Flight Booking Software Started It All

The marketplace for travel products online continues to advance as more and more consumers use some type of online travel technology when making travel arrangements.  There is online travel software available to research and book just about any type of travel product.  Whether someone is booking airline tickets for a quick business trip or they are booking the annual family vacation, there are online travel booking engines that can help guide a user through the entire research and booking process.

One of the most popular online travel products available today is airline reservations. The flight booking software the airlines developed years ago became the backbone of today’s Global Distribution Systems (GDS’s) and many of today’s online travel applications.  There are countless airline reservation systems and booking engines in the market today, so the choice can be somewhat overwhelming even for the most seasoned professional. 

It is always a good idea to start by evaluating the way you currently make airline bookings and identify any improvements that can be made there.  Is your business operating as efficiently as it could when making airline reservations? Is your product priced competitively and easily available for your clients to book?  Has your technology kept pace with your competitors?

This is where a little research on the options available will pay off in the long term. There are airline booking systems designed to meet the requirements of just about anyone selling travel online, but finding flight booking software with the right combination of content sources, price and product features for your business will be key to your success. 

And as today’s consumer continues to shift just about all their purchases online, you will want to make sure your online booking engine is mobile-ready so you can avoid the need to develop a separate, expensive dedicated Mobile APP in the future.  For this, you will want to make sure the flight booking software you choose is using responsive technology that will automatically adjust the screen size based on the type of device being used. 

Next, consider how your customers like to research and book their travel arrangements.  Whether your customer prefers to research and book their flight arrangements online or speak with an experienced travel professional, travel technology should be designed to make it quick and easy for travel agents as well as consumers to use.  Applications should be simple to use and not require the user to input or remember complicated formats. Researching and booking travel online today should be as easy as just a few clicks of the mouse.

You will also want to ensure that any application you choose provides the business management tools that you will need to properly control and manage your business.  At a minimum, you’ll need the ability to adjust the selling price as well as offer targeted sales promotions or include “value adds” to customers using your services.

Finding flight booking software with the right combination of content and product features for your business can be a critical decision, choosing the right technology partner can be just as important.

Cruise Booking Solutions Have Options

The cruise booking solutions that are available in the market today are the result of years of technological improvement.  As the travel industry scrambled to move sales to online channels, the complexity of selling a cruise brought unique challenges.  The initial online cruise booking engines launched in the market had limitations not only with functionality but with the ability for a cruise line to differentiate their brand in the crowded marketplace as well.  These applications have evolved over the years and have been driving the force behind the increasing sale of cruises online today.

Today’s cruise booking engine can provide live access to cruise content and provide Users with the most up to date content, availability and pricing. However, the support for modification of cruise bookings can vary by cruise line and can further vary by booking status, fare code and sailing. The modify options available in today’s cruise booking solutions can vary by feature and most modify options are only available to a “logged in” agent User and typically not a consumers using online cruise booking solutions. Fare code, cabin category or actual cabin/stateroom, dining options and guest details are all booking elements where modifications are commonly supported.  Many of today’s cruise booking engines even makes it easy for a User to review booking activity by maintaining a detailed history.

Cruise lines have turned ships into destinations in their own right, so today’s cruise booking software requires the integration of detailed photo galleries, deck plans and even videos to highlight their distinct features and amenities.  Cruise line, cruise ship and cabin descriptions need to be part of the cruise online booking system and linked to media files & rich content such as cabin photos, ship images and deck plans to assist Users during the research, shopping, and booking process.

And with so many competitors offering so many deals, cruise booking solutions need to provide an easy and efficient way for you to manage the various special pricing or value add offers for a business to remain competitive.  The travel technology solution you choose should include the ability to easily define pre-set business rules so you can manage specific products’ selling price and include any value add the offer you may have.   To reach today’s mobile consumer, you’ll want a mobile-ready online application so you can serve these clients regardless of the type of device they choose to use or when they choose to shop.

Fast and easy to use applications can help reduce the amount of time it takes your agents to research and complete a travel booking.  Today’s travel technology solutions provide quick, live access to supplier content and use the most up to date availability and pricing. The application you choose should have a quick response time and supported by a technology partner that is responsive to the needs of your business.  Finding a technology solution that will help your travel business reach today’s online consumer is an important decision. Finding the right technology company to partner with can be even more important.

An XML Booking Engine May Be the Solution

Today’s online technology solutions need to be fast, easy to use and flexible.  With so many competitors offering so many special deals, your online booking solution needs to provide an easy and efficient way for you to manage the various special pricing or value add offers in order for your business to remain competitive.  Sometimes this requires that you use an XML booking engine that will allow you the ability to customize the application as you choose.

