Travel Technology Solutions Continue to Evolve

Many people who use a travel booking engine never really give them much thought. The world has become so accustom to using technology in their day to day lives that it's become hard to imagine life before things like laptops and cellphones existed. I recently had a revelation while reading about the resurgence of the flip phone. Some may classify the flip phone as recent technology when considering how far technology has progressed in just the last 30 years, but the flip phone already instills a sense of nostalgia for many!

Technology in general has advanced so far over the last 30+ years and travel technology solutions have always been quick to embrace the latest advancements. The ability for anyone with a smart phone to research and book their entire travel is a long way from the days when you had to visit your local travel agent to research options and approximate costs for a trip.

Today's travel technology solutions can easily bring content for airlines, hotels and even cruise lines into a single platform and allow Users to custom build their own packages. A vast improvement from the days when travel agents had to use several different systems and methods to build a vacation package. Gone are the days of using one GDS to book airline reservations, another system to research hotel accommodations and perhaps a third application to book a cruise. The process of coordinating flights with a cruise and hotel accommodations can be a time consuming and complex process. Fortunately, the complete travel packaging solutions available today streamline the entire process with dynamic packaging modules that allow agents or consumers to custom package a cruise, airline reservations, hotels accommodations and other travel products in real time for example.

Travel technology solutions with multi-language & multi-currency capability, including optional exchange rate modules are important if you plan to expand internationally. Access to local content can be critical in some markets and some may require payment gateway integration for packages. Today's online booking engines enable Agency owners to integrate any local content that they may have contracted for themselves for which online booking capability is not available. They can easily add this content to their overall offering and build a day to day itinerary for their customers to book. Unique product features allow Agents to simply save whatever information they've put together for their customer as a quote. Then if the customer calls a few days later, the agent can simply click a button and within seconds the system will check the availability and price for the packaged quoted and allow them to proceed with completing the booking. These travel technology solutions streamline the process to build a vacation package and can save agents considerable time while expanding the products and services they provide customers.

Choosing the travel technology with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Travel Bookings Are Made Via All Channels

For most people, the annual holiday trip can be a significant expense. Taking a break from every day schedules and spending time with friends and family or just relaxing is often the time of year many look forward to the most. And for the lucky enough to be purchasing high-end packages such as cruises, the large price tag often motivates consumers to seek assistance and advice from several different sources before purchasing a vacation package. A traveler who is buying a $25,000 vacation package may need reassurance that they are getting the proper value for their money, even if they are a repeat customer. Generally speaking, the lower the cost of the package being purchased, the more likely it will be booked online.

Many start their initial research online with a significant portion being conducted using a mobile device. Today's consumer uses various sources for identifying vacation options including checking reviews on social media sites, seeking advice from friends & family or checking with a trusted travel agent. Once a consumer has narrowed down their options, the next step typically involves the use of a travel booking engine to get the latest availability and pricing for the vacation package they are looking for.

To serve today's growing number of consumers using their mobile device to purchase travel products, many travel companies look for a travel booking engine that is mobile ready. This way, regardless of the type of device a customer uses to access a travel website, applications automatically adjust the screen layout based on the type of device being used. And if you are looking to have a dedicated mobile app to make bookings, there are technology companies that can design and develop a custom mobile app for your business. Either approach offers consumers the ease and mobility of using their smartphone or tablet.

Make sure the travel booking engine you chose can offer access to all the selling channels your agency needs and that multiple selling channels can be easily managed using a single application (B2B, B2C, B2B2C). And if you plan to expand into new markets, look for applications that are designed to meet the requirements of the Global Marketplace and can easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages.

Travel agency online booking solutions should include the ability to be easily customized to support an agency's own brand identity and unique selling style. The application's headers, footers as well as colors and font used should all match the agency branding. The ability to easily control the selling price and include targeted promotions right in the availability display is critical for consumer websites and travel agent applications as well. The more information and tools you provide an Agent during the research and booking process, the quicker they will be able to serve the customer and complete the sale.

Choosing a travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Why Not Add a Hotel?

It's time for many businesses evaluate the way they conduct business and see what improvements can be made. Is your business operating as efficiently and effectively as possible? Are you offering the products and services that your customers are looking for? Has your technology kept pace with your business? All basic business questions that apply to any size travel agency.

First consider the customers you currently have and determine if you are capturing all of their travel related business. For example, when you sell a customer an airline ticket for a quick business trip or a week long vacation, do you offer to book a hotel for them as well? Chances are they may need to book a hotel, so why not include this too? Easy access to hotel content integrated with other travel components is a great way to make this happen quickly. Incorporating a hotel booking engine with a dynamic packaging module can allow both agents or consumers to price as well as package Cruises, Airlines, Hotels and other travel products in real time for example.

