Odysseus Solutions

The cruise booking solutions that are available in the market today is 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 the 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 consumer 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 make 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.

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 including 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.

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 the 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.

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.

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 a 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.

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.

Have you ever wondered why some travel agents are so successful selling hotel accommodations to their clients while others don’t bother at all?  The right hotel reservation software can help your business increase hotel bookings as part of your overall sales.  An easy to use hotel booking engine can be an excellent tool for agents and consumers to research and confirm hotel reservations. Travel booking engines should be designed to automate processes and reduce time and effort required to research and completes a booking. But how do you know what type of booking solution to choose with everything from generic, white-label hotel booking engines readily available to complete private label travel booking solutions that meet your agency’s specific requirements? 

Any online application needs to provide your users with a seamless online experience based on your specific agency branding.  The booking engine’s headers, footers, colors, and fonts should all match that of your company branding.  Some of the more advanced applications even use innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display layout based on the type of device being used to access the booking engine.  No matter if your customers prefer to book online -or- with one of your experienced agents, you’ll need hotel reservation software that allows your agency to serve customers the way they choose.

But it takes more than multiple selling channels to be successful in today’s crowded online travel space.  Easy to use business management tools can be essential for your business to remain competitive and set you apart from the competition.

Today’s travel booking engine needs to allow you to quickly adjust a product’s selling price and promote any special offers that may be available. And with so many different hotel options and amenities available, hotel reservation software needs to include links to media files & rich content to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. Geo-coding of hotel properties help Users identify which hotel properties are near a specific point of interest or neighborhood with a given city? Access to a photo gallery of the hotel help provide a good idea of the different room types and amenities are available.

The ability to easily combine air, hotel and even a cruise booking into a single custom travel package can help you quickly increase your overall sales. A custom packaging engine can allow you to create your own pre-packaged offers for your customers that include not only their Air arrangements, but their hotel accommodations, transfers, and even a cruise vacation.  There are even dynamic packaging solutions that allow agents or consumers to package and price cruises, flights, hotels and other travel services.

If you are not selling cruises today, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity to earn high commissions in a rapidly expanding sector of travel.  The cruise industry is projected to continue to grow throughout 2019 with an estimated 30+ million travelers expected to cruise, making it and the fastest-growing segment in the travel, tourism and leisure industry.  While the traditionally strong in the North America market, cruising has become increasingly popular in Europe and Australia as well as across the entire Asia Pacific region.   Cruising in the Asia market has been surging ahead with passenger numbers doubling over the past four years to over 3 million.  Unfortunately, regional travel agents have been missing out on the wave of sales revenue due to a lack of automation, a scenario that has recently begun to change.

The ability to quickly and easily combine cruise booking software with flight reservations and hotel accommodations into a single custom travel package can be critical in the Australia and Asian markets.  The majority of passengers coming from these markets require more than just a cruise booking to complete their itinerary, which can be a time consuming and complex to complete.  Matching up a specific cruise departure time with international flight arrivals and ground transportation can be overwhelming even for an experienced agent. Adding a hotel along with any other products for a pre or post stay can just add to the complexity.  But today’s dynamic packaging solutions allow agents and consumers to build their own unique travel packages with live pricing and availability for cruises, flights, and hotels as well as other travel products. Custom packaging solutions allow agency owners to pre-package a travel itinerary to be sold online accessing supplier content Live using an agency’s specific ID.

The right technology partner can help your travel business drive efficiency through innovation.    

Cruise lines have turned ships into destinations in their own right and 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 booking software 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.

Cruise booking software with a powerful business rule feature can make adjusting a product’s selling price easy and allow you to easily administer targeted sales or promotions to remain competitive.  Availability display biasing capability can give you the power to focus your business on specific cruise providers or ships and potentially put you on the path to earn higher commissions.

The online travel marketplace is so competitive that you can almost wonder how any travel agency other than the largest Online Travel Agencies (OTA) can survive.  But the technology solutions available today allow any size agency to compete with easy to use online travel booking solutions that allow them to automate processes, increase revenue and reduce the time and the effort required to complete a transaction.

