Decades ago, a good retail location with plenty of foot traffic and a few newspaper advertisements featuring special offers were enough to drive customers into your agency. The online revolution has dramatically altered this reality, changing the way consumers shop for everything, including their travel arrangements. The booking solution a travel business chooses is a key element of its operations and must support the larger overall company strategy. A review of your current systems and processes will help you find the solution that’s right for your business.
Do you need an “out of the box” fully hosted booking engine that uses standard templates with customized headers, footers as well as colors and fonts? Or are you looking to customize the booking engine templates yourself with an XML Booking Engine?
A good place to start may be reviewing your existing customer base and determining how you might serve them better or offer them additional services. After all, research has proven that it is less expensive to sell to an existing customer and avoid the additional resources required to secure a new customer. For example, have you considered adding a hotel option to your travel booking engine for those customers using your air booking engine? What about a packaging engine that can book a Cruise and then add other travel products such as air, hotel accommodations or even activities during and around the Cruise dates? Do you know how your customers prefer to make their travel arrangements? This is an important question to answer if you want to make sure the travel booking engine you choose will access the distribution channels you need to serve your customers.
Most call center applications give Agents the tools they need to research the best options and quickly assist customers on the phone or visiting their agency. Mobile-ready applications allow consumers to research and book options online at their convenience. It is all about consumer choice today and your business must be ready with a travel booking solution that is ready to serve today’s mobile consumer. An XML Booking Engine can even be used to expand your reach further by interfacing your booking engine with the various metasearch sites in the market.
Once you have determined the specific content to include and the various distribution channels you need to access, it’s time to consider your technology options. Will a simple out of the box solution work for you or does your business need something a little more customized? For those looking to design and control the layout of their booking solution, an XML Booking Engine may be the best solution. It allows you to host all of the Booking Engine’s User Interfaces on your own servers while using the XML connection for business logic as well as live pricing, availability & booking. This simple XML interface can combine multiple sources into a single interface, eliminating the need to maintain multiple connections if you work with a host agency or consolidator as well as using your own agency credentials with the Supplier.
Finding a travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that drives efficiency through innovation can be even more important.
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