Travel Booking Engines Should Be Full Service

There are so many different options for consumers to purchase travel products, so what makes a consumer choose one retailer versus another? The answer usually comes down to price, service or convenience. Whether you are selling a bottle of fine wine or a hotel room for the night, chances are one or all of these criteria will be considered by your customers when they make their purchase. Choosing which travel booking engine to use is no different for today's tech-savvy online traveler.

First, make sure you offer the best value and price to reach today's price-driven consumers. Your online booking engine must be able to search the best sources for content to make sure the best pricing and availability is used. Accessing the low rates offered by air consolidators is one way to get the best fares for your clients. Different air consolidators do specialize in different regions, so you'll want flight booking software that allows you to simultaneously search multiple air consolidators for the best fares.

You'll also need the ability to adjust the selling price quickly and easily. You should look for a travel booking engine that allows you to include value add offers right in the fare availability display and easily provide the expertise and service that only a professional travel professional can offer. Travel agents can be a great resource to find the best deal possible and help consumers who are trying to make sense of all the options available. You are your customers travel expert, so make sure you give your clients the VIP treatment they deserve. Flight booking software should allow both agents and consumers shopping online to select seats, request meals and add loyalty program information to their airline reservation. You'll want to negotiate the best deals possible with the airlines and promote any special deals or amenities that are available.

Make sure your travel booking engine is convenient for customers to use and remember today's consumer has become accustomed to shopping using a variety of devices. Some exclusively use their handheld device to research and purchase travel. Others may start their initial search using their handheld device but switch to a tablet or laptop to complete the purchase. And you will always have the more traditional consumer who may research options online, but prefer to speak with a travel professional when making travel plans.

To serve all these customers, your online travel booking engine must allow you to distribute your products and serve your customers via several online channels. You will need an application that supports Business to Business (B2B) for those customers using call centers. For this, you will want to consider an application that is easy to use and requires little agent training. For those consumers shopping via your website, you'll need a Business to Consumer (B2B) application that allows you to promote special deals and value add offers. And of course for those "on the go" consumers, you'll need a mobile ready application to fit any device. Ease of use and convenience are important when deciding on the right airline booking solution for your travel business, choosing the right technology partner.

Localize Your Global Flight Booking Software

Advances in technology come at such a fast pace that it is not uncommon for many consumers to be purchasing the "latest" version of a product when there is already "buzz" regarding the next generation of the product coming out in less than a year. Keeping up with the latest technology can also be an important decision to keep your business competitive and running efficiently.

Centralized flight booking software with Live connections to airline content along with flexible business rules to manage the product offered customers is key for any online travel business. But launching a travel booking engine globally involves a lot more than multi-currency and multi-language capabilities. As many of those expanding into new markets quickly realize, there can be a huge difference between a "global" product which is generic enough to work in several markets versus a product that has been localized to meet a markets specific needs. It is not just the Language or currency that may vary by different countries may vary, so do many of the regulations regarding consumers and the disclosure of information during the selling process. For example, many countries require unique information be displayed in the sales process some may need access to specific local content to properly serve a market. These variables require flight booking software with a layout that can be quickly tailored to meet local requirements combined with access to critical local market content.

While simply translating an application into a new language may be a quick way of entering a new market, there can be some risk involved with this simple approach. Due to local nuances with Languages, your brand message may be unclear or miscommunicated if not translated correctly or localized to account for regional dialects. For example, the Portuguese spoken in Portugal is much different than in Brazil. Spanish spoken Spain can be dramatically different than that used in Latin America. You may know by now that some things are described by using different words depending on the country. For example in most of the Spanish-speaking world, Strawberry translates to Fresa. However, this fruit is called frutilla in Argentina. When used in Mexico, Fresa describes a young person that is (acting) preppy and is used in a negative way. Mexican teenagers use it to describe the typical superficial, conceited, egocentric, and wealthy Mexican.

Flight booking software used in different markets needs to also provide for the ability to target certain customers or markets with specific marketing messages or special offers. The ability to quickly and easily target special offers by departure city or destination can be a critical tool needed to communicate where the best deals are or when a specific offer can be found. Some travel businesses even want to offer a discount to customers who book online and encourage bookings via this cost-effective channel. Or perhaps a lower the price based on the time of day or the day of week booking is made. The possibilities are endless and your ideas should not be limited by the constraints of your flight booking software. Finding the right technology partner to help take your business global is important, finding a technology partner who understands the need to localize before you can globalize in even more important.

Travel Booking Solutions Need Content

Today's travel booking solutions have come a long way since the days of the first airline reservation systems. The ability to combine air, hotel and cruise bookings as well as other travel products into custom travel packages is the perfect tool to serve today's consumer looking for unique experiences. Travel businesses have been quick to learn that moving sales to E-commerce saves them time and money. An online booking engine is typically the most cost-effective way to serve customers today and the innovative technology available helps software solution providers design and develop flexible & fully scalable applications that easily grow with any size business.

The optional packaging modules available today combine various live Supplier connections with a travel booking engine's dynamic and innovative rules engine. Travel Agents are able to easily deliver the appropriate marketing message to their Users and the unique process flow helps them quickly expand the products and services they provide their customers. Custom Packaging features even allow travel agents to pre-package a custom travel itinerary to be sold online alongside a cruise or individually for example. From a workflow perspective, the User is provided a single price and custom day to day travel schedule for the complete itinerary.

Travel booking solutions with Live access to airline content provide the latest pricing and availability. Access to seat maps, customer loyalty program perks, and special meal requests can be just a click away as well. Hotel content comes with links to media files & rich content to assist with selecting the right hotel property and room during the booking process. Detailed hotel descriptions and photos combined with area maps and nearby points of interest help Users select the hotel that's right for them.

The extensive cruise content and information available in travel booking solutions today assist the online User researching the different cruise line and ship options available. Detailed cruise line and ship information integrated with ship photo galleries and deck plans provide a good idea what a particular cruise ship has to offer. Extensive databases of estimated travel distances between airports and cruise departure ports allow the user to easily add a flight to their cruise booking while eliminating all the guesswork.

Serving today's growing number of consumers using a mobile device to purchase travel products has become so important that many companies now require a mobile booking engine. Mobile ready travel booking solutions are built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts screen size and layout to the type of device being used. Now, regardless of the type of device a customer uses to access a travel website, applications are available that automatically adjust the screen layout. Powerful business rule engines allow an agency owner to control the selling price or include targeted promotional offers right in the availability display.

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.