Monday, 14 March 2016

Cost of Travel Software Solutions, Booking Reservation Engines and Mobile Apps Development – PROVAB.com

If you are associated with the travel industry as a travel company, tourism development organization, resort, travel agency, consolidator or a travel adviser; you may be using travel technology solution that lends you the edge to attract/retain customers and beat competition. Travel portal software is ideally suited for those travel agencies who require flexible, easy-to-use solutions to automate and control their business online. Your experience in your industry, backed by this robust technology, will give you the necessary ammunition to skyrocket your business through the web.
To know Cost of Travel Portal Development – fill requirement form to get a quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

So, how to enter the OTA market? How much it cost to build an online travel portal??
To set up OTA software, one needs to have a clear idea regarding the cost involved in developing a travel portal. After-all nothing comes without a cost.  For every dollar that you spend in developing the travel software, you should get 10 fold back as the latest technology driven online travel booking software will drive more customers - means increase in sales & revenue.
The overall project cost depends on the complexity and depth of your requirement. If you know nothing about development and cost, here are some points to be considered:
1. Choice of t-commerce platform:
A comprehensive travel portal can be developed on various t-commerce platforms like flight booking engine, hotel booking engine, car rental software, cruise booking engine, bus reservation system, holiday and packages booking system etc. Depending upon one’s requirements and business vision, the specific platform can be chosen. While choosing the appropriate travel module, you need to know the cost associated with it.
Flight Booking Engine: It is one of the leading travel commerce platforms that provide distribution, technology for global tourism and travel industry. An airline reservation system comes with an XML integration, which is ideally provided by some API or GDS (Global Distribution System) consolidators. API/GDS is a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between third parties and booking agents in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers.
A basic flight reservation system with an API integration usually costs between 6K to 9K USD. For a booking engine with GDS integration, say Amadeus, you can add 25% to above cost.
Hotel Booking Engine: Online hotel reservations are a popular method for booking hotel rooms. It is a computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities. Large hotel chains typically have direct connections to the airline national distribution systems (GDS) (Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, and Worldspan). These in turn provide hotel information directly to the hundreds of thousands of OTA through their XMLs, which are integrated in a travel booking software.
A hotel booking engine with a base level design can cost you between 5K to 7K USD. Any customization in terms of design, functionality, features etc., can cost you more.
Car Rental, Cruise and Bus Booking Systems: For a comprehensive travel booking engine, these all modules play a vital role in terms of business spread. According to a study report, the travel portal with these comprehensive services have more visitors compared with a single service provider booking engine.
Generally adding a car rental software or cruise / bus booking engines in a travel portal costs between 3K to 5K USD each. However the cost varies if you go with a single module system development.
2. Choice of business models:
There are basically two different types of business models - B2C, B2B. Based on the audience, one can select his appropriate business model.
B2C: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model refers to the tactics and best practices used by the companies that sell their product and services directly to the consumers. For a booking engine with B2C model, you can add 15% to above cost.
B2B: Business-to-Business (B2B) usually connects customers & partners to important company and product info. In simple words, it refers travel AGENT module. This model ensures your business growth as well as stability. For a booking engine with B2B model, you can add 30% to above cost.
Travel portal development cost varies a lot based on the features and platforms associated with the system. It can be commented after going through the detailed requirements. Professional travel portal development companies have ready framework for different type of travel models and thus using that, may reduce the time and development cost. Better to share your scope with a professional development company and get the absolute idea about pricing.
Regarding Author:
Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Social Integration like Facebook, Twitter, helping Travel Portals and Extranet Software Systems to Increase Sales and User Satisfaction

http://www.provab.com - Being into the travel business, you might be thinking of innovative strategies to enhance your business growth and provide maximum exposure to your organization. As a tour operator and travel agency, a significant amount of your resource, which could be concluded in the form of time and money, is invested towards the sole purpose of advertising. This is a very well planned strategy as growing your business and bringing in enhancement in the revenue is not possible without a well-architect and well-implemented marketing strategy.
Advertising has always been given an eminent position, be it at present day business or the organizations that had conducted business in the past or the one who will be doing so in the future. It is the well planned advertisement of the products that has helped in their introduction to us and we in turn purchasing them as a consumer. Advertisement has acted as the backbone of every industry, be it the most famous brand of car BMW, be it the fashion brand Allen Solly or one of the famous brands in the hospitality industry “The Marriott group of hotels”.
One of the eminent changes that we have experienced to be a part of the advertisement industry is the impact of social media and the impact that they has on transforming the whole idea of advertising. The present time advertisement provides more emphasis on customer engagement and building the very important element of “TRUST” among the customer. Building trust among the customer has been never being such an eminent part of advertisement as it is now. Success of online travel software totally depends on that.
There has been a sudden shift in what we call as focus of advertisement. At present the focus of every advertisement strategy that we formulate is based on building brand loyalty rather than building a brand image, which has been the sole focus of the process earlier. The task of building brand loyalty is much more challenging and failure to conduct a healthy dialogue with the customer may lead to loosing the business. This is the main reason behind majority of the companies at present outsourcing their advertisement segment to specialized social media marketing agencies.
Will it surprise you, if we say that there is a way to achieve the above mentioned goal of advertisement that is much easier, cheaper and at the same time consumes less time. This is a process that requires minimal effort on your part and if executed accurately has the capability of enhancing your online booking sale. PROVAB TECHNOSOFT has come up with a new idea called “Customer Review Module for Travel Software”. This is nothing but the travel product review, displayed on the travel portal or the travel agency web-page. By implementing this method of advertisement using the social media, we are not asking you to abandon the other strategies that you had been using for advertising your product. Customer review is a more conventional form of advertising, that has been often overlooked and under-rated when it comes to a way of generating social buzz for your travel business.
“What will happen if you allow your customers to post reviews about your travel business”? have this question ever invaded your mind. It is about letting your customer share their experience with your travel system and rate your service in an open manner. This is a way to let your customer know that their experience and satisfaction matters to you. It is about letting your customers and prospective customers know that you have architect your travel business to provide them with the best service and is in the process of constantly improving the service through customer feedback.

