Travel specialist Amadeus is to launch a new technology platform to enhance search, reservation and distribution of hotels.

With the new system, property and room information in different languages will be categorised according to 100 separate attributes. The software was designed to give travel agents more precision and flexibility when matching a hotel with their customers' requirements.

The 75.000 hotels currently bookable in Amadeus have been migrated onto the new platform, which is due to go live in 2008.

"The hotel industry is one of the world's biggest in terms of transactions processed, but the industry's IT processes remain fragmented and not yet ready to cope with the vast increase in transactions, as more hotels are booked online," says Antoine Medawar, managing director of Amadeus' hospitality business unit.

"This platform is designed from the ground up to help hotels reduce costs and increase revenue by centralising their technology infrastructure and preparing their businesses for the next wave in the online evolution of the travel industry," he said.
In addition to the newly-launched distribution platform, the company is launching other initiatives geared toward the travel industry in 2008. This includes a system which tracks the commissions that are due from participating hotels to travel agents.