Travel Agent Software Should Simply Your Life

With so many different suppliers offering so many different deals, sometimes keeping track of, making price adjustments and promoting special offers into a full time job for many travel website owners.  In order to keep pace with the ever changing airfares and the multitude of special promotions that cruise lines offer, today's travel booking solutions must have the capability to quickly and easily adjust a product’s selling price and include value add offers.

Fortunately, much of the travel agent software that is available today can help simplify the process with powerful business rule features. Many of these applications includes features that allow business owners to easily adjust a product’s selling price by defining their own markup, discount, value add offers and more while supporting both Business to Business and Business to Consumer sales channels.

In addition to the basic functions such as markup and discount, some cruise booking engines incorporate custom rule types such as fixed cruise deposit amount, master promotions and agent commissions.  Agency owners can even define additional filters to decide which type of booking or selling channel they want to apply a specific business rule to.   There’s a wide variety of rule filters that can be included such as the ability to define a rule by website, supplier, travel dates, destination and more.  These powerful filters allow rules to even be defined according to the day week and time of day a booking is made.  Newly added or modified rules are usually applied almost instantly, ensuring the best deals are offered to customers accessing the booking engine.  

Travel agent software that manages fast, live connections with the relevant supplier content is an important element that is key to success online.  Quite often the “global” content sources may not be applicable to a local market, requiring integration of “local” content sources to offer clients in the market the supplier products they are looking for.  

The travel agent software available in the market today provides business owners with unique custom business solutions that result in operational efficiencies and reduced costs.  Some of these applications are fully customizable and can provide both Business to Business and Business to Consumer solutions that will help your business automate processes and increase revenues while reducing the time and effort required to complete a transaction. 

The travel agent software available today has a vast amount of information and integrated into the application to help agents and consumers make a decision during the shopping process.  Hotel booking engines include links to media files and rich content containing detailed hotel descriptions.  Cruise booking engines include a vast amount of cruise line information linked to media files and rich content. And for those customers using a Smart Phone or Tablet, some applications are built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the layout of the display based on the type of device being used.

Finding the right online booking solution can be an important decision for your travel business.  Finding the right technology partner can be even more important.

Flight Booking Software Innovation

Airlines have led the travel industry by developing ways to offer special perks to their most loyal customers. Flight booking software that allows for Users to pre-select a seat on the airplane has been around for decades, however, many airlines have recently found innovative ways to charge additional fees to reserve the best seats onboard.  Seasoned airline passengers know the extra legroom that an emergency exit row seat automatically brings and have been grabbing these roomy seats for years. Aisle and Window seats tend to be the most popular with passengers overall and first to go.  Most airlines were quick to capitalize on these trends and began to charge a premium to passengers reserving these seats in advance.  Except of course for the most loyal frequent flyer program members who have been given access to “preferred seating” for a long time.

Distinguishing the experience for coach passengers must have been a success since it wasn’t long before airlines began introducing new “premium coach sections” to offer passengers perks like extra legroom and preferred positioning within the coach cabin.  Suddenly it has become apparent that not all coach seats are equal and the pricing options available when selecting a seat for some airlines today clearly reflect this.  How much extra a customer is charged to pre-reserve a particular seat or whether they are even charged at all can be determined by their loyalty program status.

But the special perks and treatment customer loyalty programs offer today are not limited to preferred seating.  Your preferred customer number may determine a customer’s experience throughout their entire journey.  Starting at the airport, a customer’s frequent traveler number can determine which line they wait on at the airport to check-in, whether they pay to check a bag or not, even their priority when it comes time to board the aircraft.  Once onboard, important things like which the seat they are actually seated in or whether they receive complimentary drinks and a meal can all be determined by their loyalty program status with a specific airline.  As airlines continue to invent new ways to provide a higher level of service and comfort for their most loyal customers, your flight booking software needs to be able to keep up and provide this information during the booking process.

Capturing and sharing a customer’s loyalty program information has always been important to only ensure individual customer loyalty programs are credited, but today this information may determine much more.  Everything from which line they have to wait on at the airport to check-in, the order they are allowed to board the plane as well as where they sit on the plane and even onboard service perks like complimentary drinks and meals that they may be entitled to.  Flight booking software needs to provide the right combination of product features to manage your travel agency business and provide operationally efficiencies that increase sales and reduced costs.  It should be easy to use for both agents and customers and provide live access to content.

