Mobile Booking Engine - Seamless Approach to Serve The Clients

Today's mobile phones are not just used for phone calls, they are used to perform a wide variety of everyday tasks. Smart phones are packed with features that include more than the ability to listen to music or take a picture using the built-in camera. Today's mobile devices can check email, access social media, perform online banking transactions and even get driving directions. The old flip phone from 20 years ago has been replaced with a powerful handheld computer that can do almost anything. And the online revolution over the past decade has helped pave the way for retailers to quickly expand their online retail presence to include these sophisticated handheld mobile devices.

As the processing capabilities of handheld devices improved, we began to see what some refer to as the App explosion. The term "app" was derived by shortening of the term "software application" when designed to specifically run on mobile devices like a smart phone or tablet. Most devices sold today come with pre-installed software such as web browsers for internet access including calendars and email as well as map programs for directions and even apps to purchase music or videos. Travel companies were quick to recognize the potential benefits of mobile technology and have embraced it as part of their product distribution plan. There's a mobile app for almost everything today and the popularity of the mobile booking engine is changing the way consumers research and book flights.

As a result, online travel agencies began to quickly develop air mobile apps that take advantage of all the benefits an online booking engine offers combined with the ease and mobility of using a smart phone to book a flight. A mobile booking engine is a great way for any travel agent to serve their clients "on the go" or reach a new generation of travelers who exclusively use their smart phones and tablets to research and book their travel.

Travel agency online booking engines with optional air booking mobile apps use cutting edge mobile technology integrated with the most innovative online booking engines available in the market today. Many are designed to support a client's own unique "Look & Feel" with the headers, footers and style sheets customized for each client to provide a seamless online experience for their customers. Complete private label versions are also available where clients can change the complete layout of their online booking solution.

A mobile booking engine should be designed to automate processes, increase revenues and reduce the time and effort required to complete an online transaction. It can quickly extend the reach of any online travel agency and Live access to airline content is provided to be sure the most up to date availability and pricing is used. A travel agency's online booking engine should be flexible as well as scalable and so should their technology partner. Finding the right mobile booking engine for your online travel business will play an important role in determining your online success. Finding the right technology partner may be even more important.

Find The Right Hotel to Fulfill Your Needs with Hotel Booking Engine

Whether you are travelling for business or pleasure, one of the most important aspects of your travel arrangements will be your hotel accommodations. Unless you know the exact hotel property you want to stay at, this is one part of your travel arrangements when booking with an experienced travel agent can really work in your favor. Many Travel agents know the different hotel properties within a given city and can recommend the right hotel to meet your needs. Some travel agents may have access to special offers or deals and in many cases can get you that special VIP treatment that will make your stay so much more enjoyable. Many of today's travel agency websites include a hotel booking engine option, allowing their customers to take advantage of all the benefits that booking with a travel agent combined with the ease and accessibility of a using a fully mobile online hotel reservation system.

Savvy travelers recognize that booking with a travel agent may be the key to getting a special rate on a hotel room and possible room upgrade or that special V.I.P. treatment during their stay. The right online hotel booking engine can help your travel agency automate processes, increase revenues and reduce time and effort required for your customers to complete a hotel booking. There are several ways to access hotel content including Global Distribution Systems (aka: GDSs) as well as large hotel aggregators with hotel reservation system interfaces of their own. Finding the content source that is right for your business is an important first step.

Distinguishing your business from the other online travel websites and maintaining your individual brand identity is another consideration. Today's online booking engines can provide a seamless online experience for customers by using your company header, footer and even colors and fonts to protect your brand identity. Complete private label versions are also supported where the layout can be changed to meet a client's specific requirements.

Booking with a travel agent is easy when using an online hotel booking engine designed with the capability to search rates and availability at multiple properties in a given location. Detailed hotel and room pictures as well as descriptions of services and amenities are all important pieces of information to include to help decide which is the best hotel selection for a specific customer.

