Hotel Reservation Software Helps Overall Sales

Have you ever wondered why some travel agents are so successful selling hotel accommodations to their clients while others don’t bother at all?  The right hotel reservation software can help your business increase hotel bookings as part of your overall sales.  An easy to use hotel booking engine can be an excellent tool for agents and consumers to research and confirm hotel reservations.  Travel booking engines should be designed to automate processes and reduce the time and effort required to research and completes a booking. But how do you know what type of booking solution to choose with everything from generic, white label hotel booking engines readily available to complete private label travel booking solutions that meet your agency’s specific requirements.

Any online application needs to provide your users with a seamless online experience based on your specific agency branding.  The booking engine’s headers, footers, colors, and fonts should all match that of your company branding.  Some of the more advanced applications even use innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display layout based on the type of device being used to access the booking engine.  No matter if your customers prefer to book online -or- with one of your experienced agents, you’ll need hotel reservation software that allows your agency to serve customers the way they choose.

But it takes more than multiple selling channels to be successful in today’s crowded online travel space.  Easy to use business management tools can be essential for your business to remain competitive and set you apart from the competition.

 Today’s travel booking engine needs to allow you to quickly adjust a product’s selling price and promote any special offers that may be available. And with so many different hotel options and amenities available, hotel reservation software needs to include links to media files & rich content to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. Geo-coding of hotel properties help Users identify which hotel properties are near a specific point of interest or neighborhood with a given city? Access to a photo gallery of the hotel help provide a good idea of the different room types and amenities are available.

The ability to easily combine air, hotel and even a cruise booking into a single custom travel package can help you quickly increase your overall sales.  A custom packaging engine can allow you to create your own pre-packaged offers for your customers that include not only their Air arrangements, but their hotel accommodations, transfers, and even a cruise vacation.  There are even dynamic packaging solutions that allow agents or consumers to package and price cruises, flights, hotels and other travel services.

How you decide to integrate the option for hotel reservations into your travel booking engine should depend upon your individual business and customer needs.   Finding online hotel reservation software with the right combination of features for your travel business can be a difficult and critical decision to make.  Finding a technology partner that can help your travel business drive efficiency through innovation can be even more important.

Hotel Booking Engines Need Rich Content

The Hotel industry was an early adopter of the internet as a cost effective way to reach consumers with many hotel companies acting as earlier pioneers of bringing travel online.  As they quickly developed their own online hotel booking engine, many discovered this new channel allowed them to showcase their hotel online with pictures and eventually virtual tours of the property.  For the first time consumers were able to view the different types of rooms available as well as public areas such as the hotel restaurant or Spa and were able to decide for themselves whether a specific hotel was right for them.

The explosion of Online Travel agencies shifted some online consumers away from these individual Hotel websites to large Online Travel Agencies and Hotel aggregators where price & availability rule the display.   Travel technology solutions were quickly developed to provide online consumers a quick and easy way to identify the best hotel for their needs based on price and room availability.  Competing based on price and availability alone presented challenges to hotel companies that were looking to differentiate their product offering from their competitors.

Many began what I refer to as a “brand overall” and started to distinguish their properties with unique features and amenities to set them apart from the mass.  As these brand differences began to take root, some consumers started looking for more than just a hotel room at the lowest price.  Many of today’s consumers look for a custom travel experience that requires personalized attention or specific perks that only travel professionals can provide.  Many larger agencies or consortia groups have embraced this trend and are now using travel technology solutions that provide their customers access to special features and amenities along with their hotel booking.  Many travel agents are able to provide special amenities such as concierge service and complimentary beverages to their most valued customers.

Today’s frequent traveler is on the go and they have become increasingly dependent on their mobile devices to manage their lives as well.  Delivering the content and amenities targeted for a specific group of customers can be complicated for many, but providing it quickly and easily with an online Hotel booking engine is even more challenging.   A good technology partner can help you automate the content as well as any include amenities so you can offer it all online. Planning or changing travel plans is no exception, so travel technology solutions need to support these features during the entire research and booking process online.

To accomplish this requires integration of travel technology solutions that deliver the information to the specific hotel property identifying a particular VIP guests along with details of any special offers included.  For example, as more hotels offer unique amenities for preferred guests such as free internet or access to concierge level lounges, a hotel booking engine needs to make sure this information is sent along with the reservation informing the actual hotel property.

