GDS Travel Software with Web Services APIs Integration, Back Office for Agencies Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya

Amadeus GDS and GDS travel software saw a great surge in 2014 and 2015 is expected to be better. 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 Amadeus Travel Software – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Amadeus GDS system

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. 

What is Airline Reservation System & GDS systems / Global Distribution Systems?

In the present date of online sales, where physically existing travel agent shops / kiosks are losing importance and a new trend of bookings through online travel portals & airline reservation systems, is developing very fast. This has created huge opportunity for travel technology companies to build great online reservation systems (airline reservation system, hotel reservation system, & holiday packages reservation system) with top GDS systems / Global Distribution Systems. Apart from cutting edge technology, the user engagement model, displaying the vest pricing and offers are key points for any reservation system to succeed.

Airline reservation system

Airline reservation system, commonly known as ARS, is generally considered to be the user side system for any airline or GDS. It consists of the exchange of data through the GDS system, which consolidates the worldwide airline data and share through unique web services API. This is an effective and efficient way of consolidating the global airlines availability and pricing, which is combined together with best GUI interface and published for end users on any airline reservation system (GDS based).

In online travel services marketing & sales, airline reservation system is a part of comprehensive travel reservation system, which consist-off hotel reservation system, transfer system and sightseeing module. GDS system, which is known as global distribution system is the interface between a travel reservation system and the end airlines, because it consolidates the data including the availability and pricing. The end buyers can check the availability and do the booking, which in turn is forwarded to airlines console through GDS.

Advanced airline reservation systems offer the features like oneway, roundtrip, multi-destinations all together. Thus also providing the end users the better deals / offers on every booking, they do. Most of the reservation systems are also offering the dynamic packages like airline + hotel, hotel + cars, hotels + holidays packages, clubbing the packages together. This helps the buyers to plan the travel in a better way.

Amadeus, Galileo / Travelport, Sabre and Abacus are among the top GDS systems available today. GDS consolidates the data for airlines, hotels, cars, packages and cruises. This consolidated data, is then shared to end travel reservation software / travel portals through their proprietary web services APIs.

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. 

Mobile Apps for Online Travel Software & OTAs.

Online travel software means a web based online reservation system to book the travel related services. OTA also stands for online travel agency, which means a travel agency operating business through online process. Over the last five years, mobile apps have seen great surge in terms of usage. 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.

Travel Mobile Apps

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. 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.

Regarding Author:

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

Essentials for Travel Agency System Software

Despite the economic recession, people travel more than ever. Regarding booking their flights and hotels, now they often use their PCs or smart-phones. Or they come to your office and you help them to book the best choices with the help of your office computer. So you need a travel agency system.

Travel agency software

Travel agency software systems are used across the globe and most important part of OTA business model. In travel business, the processes are customized based on every business type/ offerings / transactions. Following are some of the important points -

Managing the large number of bookings

The main objective of a travel business operator to buy a travel agency software is to manage the reservations efficiently and rapidly. With a good system, you can track bookings end to end without any flaws. Software for travel agent must provide an integrated system of real-time reservation software, booking systems, web publication, accounting and administration. It should be ultimately flexible and can be easily made to deal production of complex packages, dynamic packaging using clients' own resources in combination with GDS, hotel and car rental systems etc.

Multiple Sales Channels

With multiple sales channel feature, one can use travel agency system as a common platform for you as well as your customers to book travel products and services online. The internet booking engine will enable you to manage the bookings by your customers as well as your subagents. Consumer site will allow your customers to book and to pay through payment gateways. Agency site or B2B will allow your subagents to make bookings while you can track commissions and agents’ accounts.

Hotel Booking System

With the hotel booking software system, one can take direct bookings through your own travel agency system. This is automatic and without any human intervention, your firm can take bookings 24/7. Higher conversion rate, detailed report, instant confirmation and sending of confirmation to customer’s phone and email are other salient features.

