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.

The Online Mixed With Offline Cruise Revolution

Will the online revolution in Travel eventually lead to the demise of the Travel Agent? Some may argue that the days when consumers would go to their local travel agency to book a weekend getaway or annual vacation are long gone. With the Millennial generation now making up such a significant portion of the population, more and more people now use the internet to research and book travel. Ease and accessibility via mobile devices are critical whether your customers start their research and shopping using their mobile device and complete their booking with a travel agent, or research, shop, and book online.

In 2018, almost half of all global travel will be booked online. During the same period, Cruise Lines International Association projects that 27.2 million people will take a cruise. And despite huge advances in online automation, most will complete their booking using an offline method. It is estimated that just less than 20% of all cruise revenue was booked online last year, indicating that booking a cruise is primarily still an offline process. While this may appear to be the case on the surface, the truth is that in today's connected world, it is likely that the majority of these Consumers spent hours online researching and planning their cruise vacation before completing the transaction with a travel agent or cruise line sales representative. This trend clearly highlights a need to integrate online research with the offline expertise of a travel professional. With mobile devices enabling consumers to be online anywhere at any time, today's cruise booking software needs to be mobile ready.

As technology evolves, unique offers like shipboard credits, etc. as part of the availability display will be incorporated into the process and provide options for agents and consumers to "pick the perk" that best meets their needs. Ultimately this is intended to identify the true value of a booking beyond the cabin to the total value of the cruise experience. Big data analytics will continue to drive mass customization targeting specific offers to traveler segments leading to greater adoption. This will lead to the onboard experience influenced by information gathered during the planning and booking process with packaging an essential tool for cruise line resellers generating incremental revenue and enhanced experiences for customers.

Today, it is clear that traditional travel agents need cruise booking software that integrates and standardizes multiple cruise content and captures and controls the user interface for the customer and travel agent. The goal needs to simplify the experience for the consumer and improve the efficiency of the online and offline process. Cruise planning and research will continue to grow online, and the key to this evolution is a next-generation platform that connects the online and offline worlds into a seamless user experience.

Finding cruise booking software 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 Technology Solutions Help Drive Travel and Tourism

Travel & Tourism is an important economic activity in most countries around the world and helps to produce prosperity across the globe. Tourism brings people from different cultures closer together, creates jobs and helps drive the export of goods and services. When you consider the impact that the travel industry has on commerce across the board, it's no surprise that travel technology solutions have been pioneers in online commerce.

The travel industry is estimated to account for about 10%+ of global GDP and nearly one (1) out of every ten (10) jobs worldwide and last year was one of the strongest years of worldwide growth in nearly a decade thanks to strong consumer spending. But Travel & Tourism's total contribution to the world's economy goes deeper than the money spent during a trip. In addition to the obvious expense for products such as airline tickets, hotel accommodations, cruise vacations or ground transportation, the industry provides significant indirect benefits to other industries. Consumer spending on local entertainment or attractions, food & beverage services as well as retail spending before and during a trip can all be considered the result of travel and tourism. Even companies developing travel technology solutions owe their existence in part to this important and exciting industry.

All signs indicate that consumers will continue to use their smartphones as more and more as they become constantly connected to social media. If you're not making your product available on all channels you are potentially surrendering your customers to the competition. As a result, mobile ready travel technology solutions are becoming increasingly important for any travel business looking to reach these customers. People are not only using today's mobile devices to interact with each other, but they are also using these devices to make a significant number of purchases online. Some consumers may use various different devices as they research and eventually purchase products online. For instance, many consumers may start their initial research using their smartphone, but then switch to a Laptop to complete the purchase. Others will choose to use their handheld device exclusively and access a mobile booking engine to complete their purchase. Either way, your business needs to be ready to serve these customers on the device they choose to use.

Today's state of the art travel technology solutions can take full advantage of the easy access to content and powerful features that an online booking engine offers combined with the ease and mobility of using a smartphone. The competitive online market also requires agency owners have the flexibility to quickly and easily control a product's selling price based on a wide range of criteria including travel or booking dates, supplier or class of service.

Finding an online 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 consumer where and how they shop for travel can be just as important. If you're not making your product available on certain channels, then you are surrendering your customers to the competition.