Sabre celebrates a decade of growth, innovation and technology

Sabre Corporation, the leading technology provider to the global travel industry, today celebrated the tenth anniversary of its technology center in Bangalore, India. Opened in 2005, the center has helped Sabre expand and enhance its technology solutions to its global customer base of more than 425,000 travel agents, 400 airlines and 176,000 hotel properties. Sabre’s strategic center in Bangalore supports multiple technology functions including product development, enterprise data and analytics and operations research. It also provides customer care and support, implementation and consulting services, and product and solutions to clients globally.

“I am fortunate to have been a part of the original nine-member team that set-up the Bangalore center in 2005. Ten years on, our commitment to quality, innovation and customer-centric solutions has set a benchmark from which Sabre has grown globally,” said Shail Maniar, vice president and managing director, Sabre India. “Over the years, we have built a global center of excellence with a focus on technology innovation, acquiring, nurturing and retaining top talent, and staying at the forefront of our competition,” said Maniar.

Set up to enhance Sabre’s existing global operations and capabilities, the center now plays a critical role in Sabre’s commitment to providing customers with quality products and solutions, based on innovative technology and driven by best-in-class customer support.
Highlights over the years include:

Innovation highlights:

§ The development of market- leading forecasting and optimization models for Sabre AirVision Revenue Manager which have enabled over 30 of Sabre’s low cost carrier customers to accurately manage their revenue. Now a market leader in this segment, Sabre is now focused on building next-generation revenue management solutions analytics, integrated with data analytics and business intelligence to help airlines further optimize their revenue in real-time.

§ The development of Sabre’s award-wining Hotel RFP (Request For Proposal) solution, one of the industry’s top online hotel sourcing and rate negotiation tools for corporations and agencies. The solution won Travel Weekly’s 2014 Gold Magellan Award and Global Business Traveler Association (GBTA) 2011 Business Traveler Innovation People’s Choice Award. Currently.

§ Developing Sabre AirVision Market Intelligence, the industry’s first online tool powered by global demand data to helps airlines make informed flight operation decisions – when to fly, where to fly, and how frequently to fly. The Bangalore team gathered 10 years’ of airline data and developed algorithms to help Sabre’s airline customers operate more efficiently and profitably.

§ The Bangalore center played a key role in developing GetThere, providing unmatched cost control for more than 3000 corporations in the world, including the majority of the Fortune 200. GetThere processes more than 12 million transactions annually, $2 billion in annual savings to our customers, and is actively used in 95 countries.

Customer highlights
§ The Bangalore center developed mission-critical software to ensure a seamless travel experience for passengers’ post-merger of US Airways into American Airlines in October 2015.

§ The center regularly supports major airline reservations migrations to SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service (CSS). Key migrations include Cambodia Angkor Air, Aero Mexico, Philippine Airlines and Kulula Air.

§ The center has been instrumental in upgrading the SabreSonic Check-in platform that has helped Sabre deliver a platform with industry-leading flight disruption management capabilities. The platform has helped airlines – improve productivity, increase targeted merchandising opportunities and reduce training costs. Over 28 airlines have been migrated to SabreSonic Check-in and currently more than 50 airlines spread over Asia, Australia Europe and Central America, are a part of the updated check-in system.

§ The Bangalore team led the introduction of a new user experience for the Sabre cruise website. The enhancements have reduced booking workflow by 30%, helping agents complete bookings faster. The team also scaled the capabilities of Sabre Cruise to offer new content from Vikings River Cruises (2013), AmaWaterways and Avalon Waterways (2014-15), bringing travel agents more diverse options.

§ The Bangalore team supported Air India towards having a fully integrated flight control system, with solutions from Sabre AirVision and Sabre AirCentre suites. The products are expected to offer Air India with increased efficiencies, minimal disruptions, enhanced punctuality and passenger connections, and better scheduling. Having a local footprint has helped Sabre drive close engagement with Air India.

Growth & Culture
Ø Awarded ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ in 2009 by the Great Place to Work (GPTW), the center provides employees a working environment that encourages personal growth and development, including opportunities to pursue higher education from India’s leading university, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS).

Ø Collaborated with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India to set up India’s First Aviation University in 2015. Sabre will play a central role in guiding the formation of the curriculum and providing tools and platforms for training. This collaboration with the University will help build a stronger aviation workforce in the APAC region.

Ø In June, the Bangalore center expanded its facility to accommodate the growing employee strength, and the decision to invest and grow the site further is a testament to the quality of talent that has been nurtured in the center over the years. The center currently has over 1000 employees.

