October 2010 – Belgian-based content and technology specialist Gateway (www.gateway.be) has celebrated its 20th anniversary by making further improvements to its popular Gateway2Travel hotel booking engine, again being promoted at World Travel Market 2010 on stand TT 245.
These include expanded hotel inventory, an iPhone app, and transfer booking functionality. Gateway2Travel users also enjoy some of the best net rates available, thanks to pricing flexibility that can lift margins.
Expanded Inventory
Available free to travel agents and tour operators, Gateway2Travel lets them compare and book, in as few as four clicks, their choice from over 150,000 hotels around the world. This inventory is supplied by around 20 reputable vendors, such as Tourico, Jacob, hotelbeds, GTA, Mike and Kuoni, as well as country, regional and luxury specialist.
The latest supplier to link with Gateway is Grupo Transhotel whose 52,000 hotels, ranging from two to five stars and including international brands, independents, and city, beach and rural properties, lifted the solution’s total inventory by over 20 per cent.
Thought to be one of the largest hotel inventories available from an independent, Gateway2Travel’s breadth and depth of properties helps ensure that its travel trade users have an excellent choice of hotel locations and properties, ranging from to budget to five star.
The latest specialist suppliers to link with Gateway are VisitAsia, with 650 hotels in Laos, and fellow Asian specialist Luxury Tours, plus ItalCamel, which offers hundreds of hotels across Italy to suit all tastes.
Available in B2B and B2C versions (the latter as either a standalone solution or with a flexible XML option), a key feature of Gateway2Travel lets users maximise revenue by setting their own mark-up and creating their own cancellation rules.
iPhone App and Transfer Booking
For travellers on the move, Gateway has developed a white label iPhone application which agents can offer free to their customers as a relationship-builder. The app, which can be customised to the agent’s corporate brand, enables travellers to search for and book any of Gateway’s hotels, whenever and wherever they want, without having to use a computer.
Extending Gateway2Travel’s versatility is the ability to book transfers between airports and hotels, and vice versa, thanks to Gateway’s agreements with a number of service vendors.
20th Anniversary
Gateway was founded in Belgium in 1990 by CEO Valère Vandecruys when he launched a flight fare comparison tool. Today, the company is a leading provider of outsourced airfare database management services for travel businesses such as agencies, operators, consolidators and airlines. A popular solution is its ATPCO fare filing service for airlines and agencies operating in Europe.
Other solutions include B2B or B2C engines for booking hotels, flights and rental cars.
“Gateway’s beginning was based on technology innovation to provide efficient, reliable services for the travel trade,” commented Vandecruys. “Two decades later, technology innovation remains our core operating focus as it has enabled Gateway to create more useful products that add value to travel businesses.”
More Customers
Gateway’s customer base has grown steadily over the years and now comprises several thousand travel agents and tour operators worldwide. Gateway2Travel users include American Express, Connections, Cheaptickets, Ebookers, Iberia, DERTOURS, ITC, lastminute and Zuji.
According to Gateway marketing director Andries Oprel, travel professionals in Asia and the Far East have taken to Gateway2Travel ‘very enthusiastically’. He added: “We made the marketing and sales investment in Asia because of the region’s rapid growth for inbound and outbound travel. Our solution is doing very well and I’m confident we can go a lot further.”
