The distribution of travel products online is made possible by a booking engine. If this software element is absent, it becomes impossible to make purchases or sales of airline tickets or hotel reservations via the Internet.
Various booking engines are utilized by trip-related firms to execute essential operations rather than employing human staff. Examining the capabilities and differences in tasks among these booking engines in travel companies is worth exploring.
Internet booking engine: its key functionality and main integrations
To put it simply, the Internet booking engine (IBE) serves as an intermediary between travel consumers and providers. Andrey Chebotarev, who leads AltexSoft’s travel technology practice, explains that this software component connects with customer interfaces to receive search queries on one end, and links with supplier systems (airlines, hotels, car rental companies) to manage and distribute their inventory on the other end.
Customer interfaces refer to the various channels through which a travel provider interacts with clients, such as their website, mobile app, or chatbot, which are linked to a booking engine via an API layer to allow customers to browse and reserve travel-related services, like flights, accommodation, vacation packages, insurance, and other similar products.
On the suppliers’ part, the significant systems are:
- Global Distribution Systems (GDSs),
- bed banks,
- airline consolidator databases,
- hotel property management systems (PMSs), and
- airline reservation systems (ARSs).
To search for products that match a customer’s query, check their availability, determine pricing, and complete the booking process, a booking engine uses travel APIs to link to these systems. This involves informing the system of the customer’s specific product, date, and reservation details. Once the system confirms the reservation, the booking process is considered finished. Finally, the IBE creates a confirmation document with all reservation specifics and sends it to the customer via email.
Key features
Modern booking engine modules not only serve their basic purpose, but also contain additional features focused on improving sales.
When booking engines gather information from numerous sources, such as GDSs, bed banks, consolidators, and hotels, they often come across duplicated search results due to variations in data across suppliers. Hence, a single inventory, like a room, can have multiple listings under different names. To overcome this challenge, booking engines must use internal or external mapping tools to sort through inventory lists.
Dynamic packaging involves integrating various travel products such as flights, accommodations, car rentals, and tourist attractions into a single booking process, enabling customers to customize their trips.
Payment gateway integrations are necessary for a booking engine, as it is not equipped to handle reservation payments. Therefore, in order to facilitate safe and secure online transactions during the booking process, the booking engine integrates with several payment gateways. When a customer selects a travel item from the search results, they will be redirected to a payment gateway by the IBE.
Travel businesses that sell their services across the globe or in multiple countries must be capable of accepting and handling inquiries in various languages, hence the necessity for multi-language support.
Management of bookings involves the capability to alter reservations such as modifying dates, appending supplementary products post-booking, and initiating cancellations.
Core differences
Although booking engines seem to operate similarly, there may be significant differences in their workflow behind the scenes due to various factors.
- Customized business rules. Among other things, business rules define where exactly a booking engine makes its search and how it prioritizes results displayed for a consumer.
- Pricing rules. Usually, they are set and tweaked by a revenue manager or other expert who decides on service fees charged on top of net prices.
- Suppliers a booking engine works with. Each of them has its own business logic and specifics that influence the internal workflow.
- Additional functionality and customizations. As there is no limit to perfection, any average booking engine has to be fine-tuned to meet the needs of a particular company.
their features and functions. We will investigate the differences between IBEs in the upcoming sections, as booking engines are not uniformly designed.
- business model (B2C, B2B, and B2E),
- type of a travel company (direct supplier or reseller), and
- specifics of products offered (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.).
Booking engines for direct suppliers
Travel suppliers can utilize IBEs to vend their products, either directly to consumers (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B/B2E). This provides airlines and hotels with greater authority over their inventory, enables the formation of tailor-made offers for loyal patrons, facilitates pricing distinctions, and reduces the fees levied by intermediaries.
Air / flight booking engines
The airline reservation system includes an air IBE component as well as the overall passenger service system (PSS). However, the air IBE can also operate independently as a module that connects to any ARS through an API. In addition to the primary functions of searching for available flights meeting query specifications in the ARS, processing outcomes, validating reservations, and sending PNR/itinerary/ticket data to passengers via email, a sophisticated airline IBE also:
- connects to bed banks, hotels, GDSs and other travel suppliers to combine flights with third-party products;
- allows passengers to choose seats;
- offers ancillaries during the booking process;
- customizes a booking flow and deals based on a client’s data; and
- supports frequent flyer programs.
When searching for a flight booking engine or an airline IT system, it is important to prioritize NDC connectivity as a key feature. This allows airlines to offer detailed information about their products and sell flights and additional services directly to various travel companies, excluding the intermediation of GDSs. Below is a list of providers that offer NDC-enabled IBEs for airlines.
