It's not just about using the latest technology, it's about using technology in a way that allows your business to sell more. Using the latest technology platform available may allow clients to take advantage of the latest innovations and often provide the increased flexibility for expansion that so many businesses require. Many technology companies boast about their platforms being built on "state of the art" technology, but have they designed their applications with the features and flexibility needed to help serve your customers quickly and easily?
Consider the actual technology platform used to develop your travel booking engine something like the canvas and paints an artist uses to create a painting. The real creativity and talent is in the hands of the developer (artist) who uses this platform (canvas) along with development tools (paint & brushes) to create a state of the art application.
While your technology company may use the latest platform and tools available, are you sure they have the insight into your business to help use these tools to develop the best solution for you? This is where travel technology companies that collaborate with both their customers as well as travel suppliers to identify the best approach are often able to design solutions with features that can really help a business compete and succeed.
A travel booking engine needs to provide live access to the content sources your customers are looking for and provide the ability to serve them via whatever device they choose to use. To service today's mobile customer, online booking engines need to be built using responsive technology that will automatically adjust the screen layout based on the type of device being used. And for those looking to expand their reach of their travel business with affiliated agents, an online booking engine needs to be able to quickly and easily add affiliated agents and websites.
It also needs to have easy to use business management tools that allow a business owner to quickly adjust a product's selling price or offer a special targeted promotions and sales. This is another example where technology companies that collaborate with customers and suppliers can help develop better features. What type of special promotions or offers does a supplier plan to offer it's most loyal customers and how will your travel booking engine be able to easily take advantage of these offers? These questions can be easily addressed when a technology partner collaborates with all the different parties involved and considers feedback from each when designing an application.
Robust reporting tools that help you analyze and manage your business can be another key feature to look for. Most travel booking engines come with some type of basic booking report tools to track customer bookings, but some tools go beyond this. In addition to quickly providing booking information for a specific market or customer, some tools provide similar detail information about what customers searched for on a specific site. This can be valuable information when evaluating the success of your online booking engine.
Finding a travel booking engine with the right combination of features can be a critical decision for any travel business. Finding the right technology partner to collaborate with may be the key to success!
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