SURPRISE '97 - Intelligent Agent Technology in Travel Reservation Systems

Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine Departments of Computing and Electronic Engineering

27 May 1997

Online Travel Reservation Systems : Case Study
How Intelligent Are They?
Alexis R D Michaelides ( ardm@doc.ic.ac.uk )

Abstract:
What makes on-line travel reservation systems work? Do existing ones really work? Several companies have started to go 'live'. This process mainly involved the translation of crude, unformatted information found in their databases to an easy to use, intuitive user interface, suitable for any John or Jane Doe. Not an easy task of course. Then there's the actual reservation system. Use an existing one, and try to cover-up it's ugliness by pretty HTML editing and graphics? Or create an entirely new system, which has to be backwards-compatible so as to make sure all information is intact? It seems that it is too early to answer these questions, as the game has only just begun. This article will, hopefully, try to show how well a certain company has succeeded (or failed, if the case may be) in creating such an online service.







1 Online Computer Reservation Systems

Any company wishing to offer it's services online has to overview the pros and cons of such a decision. Since, as far as travel reservation systems are concerned, this is a relatively new area, many companies are sceptical. The airlines themselves can also be considered to be sceptical about going online. Since by having air fares publicly available, potential customers can now find for themselves a better deal. This will make the market even more competitive as it is, reducing profit margins for all airlines, whether involved or not.

This is where Travelocity [1] seems to step in and save the day. They seem to have found the missing ingredient required to make an online travel service to succeed. Being jointly created by Worldview and The SABRE Group, Inc. [2] , they already have access to one of the largest travel databases in the world. Everyone's happy now, since the traveller can freely access all this information, and Travelocity gets a commission on all transactions made. But is this the case? Another, simpler attempt was also made by Sabre, offering EasySABRE [3] to the public, with a small membership fee. This was originally created as a BBS service in 1985, and has now expanded to include the Web. However, this is a text-based only system, and it can be frustrating entering jargon such as ' 1 LHR LAX 19JUL 1000A 12 1 1 ' to find a flight itinerary. And the output given to the user isn't exactly intuitive. However, since the original Sabre service already existed, it was an effective was for the company to create more profits without much hassle.



2 What Does Travelocity Offer?

Having more than 60 years experience in reservation systems (though obviously not all of them computerised), Sabre knew what they had to deal with in order to make this work. Travelocity provides more than just a set of HTML pages, where the user can browse the information given. They are a fully-interactive website, providing everything and anything to do with travel. Their continuously updated databases contain maps, photos, weather advisories, currency converters, video highlights of tourist hotspots. Airline, hotel and car reservations can be requested, with current prices returned to the user, allowing them to make bookings with just one mouse-click (so to speak).

Surely there must be more than plain magic to all this. The Travelocity site has more than 300,000 Web pages which can be searched instantaneously (or so they say). Unfortunately, this is not all so true. Yes, their servers are powerful and fast, and can churn out 30 to 40 Web pages per second, with their database handler being able to process 5,000 requests per second (more information on the technical aspects of the site here [5] ). But all this can come to a screeching halt, due to man's worst enemy. The internet.



3 Try And Test

Unfortunately, there is more to speed and reliability than just stating values and numerical results. Such systems can be tested time and again, but due to the unpredictable nature of the Web, from one day to another using such a service can be anything from a stroll in the park, to a gruesome drive in downtown traffic. However, when we tested the system (unfortunately, we had to abort making any real travel reservations!) it seemed quite responsive to us. A typical example was used, several times, and it seems that all is well. However, at peak times, accessing the site was more of a problem, but then again, this can be said for any site on the internet.


3.1 Finally, A Friendly User Interface?

To those in the business, it is a well known fact that computer reservation systems are monsters as far as user interface is concerned. This is a major problem when such a system is to be made available to the general public. Nobody wants to type in more information than is necessary, and most importantly, more than once. It seems that Travelocity has overcome this problem, as much as is allowed by current standards in Web browsers. After creating an account (can be temporary or permanent by choice) by entering user name and password, one can enter the system, and begin their search for a travel service.

Making a request, is relatively simple. For example, custom travel itineraries are compiled on the fly by completing interactive questionnaires, and any results can be sorted in a number of methods, such as price or airline preference. As an example, a return flight from London Heathrow to Los Angeles was requested, and results were given, the whole procedure taking less than a minute. This sure seems to be much better than going down to the travel agent, waiting in a queue and having to deal with waiting for the tour operator to tap away at his/her keyboard every time you ask a question.

Airline, hotel and car-rental reservations are available to all, but to make a real booking, credit card details are obviously required. These can be passed on using a secure server using SSL, which will, hopefully, allow more wary users to use the site. Now, one may ask, what happens if more than one booking is made. Does he/she have to enter the credit card details every time? This is where user profiles comes in. Once a user has created a permanent account, any repetitive information can be entered. This would include such details as name, address, contact numbers and credit card details. These can then be used over and over with a single mouse-click whenever a booking is required. Of course, not everybody will feel safe about leaving such sensitive information to 'strangers' so entering information more than once may be a problem that will not be easily overcome.


