Collaboration Creates Great Travel Technology

Experience has shown that some of the best solutions are the result of collaboration. Travel Suppliers and Travel Agents each provide valuable input to assist in the design and development of the ultimate travel booking engine. Each of these entities play an important role in the process and any solution needs to meet their unique, individual needs.

Airline reservation systems have been around for decades. They were started initially by the major airlines in order to automate reservations as their number of flights and associated bookings grew at an amazing pace. Initially these were internal reservation systems that were used by airline reservation staff to confirm bookings and check flight information. As the airlines flight networks grew, it was not long before the airlines began offering Travel Agents their own version of these systems to book that particular airline. It was not long after that when strategic marketing partnerships brought car rental companies and hotels into the airline reservation equation and started offering these services as well.

Today's travel technology solutions are a result of years of technological evolution and have helped lead the online revolution. Today's online booking engines can provide the tools for any size business to compete with even the major online players. There are a countless number of travel booking engines available in the market today and choosing the right one for your business can be critical decision. You need to identify the various travel components you'll need as well as how your clients prefer to research and book their travel arrangements. You'll also want to consider any alliances or preferred relationships you have with suppliers or other travel agents to make sure they are included. Over the years, many travel agencies have formed closer working relationships with other individual agencies or large Consortia. The ability to expand distribution of an agency's airfares to affiliated agencies quickly and easily is an important tool for many selling airline tickets today.

With so many airfares and so many agencies forming alliances, the ability for an air booking engine to simultaneously search multiple content sources for the best airfare can be a crucial advantage. Today's competitive market requires agency owners have the flexibility to easily control a product's selling price and maintain their competitive edge. Today's best travel technology solutions allow business owners to adjust prices based on a wide range of criteria including travel or booking dates, supplier or class of service.

Travel technology solutions have even kept pace with the consumer trend of using mobile devices to research and book travel. For instance, there are dedicated air mobile apps available for those travel businesses looking for an app for their individual brand. For those who are simply looking to make their online booking tools "mobile friendly", there are applications available that automatically adjust the screen size and layout based on the type of device being used. Mobile Apps and mobile responsive technology are not just for big business either. Travel software companies can now provide any size travel agency affordable solutions built with the latest technology.

Finding a technology solution with the right combination of options for your travel business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner with flexible solutions that will help you reach your customers when and how they shop can be just as important.

It Started with Flight Booking Software

Today, no travel technology solution is complete without some type of flight booking software included. The airline industry was an early pioneer of automating the sale of travel and introduced the first computer reservation systems decades ago. I started my career as an airline reservation agent and remember attending weeks of training to learn how to use the first in-house computerized reservation systems. Gone were the days when we would scramble around the reservation center to find the actual "Book" that kept track of the customers booked on a certain flight. The "Book" was replaced by clunky green screen monitors connected to a massive Computer Reservation Systems also known as the CRS. We were required to memorize cryptic formats to check schedule availability, pricing and to complete a reservation. While many complained about the time and effort it took to learn how to use the new flight booking systems, it wasn't long before everyone saw just how much more efficient it was compared to using the old reservation books.

These airline reservation systems continued to evolve, adding updated flight information and other services to assist customers and travel agents. Airlines quickly discovered the benefit of expanding the access to these systems to their best travel agent customers, providing them instant access to availability and pricing as well as the ability to book flights for their customers.

These early centralized computer reservation systems began to add more features and additional travel components such as hotels and car rentals and eventually evolved into early versions of the first generation of Global Distribution Systems or GDSs. These computer reservation systems were deployed in travel agency offices worldwide and became critical for both airlines looking to increase the distribution of their product as well as the travel agents looking to serve their customers more efficiently.

It wasn't long before the internet revolution exploded and suddenly consumers were shopping and purchasing just about everything online. As these online travel technology solutions became more widely used, many travel agents identified the need for online travel technology solutions that automate processes and are easily customized to support their own unique brand identity. Today's travel agent needs both a Business to Business (B2B) application as well as a Business to Consumer (B2C) application that automate processes and increase revenues while reducing the time and effort it takes a travel agent or consumer to complete a transaction.

Travel Agents need to be able to quickly adjust a product's selling price or include special offers right in the availability display. Flight booking software needs to have the flexibility to define a business rule to a specific market, travel or booking dates, suppliers and more. Applications should be designed to meet the unique requirements of Global Marketplaces and easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages.

Early adoption of automation combined with the fact that a flight reservation is often the starting point when making travel plans, make flight booking software a key component for most travel technology solutions. Finding a travel technology solution with the right combination of options for your business can be critical to the success of your travel business. Finding a technology partner with solutions to help you easily and cost effectively reach today's mobile consumer where and how they shop for travel can be just as important.