Flexible Travel Booking Solutions Are Key to Success

The travel industry has been riding the e-commerce wave as more and more consumers turn online to research and confirm their travel plans.  Keeping the pace with consumer purchasing habits and making sure you are ready to serve customers how and when they choose with the relevant content they are looking for is key to success.  The travel booking solutions you choose for your business need to be fast, flexible, responsive & relevant for your business to succeed.

Fast and easy to use applications can help your business reduce the amount of time it takes an agent or consumer to research and complete a booking.  Applications should provide quick, live access to supplier content to ensure the most up to date availability and pricing is used.

Today’s travel booking solutions need to be flexible.   With so many competitors offering so many special deals, your online booking solution needs to provide an easy and efficient way for you to manage the various special pricing or value add offers for your business to remain competitive.  The application you choose should include the ability to easily define pre-set business rules to help you manage a specific products’ content source as well as adjust a selling price or include any value add offers.   And to reach today’s mobile consumer, you’ll want to consider an online application that is “mobile-ready” so you can serve these clients regardless of the type of device they choose to use or when they choose to shop.  Your travel technology solution also needs the flexibility to be easily customized to support your own brand identity and unique selling style.  And if you are looking to expand your reach with affiliated agents, you’ll want a solution that can quickly add affiliate Users and websites, perhaps with the ability to easily customize the look and feel for each.

The application you choose should have quick response times and be supported by a technology partner that is responsive to your needs.  Consider choosing an online booking solution that uses a secure, scalable online booking platform designed to meet the demands of suppliers, travel agencies as well as the end-user.  This will allow your technology to easily expand with your business as it grows. Choosing a technology partner with experienced development and support staff available around the clock can be key when any issues do arise.

And since the content available can vary greatly between travel booking solutions, make sure the solution you choose has the relevant content your customers are looking for.  Availability and pricing should be live wherever possible so that you offer the latest information and best prices available.  The content source you use must include the suppliers and products relevant to your customer’s needs which is competitively priced. This will be key to the success of your online business.

Finding a technology solution for your online travel business that is Fast, Flexible, Responsive and Relevant is an important decision for any travel business.  Finding the right technology company to partner with can be even more important.

Hotel Booking Engines Add Value

The right Hotel Booking Engine can add value to the overall service a travel agency provides to its customers whether it is for a corporate or leisure travel.   Adding a hotel booking allows agents to provide a more complete service to their customers by making all of the travel arrangements for their trip with the added bonus of providing incremental commissions for the agent.

An online travel booking solution should be designed to reduce the time and the effort required to research and complete a travel-related booking.   For a hotel booking engine to truly bring value, it should include access to rich content such as pictures and area maps as well as detailed descriptions of the property and room amenities to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process.  For some travel businesses, the need to be able to offer and book the special deals associated with a specific agency consortium the group can be essential.  All this content needs to be fully integrated with both Business to Business and Business to Consumer sales channels to avoid the headache of managing multiple booking applications to run your business.

Many need a choice when deciding which content source their online booking application will use to access the content.  This allows them to offer their customers the right supplier content at the right price.  A flexible online booking application should provide a variety of content sources to choose from or provide the ability to easily add content sources for the Client.

A Hotel Booking Engine should be designed to make it quick and easy for agents and consumers to research and complete a hotel booking.   It should be abundant with content such as detailed hotel descriptions, pictures, and area maps to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process.  And to make sure you are reaching those millennial consumers who shop for nearly everything using their smartphone, the application should use responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display layout based on the type of device being used.

Your online booking application should be easily customized to match your brand identity and provide a seamless online experience for your customers.  For some applications, this can be as simple as customizing the headers, footers and style sheets to match your specific branding.  For others, a complete private label version may be the better choice so the layout as well as “Look & Feel” can be changed to meet your specific requirements.

Product features such as automatic email confirmations sent to customers from your email address that provides easy access for customers to add payment are time-saving features to look for when evaluating the various options available.  Another might be a booking reminder feature that alerts Customers and Agents that a payment is due is another feature to consider. Identifying the right combination of content and product features for your hotel booking engine can be a critical decision, finding the right technology a partner can be just as important.