GetThere

Key information

Companies using the tool Customers in 106 countries and available in 16 languages
Number of users/seats 11 million active users
Number of bookings handled annually  13 million transactions annually
Total transaction volume annually Not disclosed
Frequency of updates Monthly
Type of company Technology provider (Sabre)
Main markets Global

Pricing model

Set-up fees Yes
Ongoing fixed costs Yes
Transaction fees Sabre charges a flat fee per GetThere booking. Sabre also will consider offering tiered pricing discounts based on booking volume targets.

Content

Air All carriers represented in the supported global distribution systems Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport, etc., as well as low-cost, non-GDS content via Travelfusion integration.
Accommodation In addition to content in the GDS, GetThere Hotel Connect provides access to more than 750,000 non-GDS hotels through aggregator networks including Booking.com, HRS, Premier Inn, Expedia Partner Solutions, and HotelDO. GetThere can also display any preferred non-GDS hotels via GetThere’s Preferred Hotel Database, as well as access negotiated properties and rates from CWT’s HARP database, the Amex PRDS hotel database, and CMNet hotels in Brazil.
Rail Direct connects to SNCF and its affiliates (Lyria, Thalys, Eurostar, and TGV) in France via API and SNCB in Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg via API. GetThere also supports Eurostar via GDS and the SNCB network via API. Sabre’s Rail Consolidator Platform provides integrated rail content for Amtrak in the US and Trainline in the UK, and GetThere Rail Connect provides access to VIA Rail content in Canada.
Car Access to all rental car content in the GDS. In addition, GetThere Ground provides access to thousands of global car service and limo providers, including Carey, Boston Coach, and Empire/CLS, through integration with GroundSpan (over 5,000 global providers) and Deem (over 500 US providers).
NDC and other direct connects Travelfusion integration. Single adult passenger, air, branded fares, GDS hotel, GDS ground, corporate policy, shop: search by price, local currencies in Sabre-activated markets, book, pay by credit card, cancel before ticketing, post ticketing cancel/void/refund via Sabre Red 360

Key staff

CEO Sean Menke
CPO Wade Jones
General manager, GetThere Chris Rosa
Head of account management, GetThere Phil Michie
Head of global sales, GetThere Paul Mann

What the company says

GetThere touts its global reach, service and experience, along with local support and travel expertise in market. It claims 80 per cent traveller adoption among its North American clients and highlights its role in driving savings through rate control and adoption, granular policy control and demand management. According to executives, the platform supports “unlimited customisable rule-based policies” on a super-stable system with average monthly uptime better than 99.9 per cent. The tool also offers “flexible integration, [including] API and web services integration with multiple expense tools, HR and ERP systems.” Asked about innovations in the past 12 months, GetThere highlighted a continued focus on user experience, content personalisation via NDC and analytics for programme administration. In addition to product innovation, execs said, “Sabre strives to innovate around service from account and site management teams, developing creative solutions to meet unique customer requirements.”

What buyers say

Buyer clients praise GetThere’s reliability and say their travellers are accustomed to the product, but they would like to see more innovation. In general, they characterised it as an older generation of technology and were generally dismissive of its user interface, which one buyer summed up as “still requiring training.” Yet one buyer said that as old-gen as it may seem, it is able to do “some pretty amazing things” behind the scenes, citing granular policy application down to individual travellers, data manipulation and delivery and ways to audit hotel partner performance. Multiple buyers noted the comprehensiveness of GetThere’s content, with the exception of rail. One buyer said GetThere had been cagey about showing actual NDC capabilities against some of the availability it has claimed. Another said, “there is no NDC whatsoever.” However, buyers praised the provider’s branded airfares with a number of carriers.

What consultants say

“It can be very bespoke and clever,” said one consultant about the GetThere tool, which is targeted mostly to large multinational companies. Like buyers, consultants praised its reliability, but all said it had suffered from “lack of investment.” Some said Sabre’s recent reinvestment in the tool would help and underscored how the tool can do things that others can’t – like recognise traveller status – because it has been attached to Sabre from the get-go. But the dated look and feel “doesn’t tell a modern story,” which may depress traveller acceptance. One consultant also said the tool lacked effective direct-connects required in Europe. Another said lack of truly integrated expense hurt this tool when put up against Concur, which it often is.