The XML booking engine can provide fast and easy access to content such as live schedules, availability, and pricing for hundreds of airlines.  Some of the more sophisticated include the ability to easily define pre-set business rules to help you manage a specific products’ content source as well as adjust a selling price or include any value add offers.  Some of today’s online booking engines allow Users to build a package shell to be sold online and manage business rules with full flexibility occupancy dates, sale dates, block hold milestones, etc.

And with today’s competitive marketplace, it has become increasingly critical for today’s business manager to track their business and identify trends quickly.  Not only will you need basic booking reports to track your sales revenue, but you’ll need to keep track of your costs to properly manage your business as well.  Many of today’s travel technology solutions come with reporting tools easily available to track not only the inventory you have available along with associated bookings, but can also track individual Supplier sales as well to assist you with booking payments or managing inventory.

And to reach today’s mobile consumer, some use an XML booking engine to power dedicated mobile applications.  Others skip over the APP and choose an online application that is “mobile-ready” so they can serve these clients regardless of the type of device they choose to use or when they choose to shop.  Using an XML travel technology solution can also provide you the flexibility to be easily customizing your User Interface to support your own brand identity and unique selling style.  And if you are looking to expand your reach with affiliated agents, you’ll want a solution that can quickly add affiliate users and websites, perhaps with the ability to easily customize the look and feel for each as well.

You should also ensure that any application you choose provides the business management tools that you will need to properly manage your business both online and off-line.  At the minimum, you’ll need the ability to adjust the selling price as well as offer targeted sales promotions or include “value adds” to customers using your services.

Any XML the booking engine you choose should have a quick response time and supported by a technology partner that is responsive to your needs.  Consider a travel booking solution that uses a secure, scalable online booking platform that can easily expand with your business as it grows. Finding travel technology with the right combination of content, product features and flexibility for your business can be a critical decision, choosing the right technology partner can be just as important.

Travel Technology Solutions Provide Options

There are so many different types of travel content available and so many different travel technology solutions available that it is difficult to know which the best fit is for your company.  While one booking engine may have the great functionality and the features you need, it may not have the content your clients are looking for.  On the other hand, you may find a travel booking solution with the perfect content for your clients, but then discover that it is missing the functionality and features your business needs.

For your content source, you may want to consider different sources for different product types.  For example, if you sell multiple products such as Cruise, Air, and Hotel, you may want your technology solution to access cruise content using one source, but look to use a totally different connection for your airline bookings and perhaps another source for booking a hotel.  Finding all the right travel-related content sources in a single online booking solution that has the features and the functionality you need can be overwhelming at first and a bit of a challenge at best. 

The solution to your problem may be an online booking engine with the features and functionality you need to properly manage your business that also has a flexible supplier connection a gateway which will allow you to access different content sources for different travel products.  Some of the more advanced travel booking engines even allow you to choose specific content sources by Supplier, providing the ultimate in content source flexibility. And as preferred supplier relationships become increasingly important to securing the best price and commission levels, display biasing has become a tool some Travel technology solutions provider agencies to promote their preferred suppliers over those that are not preferred.  The ability to bias the availability display for one supplier over another allows an agency owner to steer consumers to preferred suppliers and increase their overall profit. Many suppliers are quick to recognize the benefits of a biased display and may offer increased commissions and/or marketing support to those agencies with an online booking solution that has this biasing capability.

Travel technology solutions also need the ability to quickly and easily define business rules so business owners can maximize their profits. The ability to include value adds offers or special deals in the availability display can be an essential marketing tool when you are promoting special offers and deals online. Your travel booking engine needs to be able to keep up with all the different specials and promotions that Suppliers are making available today.  Selling price adjustments and value add offers should be quick and easy to set up and have the flexibility to define a business rule to be specific to a market or channel, travel or booking dates, supplier and more.

Finding a travel technology the solution that has the functionality and content you need is an important decision for your business, finding the right technology partner to assist you can be even more important.

Travel Agent Software Needs Options

The travel agent software currently available in the market includes fast and easy to use applications that can help your travel agency reduce the amount of time it takes to research and complete a travel booking. Today’s travel technology solutions provide quick, live access to multiple types of supplier content such as airlines, cruise lines and hotels to ensure the most up to date availability and pricing is used.

For Leisure agents, especially those selling complete cruise vacation packages, 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, an airline booking engine 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. Easy access to features like integrated hotel information and descriptions linked to rich media can help the User select the option that best fits their needs. From an agent's workflow perspective, custom day to day itineraries can be built for customers that easily show them their itinerary, accommodation details and more.

Sophisticated business rule features can allow a travel agency owner to develop and deliver customized marketing messages to their Users. A product’s selling prices can be easily adjusted and rules defined to specifically consider published airfares, negotiated/private airfares as well as consolidator airfares. Travel agent software that integrates cruises with air and hotels can even just show the one total price to the User. Access to traditional business to business as well as business to consumer channels give today’s agency owner the flexibility to serve customers the way they choose. And ready to serve clients in today’s mobile world, many online booking engines are mobile built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts screen size and layout to the type of device being used.

