The Right Travel Agent Software Will Have Your Agents Selling More

The travel business has gone through significant changes over the past few years and travel agencies have had to adjust their business tools along the way. Finding the right travel agent software can help an agency owner get agents trained and selling quicker while streamlining the agencies overall selling process. The travel agent booking engines available today are easy to use and are designed to help agency owners automate processes, increase revenues and reduce time and effort required to complete a transaction.

Today's applications provide an agent view (B2B) for travel professionals to use as well as easy to use consumer views (B2C) for an agency's website. Many use the same application for each view, eliminating any concern an agency owner may have with syncing up passenger records with two separate systems. The travel agent view provides agents using the application with important information such as commission amount, fare basis codes used, etc. While these fields are visible to travel agents using the application, they are hidden to the consumer who would not understand the relevance anyway.

Flexible and Customizable, online booking engines can be easily customized to support each agency's own brand identity and unique selling style. Many online booking solutions include revenue management tools to help an agency owner control the selling price and maximize revenues. The ability to define unique business rules allow an agency to feature special deals and value add offers to their customers and adjust theses offers along the way.

Knowing what your customers are purchasing online is important, but knowing what they are looking for on your website can be even more important. Most of today's online applications include the ability to track bookings made online, but some also have the ability to track specific search criteria, which will show what customers are looking for. This can be valuable information when identifying travel trends and ensuring that you have the right product at the right price available for your agents and customers alike.

The right travel agent software can also enable agency owners to expand their clientele base while reducing their overall operating costs. For example, there is often no limit to the number of users or websites that can access an online travel booking engine and some can even handle multiple languages and currencies to allow travel agencies to quickly expand their business into new markets.

An online booking engine is no longer something that only large travel companies can afford and there is an online booking engine available today to meet the needs of any size travel business. So if your agency needs an air booking engine, hotel booking engine or a cruise booking engine and whether your customer books directly with a travel agent (B2B) -or- they prefer to shop and book online (B2C), there is a travel agent software available to help you service them quickly and easily. All you need to do is find a technology partner that has the tools that your business needs to compete.

In this article author writes about Odysseus Solutions. The added value that a Travel Booking Engine can offer your customers will simply help your travel business build brand recognition and expand the ways that you interact with your customers.

Flexibility Drives the Mobile Revolution

There has been revolution in online commerce and suddenly there are Mobile Apps for everything. The travel industry is no exception, with state of the art mobile apps available to book anything from an airline ticket, a hotel room or even ground transportation. These mobile apps are not just offered by the big online travel agencies (OTAs), but also small and midsize travel companies who have joined the revolution and are now offering a mobile booking engine of their own.

With so many people spending so much time looking at their mobile devices today, just about any website needs to be mobile friendly in order to fully compete in the online market. Many of today’s consumers start their research for travel products using their mobile devices, so it is critical that any online travel website and associated booking engines be mobile friendly as well.

Many online retailers offer more than just a mobile-friendly websites, and several of the small businesses you may interact with everyday probably have their own dedicated mobile apps. Whether it is your favorite restaurant in town or a big online retailer, companies are leveraging the mobile revolution mobile booking engine and making their products available and visible to potential customers at all times.

There are several companies specializing in the development of online booking engines complete with mobile apps for booking travel. There are also some offering the tools for those looking to customize the User Interface of their online booking engine and mobile app themselves. The XML booking engine options that are available today can provide clients all the powerful business logic and processing capabilities that an online travel booking engine requires while allowing for the customization of the User Interface at their own convenience. When flexibility in design and client control of the User Interface are key requirements for your travel business, an XML booking engine may be something you want to consider.

With the average person spending over two hours a day their mobile device, there are added benefits that a dedicated will bring your business when it comes to brand image which you may not have considered.

One of the benefits of having your own dedicated mobile app is the ability to provide your customers with information such as special discounts and promotions right on their mobile device. Plus the fact that each time a user scrolls through their device searching for an app they want to use, your app icon will there for them to see whether consciously or unconsciously!

The added value that a mobile booking engine can offer your customers will simply help your travel business build brand recognition and expand the ways that you interact with your customers. There is no doubt that mobile apps will soon be a standard component of any online retailers business model, the question is when will your online business be ready with the tools you need to succeed? Flexibility is key in today’s online world, so finding a technology partner that can provide the tools needed to revolutionize your travel business is more important than ever!

How Helpful Is A Hotel Booking Engine?

Today you can research and buy just about anything online, and travel is no exception. Whether you are looking to book an airline ticket, reserve a car or make a hotel reservation, chances are there are several places you can go online. This major shift in consumer behaviour has forced many travel agents to adjust the way they interact with their customers.

Let's face it, most people today will start their research online whether they are purchasing a book, a new car or planning a trip. Today's traveller can go online from just about anywhere to research what a destination has to offer, review various flight possibilities, consider hotel options and find things to do during their trip. Whether a traveller is looking for a good restaurant in a distant town or interested in the nightlife a certain city may have to offer, chances are they will be able to find the information they are looking for online.

The right hotel reservation software can allow any size travel agent to compete with the largest online travel company while providing the personalized service that only an individual travel agent can provide. Whether customers book directly with a travel agent -or- they prefer to shop and book online, hotel reservation software is a key tool that any travel business will need in order to serve customers looking to reserve a hotel room quickly and easily.

Finding the right hotel booking engine can help any travel agency automate the hotel booking process, increase their agency revenues and reduce the amount of time and effort required to complete a hotel booking for their customers. The online booking engines that are available in the market today can even be customized to an agency's specific needs and branded to provide a seamless online experience for those visiting an agency website.

For today's traveller, researching and booking hotel accommodations is easy when using an online hotel booking engine. Many are designed with the capability to search the rates and check availability at multiple properties within a given city or location. Most hotel reservation software will include various hotel images and room descriptions to help decide which hotel and room type is best for a specific traveller. Some booking engines even have the ability to search multiple websites to find the best deal at a specific hotel property. The different website options available seem endless and can sometimes overwhelming for many shopping online. Using a travel agent can certainly help, finding a travel agent with the online tools that allow their customers to research and shop for hotel accommodations on line can be even better.

So how important is an online hotel booking engine for a travel agent's customers today? How important is an online booking engine to a travel agency business? I would say very important for those travel agents that are looking to serve the millions of travellers who are already researching, shopping and purchasing their travel arrangements online today.