SOUTHLAKE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2005--
Offers Recognizable "TotalPrice for Cars" Consumer Online Shopping
Experience With Powerful Capabilities for Managing Corporate Travel
Costs
GetThere(R) introduced an enhanced online rental car shopping path today, giving business travelers the complete price of their rental car, including taxes and fees, prior to choosing and booking a car online. The enhancement marks the next phase in the broad-reaching technology sharing initiative between GetThere and Travelocity(R), with corporate customers now benefiting from Travelocity’s award-winning TotalPrice(SM) for Cars functionality. GetThere is the world’s leading corporate travel reservation technology, helping more than half of Fortune 200 companies manage travel online.
The new car shopping experience follows the recent implementation of GetThere’s enhanced hotel booking path. Corporations using GetThere now enjoy powerful corporate travel technology that integrates negotiated rates, GDS fares and content from multiple Web sites in a familiar platform that makes it easy for travelers to book policy-compliant trips.
In addition to an improved look-and-feel in a more leisure-like approach, other new features in the GetThere car shopping tool include:
-- New easy-to-read grid display with up to five car sizes and
sample car images
-- Out-of-policy selections and exceptions more clearly noted in
display
-- Ability to sort choices by car rental vendor,
company-preferred selection or price
-- Ability to display other applicable rates, including daily and
extra day and hourly rates
-- Increased on-screen detail for car pick-up location, either at
airports or other locations
Travelocity and GetThere’s TotalPrice for Cars functionality displays all rental car taxes, mandatory fees and government-imposed fees, simplifying the traveler’s rental car selection process. This functionality is especially important since airport car rental taxes and fees, which can often be hidden from the traveler until booking, have continually risen since 2003, according to a 2005 Travelocity Rental Car Study. The national average (based on the nation’s top 100 airports) has increased from 24.4 percent in 2003 to 25.8 percent in 2005, with pricing on car rentals varying from state to state.
“Our enhanced car offering provides corporations with true transparency into car rental costs so that corporate travelers are not blind-sided by additional taxes and fees at the end of a business trip,” said Bev Heinritz, general manager of GetThere. “This release is all about delivering more relevant and easy-to-understand car rental information to the traveler desktop, helping corporate travelers make more informed buying decisions that can ultimately have a positive effect on the company’s managed travel program.”
About GetThere
GetThere is the world’s leading online corporate travel reservation technology, and is one of the key solutions offered to the corporate marketplace by Sabre Holdings Corporation. GetThere enables global corporations and government agencies to provide a convenient way for employees to book travel and plan meetings while significantly reducing costs. GetThere’s advanced technology works with all major global distribution systems (GDS) and all travel management companies. More than 3,000 corporations, including 60 percent of the Fortune 200 companies that have online booking sites, use GetThere. More information is available at www.getthere.com.
Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE:TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at www.sabre-holdings.com.
MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=4928164
CONTACT: Vollmer Public Relations
Kristi Manning, 972-488- 4790
kristi@vollmerpr.com
or
GetThere
Michael Brophy, 682-605-2565
michael.brophy@travelocity.com
SOURCE: GetThere