Employees have been actively involved in community building initiatives as a part of Sabre’s global Corporate Social Responsibility program. From 2007 onwards, Sabre has been involved in funding education of underprivileged children at Parikrma Humanity Foundation in Bangalore

Greece is leading a rebound in European property demand. The country, which agreed new bailout terms with the European Commission this week, has seen enquiries surge.

Greece is now the 12th most popular property destination in the world, according to TheMoveChannel.com’s latest Top of the Props report. The country climbed four places in the rankings in July 2015, accounting for 1.28 per cent of all enquiries on the portal – up from 0.81 per cent in the previous month.

The country saw enquiries rise for the second month in a row, despite concerns surrounding its ongoing financial situation. In June 2015, worries over a possible Grexit saw overseas buyers lose interest in European favourites Portugal, France and Italy. Greece, though, remained popular, thanks to the euro’s favourable exchange rate, the country’s attractive house prices and its lifestyle appeal. In July 2015, that interest built momentum, with enquiries rising 70 per cent in real terms month-on-month to reach their highest monthly total since January 2015.

Greece’s growing popularity led a wider rebound in demand for European real estate, as investors overcame their caution surrounding the area’s economy. Spain remained the most popular destination in July, with its share of enquiries up from 6.68 per cent to 9.36 per cent. Italy climbed three places into sixth place, its share of enquiries expanding from 2.54 per cent to 3.14 per cent. France, after falling to a record low in the Top of the Props rankings, re-entered the Top 10, rising four places to seize seventh spot, with its share of enquiries increasing from 1.99 per cent to 3.06 per cent.

Portugal fell two places into eighth, its share of enquiries shrinking from 3.26 per cent to 3.02 per cent, but in real terms, the country saw its enquiries rise 3 per cent month-on-month. In real terms, Italy’s enquiries also rose 33 per cent, France’s climbed 67 per cent, while Spain’s jumped 51 per cent.

The return of buyers to Europe caused demand to fall for other destinations, including Australia (down three places into 13th), Cayman Islands (down nine places into 16th) and Thailand (down 10 into 14th). Other, more established destinations saw demand remain steady or increase. Brazil held onto fifth place, while Canada held onto third. They saw their share of enquiries climb from 3.42 per cent to 3.66 per cent and from 3.71 per cent to 5.35 per cent respectively.

Turkey and Cape Verde rose four places to fourth (3.99 per cent) and ninth (2.11 per cent) respectively. The USA also retained its second place, with enquiries up by 52 per cent in real terms.

TheMoveChannel.com Director Dan Johnson comments: “The Greek bailout crisis has been both good and bad news for European real estate. Greece’s struggling economy means that, like many recovering from recession, local demand for property remains low, but the weak euro against the strong dollar and pound has also boosted demand from foreign investors looking to take advantage of bargains. In June 2015, financial uncertainty spread from Greece to other European destinations. With the resolution to Greece’s bailout crisis taking its first steps in the middle of July, though, the following weeks saw previously shaken confidence restored among investors, with demand rebounding for Spain, Italy, France and Portugal.

“Greece still has a very, very long way to go for its economy and housing market to return to normal. Enquiries for Greek real estate on TheMoveChannel.com were 17 per cent down in Q2 2015 compared to Q1 2015, but July marked the promising start of an upturn, with the highest number of enquiries received by Greece in six months.”

The full top 40 destinations on TheMoveChannel.com in July 2015 are listed below.
Read more at http://www.themovechannel.com/news/topoftheprops/greece-leads-european-property-rebound-337/#JxHRKSYlpkT5Y55O.99

“This holiday home offers all the luxuries and amenities. I would really want to holiday here with our kids, but what a shame we couldn’t bring Xena along. They have a no pets policy”.

A lot of vacation rental searchers go through such moments where they love everything about the place – amenities, location, cost, etc but still they have to strike off the option because of zero tolerance policy of the management on the pets issue.

According to research, over 60% of US populations have at least one pet. Holiday home owners must understand that there is a very high percentage of population who wish to take along their furry friends when on a family vacation. Vacation rental owner who are flexible and accommodating on the pets clause, find it easy to get customers for their rental and overtime the pool of their prospective clientele increase, keeping their rental properties fully occupied during holiday season.

Myth Vs Reality

It’s a myth that properties who allow pets aren’t as profitable for the owner due to the damage caused by the pets. On the contrary, research has shown that in most cases there is limited or no damage at all when a property is let to renters with pets. Most pet owners appreciate that they are allowed to spend vacations with their pet and take good care of the property.

