The ability of travel suppliers to engage with customers dynamically and across numerous channels is critical today and XML technology can play an important role strengthening these relationships. EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta investigates

XML technology is an important link in the drive towards seamless connectivity and syncing between different systems in real-time. As the ‘information exchange plumbing’ between disparate channels, it plays a critical role in strengthening the systems of travel suppliers. Indeed, it helps to integrate multiple systems that were previously managed entirely in different silos.

For hotels, XML technology has played a crucial back-end role to facilitate the move to a new-generation approach to revenue management and real time updates across all channels and platforms. For other suppliers, like car rental companies, XML is playing its part improving reservations and rentals for customers.

When it comes to airlines, they are not only looking to better describe their offerings on their own direct sites, but also on third-party indirect channels.

XML is set to play a big role here. After all, we are witnessing strong commitment on behalf of the airline industry to influence the capabilities of the IATA NDC (New Distribution Capability) XML standard. NDC is an IATA-led joint industry initiative focused on interoperability among different distribution systems namely airlines, travel technology products and global distribution systems.

So how can travel suppliers become more competitive using XML?  

1.      Real-time updates: no more excuses please

Offering the best possible option to customers will help you stand out. From a car rental specialist’s perspective, one of the key elements in running a vehicle fleet successfully is the ability to respond to customer demand. According to Ken McCall, Europcar UK Group’s managing director, by utilising XML services that tell the customer what is available where, and at what price, they can make informed choices about their vehicle rental. “Building these services into a booking tool improves the overall experience for the customer without the need for telephone calls to cross check their system feedback,” he says.

For Chetan Patel, VP, Strategic Marketing & E-Commerce, Onyx Hospitality Group, real-time updates mean you are maximising your chances across all channels and platforms and real-time intelligence on the performance means ability to quickly pinpoint the most profitable customers, channels, techniques and strategies.

Meanwhile Ricky Ang, VP - Sales & Marketing, Hotel Equatorial Group, believes XML technology impacts how hotels sell rooms because “there is no longer any excuse for mismanagement of offers across the various platforms”. This is because XML technology now allows hotels to manage their prices and inventory across platforms and channels in real time.

2.      Being in Control

XML technology helps travel suppliers to integrate their systems in a way that results in more efficient communication of booking requests and a variety of other activities.  

The story goes that use of XML puts travel suppliers more in control of the costs of doing business, and allows both the supplier and customer to provide a smooth and successful reservation. “The car rental industry has seen major developments in e-commerce solutions for both consumer and business customers built around the flexibility that a suite of XML-web services can give,” says McCall.

Europcar, he claims, remains committed to giving travel managers and bookers easy-to-use tools to manage their car hire needs with continued enhancement of online hire management systems. Providing instant online access to all the functionality required, car hire managers can forward plan future car hire bookings, arrange hire extensions and set up vehicle collection and delivery thus saving business travellers valuable time.

3.      Smarter handling of distribution 

Real-time XML connectivity with channels and optional integration with revenue management and property management systems is also enabling hotels to respond to market conditions and process rate and inventory updates sooner.

When it comes to how hotel entities are benefitting, as eRevMax International pointed out earlier this year, the automated nature of the next generation of tools mean hotels need greater protection from over selling. So defence mechanisms incorporated into the tools push alerts and notifications of channel performance and manual overrides when terms are met. By working on XML integration that results in two-way data transfer, means there is better access to OTAs especially to deliver automated channel solutions including inventory distribution and removing the manual error-prone task of reservation and guest data entry by supplying OTA booking data direct to the PMS.

According to Ang “XML has been a great boon”. This is particularly true if you consider that channel management systems (CMS) operate using XML as their key technology. With the advent of online retail as well as busines-to-business platforms (most bedbanks and wholesalers operating on a B2B basis use the web as their distribution platform too), then CMS’ are indispensable to hotels. Ang adds that hotels today have central control of their inventory and pricing across different platforms and sites. “This saves time which in turn will provide for more active and dynamic movements of inventory and pricing management which previously was rather impossible to do on a practical front (without a CMS),” says Ang.

For Ang then, XML has the ability to consolidate offers and availability from multiple sources and correspondingly make them visible and available on multiple sites. This is a key consideration and has a very tangible impact to hotel marketers from both on B2B and B2C fronts.