The travel booking engine you choose is a key element of your online business operations and needs to support the larger overall company strategy. It is always a good idea to start by reviewing your existing customer base and determine how you might serve them better and offer them additional services. Research has shown that it is usually less expensive to sell to existing customers and avoid to additional costs and resources often required to secure a new customer. Have you considered adding a hotel option for those customers using your air booking engine? What about a packaging engine that uses Cruise as the base of the transaction and then adds other travel products like air, hotel accommodations or activities during or around the Cruise dates. Odysseus clients will now have the features and capability to offer agents and consumers to either tailor make their own cruise/holiday with flights, hotel, activities and more or from a set of predefined trip/package that is tailored by a vacation expert.
How do your end customers prefer to make their travel reservations? This can be an important question to answer to make sure the travel booking engine you choose will provide access to the distribution channels you'll need to serve your customers. Decades ago, a good retail location with plenty of foot traffic and a few Advertisements featuring special offers were enough to drive customers into your agency. The online revolution has dramatically changed the way consumers shop for everything, including travel.
Call center applications are great for providing personalized customer service and many give Agents the tools they need to research the best options and quickly assist customers on the phone or sitting at their desk. Some customers prefer to research options online and then call and speak with an agent to confirm their arrangements, while others like to research and book their travel arrangements at their convenience. It is all about consumer choice today and your business has to be ready with a travel booking engine ready to serve customers how and where they want. If your customers are like most, the application you choose will likely need to support B2B, B2C as well as B2B2C to serve your clients.
After you determine the content you'll need to include and the distribution channels you need access to, it's time to consider your technology options. Will a simple "white label" booking solution work for you or does your business need something a little more customized? Do you need to work with a host agency or an air consolidator for some or all of your products or do use plan to your own agency credentials with the Supplier? What about the ability to adjust a products selling price or include a value add offer along with a hotel reservation or cruise vacation? There are countless technology providers offering different types of solutions for your business.
Finding a travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer where and how they shop for travel can be just as important.
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