Why online hotel reservation system is a key component for OTA - online travel agency.

Source: http://www.provab.com

OTA stands for online travel agency. A travel agency, which operates and provide the services online. OTA covers a range of different types of services which it provides to global clients including flight reservation, hotel reservation, car reservation, holiday packages and other travel related services. There has been a massive growth in online travel business and that’s why most travel companies have adopted the OTA business model and going for travel portal development for their companies. Travel agencies are contracting travel technology companies to build and set a robust OTA platform.

Out of all the travel related services, hotel reservation creates a key component in terms of volume and thus hotel reservation system has become the most important aspect of OTA. It is absolutely convenient due to its 24-hour availability, global reach, great room inventories and pricing associated with it. End users can search hotels for any city worldwide, find out availability and pricing. They can also view the hotel images, videos and 3D maps to reach there. After selecting the hotels, users can make the payment through credit card and get the instant confirmation in terms of vouchers. Thanks to the rise of travel technologies, mobile apps and global reach of internet.

The rise of online hotel reservation systems, is not a threat to traditional travel business, but an important opportunity to be taken advantage of. Travel agencies can target more customers round o clock and provide term better services with any human interface. This also creates a better customer experience and thus more business for OTAs.

For most OTAs, the best choice for making a hotel reservation system is with several hotel APIs / hotel XML to gain the best possible inventory and better pricing. An integrated and fully functional hotel reservation system reduces the additional cost support team and gives following sustainable advantages.

• 24×7 availability, increased sales and better client satisfaction.
• Hotel reservation system manages from displaying hotels to voucher generation online and thus saves a lot of efforts.
• Hotel reservation system manages the complete user data on the backend with all the booking records, markup and statements.
• Separate markup can be managed on B2C and B2B, both the modules.
• Marketing tools such as email newsletters and promotional discounts help in building bigger client base.
• Better search and booking experience for end users.

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/hotelreservationsystems_hotelmanagementsoftware.html

http://www.provab.com/hotelreservationsystemqualityaward.html

Mobile Apps for Online Travel Software & OTAs.

Source : http://www.provab.com  

Online travel software means a web based online reservation system to book the travel related services. OTA also stands for online travel agency, which means a travel agency operating business through online process. Over the last five years, mobile apps have seen great surge in terms of usage. iPhone and Android devices are almost in every hand and people are browsing the information more than ever. So travel agencies are seeking the services of mobile app development companies to build them a best in class tool. Online travel software offers search and booking facilities of flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing, cars, cruises and holiday packages. Ticketing systems powers real-time booking of travel deals. Mobile apps use the same web services, which are used by travel software and bring the desired information for the end user.

A travel software is a web based system to store & retrieve travel related contents including flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing and other services. Mobile apps are connected to the same database and access the web services from the GDS & APIs directly. The data may come from the ticketing system's database or it may come from the Global Distribution Systems, hotel APIs providers or third party suppliers. Ticketing system may process the transactions related to flights, accommodations, transfers, cars, cruise and other travel related services. There are three kinds of travel software systems, which are most widely used today.

1. Travel Software System connected to GDS
2. Travel Software System connected to Third Party Suppliers
3. CRS based Ticketing System

A travel software, while issuing any ticket connects to primary flights / hotels / cars data to find real time availability and pricing. Once the availability is confirmed, users can proceed to make payment to confirm the booking. This whole process is automated and end users get the booking confirmation / PNR or voucher in no-time after making the payment. Below are distinct advantages of travel ticketing system.

1. Round o clock availability, improved sales and great client satisfaction.
2. Fully automated system, and thus saves a-lot of time of end users.
3. PNR / Vouchers are generated immediately.

Same advantages are extended through the mobile apps, which does not only help in making the booking process easier but also help in brand recall.

Regarding Author:

Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/xmlintegrationsolutions_hotelbookingenginedevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/travel-software.html

How merchant accounts can increase online travel software sales

Source : www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

A merchant account is a specific kind of bank account intended to hold funds taken from credit and debit card sales through online payment interfaces on travel software and POS. When a customer pays for booking travel products using credit or debit card, money from his account is immediately transferred to the travel agent’s merchant account. From there, money will be transferred out to a normal business bank account through a standard protocol.

