ACE Rent A Car Reservations Inc. and Bluebird Auto Rental Systems Inc. announced a joint development to deliver the next generation in seamless reservation delivery to their joint customers. The two companies are developing a new-technology reservation delivery system based on OpenTravel standards. This development represents a significant step forward from the 1970s-era technology still used throughout the car rental industry to exchange reservation information among business partners.

Based on a new XML message protocol developed by ACE, this new solution will deliver reservations to ACE’s affiliates seamlessly in real time. Unlike the prior technology, the new XML-based solution supports the full information set common in today’s travel reservations, including prepayments, special equipment, complex taxes and fees, and advanced rate calculations.

ACE Rent A Car affiliates benefit from this new solution. “This is a technology improvement that is long overdue. With each passing year, our reservation packets have become more and more sophisticated,” remarked Craig Parmerlee, director of Business Development for ACE. “But the data exchange protocol remained at such a primitive level that it sometimes led to poor customer service and lost business opportunities. We are excited to offer this advancement for ACE affiliates that are moving to Bluebird’s RentWorksTM Version 4.”

Angela Margolit, president of Bluebird Auto Rental Systems, added “Our most active, strategic-minded customers are making the migration to RentWorks Version 4 in 2009. Many of these customers are ACE affiliates, so we are excited to be able to deliver this important feature to enable our customers to become as efficient and productive as possible.”

As a member of the OpenTravel Alliance, ACE intends to submit this new solution to OpenTravel for inclusion in their suite of industry-standard interconnect solutions. The new feature is available in ACE’s RezPower® software system and will be added to RentWorks Version 4 in 2009.