A flexible, online hotel reservation system can allow any size travel agent to compete with the largest online travel agencies while still providing customers the personalized service that booking with a travel agent can offer. Booking with a travel agent makes more sense than ever before and finding one that uses an online booking engine that allows customers to research and book the right hotel room quickly and securely is the key to success.

Whether your customer books directly with a travel agent -or- they prefer to shop and book online using your website, making online hotel bookings easy will allow your travel business to serve them quickly and easily. Finding the right travel technology solution for your travel business is important, finding the right technology partner can be even more important.

Travel Technology Packaging Solutions

Travel technology solutions that are easy to use, mobile friendly and can be easily customized to client look and feel are key to competing in today's online market place. Finding a solution with the ability to handle multiple currency and languages to truly meet a global audience on a computer, tablet or smart phone is key if going global. Mobile First should be your philosophy for all development, not just for the front end but also the administrative console as well. This way Agents as well as customers can use their tablets, iPads, phones to book and manage travel with a booking engine that is completely mobile friendly.

The ability to combine travel products either pre-packaged or dynamically online have become increasingly popular with today's consumer. Most custom packaging products allow a travel agency to tailor make holiday travel plans and then convert them into packages to be sold online. There are some travel technology companies that have developed dynamic packaging engines around Air + Hotel Accommodations and even Tours or Activities, but very few that have successfully launched a global cruise booking solution. A cruise booking is one of the most complex travel booking transactions and only a few industry leaders offer live connectivity to cruise lines globally including ability to book into group or charter inventory. The productivity gains the fast and flexible travel technology that these companies can offer is amazing. Agents can quickly compare multiple cruise lines and prices in a single search. The best continuously updates and innovatively caches the data on their servers for quicker responses increasing agent productivity and earning power.

Some products use cruise as the base of the transaction and then add other travel products like air, hotel accommodations and even activities as part of or around the cruise. Some have unique features and the capability to offer a predefined package tailored by a vacation expert or to make their own cruise holiday package that includes flights, hotel accommodations and even activities.

Most of today's Dynamic Packaging products were developed as extensions existing travel booking engines. These packaging engines were designed to package and price cruises, flights, hotels and other travel products in real time. The dynamic packaging module takes advantage of the existing connections with various suppliers and the dynamic and innovative rules engines available allow an online travel agency to deliver the proper marketing message to their users whether that be an agent and/or their customers.

Much of the innovation within many travel technology solutions occurs in what's known as the 'Rules Engine. This valuable tool allows a travel agency owner to customize and deliver the right marketing message to both agents and their online customers. The typical Rules Engine can be rigid and time-consuming to manage, but some innovative travel technology companies have changed this. Rather than a limited selection, they offer different rule types allowing agents to choose from options such as on-board credits, rewards points, value adds, discounts, mark-ups etc. They can be easily set and applied automatically based on a variety of predefined filters.

Finding the right travel technology solution for your travel business is important, finding the right travel technology partner can be even more important

Online Booking Engines Need To Be Mobile Ready

It's no secret that today's consumer uses their smart phone for just about everything and it's estimated that within the next two years there will be over 8 billion handheld, mobile ready devices in use globally. The availability of mobile applications has undoubtedly helped transform the frequency and manner these devices are used. The variety of different mobile ready technology, app stores and high speed internet connections available today have only helped increase consumer use of mobile devices. Whether making their own travel arrangements or purchasing groceries, it seems like consumers can and do buy just about anything online today.

The move to mobile by consumers is forcing many companies to consider a mobile strategy for their business while maintaining their traditional brick & mortar operation and online business via their website. However, there are different ways to approach developing a mobile web presence to consider. Some choose to use responsive technology when designing their mobile booking engine, while others may decide to use a dedicated Mobile App for their business.

There are several factors to consider when evaluating whether to use mobile ready responsive technology verses a dedicated mobile App. Websites are often designed to be used on large screens that are found on laptop computers and many do not consider how the application will appear to a consumer using a mobile device. Traditional website applications can be difficult to read or navigate through and requiring a consumer to zoom in or resize their screen to use the application. One solution for companies looking for a mobile booking engine is a mobile ready website connected to an online booking engine that is built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen size and layout to fit the type of device being used.

Dedicated mobile Apps are also becoming more popular, allowing an application to be accessed by any device with a web browser. The benefits of a dedicated mobile App can be more than just combining the power and versatility of an online booking engine with the ease and accessibility of a handheld device.

Some of the advantages of using Responsive technology when designing your website include a single application built to run across all devices, regardless of screen size. This can reduce maintenance costs by avoiding the need to maintain several versions of an application while providing a better user experience for your customers. For instance, destination maps may be a critical tool when using a hotel booking engine to research and book a hotel room. These destination map applications are usually image heavy and may require zooming in or resizing the screen. This is another good example of why you should consider a hotel booking engine that built using innovative responsive technology.

To create the best user experience possible, you need to consider that today's consumer may start researching their travel arrangements using a handheld device but complete their purchase online using a tablet or laptop. Differences in these two approaches provide each with inherent advantages as well as disadvantages. The key to success is finding a technology partner with the solutions that best fit your business.

Innovation is Key to Booking Airlines Effieciently

From the beginning, airlines have been driving efficiency through innovation with systems designed to automate processes and reduce the time required to complete an airline reservation. These systems have been providing travel industry professionals the ability to book air travel directly for decades. Early on they began to offer the ability to search schedule availability and price for flights by a variety of search criteria such a specific airline, flexible travel dates, nearby airports, nonstops only, etc. As the volume of an airline's business grew and they began to offer more service options in advance, the airline reservation system quickly began to include these features as well. Advance seat Selection, special service requests, ordering onboard meals in advance all became additional options in an online booking engine as well. Credit Card validation, AVS checks, Airline blocking, ticket type checks as well as consolidator and negotiated fares soon followed.

Many travel companies have found that the airline booking engine they can license from an experienced travel technology company to be more powerful and cost effective than developing, hosting and maintaining it themselves. For those looking to control their own user interface, some technology companies provide the capability for Clients to host all User interfaces on their own server while using a web services interface to their booking engine hosted by their technology partner.

There are many types of hosted solutions available including everything from the basic "out of the box" airline reservation system to more customizable applications that include unique sub-domains for your specific version of the application to minimize the appearance customers are being redirected from your website. The best of these allow for booking engine's headers, footers and style sheets to be customized to maintain your brand identity and provide a seamless online experience for your customers. Some travel companies may require a fully custom application where they design the complete layout to meet their own specific requirements. Mobile apps are now available that can extend an airline booking engine to a dedicated app. Many clients are also choosing mobile ready applications built using responsive technology that automatically provides support of various mobile and tablet screen sizes so customers can easily view and navigate through the booking process regardless of the device they are using.

As is the case with many things, the more that you need customized, the higher your costs are likely to be. So remember to evaluate the benefit that customization brings compared to the associated additional costs.

Live access to content is critical for any airline reservation system. Some air booking engines even have the ability to simultaneously search multiple content sources for the best price, allowing an agency to combine their own content with content from a partner agency. Management Tools include the ability to mark up or mark down a product's selling price by airline, itinerary, class of service, dates and more. Some even allow for promotional codes to be set up that can be redeemed during the booking process.

Finding an airline booking engine that can help your online business drive efficiencies through innovation is important. Finding the right technology partner to help make this happen is the key to success.

Drive Hotel Booking Through Innovation

Travel Technology providers were one of the pioneers in online commerce and a critical factor to the success of today's online travel business worldwide. The most innovative and comprehensive online travel solutions available in the market today evolved through years of collaboration with travel agents and travel suppliers. Engaging all of the parties involved in the selling process during an application's design phase and using innovative, state of the art technology are key when developing the best online booking solutions.