Benefits Associated with the Process
Increased Credibility
When customers get the opportunity to read the reviews about your service, it acts in a positive manner for your credibility. Your travel product takes the form of real people story from just being a collection of photographs, description and numbers. It is the real time experience that you customers have, described in their own words.
A Boost for your Online Booking Sale
As per the survey conducted on including Customer Review as a part of advertisement strategy, it has been revealed that there has been a dramatic increase in the online sales. One more aspect that was revealed is the implementation of this strategy by majority of the renowned online retailer. There is a science that could be related to the strategy and if you have not thought about it, then please think as this could be literally termed as free money.
Collateral Advertisement
Collateral advertisement is a real term that is present in the advertisement world. Here I am using the term with a little twist. The great part about customer review is generation of advertisement without focusing on your effort put forward towards the element of advertisement. This provides you with the opportunity to focus on the business aspect that is really required, which according to me is excellent service. Providing excellent service which in turn becomes the reason for generating positive customer review which is away to take your business towards the path of growth.
We would also like to mention that our travel technology product is not only about support our client's operational requirement, but in a way is the process for simplifying the customer engagement and feedback process. We are the provider of top-notch customer review service which provides you with the option of choosing between simple yet powerful and customized premade widgets to custom made solutions with the implementation of powerful APIs.

Travel Agencies in United States, Canada and India are relaying on Top GDS Software including Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre for Growth

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.
For B2C Travel Software Development – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

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/travel-software.html

Sunday, 13 March 2016

Online Travel Software (B2C/B2B) for IATA, Non IATA Travel Agencies in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey – PROVAB.com


Software designing is filled with a lot of buzz words at present and the most frequent of them is the word “Agile”. There are other similar kinds of words like SCRUM, KANBAN, Crystal Clear and Extreme Programming. Top travel technology companies around the globe adopting agile design process for travel portal software development, travel CRM and mobile apps.




The place that the word Agile holds in software designing could be explained with the help of the waterfall model. You may have read about the concept of waterfall model, when you were undergoing your bachelors in engineering. Waterfall model was also an ornate term used for defining a concept. The waterfall model is sequential designing process, according to which progress is defined as flowing downward like that of a waterfall. The various phases of the waterfall model include Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, Implementation and maintenance. Leading travel software companies are adopting the same model for scalable travel portal development projects.

The waterfall model dates back to the olden days when the Romans involved themselves in the construction work. The main theory that the Romans has put forward and the concept that is implemented in the Waterfall model is the fact, that when you build a bridge it is a challenging task to bring about change or fix the bridge later. Even if you find a path of fixing the bridge, it will be costly. It is very essential to know what you want at the beginning, when you are designing the project.

The case is different with the software, wherein you can bring about changes in the end-products. Looking at the demand that the users pose to the current software industry, it would not be wrong to say that the users expect change in the end-product very frequently. I can put forward a very common concept in regards to the reason behind demanding change in the end-product. During the beginning of the project an user might have a very vague idea about the features that they want in the project, and a strong opinion is formed with the progression of the project depending on the business needs.

Now I could clearly say that, it is the benefits associated with the Agile designing process that had helps in creating an exclusive place when it comes to software designing. The Agile design process enables the project managers to generate a condition that leads to clear and frequent interaction among the customers, business folks and the delivery team.

There are many projects that Provab.com have accomplished and in which the Agile method was implemented very effectively. These are the projects wherein the features associated with the end-result were quite different in comparison to the features that were through about, while beginning the project. The factor that mattered for us as an organization was the level of customer satisfaction and appreciation that these projects brought along with them.

As mobility solutions depend on the web services generated from the web projects, agile development process will be the backbone of travel portal development companies.


