Tuesday, 13 October 2015

PROVAB TECHNOSOFT develops GDS and Non GDS based Airline Reservation Software for Travel Agencies : www.provab.com

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:

PROVAB TECHNOSOFT partners to travel agencies in 27 countries, delivers Best reservation software, booking engines and mobile apps

Travel business is growing fast online. Most of travel agencies have their own B2C & B2B travel portal, travel ecommerce website, some even have a travel mobile app just for their customers. But still most of the travel agencies in developing countries have websites, which don’t possess ecommerce functionalities. They just gives you some information on who started the travel agency and when, little bit more about services and packages. But you can’t book a flight ticket or hotel room through it. And the travel agencies think they have a good “online presence”.


Over the last decade, a lot have changed in the way, people used to search and book travels deals. There is a clear trend in OTA model and usage of travel technology solutions have gone higher. Travel technology companies are working hand in hand with travel agencies to make their processes online almost 100%. Starting from the consultation needed for IATA accreditation, to GDS and APIs access – travel technology companies are sharing their wealth of experience to make the process quicker.

In general, if one is looking for travel technology solutions – its always better to find a professional travel technology company. They analyze each travel agent’s business environment. They do a thorough study of the travel products and services they want to market. Who are their suppliers and what is the nature of their customers? What are their short-term and long-term business ambitions?  

Travel technology companies help them in devising an effective online strategy taking into account all the above. They enhance their digital presence through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. They develop travel portal using the best of travel technology and web services available. Setting up engines for booking flights, hotels, etc, as per the requirements.  The suppliers are integrated. Then the content management is started.

No travel agency can wish away the negative impacts if they just try to avoid adopting technology to improve its business. More and more people resort to online booking or booking through mobile apps. Agencies improve their office work by automating them. No travel agency can stand apart from this avalanche of travel technology.

Regarding Author:

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

Resources:



Demand for Hotel Booking Software and Hotel APIs integration is growing in Uganda, Morocco, Saudi Arabia

http://www.provab.com - Much has changed in travel technology over a decade. Traditional way of search and booking the travel deals are no more in fashion. Online booking system has become the keyword of travel domain across the globe. At present, online booking systems are most widely used for used for airline reservations, hotel & motel reservation, cab reservations and custom holiday packages. More and more booking systems are also connecting the event booking XMLs as well. In a nutshell, online booking system is internet based booking system software, which can be accessed by users through the unique URL, services can be searched and bookings could do done.
Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

There are many web services / hotel APIs, which can be seamlessly integrated to bring the best inventory at best price.
Hotel APIs
  • GTA
  • Hotelbeds
  • Hotelspro
  • DOTW
  • Travco
  • Tourico
  • Restel
  • Miki
  • Jac Travel
  • Expedia
  • Priceline
  • Bonotel

GDS
  • Amadeus
  • Galileo
  • Sabre
A GDS system will also provide the data for hotels, cars and cruise apart from flights. It also provides the information to various distributors and travel agencies working simultaneously round the world.
Regarding Author:
Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several online booking systems.
Resources:

Amadeus, TravelPort, Sabre GDS Integration and Travel APIs integration for B2B B2C set up – www.provab.com

A global distribution system (GDS) is a database capable of storing and updating enormous information on the supply of a wide range of tourism products worldwide. GDSs enable the travel agents to access, in real-time, availability, features and prices of flight tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, ferry reservations, trains and other services. With a Global distribution system integrated to their website, travel agencies can allow their customers to search and book travel products and services and issue tickets too.

Looking for a Travel Portal – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html


Global Distribution System

Travel agencies are greatly aided by GDS systems because they are enabled to offer their customers rates, inventory, discounts, rooms, and descriptions on a real-time basis. In other words, global distribution systems are intermediaries between travel product suppliers –and travel retailers who sell tickets to the final consumer.

Main features of GDS:

• Report availability and prices of travel products

• Reserve user requests.

• Sale and ticketing

• Track sales (extend customer’s stay, change of flights, etc).

• Facilitates control management for travel agencies).

Evolution of GDS

The prototype of GDS in the travel industry can be seen in the 1950s as the traditional legacy business model which inter-operated between airline vendors. Computer reservation systems (CRS), at the initial stage, was used by the airline companies as an automated booking system, but later, travel agents were given access. Around 1980, CRS enabled travel agents to connect to various travel providers in a single system. At this stage, in addition to flights, hotels and car rentals were included. CRS acquired much strength by late 80s being so helpful to both suppliers and distributors. In the 90s, computerized reservation systems of airlines were transformed to global distribution systems (GDS). So we see that GDS has developed from airline alliances and ended up becoming independent business units with product internationalization and introduction of new products, especially hotel rooms.

GDS integration for travel agencies and suppliers of travel products

Travel agencies must have full access to a global distribution system GDS. To get connected to a GDS, travel agencies need a contract.  This will enable the travel agents to provide an astonishing amount of travel product rates and information to their customers, at the lowest possible rates. An experienced travel technology company can integrate any GDS to the computer reservation system or website of a travel agency.

It’s critical also for the properties to be on a GDS. Travelers now go to travel portals to find travel products. So hotels, car rentals, etc, have to be there to get Internet visibility and, thus, more reservations. A GDS allows real-time access to inventory system of a hotel with the current prices, discounts, room types, facilities like Wi-Fi  and different aspects of interest to the potential customer.

Owners can hire a good travel technology company to get access to the GDS of their choice. A property can be connected only in one GDS provider. If the property owner wants to change the provider, he can cancel the existing provider and activate another with a switch letter.

How much does it cost?

To integrate GDS to your system, you’ll have to pay a one-time setup cost and pay a monthly charge of a minimum amount per reservation.