- ISO Software Systems developed its SKYfly Sell booking engine in accordance with IATA NDC 4 level and ONE Order standards.
- InteRES presents a PSS-agnostic Airline Retail Engine that also enables airlines to uncover the potential of NDC and ONE Order.
- Pribas ’s AirBroker Airline Distribution Platform, based on One Order concepts, includes a booking component to sell flights, ancillaries and third-party products.
- Airlines Technology (AT) pairs its B2B booking engine with a PSS adapter that converts all offers generated by the PSS into NDC-compliant standards. The booking engine integrates with OTAs, TMCs, and other IATA and non-IATA resellers, creating a direct distribution network.
With Airlines Technology’s PSS adapter and B2B booking engine, airlines have the capability to harness their existing software and integrate it into the NDC ecosystem.
Hotel booking engines
A component called a hotel booking engine is part of a larger system referred to as a property management system (PMS). It is frequently incorporated into a channel manager, which manages hotel reservations from multiple distribution channels such as OTAs, GDSs, and bed banks.
The hotel booking engine’s primary objective is to receive and handle direct online reservations made through a hotel’s website. Additionally, the hotel booking engine has other noteworthy roles.
- integrating and syncing with the hotel’s social media pages;
- cross-selling (promoting extra services) at the time of booking;
- managing discount and promo codes;
- displaying best available rates against prices available on OTAs; and
- sending emails — confirmation, pre-arrival, and post-departure.
Numerous suppliers of hotel software provide a booking engine as a distinct module, which can be incorporated into an existing PMS or website, such as:
- Beds24 (best fit for small-to-mid-size hotels, B&Bs, hostels),
- SiteMinder (for hotels of different sizes, from small hostels to giant hotel chains),
- InnQuest (for hotels from five to 5000 rooms),
- Clock (for medium-sized and large properties and hotel groups),
- HotelRunner (for small hotels. hostels, villas, B&Bs), and
- NetAffinity (for independent hoteliers).
Booking engines for travel resellers
Despite the fact that airlines and hotels can now directly reach their customers through the use of the Internet, third-party entities such as travel agencies, tour operators, wholesalers, TMCs, consolidators, and OTAs continue to have a significant impact on travel product and service distribution. As a result, the success of travel intermediaries is heavily reliant on the quality of their online presence and booking engines. According to Andrey Chebotarev, the success of a business is directly proportional to the intelligence of its booking engine. You can familiarize yourself with the nuances of a booking engine in an online travel agency by watching our video.
Middlemen engines can adopt one of three business models (B2C, B2B, B2E) or a combination of these, and provide varying settings and conditions to cater to users from different categories, similar to how IBEs cater to suppliers.
The classification of IBEs for travel companies can be based on the products they offer, and they can be placed into the following groups:
- flight booking engines communicating with GDSs, air consolidators, low-cost carriers (LCCs) and other air providers via flight APIs ;
- hotel booking engines using different hotel APIs to reach GDSs, bed banks, global travel marketplaces, and hotel extranets for directly negotiated contracts with hotels;
- car booking engines linking to different car rental APIs ;
- transfer booking engines with access to bus and rail booking APIs ;
- cruise booking engines integrated with river and ocean cruise lines as well as with cruise consolidators;
- activities / sightseeing booking engines working with tour and attraction providers ; and
- compound booking engines, combining several products.
Compound booking engines are utilized by the majority of OTAs and tour operators, allowing their clients to purchase the complete journey in a single location. However, small agencies may begin with just one module, such as air booking, then expand to include accommodations, vehicles, and other items as their company expands.
It is essential that your chosen hotel booking engine provider offers a solution that is both feature-rich and highly customizable, as well as providing comprehensive reporting and support from a knowledgeable team.
What makes it crucial to have the appropriate provider for your booking engine?
- Brand promotion
- Lower costs than other online channels
- Increases the lifetime value of a guest
- Retains the loyalty of a guest
We’ve compiled a list of 10 crucial factors to consider when evaluating or choosing a booking engine provider. Focusing on these aspects will guarantee that you receive good value for your investment, and in the long run, assist you in establishing better guest relationships and increasing direct bookings.
1. Connecting to all the channels your hotel is on
Your digital presence extends beyond your website and probably encompasses several other online channels where your offers are being sold. Thus, it’s crucial to develop a centralized strategy that puts you in charge of your overall online presence. To achieve this, start by managing your inventory in a single location. This will allow you to view availability and rates in one place, making it simpler to optimize your pricing strategy and evaluate the performance of each channel.