With the online market so crowded, it is important that your Travel booking engine provides the brand management tools you need to customize the look and feel to match your company. Some of the best-hosted travel solutions use a unique sub-hosted domain to further protect your brand identity by providing the ability to easily customize the headers, footers and style sheets.  You have worked hard to build your brand image and your website and online booking solution should be an extension of your brand.

Whether your customers prefer to make their travel arrangements directly with you -or- they prefer to shop and book online, your travel booking solution needs to provide the ability to serve them quickly and easily.  Affiliate & distribution features allow you to quickly connect affiliate users and websites to your travel booking engine.  Mobile friendly applications use innovative responsive technology that can automatically adjust the layout of the booking engine’s User display based on the type of device being used.

 Depending upon your business, you may want to consider access to multiple selling channels that can be easily managed using a single application.  This type of feature can allow you to easily set up additional users and quickly connect additional affiliated websites to your online booking engine. Administrative functions such as profile and preference management tools provide the ability to turn on/off a number of available features. Translating the online booking engine templates into another language can either be accomplished using pre-set translated templates or easy administrative tools that allow the client to translate your travel booking engine User templates.

Today’s travel booking solutions can bring content for airlines, hotels and even cruise lines into a single platform that allows a User to dynamically build their own custom package. This is a huge advancement compared to the days when travel agents had to use several different systems to book a packaged vacation.  Agents no longer have to use one system to book an airline seat, another for hotel accommodations and perhaps a third for booking a cruise or ground transportation. The process of coordinating a cruise with flights and hotel accommodations can be a complex process that takes hours.   Fortunately, the dynamic 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.

An easy to use flight reservation system can have your agents selling faster and allow you to customize the look and feel to match your agency’s own brand identify. Today’s online travel booking engines include robust business rules features that allow agency owners to easily adjust a product’s selling price and deliver the appropriate marketing message to their Users.  Unique and easy to follow process flows can even help you easily expand the products and services you provide your customers.

Whether your clients are making their flight arrangements for the business trip they have to take or the two-week vacation they NEED to take, chances are they may need assistance with a hotel or ground transportation to make their travel arrangements complete.  Today’s custom packaging solutions allow agency owners to pre-package a travel itinerary to be sold online.  The ability to easily combine all the different components of a trip itinerary into a single custom travel package can help you offer clients more services and quickly increase your overall sales volume.  The optional packaging modules available with some travel booking solutions combine the various live supplier connections with the travel booking engine’s innovative rules engine.  Dynamic packaging solutions allow agents or consumers to build their own unique travel packages with live pricing and availability for cruises, flights, and hotels as well as other travel products.

But your travel business will need more than great technology to be successful in selling flights online.  You need to make sure you have access to the lowest fares and best value to serve today’s price driven customer. Your flight reservation system must be able to search the best sources for content quickly and cost-effectively to ensure you offer a competitive price.  Make sure the technology you choose can provide live access to airline content to be sure the most accurate availability and pricing are used.  It helps to negotiate the lowest fares and best deals possible with the airlines when using your own agency credentials and be sure promoting any special deals that are available.   Accessing low rates offered by air consolidators is a great way to easily access the lowest fares available.  Since many air consolidators specialize in specific markets or destinations, you may look for a flight reservation system that allows you to simultaneously search multiple air consolidators for the best fares. You will need the ability to easily adjust pricing and perhaps include value add offers right in the fare availability display.

Whether your travel agency concentrates on selling airline tickets or it focusses mainly on selling cruises and vacation packages, chances are there is an opportunity to include a hotel booking along with your customer’s travel plans.  Although many travel agents gave up selling hotels due to the challenges they had tracking hotel bookings and collecting commissions, many persisted and the process has improved dramatically in recent years.  Adding a hotel booking to your customer's travel itinerary can be easy to do allows you to assist with more of their travel needs, so consider adding a hotel booking engine to your online solution if it doesn’t already have one.

There are several approaches your business can take to include hotel bookings as part of your overall offering.  For example, an easy to use hotel booking engine can be an excellent tool for agents or consumers to research and confirm hotel reservations.  A custom packaging booking engine can allow you to create your own pre-packaged offers for your customers that include not only their Air arrangements but their hotel accommodations, transfers, and even a cruise vacation.  There are even dynamic packaging solutions that allow agents or consumers to package and price cruises, flights, hotels, and other travel products Live.  How you decide to integrate the option for hotel reservations into your travel booking engine should depend upon your individual business and customer needs.

