The Travel Booking Engine Evolution

As a new generation of travelers considers planning a vacation, their path to purchase has become increasingly complex compared to the generations before them. Growing up amid the technology revolution, today's consumer is tech savvy and will naturally move across different devices, websites and selling channels when researching and planning a vacation. And with all the shopping being done online, the data captured from the research and shopping activity should be driving a new level of traveler engagement.

Today's travel booking engine needs to be able to deliver the right information on the preferred device at any point in the research, shopping or purchase cycle. This includes the increasingly important mobile research part of the travel purchase process. The way consumers interact with a travel agent needs to keep up with the advances in online bookings, so the service a travel agent provides is seamlessly integrated with a consumer's online research and shopping.

And with all the information collected when someone is online, the identification of common preferences through data analysis should produce passenger segment profiles that assist a travel agent in the travel planning process. For example, Singles, young Families and older Couples may each look for a different experience and will probably research, shop and purchase their travel using different methods. A traveler's income level may determine they type of accommodations they require. First time travelers need to be normalized and simplified to educate the new purchaser on the value of different options. A travel booking engine needs to employ techniques such as collaborative filtering that provide examples of what a similar customer purchased can be used to help with the shopping experience. Using past data from similar customers shopping history to recommend options that meet the new purchaser's needs can eventually lead to a more personalized booking experience.

Today's travel booking engine needs to provide information about the specific amenities a hotel property may offer such as free internet or breakfast. Hotels offer varying levels of comfort and service, so matching a client with the right hotel is important. The ability to sort a search for hotel rooms by a particular star rating or the average nightly rate can speed up the process dramatically for example. Detailed descriptions and photos of guest rooms and public areas can help in choosing the right property. Consumers have become accustom to reserving a specific seat on an airplane or requesting a special meal during their flight, so your travel booking engine needs to be able to handle these requests. Live access to content is critical to make sure the most up to date availability and pricing is used. The booking engine needs to have a powerful business rules feature that will allow you to adjust a product's selling price or include a specific marketing message about a special offer.

Finding 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.

Flight Reservation Systems Should Build Packages

Dynamic packaging is a new component that has become a key part of today's flight reservation system. The ability to combine airline reservations with a hotel, cruise or tours has emerged as a major revenue source for anyone selling travel today. This extends the process from simply selling a flight to selling the entire vacation experience. And packaging capability is a crucial requirement for cruise booking platforms for example, especially in specific markets such as Australia, Asia and China where packaging increases the ability to sell a cruise itself.

Creating a dynamic package is also essential for the millennial traveler who wants customized experiences. Today's solution should allow a user to easily compare multiple itineraries including individual components and pre-built packages. A sophisticated rules engine can help to deliver the right marketing message and inform the User of all promotions that a Supplier and/or the agency may be offering. Price adjustments to a product selling price need to be able to be made quickly and easily to maintain your competitiveness in the online market. Rich Media should be integrated in the search process to simplify the shopping experience. Users should be able to choose the components they need and dynamically create a custom package. Helpful features such as a pre-defined list of hotels that match a flight itinerary should be offered.

A database that maps the closest hotels to each airport or city location eliminates the guesswork and can match the hotel and flights based on the search defined. All through the process, the total price of the package being built should be clearly visible to the User creating a day by day itinerary for easy review.

A flight reservation system should also provide agents the ability to save a Package as a quote to be repriced at a later time to further simplify their workflow. It should track detailed financials, providing an agency owner the details of what the customer owes the agency and the agency owes to the Supplier. The financial details captured should also allow the agency to track their margins by product and the package. Today's applications have taken a manual and tedious process that often involved multiple team members and tools to build and custom package and simplified it. Custom packaging can make the online comparable shopping difficult.

And with more of the world's population using the internet to research and book travel, the ease and accessibility of a flight reservation system via mobile devices is critical. No matter if someone starts their travel research using their mobile device and then complete their reservation with their travel agent, or they research, shop and book everything online. Your business needs to be there when they begin their search, so make sure the application you choose is mobile ready.

Finding flight reservation system 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.

The Online Mixed With Offline Cruise Revolution

Will the online revolution in Travel eventually lead to the demise of the Travel Agent? Some may argue that the days when consumers would go to their local travel agency to book a weekend getaway or annual vacation are long gone. With the Millennial generation now making up such a significant portion of the population, more and more people now use the internet to research and book travel. Ease and accessibility via mobile devices are critical whether your customers start their research and shopping using their mobile device and complete their booking with a travel agent, or research, shop, and book online.

In 2018, almost half of all global travel will be booked online. During the same period, Cruise Lines International Association projects that 27.2 million people will take a cruise. And despite huge advances in online automation, most will complete their booking using an offline method. It is estimated that just less than 20% of all cruise revenue was booked online last year, indicating that booking a cruise is primarily still an offline process. While this may appear to be the case on the surface, the truth is that in today's connected world, it is likely that the majority of these Consumers spent hours online researching and planning their cruise vacation before completing the transaction with a travel agent or cruise line sales representative. This trend clearly highlights a need to integrate online research with the offline expertise of a travel professional. With mobile devices enabling consumers to be online anywhere at any time, today's cruise booking software needs to be mobile ready.

As technology evolves, unique offers like shipboard credits, etc. as part of the availability display will be incorporated into the process and provide options for agents and consumers to "pick the perk" that best meets their needs. Ultimately this is intended to identify the true value of a booking beyond the cabin to the total value of the cruise experience. Big data analytics will continue to drive mass customization targeting specific offers to traveler segments leading to greater adoption. This will lead to the onboard experience influenced by information gathered during the planning and booking process with packaging an essential tool for cruise line resellers generating incremental revenue and enhanced experiences for customers.

Today, it is clear that traditional travel agents need cruise booking software that integrates and standardizes multiple cruise content and captures and controls the user interface for the customer and travel agent. The goal needs to simplify the experience for the consumer and improve the efficiency of the online and offline process. Cruise planning and research will continue to grow online, and the key to this evolution is a next-generation platform that connects the online and offline worlds into a seamless user experience.

Finding cruise booking software 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.