Taking payment individually from those who book flights, hotel rooms, etc, through you travel agency might have become a little difficult because of increased transactions on a day to day basis. Often, smaller travel agents don’t get the merchant accounts directly through the banks so easily. But online travel software definitely needs payment gateways to survive. That’s why third party payment gateways like PayPal, 2CO etc are used worldwide.  

With the merchant account, you can entertain all the widely recognized cards and never send back a customer telling her credit card is not accepted by you. Since it works in real-time, merchant accounts reduce deposit times for your company and avoid the prospect of inadequate funds landing you and your customer in uneasy situations. Most of the travel portal development companies suggest their clients to use the direct merchant account for the same reason.   

Your new customers should be made your regular customers. Merchant account will help you to make them come back to you to buy travel products in future. This can be done by asking your provider to customize a loyalty program for you. They can get some discounts at the places they spend their vacations or when they next book travel products from you.

A valuable gift from merchant account is online payments. With this visitors to your site can click on the pay button in your website after choosing the flights and hotels, and pay by just filling in their payment data on the secure online form. Immediate validation of payments will occur. You’ll get the money within 24 hours. As a business person this is a great boon to you.

Regarding Author:

Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel portal development and marketing strategy implementation.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/globaldistributionsystems-gdssystems.html

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

What are Hotel APIs / Hotel XMLs and how to setup an online hotel booking system?

Source: http://www.provab.com

Hotel APIs / Hotel XMLs are web services provided by the leading hotel aggregators like GTA, Hotelbeds, Agoda, Expedia, Hotelspro, DOTW, RoomsXML and several others alike. Hotel APIs provided unrestricted access to huge hotel inventory compiled by hotel consolidators. Online hotel booking system is a term for web application offering the seamless ability to search and book hotels online. It covers a range the entire range of hotel / rental business, connected or non-connected with hotel aggregators. It is currently one of the most important part of online travel industry as online hotel booking systems are generating all the high bookings worldwide. Hotel booking systems are also having advantage because of its absolutely convenient due to its 24-hour availability, global reach and generally efficient customer service.

Hotel booking system is basically of two types, B2C – which is focused towards end customers and B2B – which is focussed towards travel agents. Travel industry today operates operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, business to corporate and white-label. Hotel booking system can be thought of as a more advanced form of global hotel catalog, where in user can search, check images, check pricing and do the booking online.

Setting up an online hotel booking system can be done in following two ways:

1. Hotel Booking System with Hotel APIs
2. Hotel Booking System with Self Contract Inventory (Hotel CRS / Hotel Extranet)

Hotel Booking System with Hotel APIs

Hotel booking systems have expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate. Carrying out hotel booking transactions electronically provides numerous competitive advantages over primitive methods. More over, the hotel inventory, which is one of the most important components of any hotel booking system, is accessed through hotel APIs, which have global data. When implemented with several hotel APIs, online booking system becomes faster, cheaper and more convenient than the traditional methods of bartering goods and services.

Hotel Booking System with Self Contract Inventory (Hotel CRS / Hotel Extranet)

Hotel booking systems with self contracted inventory are implemented more, for a specific geography. For example any travel company having several hundred hotel contracts in Dubai, will go for this model rather than going for hotel APIs. The commission in this model is more than the API model.

GTA Travel, Hotelbeds, Hotelspro, Tourico, Travco, Expedia, DOTW, Bonotel and several other hotel aggregators are providing the best in class hotel inventory with good rates.  

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/hotelbookingsystemsoftware-onlinebookingsystemsusa.html

http://www.provab.com/hotelapishotelapihotelxmlgtahotelbedsdotw.html

Flight Reservation System – Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre GDS Integration.