Major GDS systems

Amadeus was started in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS in order to create a European GDS, by fusing their CRSs. In 1989, seven more airlines joined Amadeus and began to allow travel agents to book flights through neutral screens. It is now the largest leisure package distributor in the world. Through Amadeus GDS integration, a travel agent can offer travel products from 430 airlines in 195 countries, 32 car rental companies in 37,918 locations, 20 cruise lines and 300,000 hotel properties. More than 100,000 travel agencies are connected with Amadeus GDS.

Sabre, a joint venture by American Airlines and IBM, was started in 1960. In 1970, Sabre system began to be installed in travel agencies.  Now 55,000 travel agencies use Sabre GDS to book products from 400 airlines, 88,000 hotels, 24 car rental brands, and 13 cruise lines.

Galileo and Worldspan are the other two major GDSs. There are also third party consolidators like Sahara, Infini (Japan), Axess (Japan), Tapas (Korea), Fantasia (South Pacific), and Abacus (Asia/Pacific) that cater to particular regions or countries.

The big consolidators also include such as Expedia, Orbitz (Merchant program registration needed), Hotels.com, Travelocity, AAA, Hotwire, Priceline and TravelWeb.

The future of GDS

As a tool of of content aggregation, GDS is here to stay and be more powerful. Novel technological solutions in middleware continue to appear. Global distribution systems have a long way to go.

Friday, 9 October 2015

Develop Hotel Booking System with Hotel APIs / XMLs integration for global room inventory - PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - With the evolution of online hotel booking system, traveling has become easy and comfortable. Sitting in your living room, you can avail the ease of planning an
exotic holiday vacation in your dream location with the help of online hotel booking
system.  Nowadays, hotel booking systems are popular travel portals as they connect users to an extensive inventory from multiple hotels wholesalers across thousands of destinations worldwide.

Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html



The leading hotels also incorporate hotel booking software to help their clients do the booking online. The hotel booking software plays a significant role in the planning as it allows the users to find the most competitive hotel rates as per their choice along with the multiple suppliers and get the best results for a specific geographic area or product category which suits their budget.

Key Features of hotel booking system software, 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 omprehensive modules.

Regarding Author:

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

Resources:



Travel Agencies in Middle East and Europe target higher growth with top travel software, booking systems - PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - 2015 is expected to be great year for OTA – Online Travel Agencies. 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:


Travel Portal Software, Booking Reservation System and Extranet Systems are giving edge to travel agencies – PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - The future of travel portal development could be directly related to the growth of travel industry. In the last decade, the travel industry has witnessed many important changes and implementation of technology to every aspect of tourism has been one big leap, which has benefited the travelers along with the organizations into the business of tourism. The aspect of development can be related to the emergence of travel portals and travel apps.
Travel Portal Software

A travel portal is developed with the main aim of providing online booking facilities for the end-users, visiting the website. The most important features included in travel portal are air ticket booking, hotel booking, bus booking, car booking and chartered plane booking. Previously air ticket booking was considered to be the most important element of travel portal development. With the airlines becoming stingier, hotel booking is predicted to be the future of travel portal development.
The aviation industry over the world and specifically in India has been going through a turmoil phase. We often hear stories about the soaring prices of the airline tickets, decline in the demand of air travel, increase losses mounted by the airlines and in certain cases the carrier busting has lead to the decline in the number of air travelers. The current incidents of Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia flights have raised question over the safety of the air passengers. At one point of time air ticket booking was considered to be an eminent part of travel portal development, now it has taken a back seat. Travel portal analysts predict that the future of travel portal development is with hospitality industry.
To stay in competition, low cost carriers are selling their air tickets directly through the airline websites. Selling tickets at a discounted price or lower price has been one of the marketing strategies of the airlines to sustain the competitive market. When such kind of offers is put forward by the airline company, they try to sell maximum number of tickets through their own website, giving a stringent space to the travel agencies or the travel agent. Presently the airlines sell 50% of the tickets through their company’s portal, compared to the earlier percentage of 30%. The message is very clear, the airline companies want to eliminate the online travel agent and cut down on the thin profit margin that they get. Hence the future of travel portal development is not safe with airline booking.
Hotel booking turns out to be a much safer option. With the number of travelers increasing with each passing year and new destinations discovered by the people in the travel business, the demand for accommodation has been rising. The statement holds true specifically for the exotic locations, where even a small company into the hospitality sector want to project its premises and get booking from international travels. Since the margins for the airline reservation are under pressure, the business model of the travel portal development is moving towards hotel reservation and holiday packages which projects a better prospect of growth and revenue generation.
As per Deep Kalra, the founder and CEO of makemytrip.com, the travel portal use to get 90% of its business from air travel, which has now dipped to 70% and is further predicted to go down to 50%. As per the recent data, priceline.com regarded to be the most valuable travel agency, generates 97% of its total revenue from selling hotel room. The case is same for expedia.com, where the 73% of the total revenue generated on a yearly basis comes from hotel booking. Selling hotel booking through the travel portal is an attractive offer as hotels share 10% - 15% of the profit with the travel agents, making it a profitable deal. Selling rooms for fragmented landscape comes with a better profit margin. This comes as a good deal for small hotels which cannot afford to spend money on advertisement for hotel room booking.
With the travelers getting accustomed to booking hotel rooms online, travel portals are gaining good amount of profit from hotel booking. The travel portal can tie up with numerous numbers of hotels across the globe and process hotel room booking for them. As per the data, earlier only 30% of the bookings were done online and the rest were done through phone. The present scenario is different, where 70% of the booking for the hotel rooms is done online and 30%over the phone.
Even the hospitality industry is making things better for the guests with the touch of technology. Owing to the rise in the number of travelers willing to be a part of the wonderful journey of technological hospitality, the future of Travel portal development is safe with hotel booking.