Travel agent software that has a quick response time and supported by a technology partner that is responsive to your needs can be critical for your business to remain competitive in today’s fast pace online environment. Consider using a travel booking solution that uses a secure, scalable online booking platform designed to meet the demands of suppliers, travel agencies as well as the end-user. This will allow your technology to easily expand with your business as it grows. Choosing a technology partner with experienced development and support staff available around the clock can be key when any issues do arise.

Finding travel agent software that is fast, flexible, responsive with relevant content is an important decision for your travel agency business. Finding the right technology company to partner with can be even more important.

Best Hotel Booking Engine Option

Travel booking solutions should streamline the sales process and reduce the amount of time it takes your agency to train new agents to allow them to focus on selling faster.  Packaging options can allow travel agents to price multiple products, easily bundle them into a package and sell them online. Here is where an easy to use standalone hotel booking engine can be an excellent tool for agents or consumers to research and confirm hotel reservations.

Create your own pre-packaged offers for your customers that include not only their airline arrangements but their hotel accommodations, transfers, and even cruise vacations as well.  For those looking to design and create their own custom packages, dynamic packaging solutions allow both agents and consumers to package and price cruises, flights, hotels, and other travel products in real-time.  How your travel agency decides to integrate hotel accommodations into the products offered depends on your individual agency’s business and customer needs.

Some travel agents may avoid offering to check hotel accommodations for their customers since choosing the right hotel for a particular trip can be tricky depending upon a customer’s specific needs.  Hotels can vary so much with each offering different levels of service and amenities included, not to mention geographic location within a region.  For those looking to stay in a particular area of a city or near the specific point of interest, a hotel booking engine with geo-coding that helps customers and agents quickly find the right hotel in the right location can prove to be a valuable and timesaving tool.

Your travel booking solution should include the ability to pre-define business rules and easily adjust a product’s selling price or offer targeted promotions to your customers.  Today’s online hotel booking engine needs to include detailed product descriptions and rich content linked to media files that can assist agents as well as consumers throughout the research, shopping, and booking process.  Users are able to view pictures representing different room types, actual property public spaces as well as street views.  And for those planning to expand into new markets, many of today’s travel technology solutions can easily handle multiple languages and currencies.

Advances in technology continue to change the online shopping experience and mobile readiness has become increasingly important to anyone looking to compete online.  The question is not whether more travel bookings will be made using a mobile booking engine, but rather how much of your business today is already being impacted by this change in behavior.  ‘Mobile First’ should be the philosophy for all development strategy whether immediate or long term.

Adding a hotel booking to your customer's travel itinerary is easy to do and gives you the opportunity to assist with more of their travel needs, so you will want to seriously consider including a hotel booking component as part of your travel technology solution.  Finding a hotel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner with solutions that will help you reach today’s consumer when, where and how they shop for travel can be just as important.

Airline Booking Engine Options Can Vary

Most airline booking software can provide “live” connectivity with airlines so that the most up to date pricing and availability is used. Some air booking engines even have the ability to search multiple content sources simultaneously for the best price, allowing agency owners the ability to combine their own content with content from other sources. Many travel agents look for an online booking engine that allows them to customize the branding such as headers, footers and style sheets to reflect their agency’s unique identity and provide a seamless online experience for their customers shopping online.

So many of today’s airfares come with specific rules attached to them that choosing the right fare can be confusing.  Some fare rules are important for Consumers to be aware of such as the ability to change their itinerary, class of service or receive a refund on their ticket.  While other fare rules may only make sense to the Travel Agent such as published verses private fares, fare basis codes, combinability, and other GDS information.

The flexibility to choose which information your airline booking engine displays to specific types of users of the application can prove to be an important and valuable tool.  Whether you choose to display the information directly from the GDS or customize the display to contain only the information you want to display can be left up to you.

Look for an airline booking the engine that allows you to set up and control what rules are shown to the user. Many of today’s applications allow you to set up different rules for published verses private fares for example.

The business management tools that an airline booking engine includes is an important factor to consider and something which can vary greatly from system to system.  Most applications include the ability to adjust a product’s selling price, but the level of flexibility defining business rules is where systems can vary tremendously. Most have the ability to adjust selling fares by the airline, but some go much further and allow for Rules to be defined by itinerary, class of service, travel or booking dates and much more.

The ability to easily run reports to track your business and help you make adjustments along the way is also an important consideration when evaluating any air booking engine.   Who are your top customers?  What are the top destinations your customers are interested in? Are your customers finding what they are looking for on your website?  Many applications include reporting tools that track your bookings, but some can even provide search statistics that can let you know quickly and easily what your customers are looking for when they come to your website.

This can be valuable information for a business owner to consider when reviewing their overall product offering as well as negotiating preferential rates with Suppliers.

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