Source: http://www.provab.com

Time is advancing and so is the travel technology. People need faster and better services for their needs, which are near at hand and easily accessible. When it comes to airline reservation, there are so many first time or less frequency users, there are many price sensitive users. In case of more frequent users the booking process should be quick and transparent giving more and more options and control to the user while selecting and booking an airline. To improve the efficiency of the primitive booking system, where there were reservation systems for a particular airline with travel agents subscribed to them, online airline reservation system is introduced, connected with the GDS systems (Global Distributed System) to provide better deals and strong inventories to global users.

Airline Reservation System is an online booking system connected with global GDS systems including Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre, which consolidates the data from all the airlines. The booking engine connected with GDS system provides better inventory and rates to end customers as the number of airlines operating on the same routes will be many. Thus to beat the competition, airlines provide special fares and discounts to be one step ahead.

Airline Reservation Systems have gone through multiple stages of development since these were introduced. From a simple process of booking and flight schedules management, to a complete travel assistant for passengers, taking care of all of their needs from suggesting batter options, booking the travel tickets till the end of their journey.

For a particular airline operating in any specific geography, developing a robust and flexible ARS is fundamental for maintaining a competitive airline. It is a critical factor for deciding the sales and reputation of an airline. An ARS usually contains information regarding airline schedules, fare split ups, previous reservation records for that passenger and future deals and discounts if there.

A global distribution system based airline reservation system connects to several airlines and bring the data of availability and pricing at one common window. It also provides the information to various distributors and travel agencies working simultaneously round the world. Airline reservation systems are dealing B2C, B2B, corporate and white-label modules today.

Leading GDS systems are Amadeus GDS, Travelport GDS, Sabre GDS and Abacus GDS.

Regarding Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Why Amadeus System is one of the most preferred GDS Systems today?

GDS Systems are one of the most preferred ways for travel management companies to connect to online travel contents, flights, hotels, cars, cruise, transfers, sightseeing and similar things.

Amadeus system is one of the leading GDS today. In only 20 years, Amadeus has become the largest global distribution system provider in the world. It had great reach to travel contents worldwide, in terms of buyers and sellers. It is a leading transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry.

Amadeus system has all the core competencies and merits to succeed in the long run, not only because it’s a comprehensive travel management system, but also its diversity in aggregating the travel contents.  Over 90,000 travel agencies globally, use the Amadeus system. Amadeus is structured around two major competencies, GDS and travel IT solutions.

Amadeus as a technology provider for airlines have the below functionalities

• In Inventory Management
• Reservation process
• PNR Generation
• Passenger Profiling

Amadeus, which is a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, has also emerged as the technology provider of choice for the hotel booking platform in the MENA i.e. Middle East and North African region.

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/gdssystem-globaldistributionsystems.html

http://www.provab.com/globaldistributionsystems-gdssystems.html

Integrate Galileo GDS to Build a Travel Booking System

Source: http://www.provab.com/amadeus-gds-system.html

The reliance on the GDS systems including Amadeus gds have increased significantly over the years. Travel agencies across the world, are more and more using global distribution systems (GDS). GDS systems are enabled to provide online travel deals and data through a single source. A more traditional way of calling the provider to confirm the booking, was used, which took considerable efforts and time per booking. 

Today, latest travel technologies from the leading consolidators (aggregators) including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan have become popular among the travel agencies and services providers. Out of all, Amadeus GDS has emerged as the most preferred by travel agents around the world to make flights, hotels, car rentals, holiday packages, ferry, cruises or other travel services booking. The volume of the ticket bookings through Amadeus system such that all the leading airlines are actually connected with Amadeus GDS system. A growing travel agency must integrate Amadeus gds web services on travel website.

Apart from the generic travel contents, Amadeus GDS web services provides availability, pricing, details and online reservation module to travel agencies. Nowadays, travellers prefer a one-stop service, and request rich information to make a right decision. Information from the GDS system helps them to navigate, select and book, what they like. The travel agent has to provide detailed, real-time information to enable the consumer to choose an option that is suited to all his/her needs. Amadeus travel system just makes everything easy.

