Travel products cannot be sold or purchased online without a booking engine. This software component is responsible for facilitating the distribution of airline tickets or hotel reservations on the internet.
Various booking engines are utilized by travel-related companies to automate fundamental operations rather than relying on human personnel. We will investigate their capabilities and how they differ in function and responsibility among the travel industry.
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 travel providers. Andrey Chebotarev, the travel technology practice leader at AltexSoft, explains that this module connects with customer interfaces to accept search requests on one end, while also integrating with supplier systems (such as airlines, hotels, and car rental companies) to manage and distribute their inventory on the other.
Customer interfaces refer to the website, mobile application, or chatbot of a travel provider that links to a booking engine through an API layer, enabling customers to search and book flights, hotel rooms, holiday packages, insurance, and other travel products.
The crucial systems on the provider’s end are:
- Global Distribution Systems (GDSs),
- bed banks,
- airline consolidator databases,
- hotel property management systems (PMSs), and
- airline reservation systems (ARSs).
Travel APIs are linked to by a booking engine in order to seek out products suitable to a customer’s request, determine if they are available, determine the prices, and then reserve the product, which means informing the system that a specific customer has reserved a specific product for a specific date. The booking is considered concluded once the reservation is validated by the system. Last but not least, an IBE creates a document of confirmation that includes reservation particulars and sends it to the customer via email.
Key features
In addition to their primary function, contemporary booking engine modules usually incorporate the subsequent characteristics that focus on boosting sales.
When booking engines gather data from various sources, they often encounter the issue of producing duplicate search results due to inconsistent data provided by numerous suppliers including hotels, bed banks, GDSs, and consolidators. Given that one room or inventory can appear under multiple designations, booking engines need to use built-in or external mapping solutions to process inventory listings. This is called travel content mapping.
With dynamic packaging, a travel customer has the ability to merge various travel components such as flights, accommodations, car rentals, and tourist activities in a single booking process.
To ensure safe online transactions during the booking process, a booking engine integrates with various payment gateways since it does not handle reservation payments. When a customer selects a travel item from the search results, the IBE will redirect them to a payment gateway.
Because numerous travel companies cater to a worldwide clientele or at the very least a clientele spanning multiple countries, they must be equipped to handle and respond to inquiries in various languages through the provision of multi-language support.
The management of bookings involves the capacity to make changes to reservations such as altering dates, supplementing additional products post-booking, and performing cancellations.
Core differences
It appears that all booking engines perform their tasks in a similar manner. However, their workflow may vary greatly due to different factors that are not visible to the user.
- 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 functionalities and features. The following sections will examine the differences in functionalities and features amongst various IBEs as all booking engines are not equal.
- 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.).
Hotel booking engines
A component of a property management system (PMS) is a hotel booking engine, which is frequently included as a crucial element of a channel manager. The channel manager module governs all hotel reservations made through OTAs, GDSs, bed banks, and other distribution channels, among other things.
The hotel booking engine’s central objective is to acquire and handle direct online reservations via a hotel’s website. Additionally, the hotel booking engine performs vital tasks.
- 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 hotel software providers offer a booking engine as a distinct module that can be incorporated into an existing PMS or website. These include:
- 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).
Benefits of appointment scheduling software for small businesses
Simplifying the process of scheduling appointments: With the help of appointment scheduling software, small business owners can facilitate the booking of appointments online, allowing clients to do so from the comfort of their homes instead of physically visiting or calling the business. This can effectively cut down on the workload and time required of both staff and owners.
Appointment scheduling software facilitates customers in booking appointments at any given time and location, thereby enhancing their convenience, satisfaction, and loyalty to a great extent.
Appointment scheduling software has the potential to decrease the quantity of no-shows by dispatching automated reminders to clients prior to their appointments. This measure can guarantee that appointments are attended on time, resulting in an increased productivity level for the business.
Enabling Online Payments: Certain appointment scheduling software allows for the processing of online payments, providing a hassle-free experience for both the customer and the business. This feature ultimately helps save time, while reducing the risk of issues that come with handling cash or checks.