For example, a hotel reservation system should be designed to automate processes and reduce time and effort required to research and complete a hotel booking. It should provide live, up to date pricing and availability using live connections where ever possible. And with so many hotel options available, both travel agents and consumers appreciate solutions that include links to media files & rich content to them assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. The ability to search for a hotel by geographic area and points of interest will help narrow the search and ensure they are where they need to be. Having easy access to hotel amenities included such as complimentary breakfast or WiFi access can be key factors when choosing a hotel property. Room size and bedding options available may be an important consideration when making arrangements for more than one traveler.

And in today's mobile world, a hotel booking engine needs to be mobile ready. Look for applications that use innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display layout based on the type of device being used. Expand your sales network with features that allow you to quickly add affiliate Users or websites and the ability to easily customize the look and feel for each including headers, footers, style sheets, email addresses & company name. Access to local content as well as multi language and multi currency capability are additional factors to consider if you plan to expand your business into ethnic or international markets.

The hotel reservation system you use needs to allow you to manage your online hotel bookings with full payment capability and support of cancelation policies. It should have the content your customers are looking for at a competitive price. Look a booking engine with easy to use administrative features such as Profile Management and Preferences Management that provide you the ability to turn on/off these features yourself as oppose to paying someone to do it for you.

Reporting capabilities to track your business are also critical features to look for when shopping for a hotel booking engine. Booking statistics are important tools when measuring your business compared to previous periods, but quick and easy access to information like search statistics and "Look to Book" ratios can help you identify trends and potential issues before it's too late to make adjustments or change course.

The hotel reservation system you choose should be fast, responsive and provide the relevant content your customers are looking for while driving efficiencies through innovation. It's just a matter of finding the right technology partner to make this happen.

Driving Efficiencies Through Innovation

The innovative technology that is available today has made us all more efficient in so many ways. Smart phones allow us to have telephone conversations from just about anywhere and we are all just a few clicks away from checking our email or social media. Not sure how to get somewhere? Check your smart phone for directions. And today you can purchase just about anything right from your phone as retailers become increasingly focused on mobile ready technology.

There's a wide range travel technology available today depending upon your specific needs. Everything from easy to use "out of the box" solutions for those just getting started to unique custom business solutions designed to specifically meet the needs of your business are available. There are even "out of the box:" solutions that can be easily customized to support your own unique brand identity. These solutions can be valuable features for online travel agencies looking to build and protect their brand.

In today's mobile world, travel technology solutions need to have a User experience designed to maximize sales while making the research and booking of travel arrangements easy. Efficiencies in the way that a travel agent interacts with their customers can help save the time it takes them to create a travel related booking and increase an agent's overall sales volume. For example, having the right special offers in place and being able to quickly identify them right in the availability display can be just as important as the ability to easily adjust a product selling price in today's competitive online environment. Many of today's online booking engines include powerful business rules features that allow business owners the flexibility to easily pre-define price adjustments and "value add" offers using wide variety of filters including type of service, supplier, travel dates and booking channel to name just a few.

Travel technology should provide your business access to all booking channels. This includes traditional business-to-business (B2B) as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) and even business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C). For those looking to expand their sales network to include home based agents, the ability to extend the use of the online booking engine to these groups will allow you to expand the reach of your sales network. Mobile ready applications are another key feature to look for.

Innovative travel technology solutions that quickly and easily combine travel components such as Cruise + Air + Hotel together to create Custom Packages have become increasingly important as travel agents look to create unique packaged offers to their consumers. The Dynamic Packaging of components has also become increasingly popular with consumers looking to create their own unique packaged experience. Booking Engines which automatically offer a hotel reservation after an airline reservation is complete not only make the booking process more efficient, but can also help your travel business increase hotel bookings significantly and drive up your overall sales volume.

Finding travel technology that will have your online business driving efficiencies through innovation is important. Finding the right technology partner to help make this happen is the key to success.