SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 21, 2006–Sabre Travel Network, the Sabre Holdings business that connects travel suppliers and agents through the world’s leading global distribution system (GDS), today announced the launch of the first GeoShopping feature offered through a GDS. With GeoShopping, offered free-of-charge, North American and European travel agents can now quickly and easily search for and shop off-airport car rental locations from specific geographic search points in a single transaction.
Geographic points that can be used to search for locations and to shop pricing include city and state, zip/postal code, address, point of interest, rail station and hotel. Searching by rail station has the additional capability to search using a “wild card” for those instances where the exact name of the rail station is not known. The hotel search point may be either the GDS’s hotel property number or the segment number in an open passenger name record (PNR). The resulting display will show the car rental companies and their addresses, car types, rates, approximate prices, and distance/direction from the search point.
“The GeoShopping feature in Sabre complements Hertz’s convenient neighborhood, off-airport car rental location offerings for our customers,” said Brian Kennedy, executive vice president, marketing and sales, with Hertz, Sabre’s launch partner for this feature. “We look forward to continuing our enhanced partnership with Sabre and providing travel agents and their clients with the customer service and affordability benefits offered by the new Sabre GDS GeoShopping functionality.”
“The enhancements to searching functionality for car bookings in the Sabre system provided by the GeoSearch feature are really wonderful,” said Donn Casper, distribution systems manager for Carlson Leisure Travel Services. “The new search parameters allow agents to pinpoint car vendor locations near virtually any landmark, rail station or hotel. It is amazing to see the price differences between vendors that are only a few blocks apart from each other!”
John Stow, president of Sabre Travel Network, commented, “This new feature enhances the efficient marketplace provided by the Sabre GDS for car rental companies, agents and travelers by quickly and easily providing a variety of choices and options.”
About Sabre Travel Network
Sabre Travel Network, a Sabre Holdings company, provides access to the world’s leading global distribution system (GDS). The Sabre GDS is a ready-built efficient marketplace that connects suppliers, including hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, with more than 50,000 travel agency locations. Suppliers get access through one single connection; travel agents get real time access to thousands of travel products from multiple suppliers through one source integrated into their businesses; consumers get access to a global supermarket of the world’s greatest travel possibilities.
Key brands of Sabre Travel Network include GetThere, the leading Web-based corporate travel reservation technology, and Jurni Network, the unique leisure travel agency consortium that enables members to sell more products from preferred travel suppliers using sophisticated market intelligence.
Sabre Holdings (NYSE:TSG) connects people with the world’s greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.
Sabre Travel Network Nexion, Jurni Network and GetThere are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
Statements in this release which are not purely historical facts or which necessarily depend upon future events, including statements about the expected benefits to Sabre Holdings Corporation from the proposed transaction, or other statements about anticipations, beliefs, expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to Sabre Holdings Corporation on the date this report was submitted. Sabre Holdings Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements, including structural changes within the travel industry, such as increased competition from merchant model hotel offerings by our competitors. Sabre Holdings Corporation may not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further information regarding factors that could affect our financial and other results can be found in the risk factors section of Sabre Holdings Corporation’s most recent filing on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Sabre Holdings
Kathryn Hayden, 682-605-2252
Kathryn.hayden@sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Travel Network
