Hotel Booking Engines Add Value

1. Hotel Booking Engines Add Value The right Hotel Booking Engine can add value to the overall service a travel agency provides to its customers whether it is for a corporate or leisure travel. Adding a hotel booking allows agents to provide a more complete service to their customers by making all of the travel arrangements for their trip with the added bonus of providing incremental commissions for the agent. An online travel booking solution should be designed to reduce the time and effort required to research and complete a travel related booking. For a hotel booking engine to truly bring value, it should include access to rich content such as pictures and area maps as well as detailed descriptions of the property and room amenities to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. For some travel businesses, the need to be able to offer and book the special deals associated with a specific agency consortia group can be essential. All this content needs to be fully integrated with both Business to Business and Business to Consumer sales channels to avoid the headache of managing multiple booking applications to run your business. Many need a choice when deciding which content source their online booking application will use to access content. This allows them to offer their customers the right supplier content at the right price. A flexible online booking application should provide a variety of content sources to choose from or provide the ability to easily add content sources for the Client. A Hotel Booking Engine should be designed to make it quick and easy for agents and consumers to research and complete a hotel booking. It should be abundant with content such as detailed hotel descriptions, pictures and area maps to assist with selecting the right hotel property during the shopping process. And to make sure you are reaching those millennial consumers who shop for

2. nearly everything using their smart phone, the application should use responsive technology that automatically adjusts the screen display layout based on the type of device being used. Your online booking application should be easily customized to match your brand identity and provide a seamless online experience for your customers. For some applications, this can be as simple as customizing the headers, footers and style sheets to match your specific branding. For others, a complete private label version may be the better choice so the layout as well as “Look & Feel” can be changed to meet your specific requirements. Product features such as automatic email confirmations sent to customers from your email address that provide easy access for customers to add payment are time saving features to look for when evaluating the various options available. Another might be a booking reminder feature that alerts Customers and Agents that a payment is due is another feature to consider. Identifying the right combination of content and product features for your hotel booking engine can be a critical decision, finding the right technology partner can be just as important.