Pet owners are also willing to pay 20-30% higher rentals and greater security deposits. They are also more likely to repeat their visits as it is difficult to find another pet friendly property and it is inconvenient for the pet to change its environment each time. On the other hand, holding on to a vacant space and advertising for it is more expensive for home owners as compared to letting tenant who owns a pet. This means that home owners stand to make good profits when they allow pets in their home.

How to Make Your Rental Pet Friendly

You may use baby gates to demarcate areas where you would not like the pets to enter. Install easily maintainable spill proof floors; lock up low cabinets that have cleaning equipment and keep breakable items in higher shelf. These arrangements cost way less as compared to profits earned by retaining a long term tenant.

To make the stay more convenient for guests with pets, you may keep food and water bowl for pets, some chew toys and waste baggies. These arrangements will not only make things convenient for pet owners but also help to keep your rental clean and safe.

A good way of ensuring that pet fury is not hurled towards the property is to keep handy information for pet parks in the nearby areas that can be used by tenants for energy dissipation of their furry friends.

A pet keeping agreement should be signed between the home owner and the tenant so as to keep things clear in black and white as to what is acceptable and what is not.

Checks should be made at the end of the stay to ensure that the terms of the agreement are adhered to and no damage to the property is done.

The landlord must have an insurance against damage done by pets or take a chunkier security deposit to accommodate the risk undertaken.

Just the way it is difficult for a holiday makers to find a good property that is pet friendly, it is difficult for property owners to find guests who would stay for long and also repeat their visits. The equilibrium of this gap can be reached by keeping your no pets policy flexible and making your property pet friendly. This simply reduces the stress levels on either sides and makes the society that much happier.

In a sign that overseas property business is picking up in the UK, leading consumer show A Place in The Sun Live, is adding extra capacity to its shows.

Sony’s latest camera drone prototype is capable of taking off vertically and flying like a plane. The drone made a brief appearance in the film Die Hard 4.0 is the product of Sony’s joint venture with robotics startup ZMP. It resembles the short takeoff and landing of Lockheed Martin F35 fighter jet.

These camera drones can fly further and faster than traditional hexacopters. A joint venture called Aerosense, it uses the imaging technology of Sony, sensing and networking from its smart phone range providing robotic expertise which helps them to fly.

These drones will be used mostly for measuring, surveying, observing and inspecting and will also help in accidents caused due to human errors.

Drones will be used as sensors which will help to sustain stable flights and will become cheaper with technological advances. They are emerging as viable business and consumer products.

The television and film companies are using civil drones for high powered photography and can bring aerial floating action shorts within controlled environment.

Numerous delays by start-up airline SkyGreece resulted in a huge fury among the hundreds of stranded passengers and most of them vented their frustration on the social media channels.

The enraged passengers reacted as the airline founded by a team of Greek Canadians, including a Greek Orthodox priest named Fr. Nicholas Alexandris have failed to appease their customers. Some of the delays went as long as four days, according to the customers. The social media attack forced the airline to take down their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The airline said nothing except that the flights are delayed due to ‘operational reasons’. The troubled passengers are now venting their anger, frustration and disgust on a new group called SkyGreece troubles.
According to the Facebook posts, the priest, Fr. Nicholas supposedly answered one of the stranded passengers on Skype and regretted about the entire scenario. The enraged passengers believe that the airline is playing blame game and avoiding the imperative measures to end the woes of the consumers.

The Facebook posts suggest that the passengers are camping outside the Athens Airport waiting for a confirmation from the company. There are rumors about bankruptcy circulating on the Internet, however, the airline is yet to announce anything of that sort.

Angela Pozaritis, daughter of a Canadian lady stranded held the airline responsible and demanded financial responsibility from SkyGreece stating, “This is a petition list press “like” if you feel SkyGreece should be financially responsible for everyone’s ticket. They should be responsible not only for the safety and well being to and from Toronto and Greece, but we should be reimbursed our money back.”

Setting a precedent for delayed EU passengers on all airlines, Manchester County Court said Ryanair could not cut the time a passenger has in which to claim from six years to two by adding a clause to its small print.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that delayed passengers in England and Wales have six years to claim, but Ryanair says passengers who book with it accept their terms and conditions, and therefore the claim limit is two years.

Citing the six-year rule as “unnecessary and unreasonable” Ryanair said that it would appeal against the decision.

If Ryanair had won all airlines may have been able to impose a two-year time limit on all existing and future flight delay claims.

Passengers can claim between £180 ad £440 for a delay of at least three hours, depending on the length of the wait and the distance to be travelled.

Wilmslow, Cheshire based legal firm Bott & Company, represented the two passengers who brought the case against Ryanair. The firm say compensation could amount in up to £610m of past claims for Ryanair.

In a statement, Ryanair said, “”Since we believe a six-year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.”