2. Being optimised for mobile
By Q2 of 2022, our clientele has shown 74% of website visits coming from mobile devices, while only 23% were from desktop. To cater to this trend, having a website and booking engine optimized for mobile devices is now essential rather than just an option.
It is crucial for your booking engine to be customizable for various devices. Since individuals tend to use mobile and desktop devices differently, optimization is vital. This means considering factors such as the limited space on a smaller mobile screen.
3. Flexibility
Is your hotel equipped with the essential features and tools to thrive through the administrative system of your booking engine? For instance, does it…
- Display all the languages that your guests speak?
- Prominently display your hotel’s logo?
- Offer unlimited creation of tariffs, room types, special offers and discounts?
- Provide online voucher redemption?
- Offer wedding and corporate booking modules?
- Show a pooled inventory?
To determine the necessary features for your booking engine, carefully consider your guests. Are they from certain locations? Have you had success with voucher sales? Are wedding reservations common for your hotel?
Having knowledge of your target audience increases your chances of achieving success significantly.
4. Customer service and reporting features
Your hotel’s performance data should be shared transparently by your booking engine provider, enabling them to provide improvement recommendations based on best practices and data.
Are the reporting options of your booking engine provider comprehensive enough to provide a complete overview of your hotel’s performance? By utilizing the data from your booking engine reports, you should be able to determine booking trends that can contribute to revenue and marketing plans.
Having a team that possesses knowledge is crucial in enhancing your direct bookings. Ensure that you establish an open and productive exchange of information and ideas with your booking engine provider.
5. Promoting a ‘Book Direct’ message
Your booking engine provider should assist you in increasing your direct bookings, as your website has the lowest cost-per-acquisition and is thus the most lucrative channel.
Expanding your revenue can be achieved by increasing the number of direct bookings, which usually has a lower CPA, even after including marketing expenses.
Several tactics can enhance your strategy for booking directly, such as presenting guests with a persuasive and lucid incentive to book directly and ensuring that your online channels’ rate strategy is effectively managed.
6. Additional services like marketing and design
It is very advantageous for your hotel to have a seasoned booking engine provider who can offer you more services beyond a booking engine.
Connecting your booking engine with digital marketing services could be a wise decision, as it can help generate substantial traffic of good quality to your website and booking engine.
By enlisting the aid of a competent marketing team, you should be able to successfully generate direct bookings via metasearch and paid advertising efforts on platforms such as Google and Facebook.
Next up is website design. A hotel website that has been designed with conversion strategies in mind will be significantly more effective at generating reservations when compared to a standard, unremarkable website. These three essential components are required for achieving successful direct bookings.
7. Innovating and preparing for the future
As a hotel professional, you understand that it is insufficient to only be prepared for the present moment. You must anticipate and prepare for at least six months or a year into the future.
It is important for your booking engine provider to work closely with you and continuously create innovative product features to adapt to the dynamic industry and make preparations for the future.
8. A team of experts in the hospitality and technology sector
Your booking engine provider should be mindful of both traditional hospitality and tech because online booking engines are where these two intersect.
Even the most skilled software developers require the expertise of product designers with knowledge of the field. Net Affinity is committed to hiring employees with backgrounds in both the hospitality and technology industries.
Our team of conversion experts and leaders possess a background in hospitality and have worked with various types of hotels. With our wealth of experience and data, we are capable of crafting a booking engine that caters to the needs of hoteliers in practicality, not just on paper.
9. Helping you build guest relationships
Your chosen booking engine provider must offer more than simply making reservations. A top-tier booking engine must give you the freedom to generate endless tariffs and pricing strategies. Additionally, you should have the ability to set distinct rates for clients organizing corporate functions or nuptials.
After using those adaptable characteristics to convince guests to make a reservation, are they effective in establishing a enduring connection with said guests? The more familiar the guest becomes with you, the greater the likelihood they will return in the future.
10. The type of clients they have
Before anything else, it is essential to inquire whether the booking engine provider can provide a product that matches your property. Although a booking engine should, in principle, have the ability to adapt and expand its features for various property types, examining their client portfolio is still necessary.
If their services are only focused on rural guesthouses, it may be wise to search elsewhere for a property located in a major city center.
Alternatively, having a broad range of property types in their client portfolio or expertise in your specific property type is a positive factor. For hotels with a particular booking focus, such as weddings, it may be worthwhile to inquire about their booking engine’s ability to accommodate those requirements.
If possible, try to find a booking engine provider that offers a comprehensive package which includes the booking engine, marketing, and web design. Selecting an all-in-one solution simplifies communication and enables a single remarkable team to handle all of your requirements.
Your hotel’s online success depends greatly on selecting the appropriate booking engine.
