Tuesday 6 November 2018

A Travel Booking Engine Should Combine Components Easily



Many agents face a complexity of issues and challenges when building vacation packages often making it a time consuming process. Coordinating the various elements such as cruise departure times, flight arrival times, travel distance & time between cruise port and airport (which will vary greatly by Port) can be quite complex with some itineraries. Easy access to local hotel content for any pre or post cruise stay requirements or requests is often a challenge, especially when it involves using different systems or applications. All the elements of a cruise vacation package require precise coordination to ensure a seamless experience for the traveler. Unfortunately, in many cases travel agents are using different methods, applications or devices to research and book each of these package components. Some operations are even set up using product line experts where several agents are involved to complete the booking. A cruise expert will complete the cruise booking before passing it to an Airline expert for the flight arrangements and then a Hotel expert to add any hotel accommodations required.

Today's travel booking engine needs to be designed to allow both agents and consumers to price as well as package Cruises, Airlines, Hotels and other travel products in real time. Many have introduced dynamic packaging modules that take full advantage of their existing connections with various travel suppliers using a client's specific ID with suppliers such as cruise lines as well as airlines, various hotel content sources and even travel Insurance providers. It streamlines the process to book a complete cruise vacation by dynamically combining a cruise itinerary with air and hotel arrangements into a single package. By taking the guesswork out of the equation, agents can serve their customers more efficiently and eliminate errors while reducing the time and effort to complete a package booking. These applications are so simple to use that today's online consumer can even quickly and easily build their own unique package when the booking engine is connected to their travel agent's consumer website.

A dynamic and innovative rules engine can allow clients to drive efficiencies in the sales process by automatically delivering the proper marketing message to agents & consumer users with the ability to preset business rules and adjust a product's selling price using a wide variety of filters. Today's travel booking engine needs to be mobile ready to serve today's consumer and includes other features for traditional B2B and B2C selling channels. There are even a Custom Packaging options available that allow the Travel Agent to price multiple products, bundle them into a package and sell them as packages easily online. By taking the guesswork out of the equation, agents can serve their customers more efficiently and eliminate errors while reducing the time and effort to complete a Package booking.

Choosing 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 with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

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