The benefits of developing B2B booking software is listed below:
Information required for purchasing is provided by the travel partners - One of the biggest advantages is making your entry into the travel services system visible to the travel agents. As being the admin, you will be having more options in your system compared with your agent’s system. Rest the look of the travel agent’s system will be absolutely similar to yours. Below are the listed features that the travel agents would be able to view in their systems:
Services - The centralized services will be the part of the system which the travel agents will be able to find during the course of making reservation. Along with the list of the services, the travel agents will also be able to view the description (service image, service info), selling price, the location, suppliers for the services and the number of units available. These are the information required for creating a new reservation.
Availability and Pricing - Your travel agents will also get the access to the price list for each and every service and the features that forms a part of the service. The price available to your agent is the club of basic / net price and some other mark-ups from admin, i.e. additional services, supplements, reduction and discounts. Once a service is made available through addition of allotment, enabling the partner to book the service directly and enter the payment for it. In case there is no addition of allotment, the partner can click on “Send Enquiry” option. However if the admin makes disables the booking for specific dates, then the agent will not be allowed to book during the particular period.
Promotion and Special Offers - For generating demand and increase in sales, you (admin) get an option to enter the special offers in the system, enabling your travel partners to use them. The promotion could be viewed on the B2B login side as well.
Different pricing level for partners in different market - This option acts as a great marketing tool when it comes to assisting, increasing and rewarding partner sales. In case you prefer to have different pricing level for different partners, it could be defined in the back office by using the option different market. For example, if you are targeting three different markets like European market, Asian market and American market, you have the facility of adjusting the prices by the addition of different commission to the market. Each partner will be able to get the price depending on the market they are assigned to. This will enable the travel agents to get the price predefined for them.
Reservation Management - The system will allow the administration and the travel partner to track the reservation and manage them effectively. The system is designed to enable the travel partner make a reservation directly, when they have availability to information like product, price, and information about special price, promotion, services, availability and similar information. They get the overview of all the reservations accomplished by the system.
Availability of all documents - There is a very well support system for the mutual communication between the tour operator and tourist agency and its partners. The system will provide the travel partners with all the documents, enabling them to make the same available for the customers. When a partner makes a reservation, the document provided is dependent on the action taken by them. The offer and itinerary is followed automatically once the request is sent. After completion of the booking, the invoice is sent by the system automatically. However this process could be customized depending on the need of the travel agencies. Along with this the partners will get an overview of all the documents created and are connected to the reservation system, which could be forwarded to be printed for the customers.
Communication enhancement process - In this process, one partner checks with the suppliers, makes a confirmation for the reservation and send documents while the other one is sending new reservations. This is a time and money saving process as it eliminates the need of communicating over the phone, thereby attracting customers, creating new marketing campaigns and making better sales.
Better control - Here the whole process is centralized, eliminating the risk of making possible mistakes as everything is under the same roof. Partners get an overview of the reservations and the documents under the core console of booking system software.
Impact of GDS on Hotel Booking Systems
In a recent survey, year 2015 set up a record for travel bookings through GDS distribution systems. Around 62 million bookings were processed across various travel portals and online hotel booking systems. In 2016, its expected to cross 64.5 million as per latest projections. In terms of revenues $12.5 billion was clocked across all channels in the second quarter in the top 50 global markets, encompassing 69 million hotel room-nights. United States, India and UAE saw more absorption from OTAs, travel agency software and hotel reservation software.