After years of development on the tech side, Zoom And Go CEO
Dave Zitur is squarely focused on getting the hotel-booking platform into the
travel agent marketplace.
"The team, prior to me coming in late last year, was
focused on getting the technical aspects done," Zitur said. "Now, we've
got to work on getting this out in front of the agents and letting them see it
and really embrace it."
Zoom And Go is a map-based hotel-booking platform for agents
that integrates with GDSs and legacy systems. Zitur, previously COO and CIO at
Travel Leaders Group, said the key behind the technology is that it is GDS
agnostic.
Dave Zitur
While there are a number of other hotel-booking platforms,
Zoom And Go is unique in that it is integrated into an agent's GDS workflow,
Zitur said. Entering its system requires a simple extra keystroke, and any
bookings completed on Zoom And Go are populated in the GDS automatically. It is
already integrated with Sabre and Travelport's Worldspan; Galileo and Apollo
integrations are coming in the third quarter, and Amadeus will follow in 2019.
He describes Zoom And Go as "the Trivago for travel
agents," presenting GDS-using agents with multiple inventory sources.
Zitur said he was unaware of any other hotel-booking
platforms that have been integrated into an agent's GDS workflow, and he
pointed to the company's pending patents -- there are four -- as further
evidence of the platform's uniqueness. The technology has been under
development for six to seven years, he estimated, and he added that it is more
advanced than other booking platforms in the marketplace.
This year, Zoom And Go was accepted into Virtuoso's
Incubator program, under which a panel of Virtuoso advisers test products and
give companies suggestions. After the trial period, all are considered for full
Virtuoso partnership. This year, 45 companies applied to be part of the program
and only five made the cut.
David Kolner, senior vice president of global member
partnerships for Virtuoso, wrote in an email that Zoom And Go's integration
with multiple GDSs, along with other aggregators, was "a key
differentiator and was enticing because of its ability to help consolidate the
various places advisers would normally have to search and book hotels for their
clients."
Kolner said there are similar products but that Zoom And Go "seemed
to have the most complete solution at this time, as they have been developing
for several years."
The platform was also attractive because its interface was
easy to use, Kolner added, and Virtuoso saw potential for it to boost
productivity and sales as well as help new agents unfamiliar with GDSs.
Virtuoso also expects increased adherence to its own hotel program, because
Zoom And Go can sort hotel results based on preferred partnerships, one of a
variety of search factors.
Zitur said he has partnered with several large agencies thus
far.
Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is one of them. In a
statement, the company called Zoom And Go "innovative" and said its
GDS integration and map-based interface are benefits. From a duty-of-care
perspective, CTM said it also appreciated Zoom And Go's traveler-tracking
capabilities.
"The tool has allowed CTM to be more strategic with our
preferred hotel suppliers," the company said. "In partnership with
our clients, and in addressing their specific travel needs and preferences, we
can set preferences as to how content is displayed to provide the most
beneficial options for our customers, which has delivered a higher attachment
rate."
Zitur said Zoom And Go is considering different integrations
like tours and activities as well as expanding outside of the U.S. and North
America.