about available rooms. Hotels will be able to seamlessly distribute available room/rates, price and descriptions in whatever language the travel agent requests.

For example, hotels can seamlessly upload a wide variety of information in different languages about room amenities, such as whether the room has an alarm clock or a coffee and tea-maker. This information can then be displayed on the available-rooms screen so travel agencies can efficiently offer detailed descriptions of what a guest can expect from an available hotel.

Simplifying this process makes it easier for hotels and travel agents to offer the information needed to ensure that the hotel experience meets the consumer’s expectation.

There are now 75,000 hotels bookable in Amadeus and the company has added 10,000 hotels a year since 2005, he said.-TradeArabia News Service