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Abstract
One of the key problems faced by the Hotel industry
today is Distribution. Rooms are perishable inventory
and every unsold room represents loss of a potential
revenue making opportunity. This is caused primarily
on account of ineffective or limited hotel room distribution
opportunities. It is obvious that the hotel industry
needs improved means of distributing its inventory and
greater access to distribution sources. In a bid to
improve its distribution, the hotel industry uses a
host of intermediaries to help them in their distribution.
This comes at a price; for example, the use of intermediaries
causes problems such as loss of brand image and reduced
revenues.
The Open Travel Alliance (OTA), a consortium of some
of the largest players in the hospitality and travel
industry, hopes to change this. OTA is chartered with
the development of the specifications for the next generation
technology infrastructure. It promises to provide standards
based scalable solutions for connecting to various industry
participants as compared to the existing proprietary
and expensive mechanisms. The improved connectivity
will permit hotels to connect and distribute their inventory
through additional distribution channels with minimum
effort. This paper provides a brief background on the
issues faced by the hotel industry and explains how
the Open Travel Alliance specifications can help build
solutions to help improve the distribution problem.
Authors
Manohar Mulchandani,
Anupama Rao
To know more about Wipro in travel and transport, go
to www.wipro.com/travel&transport
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