Hotel Reservation Software Needs Rich Content

Selecting the right hotel accommodations can make or break someone’s trip whether they are travelling for business or for pleasure. The importance of a hotels exact location and proximity to points of interest within a city may be an important deciding factor for some.  Hotel reservation software needs the ability to search for accommodations using various geographic references such as a city as well as specific neighborhoods within a city or nearby points of interests that important when determining where to stay. Today’s online hotel booking engine needs to integrate area maps into the shopping display so that Users can quickly see exactly where a particular hotel is located before making their final decision.

Hotels offer varying levels of comfort and service today, so matching a client with the right type of hotel is also important.  The ability for hotel reservation software to search for hotels based on a particular star rating or the average nightly rate can be a valuable tool and dramatically speed up the process.  Today’s online hotel booking engines allow Users to search for a hotel property using a specific price range or star rating.

 

And as hotel properties continue to try and distinguish themselves for each other, online shoppers need to have easy access to detailed descriptions of the services and amenities these hotels offer their guests.  The best hotel reservation software available in the market today includes links to pictures and other rich content to assist the User with selecting the right hotel property during the research and shopping process.  With just a few clicks of a mouse, today’s hotel booking engine can access the information to research which particular hotel best meets an individual customer’s specific needs.

For example, finding a hotel property that includes specific amenities that a customer may be require such as complimentary internet or perhaps concierge service may be important.  The ability to quickly identify those hotels that have a restaurant or gym facilities may be important for others.  While those planning an event may look for the availability of banquet facilities or catering.  Your hotel reservation software needs to be able to quickly sort by customer preferences and provide the type of visual tools to assist the User during the entire research and process.

  

To serve the growing number of consumers using mobile devices to purchase everything, it’s important to consider using mobile friendly booking engines.  Regardless of the type of device a customer uses to access a travel website, these mobile ready applications automatically adjust the screen layout based on the type of device being used.  For those who still look to have a dedicated mobile App, there are some technology companies that design and develop custom mobile Apps.  Either approach offers consumers the ease and mobility of using a smart phone or tablet.

Finding the right hotel reservation software for your travel business can be critical to your success.  Finding the right travel technology partner to help you offer Users the options that today’s consumer demands can be even more important.

A Cruise Booking Engine Needs Options

The way that travel is researched and booked continues to change as technology evolves.  To succeed in the travel business today, you need to make sure your business keeps pace.  Recent advances in technology can probably help you streamline your business and possibly tap into new revenue streams. The cruise industry has experienced the most explosive growth the over the past few decades and the increasing popularity of cruising worldwide has made selling cruise vacations an important part of any travel business selling leisure travel.

A good Cruise booking engine can provide users with live connectivity with cruise lines for the latest availability and pricing as well as detailed ship and cabin information connected to media rich content including interactive deck plans to assist in selecting the right cabin for a specific customer’s preference or needs.  These online booking engines can include a vast amount of cruise line information to assist in the shopping process.  Live access to cruise line supplier content also ensures the most up to date availability and pricing is used.

There are also a variety of cruise related product options for your business.  Today’s innovative cruise booking engine can go way beyond just completing a cruise booking.  Critical components that are sometimes used with the booking engine like a cruise data cache which is ideal for those looking for the latest updates on cruise line pricing and sailing availability in a standardized file format.  For those looking just for detailed descriptions and images to assist during the research process, cruise line static content can be accessed for a fee.  This content includes detailed descriptions of cruise lines, cruise ships, cabin categories as well as itinerary information.  Descriptions are linked to media files & rich content such as cabin photos, ship images and deck plans.  The cruise line static content is typically fully integrated with the cruise booking engine or sometimes it can be purchased separately.

Today’s cruise booking software features allow a business owner to easily adjust a product’s selling price by defining their own markup, discount, value add offers and more. In addition to the basic functions such as markup and discount, today’s cruise booking engine can incorporate custom rule types such as fixed cruise deposit amount, master promotions and agent commissions.  Business owners can even define additional filters to define the specific type of booking or selling channel they want to apply a specific business rule to.   The wide variety of rule filters that can be defined include the ability to define a rule for a specific website, supplier, travel dates, destination and more.  These powerful business rule features allow price adjustments or offer 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 and your offering competitive in today’s crowded marketplace.

Finding the right cruise booking engine for your travel business is important, finding the right travel technology partner can be even more important.