3.2 Other Services

Apart for the obvious services, which would pertain airline, hotel or car reservations, there is a great deal more information that can be handed out to online viewers. It certainly seems that Travelocity has hit the mark here, since they offer almost whatever comes to mind concerning travel and holidays.

Any information thinkable can be found in their website, such as maps, photos, weather advisories, currency converters, video highlights of tourist hotspots. There is obviously all the information stored in Sabre such as that regarding hotels, where details can be found for hotels worldwide. Any other information provided can be easily searched for using their search-engine, giving the results in a hierarchical form (very YAHOO-esque, for those aware of it). Categories such as Dining, Nightlife & Accommodations , Vacations & Tour Packages , Events and Activities will keep everyone busy learning about possible destinations. Definitely more information than any travel agent can remember offhand, and freely accessible.

Obviously, the travel market is split in two major portions, mainly business related and leisure related. Most of the data provided will be useful to the latter group, although information on currencies, weather and maps can be used by both. However, more emphasis is given on the leisure-tourist side of the market, since in general, a businessperson will know beforehand what he/she requires from a trip.

Another interesting feature is the ability to view and purchase travel merchandise online. Such necessities as A.C. adapters, toiletries, luggage, travel books and even wine can be ordered online. And, as any company should, Travelocity earns a transaction fee for every purchase.



4 View To The Future - Conclusions

It will be obvious to anyone visiting the site that Travelocity has produced an extremely professional, yet very user friendly service in this field. Seemingly so, anyone wishing to obtain any travel information will be easily led to their required answer, without much hassle. However, something must be said regarding intelligent agents with this service, as the overall theme is such.

The main thing to notice is that the only obvious agent is the user's web browser, which provides the graphical interface to the site. However other more transparent agents are at work here. Since most of the data obtained by a user will have come from a text-based Sabre system, some form of conversion must be handled by the Travelocity servers. Obviously the opposite is also true, where the questionnaires filled in by the user will be converted to a Sabre-compatible input.

One may ask why doesn't Sabre change their interface? Well the answer is simple. Sabre is used by a vast majority of travel and tour operators worldwide, and they have expended a huge amount of time and resources in training their personnel to use the system. An overnight overhaul of the system is not exactly a piece of cake either. Travelocity though seems to have partially solved the problem, by providing some 'hidden' coding which will convert a beastly interface into something useable.

What's the next step in such systems though? With the current level of home PC power available, not much can be done with regards to the human-computer interface. Ideally the scenario would be a voice-activated system, where the user would just talk to the computer, and get all results both in video and audio format. Of course, other problems arise, such as limited bandwidth and processing speed, but by the time full voice recognition is available to us, more will have been done in other fields as well.

For now however, the 'point, click and fill in forms' method seems to be the only way forward, with some future prospects available in virtual reality. One will be able to see the hotel before he books, drive the car, even check out the view from the aeroplane! Evidently, the more natural the input is, the better the system will appear to the end-user. Perhaps that's why people still prefer to pay a personal visit to a travel agent and discuss their options. Even if they still have to wait for the travel agent to tap away at his/her keyboard for the answers. It seems that real travel agencies still have a future, while virtual travel agencies are just going to have to wait for the future.



List of References:



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1	Travelocity Website
	Travelocity, 1997
	Usefulness :                     (9)
	Readability :                     (8)
	Content : An online travel reservation system
	On-Line : http://www.travelocity.com
	Obtained From : WEB
	Notes : Main example used for this article as a case study.




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2	The SABRE Group, Inc.
	Content : Company's Homepage
	On-Line : http://www.sabre.com
	Notes : The world's leading company providing computer reservations. Not available to the general public though, since Sabre cooperates with travel agents and services only.




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3	EasySABRE
	Content : A publicly available version of the SABRE system, however, it is text-based and crude to use.
	On-Line : http://www.easysabre.com




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4	Intelligent Agents: A Technology and Business Application Analysis
	Kathryn Heilmann, 1995
	Usefulness :                     (7)
	Readability :                     (8)
	Content : Information on Intelligent Travel Agents
	On-Line : http://haas.berkeley.edu/~heilmann/agents/#exsum
	Obtained From : WEB




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5	The Working Web
	Lee Bruno, 1997
	Data Communications vol. April 1997, pp 50-60
	Usefulness :                     (6)
	Readability :                     (7)
	Content : Article describing the creation of Travelocity's online services.
	On-Line : http://www.data.com/case_studies/working.html
	Obtained From : I.C. Central Library




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6	Software Agents: An Overview
	Hyacinth S. Nwana, 1996
	Knowledge Engineering Review vol. 11:3, 205-244
	Usefulness :                     (2)
	Readability :                     (6)
	Content : Paper investigating possibilities for the classification and typology of software agents
	On-Line : http://www.cs.umbc.edu/agents/introduction/ao/
	Download Postscript : http://www.cs.umbc.edu/agents/introduction/ao.ps
	Obtained From : WWW, I.C. Central Library




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