Look for a hotel booking engine that includes links to media files & rich content to assist the User with selecting the right hotel property and room type during the shopping process. It's also important that the application allow the User to modify the Search and narrow down results to their specific criteria. Some may look for a property downtown with free internet for example, while others may want to be closer to the airport or beach. The amenities a particular hotel offers can be as important as the room for many, so detailed descriptions of a particular property come in handy when deciding which hotel to choose. Travel booking solutions should contain all the information and tools needed for the User to easily research and book a complete travel package quickly and easily.

Then check to see if you are serving your customers via the channels they prefer. For today's customer on the go, a mobile ready hotel booking engine is an option you'll need to include. Today's consumer uses different devices to research and eventually purchase products online. Many who are typically younger for example start their initial research using their smartphone and then may switch to a tablet or Laptop to complete the purchase. Others may start their research with their Laptop and then complete their purchase directly or with a travel agent. Either way, the travel booking engine you use needs to be ready to serve these customers on the device they choose.

Lastly, you want to make sure the travel booking engine you are using has kept pace with the latest developments. If you plan to expand into new markets for example, you'll need a solution that can easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages. And make sure the can the application be customized to match the "look and feel" of your company's branding.

Identifying a travel booking solution with the right combination of content and product features for your business can be a critical decision. Finding the right technology partner can be just as important.

Packaging A Cruise Can be Easy

The growth of the cruise industry has been fueled by the cruise lines success in attracting new cruisers combined with the with the fact that people who take cruises tend to repeat, with about 90+ percent of cruisers saying they will probably or definitively book a cruise as a next vacation. And with the majority of cruise passengers requiring flight arrangements to the cruise embarkation port, the market opportunity for cruise booking software that can include Air, Hotel and other travel components is tremendous. The challenge many face is that the process to build a cruise package can be quite complex and time consuming, which is why the majority of packages that are booked involve a travel agent.

The process to build a cruise vacation package can be complex and time consuming for most. Many travel agents still use various cruise line sites to research and book cruises for their clients. Then to add flights, they either forward to an air product team specialist to bundle in the right flights for a particular cruise or start the search themselves. Questions like what is the closest airport to the ship departure port? How far is the airport from the cruise port? What flights need to be selected based on when the guest needs to arrive at the ship? Will the passenger need pre or post cruise hotel accommodations? An agent can spend an hour or more to build a package or use other resources from the team to put a quote together.

They say "necessity" is the mother of invention, so it wasn't long before some innovative technology companies began developing cruise booking software to dynamically package these components to streamline the entire process. A dynamic packaging engine can give both agents and online consumers the ability to price as well as package Cruises, Airlines, Hotels and other travel products in real time.

Detailed descriptions of Cruise lines, Ships, Cabin categories & Itinerary information along with links to media files & rich content such as Cabin photos, Ship images and Deck plans can help the User select the right cruise and accommodations. The ability to Compare Cruise Only, Cruise Tours, Cruise Packages that an Agent may have already pre-built and saved in the platform can also be a distinguishing feature. Cruise booking software with a sophisticated rule engine allows a business owner to deliver the right marketing message to the User, whether the User is a travel agent or online consumer.

Once the cruise is booked, Users can add a flight during the booking process or after the booking process. These innovative applications consider travel time between the airport selected and the cruise port when selecting flights. Once the customer has selected the flights, some cruise booking software have the ability to include hotel accommodations as part of the package as well based on the flights and cruise dates.

Choosing a cruise booking solution with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Flight Reservations Are a Key Component

Airlines have become such an integral part of travel for so many, that it should come as no surprise that a flight reservation system is an integral piece of any travel booking solution. Airline reservation systems have come a long way since the days of the first computerized reservation systems (CRS) launched decades ago. Whether your travel business' focus is on Corporate or Leisure, most travel itineraries include airline segments.

For Leisure agents, especially those selling Cruise vacations, combining the different travel elements can be challenging as well as time consuming. Airports and flight arrival times need to be coordinated with cruise departure ports and passenger embarkation times. Travel time and options between airports and cruise ports can vary greatly, further complicating the process. And with the majority of cruise passengers requiring a flight to get to their cruise departure, a flight reservation system can be an important component of a cruise vacation.

Finding the right hotel to match an airline itinerary can be challenging. Travel booking solutions that prompt the user to explore hotel options based on the flight arrival and departure date/s can help simplify the entire process. Features like integrated Hotel information and descriptions linked to rich media can help the User select the hotel and room type that best fits their needs. Live pricing and availability with Suppliers ensure the most accurate information is used. From an agent's workflow perspective, a day to day itinerary is built for customers that easily shows them what their schedule is.

