Developed by technology specialist GoQuo, the new range of functionalities will provide access to a series of options including open jaw, multi-leg and stopover fares based on existing nett/negotiated and CAT 35 rates. This will allow agents to offer greater choice with a quicker access rate.
GoQuo cites the example of London ” Hong Kong, (BA contract fare and open jaw) Hong Kong ” Shanghai (published or sectoral fare) and Shanghai ” London, (contract fare and open jaw) as an example of its ability to offer circular routings in one search. ”The only current way of doing this is by using published fares, which are probably more expensive, for all sectors, or by manually creating the individual segments, cross-checking these against their databases, holding the seat, and then creating the booking ” a longer, more cumbersome process,” says the company.
A further innovation from GoQuo is multi-GDS integration that automatically defaults to the host GDS of a particular airline when booking, allowing agencies to simultaneously access multiple GDS systems, as well as extract inventories and carrier contracts. A new global hotel inventory equally sees GoQuo, in tandem with hotelconnect and JAC, offer expanded accommodation choice.
”GoQuo has increased its customer base by over 400% in just a year and these new enhancements will extend the business value and appeal of our technology,” said managing director and founder Ron Ramanan (pictured).
And in a busy week for GoQuo, the travel technology company also secured the deal to supply its flight booking engine for London-based corporate travel and flight consolidation operation Trust Travel. Specialising in travel to and from India and the Far East, the company is both a corporate agency (servicing medium British and European companies) and a flight consolidation service offering nett/private fares to around 80 UK agents.
Trust Travel is adapting its business model to offer an improved website incorporating GoQuo”s flight booking engine, due for an April 2007 launch. The site will ensure that staff, agency customer and eventually, direct business and leisure travellers, will have access to published, nett and CAT 35 fares, biased towards Trust Travel”s own flight inventory.
”We didn”t need a sledgehammer to crack this particular nut, having invested time and resource in evaluating potential technology partners, many of whom had worrying limitations,” said Trust Travel managing director, P L Suri. GoQuo”s solution should substantially increase our revenue and customer satisfaction.”
GoQuo received a World Travel Market travel technology award for best dynamic packaging tools online at last year”s show (pictured is managing director and founder Ron Ramanan).