Friday, 11 March 2016

Cost of Online Reservation Software Setup for Travel, Tours and Hospitality Companies – PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - If you are associated with the travel industry as a travel company, tourism development organization, resort, travel agency, consolidator or a travel adviser; you may be using travel technology solution that lends you the edge to attract/retain customers and beat competition. Travel portal software is ideally suited for those travel agencies who require flexible, easy-to-use solutions to automate and control their business online. Your experience in your industry, backed by this robust technology, will give you the necessary ammunition to skyrocket your business through the web.
To know Cost of Travel Portal Development – fill requirement form to get a quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

So, how to enter the OTA market? How much it cost to build an online travel portal??
To set up OTA software, one needs to have a clear idea regarding the cost involved in developing a travel portal. After-all nothing comes without a cost.  For every dollar that you spend in developing the travel software, you should get 10 fold back as the latest technology driven online travel booking software will drive more customers - means increase in sales & revenue.
The overall project cost depends on the complexity and depth of your requirement. If you know nothing about development and cost, here are some points to be considered:
1. Choice of t-commerce platform:
A comprehensive travel portal can be developed on various t-commerce platforms like flight booking engine, hotel booking engine, car rental software, cruise booking engine, bus reservation system, holiday and packages booking system etc. Depending upon one’s requirements and business vision, the specific platform can be chosen. While choosing the appropriate travel module, you need to know the cost associated with it.
Flight Booking Engine: It is one of the leading travel commerce platforms that provide distribution, technology for global tourism and travel industry. An airline reservation system comes with an XML integration, which is ideally provided by some API or GDS (Global Distribution System) consolidators. API/GDS is a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between third parties and booking agents in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers.
A basic flight reservation system with an API integration usually costs between 6K to 9K USD. For a booking engine with GDS integration, say Amadeus, you can add 25% to above cost.
Hotel Booking Engine: Online hotel reservations are a popular method for booking hotel rooms. It is a computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities. Large hotel chains typically have direct connections to the airline national distribution systems (GDS) (Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, and Worldspan). These in turn provide hotel information directly to the hundreds of thousands of OTA through their XMLs, which are integrated in a travel booking software.
A hotel booking engine with a base level design can cost you between 5K to 7K USD. Any customization in terms of design, functionality, features etc., can cost you more.
Car Rental, Cruise and Bus Booking Systems: For a comprehensive travel booking engine, these all modules play a vital role in terms of business spread. According to a study report, the travel portal with these comprehensive services have more visitors compared with a single service provider booking engine.
Generally adding a car rental software or cruise / bus booking engines in a travel portal costs between 3K to 5K USD each. However the cost varies if you go with a single module system development.
2. Choice of business models:
There are basically two different types of business models - B2C, B2B. Based on the audience, one can select his appropriate business model.
B2C: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model refers to the tactics and best practices used by the companies that sell their product and services directly to the consumers. For a booking engine with B2C model, you can add 15% to above cost.
B2B: Business-to-Business (B2B) usually connects customers & partners to important company and product info. In simple words, it refers travel AGENT module. This model ensures your business growth as well as stability. For a booking engine with B2B model, you can add 30% to above cost.
Travel portal development cost varies a lot based on the features and platforms associated with the system. It can be commented after going through the detailed requirements. Professional travel portal development companies have ready framework for different type of travel models and thus using that, may reduce the time and development cost. Better to share your scope with a professional development company and get the absolute idea about pricing.
Regarding Author:
Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey based travel agencies are focussing on responsive travel website design and mobile app development initiatives - PROVAB

http://www.provab.com - As reports suggest, more and more travellers, especially the youngsters, tend to book their flights and hotels through their smartphones. In a report published some time back “Tap into mobile: managed travel in the digital economy, an investigation into the impact of mobile in the managed travel space.” It predicts travel bookings through mobile will greatly increase in the next ten years. Travel agencies will use latest mobile technology to deal with their travelers. By 2017, mobile booking will increase to 32%.

Benefits of mobile are hassle-free, fast and efficient running of travel business, more productivity and profits and travellers’ wellbeing. Travel agencies want travel technology companies to supply a one-stop-shop app which cater to all their needs as well as of their customers.
Travel portal companies in India who supply mobile websites and customized mobile apps to travel managing companies in different parts of the world like Singapore, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Copenhagen, Dhaka  and Brussels. Now they include travel alert features, besides flight status updates and itinerary information. Indian travel software suppliers emphasize on productivity and compliance to laws in respective countries when they design and develop apps and websites for travel agencies in European countries such as Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Britain. When travel companies in Toronto, San Antonio, Playa del Carmen, Honolulu, Niagara Falls, San Juan, Ottawa, Whistler and so on offshore their travel software development to India. Indian mobile software companies, take special care to provide simple and efficient way of doing travel business and productivity.
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.
Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html
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. Amadeus and Galileo software, backed by the GDS systems are some of the top used travel software. 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.

Monday, 7 March 2016

PROVAB.com partners to travel companies in 27 countries for reservation software and travel booking systems

http://www.provab.com - 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: