Hotels Bookings Provide Better Service While Increasing Revenues

Have you ever considered if you are assisting your clients with their complete travel arrangements? If you are providing your client an airline reservation and ticket for a quick business trip or a week's long vacation, chances are they may need a place to stay as well. But many travel agents overlook this component of a trip and focus on the airline ticket or cruise vacation. But including a hotel with either of these can help improve the overall service a travel agency provides it's customers while increasing overall revenues. So, access to a hotel reservation software is something you will want to be sure and consider when evaluating online booking engine options for your travel business.

First make sure the can the application be customized to match the "look and feel" of your company's branding. You need to consider that your website and online booking engine are your company's presence in today's crowded online marketplace. The platform you choose needs to match your company's branding and have the capability to provide all the unique offers that help make your business stand out from the competition.

Check to see if you are serving your customers via the channels they prefer to use. For today's "on the go" consumer, mobile ready hotel reservation software may be an option you want to include. Research has shown that many consumers use different devices as they shop and eventually purchase products online. Some start their initial research using their handheld device for example, but switch to their Laptop to finalize and complete the purchase. Others may choose to use their handheld device exclusively. Either way, the hotel booking engine you choose for your business needs to be mobile ready to serve today's online consumer on the device they choose.

Make sure the hotel reservation software you choose has kept pace with the latest developments in technology and allows you to easily expand your business. A good hotel booking engine will include links to media files & rich content to assist both travel agents and consumers with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. You should be able to easily search for a hotel property by location, including by neighborhood or proximity to points of interest. The booking engine should provide you with information like availability of WiFi access and nearby points of interest as well as availability of services and amenities onsite. Having access to recent pictures of a particular hotel combined with a wealth of information about the property can be invaluable when deciding on the right hotel.

And with If you plan to participate in the Global Marketplace, you'll need a hotel booking engine that can easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages. Look for "state of the art" applications that are flexible & fully scalable and will easily grow with your business.

Identifying hotel reservation software with right combination of content and product features for your hotel booking engine can be a critical decision for your travel business, finding the right technology partner can be just as important.

Making An Airline Booking is Easier Than Ever

Making an airline reservation has never been easier. Today's traveler can book flights using a variety of devices, including their mobile phone or tablet. Most airlines have had their own online air booking engines for decades and most of the larger carriers have launched dedicated mobile apps for their most frequent and loyal customers. The increasing popularity of the air mobile app has been driven by a population that is always on the move and prefers not to carry their tablet or laptop with them. Research has shown that many initiate their search using airline booking software on a handheld mobile device, but later switch to a tablet or laptop to finalize the booking. All they need is to download the air mobile app of their choice on their cell phone and log-in.

But airlines are not the only ones with mobile Apps to book airline reservations. The airline booking software available today can easily enable any travel business to cater to clientele on the move. Optional Air Mobile Apps can take full advantage of all the powerful features and functionality that come with an online booking engine. The content source you choose to use can be a critical decision, so you'll want to evaluate the different options. Do you plan to use your own IATA credentials and GDS ID to make bookings and issue tickets? Do you work with a Host Agency or Air Consolidator? Will the application you choose need the ability to simultaneously search multiple sources for the best airfare? Each of these are possible scenarios to consider when making a decision on the type of air booking engine you'll need to be successful.

Today's easy to use airline booking software allows agency owners to train their agents quickly and get them selling faster. Agents are no longer required to learn complicated GDS codes required to access the latest airline schedules and availability. Many of today's online air booking engines for travel agents use the same simple screens that consumer booking engines use. Powerful marketing tools allow agency owners to deliver targeted messages to agents and/or consumers shopping online about a specific sale fare or promotion they are offering. Whether they need to adjust a product's selling price, or research which distribution channels are the most effective, agency owners have more tools an information at their fingertips than ever before. Pre-set business rules help eliminate potential agent errors and allow an agency owner the ability to control a products selling price when consumers shop via the online booking engine connected to an agency's website. There are even solutions for who want to control their own User Interfaces while still taking advantage of the powerful tools offered by an existing air booking including access to live pricing, availability & booking capabilities.

Finding an airline booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision for your business. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Overwhelmed By Flight Booking Options?