Businesses have the option to use appointment scheduling software to schedule and manage their workforce’s schedules, which aids in ensuring there are enough personnel to meet appointment demands.
How Appointment scheduling software improves the customer experience
The utilization of appointment scheduling software can enhance the customer’s interaction by simplifying and providing more convenience when booking appointments. Certain methods in which the software can enhance the customer experience are:
Customers can book appointments anytime and anywhere due to the appointment scheduling software, which can be more convenient than physically visiting or calling the business during working hours.
Appointment scheduling software has the capability to send email or SMS reminders automatically to clients before their scheduled appointments. This feature helps diminish the rate of missed appointments and guarantees timely attendance to the appointments.
Certain appointment scheduling software provides customers with the option of making payments for their appointments online, which can be a more convenient alternative to paying in person or over the phone.
Appointment scheduling software usually offers customers the option to see available appointment times and select the one that suits their needs. Offering this flexibility can enhance the customer’s experience since it permits them to select a convenient time.
The appointment scheduling process can be made simpler and more efficient for customers by using appointment scheduling software, resulting in an improved overall experience.
Appointment scheduling software has the potential to enhance the customer experience by simplifying and facilitating the process of booking and attending appointments, resulting in higher levels of contentment and allegiance among customers.
What to Look for In Appointment Booking Software
It is important to acknowledge that not all individuals are at ease with utilizing an email address, especially those in informal sectors and retired professionals who may not be knowledgeable in technology. For these groups, requiring them to book appointments solely through email may cause difficulty.
In the digital world dominated by mobile devices, a phone number is now commonly used to identify customers. By allowing customers to book appointments using either their phone number or email address, without the need for multiple exchanges, customer frustration is reduced and the process is simplified for all parties involved.
There are a number of crucial elements that need to be taken into account when opting for scheduling software for small enterprises.
The software needs to be able to integrate with the calendar system your business is currently using, such as Google/GSuite/Outlook/Office 365 Calendars.
Additionally, it ought to possess an intuitive interface that enables both small business proprietors and their clientele to effortlessly schedule, rearrange, and retract appointments.
In addition, it ought to provide a range of scheduling choices that are flexible.
It is important that the system allows customers to easily schedule appointments using their email or mobile number, without the need for extensive messaging or communication.
Additionally, a reminder system for emails and text messages should be incorporated within the system to prevent the risk of appointments being forgotten or overlooked.
Ultimately, it must be reasonably priced.
Ease of Use
Having a user-friendly interface is crucial for appointment scheduling software. It is important to have a system that is effortlessly operated by both you and your clients in order to schedule, reschedule and cancel appointments. Choosing software with an intuitive and simple to use interface is highly essential. Moreover, it is recommended to look for the capability of customizing the software to meet your specific business needs. Selecting software that can be simply altered to suit your business is a vital factor.
Appointments Scheduling Flexibility
Clients should be able to schedule their appointments online or in-person without the need for excessive emailing or messaging. The scheduling system should be optimized for ease-of-use and provide options for rescheduling or cancellation for both the small business owner and their clients.
The scheduling software must support all possible meeting options – whether it’s one-on-one, in a group, or as a team, and whether it’s an online or in-person meeting.
Having appointment reminders is crucial to guaranteeing that your appointments run smoothly. Seek out a platform that provides both email and text message reminders to avoid any instances of missed appointments by you or your clients.
To ensure great appointments and minimize missed appointments, it is important to offer the ability to receive payments upon booking.
Customization and Automation
Booking software should also support you to publish your scheduling links wherever clients find you – Embed booking links on your website or add booking links to your emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social media profiles.
As part of appointment scheduling, it would be advantageous to incorporate a customized intake form that enables you to gather the necessary information from your clients.
It ought to possess the ability to display your desired availability instead of displaying all your availability. Additionally, there must be an option to specify a lead time to ensure adequate preparation time for your appointments.
include the capability to detect time zones automatically and offer video conferencing functionality for clients located outside the country. Additionally, it is essential to have these features.