And no matter if your customers prefer to book online, by telephone or by visiting your agency in person, look for a hotel booking engine that is ready to serve customers the way they choose.  Applications should be developed using mobile ready technology so that users can access them using the variety of different devices they may choose. Your online booking engine needs to access the content your clients are looking for at a competitive price, so make sure the hotel reservation software you can access the right content.

Choosing the right hotel for a trip itinerary can be tricky depending upon a customer’s specific needs. For those customers who are looking to stay in an area of a city or near a specific point of interest, hotel booking engine with geo-coding to help the user to quickly find the right location which can prove to be a valuable and timesaving tool for everyone.  The travel booking solution you use should include the capability to pre-define business rules and easily adjust a product’s selling price or offer targeted promotions to your customers.  Online hotel booking solutions need to include detailed product descriptions and rich content that is linked to media files to assist Users throughout the research, shopping and booking process.  And if you are planning to expand your business into new markets, you should consider a solution that can handle multiple languages and currencies.

Decades ago, a good retail location with plenty of foot traffic and a few newspaper advertisements featuring special offers were enough to drive customers into your agency. The online revolution has dramatically altered this reality, changing the way consumers shop for everything, including their travel arrangements. The booking solution a travel business chooses is a key element of its operations and must support the larger overall company strategy. A review of your current systems and processes will help you find the solution that’s right for your business.

Do you need an “out of the box” fully hosted booking engine that uses standard templates with customized headers, footers as well as colors and fonts? Or are you looking to customize the booking engine templates yourself with an XML Booking Engine?

A good place to start may be reviewing your existing customer base and determining how you might serve them better or offer them additional services. After all, research has proven that it is less expensive to sell to an existing customer and avoid the additional resources required to secure a new customer. For example, have you considered adding a hotel option to your travel booking engine for those customers using your air booking engine? What about a packaging engine that can book a Cruise and then add other travel products such as air, hotel accommodations or even activities during and around the Cruise dates? Do you know how your customers prefer to make their travel arrangements? This is an important question to answer if you want to make sure the travel booking engine you choose will access the distribution channels you need to serve your customers.

Most call center applications give Agents the tools they need to research the best options and quickly assist customers on the phone or visiting their agency. Mobile-ready applications allow consumers to research and book options online at their convenience. It is all about consumer choice today and your business must be ready with a travel booking solution that is ready to serve today’s mobile consumer. An XML Booking Engine can even be used to expand your reach further by interfacing your booking engine with the various metasearch sites in the market.

Once you have determined the specific content to include and the various distribution channels you need to access, it’s time to consider your technology options. Will a simple out of the box solution work for you or does your business need something a little more customized? For those looking to design and control the layout of their booking solution, an XML Booking Engine may be the best solution. It allows you to host all of the Booking Engine’s User Interfaces on your own servers while using the XML connection for business logic as well as live pricing, availability & booking. This simple XML interface can combine multiple sources into a single interface, eliminating the need to maintain multiple connections if you work with a host agency or consolidator as well as using your own agency credentials with the Supplier.

Travel Agents have always been a key part of the travel industry since the beginning and have been evolving the way that they interact with both suppliers and consumers along with the rest of today’s retailers. Travel agent software such as airline booking engines, hotel booking engines, and even cruise booking engines was introduced into the market decades ago and have been evolving ever since. The online revolution and transition to e-commerce have been a crucial step for many agencies and a necessary change for them to remain in business. As a result, the online booking engines available today provide agents and their customers the ability to easily book just about anything from an airline ticket, a hotel reservation or even a packaged cruise vacation.

With just a few mouse clicks, today’s travel agent software can access the information agents need to research which hotel best meets their customer’s individual needs. For example, users can narrow the search for a hotel to a specific neighborhood within a city, the hotel star rating or a specific price range. You can even research whether a specific hotel property has a restaurant or room service available. Air travel searches can be done specifically to an airline, the time of day or even a specific class of service. Online searches for cruise vacations can be made specific to a sailing region such as Alaska or the Mediterranean, for a specific cruise line or cruise ship and even by the length of the cruise. Rich content such as Cruise ship and cabin photos along with detailed descriptions are integrated into the booking engine to help agents and customers make the right choice. Users can even select which seating time option they prefer for dinner or alert the supplier of a special need or occasion such as a passenger’s birthday or anniversary.

Different types of clients may have different requirements for their individual online booking engine. For example, the booking solution an agency may need to serve its corporate clients can be dramatically different from one they use for leisure travel customers. Corporate travel policy may dictate which specific airline, class of service or routing can be used based on an individual’s position within the company for example. Or there may be corporate travel policies to consider the limit to which hotel chains can be used or the type of room that can be booked. While those serving leisure travelers may look for a tool that’s somewhat less restrictive in some ways but perhaps searches multiple content sources to ensure they get the best price available for the flight or hotel they choose. The travel agent software available today can help automate processes while increasing revenues regardless of whether a travel agency serves corporate accounts or leisure clients.

Finding the right online airline reservation system with access to the content you need for your travel business can be a difficult and confusing process for even the most experienced professional. There are several types of travel booking engines available in the market today to consider. Some offer specific travel products such as airline or hotel reservations and many provide the ability to target multiple selling channels such as Business to Business, Business to Consumer and even Business to Business to Consumer.

The more advanced mobile ready booking solutions are built using innovative responsive technology that automatically adjusts the booking engine display to fit the type of device being used. This allows any User of the application to easily view and navigate through the booking process regardless of the device they are using. There is even a state of the art mobile apps available that allow you to expand your brand’s presence to handheld devices. Understanding how your customers prefer to plan their travel arrangements along with some research on the different options available will help identify the right type of airline reservation system for you.

But finding the right online booking engine to serve all the different distribution channels you need is only part of the answer. Content is key when it comes to the success of any online business, including those selling airline tickets online. Identifying and securing the right sources to access the airline content you need can be just as critical as the booking engine functionality is to the success of your business.

Many travel agencies choose one of the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) to check availability and confirm airline reservations. Accessing fares and availability via a GDS using an Agency’s specific ID provides Users to access to published airfares available in the market as well as any private or negotiated fares an agency may have. If you plan for your booking engine to use your GDS ID to make bookings, you’ll want to find a technology partner who can connect the booking engine you choose with your Agency’s GDS ID.

Many agency owners choose to align themselves with an air consolidator in order to gain access to the lower, preferential airfares these airline aggregators can negotiate. By consolidating sales from several smaller agencies, many air consolidators can drive significant volumes with airlines. This allows them to negotiate discounted private airfares as well as preferential fare rules and better commissions on published airfares. Some air booking engines even have the ability to simultaneously search multiple content sources for the best price, allowing an agency’s airline reservation system to combine their own agency GDS content with fares and content from other sources such air consolidators and affiliated agencies they may work closely with.

Is it time to evaluate the way you conduct business and see what improvements can be made?  When was the last time you evaluated whether your business is operating as efficiently as it could?  Are you offering the products and services that your clients are looking for? Have the travel technology solutions your business is using kept pace with that of your competitors?

First, consider whether you are offering to assist your clients with all of their travel arrangements. If you are selling your client an airline ticket for a quick business trip or a week’s long vacation, chances are they may need to book a hotel as well.  So, access to hotel reservation software is something you may want to be sure to consider when looking at your travel booking solution. Check if it includes access to links to media files & rich content to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. Make sure the application can be customized to match the “look and feel” of your company’s specific branding.

A good technology partner can help you automate the content as well as any include amenities once you have identified the content providers that match your client’s requirements. Planning or changing travel plans are no exception, so your hotel booking engine needs to support these features and benefits not only during the research and shopping process, but the entire booking process as well. You’ll need the flexibility to control your business rules a variety of ways, so here is where you want to make sure the application has the flexibility you’ll need.  Price adjustments should have the flexibility to be calculated as a fixed dollar amount ($) -or- a percentage (%) of the fare.  Business Rules should be easy to enter with the ability to define filters for a specific product type, supplier or travel date.

Make sure to check if you are serving your customers via the channels they prefer.  For today’s customer on the go, mobile-ready travel technology solutions are an option you’ll want to consider. Many consumers use different devices as they research and eventually purchase products online.   For instance, some may start their initial research using their smartphone, but switch to a Laptop to complete the purchase.  Others will choose to use their handheld device exclusively. Either way, the hotel reservation software you use needs to be ready to serve these customers on the device they choose.

And lastly, you will not want to overlook how the travel technology solutions you are using have kept pace with the latest technological developments and whether they allow you to easily expand your business. If you plan to participate in the Global Marketplace, you’ll need a hotel booking engine that can easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages.  Look for “state of the art” applications that are flexible & fully scalable and will easily grow with your business.

The airline reservation system was originally designed to automate the process and reduce the time and effort required to complete and manage passenger reservations.  Many of today’s travel booking solutions go a step further with advanced functionality and customized applications that provide complete travel packages via a seamless online experience for customers.  Some support complete private-label versions where the complete layout can be changed to meet your specific requirements.  Whether your customers are looking to book an airline ticket, a hotel room or even that perfect cruise vacation, an online reservation engine can help you serve them quicker and easier.

Today’s airline reservation system provides live access to airline content to be sure the most up to date availability and pricing is used.  Some even have the ability to simultaneously search multiple content sources for the best fare.  Most provide the revenue management tools you will need to manage your business, including the ability to easily adjust a product’s selling price by airline, itinerary, flight number, cabin class, dates and more. Whether your customers prefer to make their air arrangements directly with a traditional travel agent or they prefer to shop and book online, today’s travel booking solutions provide the ability to service them quickly and easily and some even support multiple selling channels using a single application.

Hotel booking engines are designed to allow travel agents as well as consumers to research and book hotel rooms quickly and easily online.   Most include links to media files & rich content to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. Many provide maps allowing the user to quickly see where the hotel property is located in relation to local area attractions. Today’s cruise booking engines include a vast amount cruise line, cruise ship and cabin descriptions linked to media files & rich content such as cabin photos, ship images and deck plan to assist in the shopping process.  Many provide live access to Cruise Line content to be sure the most accurate availability and pricing is used as well as powerful business management tools that allow business owners to keep pace with changing fares and the multitude of special promotions that cruise lines offer.

For many businesses, internal technology systems come together like a huge puzzle that fits multiple pieces tightly together to form a complete operating system. For example, the flight booking software required to operate an airline must perform multiple functions quickly and easily. Systems used to operate an airline must be accurate and incorporate important functions such as departure control and In-flight systems, passenger reservation management systems as well as the distribution of airline schedules and fares.  This includes access to seat maps& meal selection, interface with airline frequent flyer programs and access to onboard amenities is all things that a flight booking engine needs.

Flight booking software is one of the most important pieces of any airline’s technology puzzle and the flexibility for an airline’s system to easily interface with its distribution network has been a priority with most airlines for years.  Many of the older legacy systems that some airlines were using became outdated as technology has evolved, forcing them to migrate to newer and more flexible platforms.  The same is true for many traditional as well as online travel agencies.  Having the right travel booking solution can be central to your business.  Whether you are selling one of your client’s tickets for a business trip or a week’s vacation at a resort, they are probably going to need to book a flight to make their travel arrangements complete.

For today’s price driven customer, you’ll need to make sure you have access to the best value and price.  Your online flight booking engine must be able to search the best sources for content quickly and easily in order for you to offer a competitive price to your customers.  You will also need the ability to easily adjust the selling price and perhaps include value add offers right in the fare availability display.  Accessing low rates offered by air consolidators is one great way to ensure you are offering the best fares to your clients.  Since many air consolidators specialize in specific markets or destinations, you may look for an airline booking engine that allows you to simultaneously search multiple air consolidators for the best fares.

Travel agents can be a great resource to consumers trying to make sense of all the options available and find the best deal possible, so make sure your agents have the expertise and tools to provide the topnotch service that a professional travel agent can offer. Negotiating the best rates and amenities with Suppliers combined with promoting any special deals that are available will help keep your business competitive. A good travel agency can make sure consumers get the best price as well as the VIP treatment many of today’s consumers look for.  Make sure the flight booking software your application uses allows your agents and/or clients to select seats, request meals and add loyalty program information to airline reservations.