People are travelling more and more, for business, leisure and even just for the sake of it. All, for various reasons, don’t always approach the bog travel agencies to book their flight tickets and reserve hotel rooms. Many resort to local and independent travel agents whom they know well. But the small and medium players have to keep pace with the ever-changing trends in the travel industry. If you are aspiring to start an online travel agency of your own or to expand your present travel business, below are some important points Travel business has changed a lot in recent times. The travel agencies no longer just informs the customer about the availability of the flights, their schedule, issue the ticket and get commission from the airline. Now with the online travel agency software, customers can book online. That’s why most of the travel startups are actually following the OTA model. With these online travel software, new doors leading to profit have been opened for travel agencies. You can turn to customized package tours, holiday packages, cruises, hotel packages, tours for your locale or some specific places, and so on. You can work on your own or for another agency. You can specialize in pilgrimages, leisure travel, business travel or any niche ones. You select your sector and then you can start your own travel agency with your niche offerings. Focusing on what best you can offer, is the key to success. Best hotels in a specific geography, top sightseeing and transfer tours. You can give them personalized service. This will make the customer take you as a reliable agency and they will feel more secure during their travel. Your customers should feel confident that you will arrange everything possible for them: hire a car, find their favorite cuisine, and so on. Here are some points in starting a new travel agency:
Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation.
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How we can improve customer engagement through the latest travel technological advancements?27/9/2016 The internet and the proliferation of smart-phones have transformed the way consumers reserve hotels and accommodation. This drastic change in consumer behavior has led to an up-rise in online bookings around the world and inherently meant a transformation in how travel agencies help their customers book hotel rooms. Travel agencies with hotel booking systems are getting more business. Hotels also benefit from hotel booking systems as they get more rooms booked, thus avoiding the prospect of rooms remain vacant. For the B2C user perspective, below is work flow, which they see during the booking process-
The whole online hotel booking system being 100% web based model, it was profitable rather than conservative method. Major business models, B2C, B2B, B2B2B and B2B2C are used widely across the globe. There have been a consistent debate about, which one is better but most of the leading travel agencies are actually using both. Professional travel portal development companies, which are offering online hotel booking system are now clubbing the system with mobile apps based on android and iOS operating systems. Most of the working and corporate professionals prefer to get the booking done on the go and thus mobile apps are far more helpful rather than web version. Online hotel booking systems which are openly definable and customizable to cater to their specific business needs. Multilingual hotel booking systems are widely used in USA, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Dubai UAE, India and Singapore. A combo of robust hotel booking system and mobile app can certainly keep you ahead of competitors. Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel portal development and marketing strategy implementation. Over the last decade, we saw the growing rates of hotel booking systems across the globe, GDS and Non GDS – in both the categories. We also simultaneously saw growing travel technology companies, which are competing in developing and delivering the best in class hotel booking systems, hotel CRS systems, hotel reservation systems and hotel extranet. Travel technology companies have come up with certain very innovative ideas about the search and sort algorithm to integrate several GDS and hotel API providers. With such a momentum, it is very much required for any travel management company to partner with leading travel technology company with in-depth experience in dealing with GDS and API Integration. Robust hotel booking systems don’t only showcase the great inventory and offerings effectively, but also provide a quick and easy add to cart option to ensure the user experience is as enjoyable as possible and attract more and more buyers towards the online booking system. With so many hotel booking systems available, it is mandatory to build the custom features to create a niche for your business. One must choose a solution that integrates easily with the existing travel website and provides a great solution to the end clients. To choose the best travel technology company after short listing it according to your travel portal attribute list, the know-hows of the company and details are inevitable. This is because a company with enough experience API integration and GDS Integration can provide you with a better service and will be able to bring the live certification process quickly. You should make sure the experience of that travel technology company in successful travel reservation system deployment and specially matching something like yours and then go through the product demo. Hotel booking system demo is important, as one must see in detail as to what’s ready to offer and what can be customised. API integration, being a complex process, its always advisable to go for a travel technology company, which has experience in integrating several hotel APIs and GDS web services. If everything comes positive then great or else the search is on. To decide upon this should be given ample amount of time as this can prove to be the most important decision for your business. To know how to choose best travel technology company for your travel reservation system, one should look for these features in the features list of that company:
Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. For handling the ever growing network of various online reservation systems, there are the global consolidators, which consolidate the global travel data from various airlines, hotel providers and car providers. Such a system that aggregates and distributes travel related information to end travel management companies, is called GDS System / Global Distribution System. GDS System is a centralized reservation system used as an ultimate access point by different travel agents for reservations on different reservation systems. It is a computerized travel reservation system that provides automated transactions between Vendors and travel agents who in turn provide booking services to the travellers. GDS works in 3 sectors namely, airline reservations, hotel reservations and car rentals. A GDS system connects all of these three sectors and a huge share of worldwide travel bookings goes through GDS and other consolidators. The major GDS systems are Amadeus, Sabre, Apollo, Galileo, Worldspan, Abacus and Infini. These have links to the airline's database and provide all links to the travel agents who are the primary customers. Basically it is a medium used by various travel agents to access the seats, rates and booking information related to different airlines. It connects various such reservation systems all together within a single entity and also connects them to various other GDS present so as to provide combinational services like flights plus hotels or hotels plus rental cars etc. The association between single ARS – Airline Reservation System and the GDS is so advanced that the booking systems and the travel agents access availability and pricing information in real time. Whole process of searching and booking and generating the PNR, can be finished in in no time. In case of ARS, whenever a booking is made, a PNR is generated that contains all the journey details for that passenger. GDS also holds the entire data in that PNR, called user profiling whereas ARS contains PNR details for that passenger only related to that particular airline. Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. GDS global distribution system has a history starting from 1960s. First it was a method to track flight schedules, availability and fares. The first landmark in its history was when, Sabre and Apollo installed their GDS technology. This led to travel agencies generating their own flight bookings for their customers, while giving airlines more exposure for sales. Then came the internet, which led to an avalanche of travel portals and travel websites. The main GDS providers (Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan, Galileo and Travelport) built their own system to consolidate travel related data. GDS – Global Distribution Systems are shared their web services to travel agencies and travel technology companies to develop online travel portals, which can be accessed by B2C users, agents and corporate companies as well. What are the advantages of joining the GDS Global Distribution System network?
It facilitates an unmatched virtual marketplace for travel inventory sellers like hotels, airlines, holiday package providers and car rental systems. GDS gives opportunity to even budget airlines and small hotels unprecedented sales exposure. Since more and more travelers’ book travel products and services online, GDS has acquired a big status in world travel industry. In the present scenario, nearly 700,000 travel agents plug into a GDS daily to book flights, hotels, car rentals and holiday packages. GDS is now an international medium connecting travel bookers and providers. It instantly gives real time information on products, price and availability to travel agents and online booking engines, and facilitates automated transactions. The advent of online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia, Booking.com and Wotif has enhanced the importance and relevance of GDS. A global distribution system can enhance hotel room bookings by corporate as well as leisure travelers, and, thereby, income by placing hotels on more travel supermarkets worldwide. Real-time rates and availability are continuously sent directly to the GDS. It’s a boon to larger hotels and resorts located in attractive regions that offer standard room types such as single rooms, double rooms, luxury suites, etc. The technology behind the GDS is older, there are constraints on the total number of unit types that can be dealt in the system. In addition to GDS, you should also have a well-designed travel website and user-friendly navigation encouraging customers to book online. GDS global distribution system can be the backbone for inventory. Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel portal development and marketing strategy implementation. |
AuthorPROVAB TECHNOSOFT is an award winning travel technology company , delivering B2B / B2C travel software, travel CRM, accounting software, car rental software and mobility solutions to global travel & hospitality companies. ArchivesCategories
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