_ February 20, 2020_ Lucian Costea

The travel agent software – the best tool for reaching masses (Part I)

Those days when people stepped into travel agencies to talk about their holiday plans are long gone. The connection between a client user and the service provider is now established by a travel agent software. A search engine that is at a fingertip away from their smartphones or iPads, often included in custom travel solutions.

Due to these new customer behaviors, an OTA (online travel agent) has become the spine of every travel-related business nowadays. The booking engines enable the travel services providers to reach the masses much quicker and easier.

As a result of these changes, a travel agent software is a must investment for any company that wants to break the ice in this dynamic and multi-billion dollar market.

Tech and travel go hand in hand

Facial recognition through AI and biometrics are already raising the standards in terms of hotel and other connected services. Hence, travel technology companies are proactive and up to date with consumer needs, always prepared to transfer all your services and processes online.

A travel agent software is basically your process aggregator, integrator as well as the propellent of your services. The platform on which relies the flow of your activity. It can manage the bookings, suppliers, commissions, transactions, reports and much more. It reduces the human implication, the time spent on processes, thus increases the success rate and of course, the profit. Not to mention it takes your business to a global level and reach.

Also, as we pointed out in a previous article about this years’ trends, that our Travel& Hospitality team encountered last fall at WTM London, the digital transformation brings the rise of the super apps which leads to an even more increase of mobile use. Considering more than 30% of the online bookings are made through the mobile devices’ browsers, the travel agent software needs to be well connected to the end user’s gadgets and smartphones.

Advantages and “must-have” features

Travel agent software has many undeniable advantages. The most obvious is the 24-hour availability and access to information on your website, on the go, from home or office. The real-time booking that enables them to see the exact details of available rooms. The transparency of features and prices is always important, specifically the possibility of on-spot payment. It gives you the opportunity to customize it on your own requirements. And most of the time it might not need too much maintenance. Though, the travel software development companies usually offer support in case of need.

Nevertheless, you should make sure your travel agent software checks a few basic traits:

it follows the flow of your business processes
it works on every device and platform that your end-user accesses
it’s user-experience oriented and speaks his language
it’s intuitive and easy to work with for your employees
it respects all the cybersecurity and data protection standards required

The best investment you can make is to find a software development team that will be able to scan your business clearly and create a travel agent software that will compliment your services. Even more, make them reachable and accessible from any corner of the world, easy, fast and secure.

At least, that’s what we can share as a conclusion of our 18 years experience and know-how in the travel software development industry. Our Travel&Hospitality DevOps division has built strong partnerships with clients from the USA, France, Spain, Germany, and The Netherlands over the years. We work on projects that imply property management software, hotel channel manager, corporate booking automation, cybersecurity, OTAs and much more.

If you want to know more about how we can help you built your own travel agent software, send us a message on our web page.

Furthermore, stay close to a future article about the most popular travel agent software tools out there.