Airline booking software

Our flight booking engine will maximize your online flight ticket sales. It is integrated with all the major GDSs. It is a fully customizable software too so that it can cater to all your specific business requirements.

Mobile apps are now going hand in hand with leading travel software. This is again a criteria of making a right choice.

Regarding Author:

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

Why is it said that B2B, B2C and Corporate Travel Agencies should have online travel distribution systems?

Have you ever thought about the benefits associated with buying online booking B2B software or a travel distribution platform? What are the benefits that you and your partner will be able to fetch from the online booking B2B software? Have you ever thought about the functionalities of travel software or what is travel distribution platform? This write-up is an answer to all the questions that arise in your mind in regards to the online booking B2B software and the benefits associated with it.

To install travel inventory distribution platform – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Online Travel Distribution Platform

B2B travel software is the system that allows partners or travel agents to book items from the system that is used by the travel agency or tour operator. B2B online booking system helps the partners to have a look at all the products and documents directly along with enabling them to make reservation from the system.

It is very essential to know the reasons for online booking B2B software being one of the best and the benefits for the same have been mentioned below.

Travel partners provided with the information required for purchasing - One of the biggest advantages is making your entry into the travel services system visible to the travel agents. The look of the travel agent system will be absolutely similar to yours. The only difference would be that you as an administrator with have more options. The next question could be the features that the travel agents would be able to view in the system.

Services - The services that are a part of the system is gathered and centralized and the travel agents will be able to find them during the course of making reservation. Along with the list f the services, the travel agents will also be able to view the description (service image, service info), selling price, the location, suppliers for the services and the number of units available. These are the information required for creating a new reservation.

Pricing and Availability - Along with the service list, your travel partner also has access to the pricing and price list for each and every service and the features that forms a part of the service. The pricelist viewable to your partner includes the price of the basic service along with the price of the additional services, supplements, reduction and discounts. After a service is made available through addition of allotment, enabling the partner to book the service directly and enter the payment for it. In case there is no addition of allotment, the partner can click on “Send Enquiry” option. In case you as an administrator disable booking for specific dates, partners will not be able to make any booking during the particular period.

Promotion Special Offers - The promotion could be viewed on the B2B login side as well. You also have the facility of entering the special offers in the system, enabling your travel partners to use them. This helps in generating demand and increasing sales.

Different pricing level for the market or partners - In case you prefer to have different pricing level for different partners, it could be defined in the back office by using the option different market. For example, if you are targeting three different markets like European market, Asian market and American market, you have the facility of adjusting the prices by the addition of different commission to the market. Each partner will be able to get the price depending on the market they are assigned to. This will enable the travel agents to get the price predefined for them. This acts as a great marketing tool when it comes to assisting, increasing and rewarding partner sales.

Online Reservation System

Entering Reservation and Reservation Management - The travel interface is designed to enable the travel partner make a reservation directly, when they have availability to information like product, price, and information about special price, promotion, services, availability and similar information. The overview of all the reservations accomplished by the system is also available. This means that the system will allow the administration and the travel partner to track the reservation and manage them effectively.

Making all the Documents available - The system will provide the travel partners with all the documents, enabling them to make the same available for the customers. There is a very well support system for the mutual communication between the tour operator and tourist agency and its partners. When a partner makes a reservation, the document provided is dependent on the action taken by them. When a request is sent and offer and itinerary follows automatically. When a booking is accomplished, there is an automated process of sending the invoice. This process could be customized depending on the need of the travel agencies requirement. Along will this the partners will get an overview of all the documents created and are connected to the reservation system, which could be forwarded to be printed for the customers. This is one of the key features of travel distribution platform.

Online booking B2B enhances the communication process - This is a benefit that both the sides can enjoy. One partner checks with the suppliers, makes a confirmation for the reservation and send documents while the other one is sending new reservations. This process eliminates the need of communicating over the phone and saves time and money. This is also a way of attracting customers, finding new customers, creating new marketing campaigns and making better sales.

Providing better control over the whole process - This means everything is under the same roof. