Will Use a New Cloud-Based Community Model to Ultimately Replace HOLIDEX, IHG’s Proprietary Reservation System
Wednesday 29th April 2015, London: InterContinental Hotels Group (“IHG”) today announces that it is to continue its strategic relationship with Amadeus, the world’s leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry. Together, IHG and Amadeus will develop a next-generation Guest Reservation System (GRS) that will revolutionise the technological foundations of the global hospitality industry. Amadeus will use a new cloud-based community model, a first in the hotel sector, and similar to the model it developed for the global airline industry.
As launch partner, IHG will work with Amadeus on the design, functionality and evolution of the system, which will ultimately replace HOLIDEX, IHG’s proprietary reservation system. This follows the completion of a successful engineering study by IHG and Amadeus to scope out potential technologies and solutions to drive innovation in the industry for the long-term benefit of owners and guests. GRS can be operated alongside HOLIDEX and the transition to GRS, which is due to be rolled out globally in 2017, will be undertaken in phases to minimise risks.
IHG’s history of innovation in technology, in addition to its global scale, provides Amadeus with the critical mass and complementary skills to develop this next generation community model. Amadeus has an excellent track record of leadership in this area, most recently with the airline industry. The community model is a highly innovative and cost-effective approach for IHG and the hospitality industry, with Amadeus taking responsibility for funding and maintaining the reservation system and each member paying for usage on a transaction fee basis. IHG will continue to work with Amadeus to evolve and future-proof the system over time.
Today’s announcement marks a significant step forward for IHG as we continue to make strong progress in developing industry leading technology solutions. The next-generation GRS gives IHG a foundation to continue to invest smartly in technology through system funded capital investments and evolve our own bespoke systems, which will be connected to GRS and hotels directly through a separate, state of the art interface. This will result in a first of its kind, standardised, scalable and flexible global technology eco-system, which will provide significant value to our guest and owners.
Richard Solomons, Chief Executive Officer of IHG commented: “Technology is fundamental to driving superior experiences for our guests before, during and after they stay with us. IHG has a long track record of innovating through technology to ensure we meet the needs of current and future guests, starting with being the first company to offer online bookings, having the highest rated app in the hotel and travel industry, and offering Mobile Check-In and Check-Out. Our collaboration with Amadeus will build on this heritage and will enable IHG to shape the future technological foundations of our industry. The next-generation guest reservation system we will create with Amadeus will deliver a powerful global platform for hotels to manage guest interaction, will be intuitive for hotel teams, and will help us accelerate our work to revolutionise and personalise the guest experience through technology.”
Luis Maroto, President & Chief Executive Officer of Amadeus commented: “Travellers today expect a great experience wherever they are and technology can play a key role in delivering that. IHG has exciting ambitions for its hotels and guests and Amadeus is proud that our innovative technology will play a key role in delivering them. Our technology partnership with IHG is a watershed moment for the industry. It will provide a huge leap forward in the flexibility and functionality available to hoteliers, and marks an important step in our journey to deliver our established community technology model into a new industry segment.”
IHG’s Approach to Technology
IHG’s approach to technology starts with understanding our guests and their needs across the entire Guest Journey. Our strategy is driven by our own expertise and our industry-leading in-house capabilities. Our priority is to own the ‘Stay’ experience through smart investment in on-property and mobile technology. We also plan to target areas where we add real value to our guests across the rest of their journey (the Dream, Plan, Book and Share phases). IHG has a rich history of innovation and industry firsts. IHG was the first company to develop a computerised reservation system; the first to introduce online bookings and the first to have a number one rated app on all mobile platforms.
About Amadeus Hotels
Amadeus offers next generation hotel management solutions based on open technology and offered as Software as a Service (SaaS). Newmarket, an Amadeus company, acquired in 2013, is a leading provider of cloud-based group and event IT solutions to the hospitality industry. Newmarket has more than has more than 40,000 installations and 150,000 users in 154 countries worldwide. Newmarket’s expertise combined with Amadeus’ global scale, reach and core IT infrastructure represents a compelling end-to-end solution to empower hospitality organizations to lower costs and increase revenue, while improving the guest experience and loyalty.
In distribution, Amadeus connects some 300 of the world’s leading hotel providers with our global community of travel agencies with 320,000+ unique properties and with 970,000+ hotel shopping options distributed through custom-built reservation applications. Through Amadeus LinkHotel, Amadeus connects independent and small-chain hotels to the multi-GDS and online travel community.
About Amadeus’ Airline Model
Amadeus was originally created through a partnership with the airlines – Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS in 1987. Amadeus’ vision today is to power an open, intelligent, dynamic and customer-centric global travel ecosystem that seamlessly connects airlines, travel sellers, airports, hotels and all other participants in the travel industry. All players will be able to share information in real-time and across all touch-points of the travel lifecycle, creating a single view of the traveller.
Amadeus has developed and deployed the Altéa Suite, the new generation Passenger Service System portfolio which offers a robust and comprehensive set of tools as it includes full reservation, inventory and departure control capabilities, and delivers a uniquely integrated solution. Since its creation in 2000, 133 airlines around the world contracted for both Altéa Reservation and Altéa Inventory, 117 of which contracted to use the full Altéa Suite (figures as at December 2014). At the same date, 124 airlines were implemented for both Altéa Reservation and Altéa Inventory, 91 of which to the full Altéa Suite. Based upon contracts signed, Amadeus estimates that by 2017 the number of annual contracted Passengers Boarded using the Altéa Suite will be close to one billion, which would represent an increase of 44% vs. the 695 million passengers processed on the Altéa platform during 2014 – or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of circa 13%.
Over the last three years Amadeus has expanded its airline model to offer cloud-based common use services for mission critical operations to ground handlers and airports globally.