Amadeus had maintained its position as the global leader in travel technology and travel distribution solutions for tourism industry, by constantly introducing innovations. Set of solutions like e power suites, web services, APIs and other value added services, let client choose – what they like.  Amadeus tools are built to deliver the professional travel booking solutions. It helps the agents to deliver comprehensive travel itineraries quickly and efficiently.

For travel technology companies also, Amadeus GDS is a top choice and companies can deliver the custom made solutions to travel agents. With great technical support, that it offers – things can be big for Amadeus. Integrating Amadeus gds web services will definitely take the travel agency to another level, as it can access the huge set of travel contents governed by Amadeus GDS.

Regarding Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/travel-software.html

How to build a B2B Travel Portal with top hotel suppliers?

Source: http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

B2B Travel Portal is a “business to business” model of online travel portal. All the travel agencies, which are either OTA or going to be OTA, they are aware about the impact of B2B travel portal on their business. As travel agencies have changed the way, users searched and booked the travel deals. Rather than the traditional model of searching the deals, all the leading companies are offering B2C and B2B, both the web interfaces to customers to use it. In this article, we will discuss more about B2B travel software.

Travel being a global business, the agencies and companies are closely connected. Sharing the inventory across the globe, clearly have sustainable business advantage. Inventory of one agent can be sole by another agent sitting in another country, using these B2B travel portals.

Key Features of online travel portals, are:

• Numerous selling channels: B2B, B2C, XML OUT, B2E, White Label.

• Several inventory sources: In-house contracts and allocations, online

suppliers, hotel extranet and B2S portal.

• Various Payment Options: Credit Limit, Cash, Bank Transfer, Credit

Card

• Hi- Tech Mid and Back-Office Tools: Mark-up Definitions, Agent Commission and Cancellation Policy.

• Many Language and Currencies option.

Key Benefits of Hotel Booking Systems:

• Exclusive emphasis on web-based automated software, no hardware is needed.

• High flexibility – ascendable and robust platform.

• Reasonable price package – pay as you use with SaaS model.

• Rapid to launch, easy to use – spontaneous user interface and comprehensive modules.

For best B2B travel portals, inventories are also needed from the top hotel suppliers, which are as following:

•      GULLIVER – GTA XML Integration - Hotels, Tours, Transfers

•      TOURICO XML Integration – Hotels, Cruises – Worldwide Inventory

•      HOTEL BEDS /HOTELBEDS XML Integration - Worldwide Hotel inventory

•      DOTW (Destinations Of The World) XML Integration - Middle East Hotel Inventory

•      HOTELSPRO XML Integration - Worldwide Hotel inventory

•      JAC (JACOB) XML Integration - Worldwide Hotel Inventory

•      SPECIAL TOURS XML Integration - Europe & Middle East hotel inventory

•      TRAVCO XML Integration - USA Hotel Inventory

•      TRAVELPORT and Galileo XML Integration - (WORLDSPAN, GALILEO, THOR) – Flights

•      BOSCOLO XML Integration - European Hotel Inventory

•      JUMBO XML Integration - European Hotel Inventory

•      TravelAsia XML Integration - Far East Hotel Inventory

•      HotelsDo XML Integration - Spanish Hotel Inventory

•      SMILO XML Integration - Spanish, European and Central American Hotel Inventory

•      WHL XML Integration - Italian Hotel Inventory

•      Transhotel XML Integration - Spanish and European Hotel Inventory

•      RESTEL XML Integration - Spanish and European Hotel Inventory

•      GOGLOBAL XML Integration - WorldWide Hotel Inventory

•      WORLD AVENUES XML Integration - Middle East Hotel inventory

•      Hilton XML Integration - Worldwide Hotel inventory

•      Paradores XML Integration - Spanish Hotel inventory

•      BARCELO XML Integration - South American and Spanish Hotel inventory

•      BONOTEL XML Integration - Luxury Hotels and Resorts in North America

•      ASTRAL HOLIDAYS XML Integration - BULGARIA Charter flights and Hotels

Regarding Author:

Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/xmlintegrationsolutions_hotelbookingenginedevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/travel-software.html