Sabre survey says most agencies are using multiple booking platforms: Travel Weekly

DENVER — The fragmented booking landscape that has evolved in recent years has led travel agencies to markedly increase the number of content systems they use, a study commissioned by Sabre shows.

As a result, the majority of agencies say they face higher technology and operational costs as well as unwanted complexity, the survey found.

“The system sprawl is unsustainable,” Sabre senior vice president of product Kathy Morgan said during a media roundtable at the Global Business Travel Association conference here.

The survey included 499 travel agency respondents from 14 countries and was conducted in April and May by Qualtrics.

Sabre is using the results to make the case for the content aggregating capabilities of its SabreMosaic retailing platform, an AI-powered tool that the technology company and GDS introduced in May 2024.

The survey found that 75% of agencies say their number of content connections has grown over the past three years, including 79% of large agencies and 57% of small agencies. Ninety-one percent of agencies said they use four or more booking systems, and 50% of agencies use at least seven booking systems.

As a result, more than 80% of agencies said unified access to air, hotel, cruise and other travel content though a single platform would reduce technology costs.

A big issue for small agencies

Small agencies are the most impacted by the fragmented booking landscape, the survey found, with 71% citing unwanted complexity, compared with 60% of midsize agencies and 44% of large firms.

Sabre executives made the case that SabreMosaic is ideally positioned to reverse the trend of disaggregation. The company said the technology offers content from more than 420 airlines, more than 2 million hotels and more than 70 car rental and rail companies. It also sells NDC-enabled fares and ancillary products from 38 airlines.

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SabreMosaic leverages the AI capabilities of Sabre partner Google, Morgan noted. And its cloud-based architecture frees if from the constraints of legacy Edifact GDS technology, enabling customers to plug in content, such as concert tickets, that legacy systems can’t support.

In a Linkedin post, consultant and airline distribution expert Cory Garner, who runs the Garner consulting firm, suggested the content fragmentation is in large part a problem of Sabre’s own making. Over the past 15 years, he said, the company has failed to deliver comprehensive content and functionality in one place.

“Had that materialized earlier, we might have less fragmentation to debate today,” Garner said, adding that Amadeus is better positioned among the GDSs to thrive in the coming years.

Sabre executives acknowledge that they were slow to launch NDC.
Senior vice president Andy Finkelstein said one reason is that from the
beginning, the company integrated with the complex capabilities
requirements of TMCs in mind.

Sabre’s Morgan, though, pushed back against any notion that the company’s tech stack is still behind other GDSs, as well as NDC aggregators and the more advance NDC corporate booking tools.

“I would put our servicing capabilities against anyone in the market,” she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly spelled Kathy Morgan of Sabre’s name.