Sophisticated rule engines can allow a travel agency owner to deliver the right marketing message to their Users. Selling prices can be easily adjusted and rules entered that actually consider published airfares, negotiated/private airfares as well as consolidator airfares. Travel Agents that use a flight reservation system that integrates cruises and hotels can even just show the one total price to the customer. B2B, B2C as well as B2B2C channel capability give today's agency owner the flexibility to serve customers the way they choose. And with today's mobile world, don't forget travel booking solutions need to be mobile ready. Look for travel technology solutions built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts screen size and layout to the type of device being used.

Air content should be easily added using any of the major GDS's using your agency ID and your travel booking engine should be include multi-language & multi-currency capability.

Travel booking solutions should help streamline the entire sales process and reduce the amount of time it takes your agency to Train new agents, allowing them focus on selling faster. There are even Packaging options that allow Travel Agents to price multiple products, bundle them into a package and sell them as packages easily online.

Choosing a flight reservation system with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

The Travel Booking Engine Evolution

As a new generation of travelers considers planning a vacation, their path to purchase has become increasingly complex compared to the generations before them. Growing up amid the technology revolution, today's consumer is tech savvy and will naturally move across different devices, websites and selling channels when researching and planning a vacation. And with all the shopping being done online, the data captured from the research and shopping activity should be driving a new level of traveler engagement.

Today's travel booking engine needs to be able to deliver the right information on the preferred device at any point in the research, shopping or purchase cycle. This includes the increasingly important mobile research part of the travel purchase process. The way consumers interact with a travel agent needs to keep up with the advances in online bookings, so the service a travel agent provides is seamlessly integrated with a consumer's online research and shopping.

And with all the information collected when someone is online, the identification of common preferences through data analysis should produce passenger segment profiles that assist a travel agent in the travel planning process. For example, Singles, young Families and older Couples may each look for a different experience and will probably research, shop and purchase their travel using different methods. A traveler's income level may determine they type of accommodations they require. First time travelers need to be normalized and simplified to educate the new purchaser on the value of different options. A travel booking engine needs to employ techniques such as collaborative filtering that provide examples of what a similar customer purchased can be used to help with the shopping experience. Using past data from similar customers shopping history to recommend options that meet the new purchaser's needs can eventually lead to a more personalized booking experience.

Today's travel booking engine needs to provide information about the specific amenities a hotel property may offer such as free internet or breakfast. Hotels offer varying levels of comfort and service, so matching a client with the right hotel is important. The ability to sort a search for hotel rooms by a particular star rating or the average nightly rate can speed up the process dramatically for example. Detailed descriptions and photos of guest rooms and public areas can help in choosing the right property. Consumers have become accustom to reserving a specific seat on an airplane or requesting a special meal during their flight, so your travel booking engine needs to be able to handle these requests. Live access to content is critical to make sure the most up to date availability and pricing is used. The booking engine needs to have a powerful business rules feature that will allow you to adjust a product's selling price or include a specific marketing message about a special offer.

Finding travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Flight Reservation Systems Should Build Packages

Dynamic packaging is a new component that has become a key part of today's flight reservation system. The ability to combine airline reservations with a hotel, cruise or tours has emerged as a major revenue source for anyone selling travel today. This extends the process from simply selling a flight to selling the entire vacation experience. And packaging capability is a crucial requirement for cruise booking platforms for example, especially in specific markets such as Australia, Asia and China where packaging increases the ability to sell a cruise itself.

Creating a dynamic package is also essential for the millennial traveler who wants customized experiences. Today's solution should allow a user to easily compare multiple itineraries including individual components and pre-built packages. A sophisticated rules engine can help to deliver the right marketing message and inform the User of all promotions that a Supplier and/or the agency may be offering. Price adjustments to a product selling price need to be able to be made quickly and easily to maintain your competitiveness in the online market. Rich Media should be integrated in the search process to simplify the shopping experience. Users should be able to choose the components they need and dynamically create a custom package. Helpful features such as a pre-defined list of hotels that match a flight itinerary should be offered.

A database that maps the closest hotels to each airport or city location eliminates the guesswork and can match the hotel and flights based on the search defined. All through the process, the total price of the package being built should be clearly visible to the User creating a day by day itinerary for easy review.

A flight reservation system should also provide agents the ability to save a Package as a quote to be repriced at a later time to further simplify their workflow. It should track detailed financials, providing an agency owner the details of what the customer owes the agency and the agency owes to the Supplier. The financial details captured should also allow the agency to track their margins by product and the package. Today's applications have taken a manual and tedious process that often involved multiple team members and tools to build and custom package and simplified it. Custom packaging can make the online comparable shopping difficult.

And with more of the world's population using the internet to research and book travel, the ease and accessibility of a flight reservation system via mobile devices is critical. No matter if someone starts their travel research using their mobile device and then complete their reservation with their travel agent, or they research, shop and book everything online. Your business needs to be there when they begin their search, so make sure the application you choose is mobile ready.

Finding flight reservation system with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.