Finding the right hotel content to serve your customer’s needs is important, finding a technology partner with the flexibility to customize that service is even more important.

Booking A Hotel Online Should Be Easy

A hotel booking engine should reduce the time and effort required to complete a hotel reservation by automating the shopping and booking process for your customers while it increases your overall sales revenue. There are countless online booking engines in the market today accessing different content sources with varying degrees of features and functionality.

To take advantage of all the different distribution channels efficiently, hotel booking software needs to have Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C) capabilities. Applications should use responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display to fit the type of device being used in today's mobile world. For those looking to expand their reach through an affiliate & distribution network, there are online booking engines available that allow you to quickly add affiliate Users and websites with the ability to easily customize the look and feel of the booking engine for each. Basic functionality should include the ability to shop, book and manage hotel reservations online with full payment capability and support of cancelation policies.

To protect your brand identity, your online hotel booking engine should provide you the ability to customize the headers, footers and style sheets to provide a seamless online experience for your customers. Some solutions may even offer complete private label versions where business owners can control the complete layout to meet the specific requirements of their business.

There are hotels everywhere and with so many different options to choose from in any location, searching for the right hotel to match a client's specific needs can be overwhelming at times. Hotel images and detailed descriptions integrated right within the pricing and availability display can help provide the information needed to make the best selection much quicker. Good hotel booking software will include links to media files & rich content to assist both agents and customers with selecting the right hotel property and room type during the research, shopping and booking process.

Multiple language and multiple currency capability are two obvious features required of a hotel booking engine when expanding into new markets. Many international markets can also bring unique requirements and local supplier constraints, so it is important to work with an experienced technology partner ready to address these challenges. In some markets, you'll need a product that has been “localized” to meet that specific market's unique requirements as well as integration with local content sources.

The technology you use should be "state of the art" and deliver flexible & fully scalable applications that will allow your business to easily grow and expand into new markets while maintaining your own unique brand identity. Whether you need a simple “out of the box” online hotel booking solution or fully customized hotel booking software, a little research upfront will save you a lot of time and expense in the long term. Finding the right online booking solution can be an important decision for your travel business and finding the right technology partner can be a critical the first step to ensure success.

Sell More Travel with an Online hotel Booking Engine

As more and more travel agents look for new revenue opportunities, they quickly realize that no online travel solution is complete today without a tool to book hotel accommodations. Researching and reserving a hotel room is quicker and easier than ever today thanks to the internet. With just a few clicks of the mouse, just about anyone can research numerous hotel properties across the globe, check up to the minute room availability & rate information, view pictures of the actual hotel property and even confirm a reservation. A hotel reservation is an important part of planning any trip and provides a great opportunity for travel agents to take care of their customer's complete travel needs while earning extra commissions.

With so many different hotel booking software solutions in the market today, it's difficult to know where to find the right solution for your business. Most applications are designed to automate processes and reduce the time and effort required to complete a hotel booking. Many include detailed descriptions and pictures of hotel properties to assist with choosing the right hotel.

CIO Review Magazine recently named Odysseus Solutions one of the 20 Most Promising Solution providers in the Travel and Hospitality Industry. The easy to use Odysseus hotel booking engine was designed with the capability to search rates and availability at multiple properties in a given location and even includes hotel images and descriptions to help decide which best hotel for a specific traveler.

The Odysseus hotel booking application is designed to automate processes, increase revenues and reduce time and effort required to complete a hotel booking. This online booking application is hosted by Odysseus with the headers, footers and style sheets customized to provide a seamless online experience for customers. Complete private label versions are also supported where the complete layout can be fully customized to meet a client's specific requirements.The Odysseus Solutions booking engine allows any size travel agent to compete with the largest online travel agencies while still providing the personalized service only an individual professional travel agent can provide.

So start selling more travel with the online hotel booking application developed by Odysseus Solutions. Odysseus Solutions is a Miami based travel technology company serving customers in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe as well as Australia by providing some of the most comprehensive and innovative online booking solutions available in the market today. To request an online product demonstration and introductory call visit: www.corp.odysseussolutions.com.