Whether you are looking for a simple home repair or a major purchase for your business, the stress and confusion experienced when researching options for any product or service can be overwhelming. We have all had a similar anxiety ridden experience at some point and with the countless number of flight booking software solutions available in the market today, choosing the right air booking engine for your travel business is no different. First you need to identify what products your clients are looking to book to properly decide what content you'll need to gain access to. One thing you'll want to consider may be preferred relationships you may have with an airline or any alliances the airlines may have each other. The seamless services these airline alliances provide passengers go far beyond interline fares or the linking of frequent flyer programs and can significantly enhance your customer's overall travel experience.

But airlines are not the only sector in the travel industry to benefit from forming alliances. Over the years, many travel agencies have been forced to consolidate with other agencies and/or become a member of one of the large travel agency consortia groups. These groups are able to negotiate the best rates, higher commissions and special offers for their members as well as provide other operational and marketing assistance as part of the overall membership package.

One phenomenon that resulted from agency consolidation was the explosive growth of "home based" agents. As a result, the ability to expand the distribution of an agency's airfares to "affiliates" of their agency quickly and easily is an important tool for many air consolidators in the market today. Most agency owners still want to maintain their own unique company brand with their customers however, so the ability to easily expand the access of your flight booking software to affiliated agencies while maintaining their individual brand identity can be crucial.

With so many airfares and so many agencies forming alliances, the ability for flight booking software to simultaneously search multiple content sources for the best airfare can be a competitive advantage. In today's constantly changing market, travel agencies need the flexibility to control a product's selling price to maintain a competitive edge. Today's travel agency flight reservation systems come with features that allow the selling price to be adjusted based on an extensive range of criteria including by airline, booking date, travel date and class of service. Some even allow you to make adjustments based on the distribution channel used to make the booking.

Some flight booking software has even kept pace with the consumer trend to use mobile devices to research and book airline tickets. "Mobile friendly" airline booking engines are available that automatically adjust the screen size and layout based on the type of device being used.

The time you invest in identifying your product requirements and researching the different options available to you will be time well spent. Finding flight booking software with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision for your business. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer can be just as important.

Travel Agent Software Can Make The Agent

Booking with a travel agent has always been a great way to find the best deal. Not only is a professional travel agent familiar with the wide variety of different travel products available, they can often get you the best rate, extra amenities and even upgrades. A good travel agent can help with your entire trip including VIP access to local attractions and airport transfers. In short, how satisfied you are with your overall travel experience may depend upon the travel agent you choose or whether you go it on your own.

But like with most professions, the tools a travel agent uses can play a huge role in how successful they are. Travel agent software can vary dramatically when it comes to the content, features and distribution channels they support. Live access to supplier content should be provided to ensure the most accurate availability and pricing is used. A travel booking solution should reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a reservation and automate processes to make it easier for agents and financial staff to manage bookings. Tools that automatically cross check a booking with a Supplier can eliminate costly errors while the automatic export of booking data for integration with external systems can save a tremendous amount of time and resources.

Travel agent software needs to include the business management tools that provide an agency owner the tools they need to adjust a product selling price or deliver a specific marketing message directly to User in the availability display. Targeted promotions and special offers can set your business apart from competition with unique offerings and VIP service and should be easy to set up and define. Display Biasing capabilities can even provide the ability to promote preferred cruise suppliers with preferential placement in the availability display. While optional products such as Dynamic Packaging allow for Users to package and price airline reservations, hotel accommodations, even cruise bookings live using a travel shopping cart. Many dynamic packaging products have been developed as an extension of an existing Booking Engine and take advantage of existing live connections with various suppliers. While custom packaging features allow agents to tailor make a travel itinerary to be sold online to consumers as a Package.

Content Source can play a key role with any travel agent software and not just with packaging engines. Access to the major GDSs, Hotel aggregators, Cruise lines and other content specific to your client's travel needs can be critical in determining how successful your business is! You may even want to consider integration with travel insurance providers for ancillary revenues and added service. For example, ancillary products like a cruise data cache with the latest updates on cruise line pricing and availability can help you develop unique offerings or promote when the lowest price on a particular ship or itinerary is available and give you an edge over the competition.

Finding travel agent software with the right combination of options for your travel business can be critical to your success. Finding the right technology partner can be just as important.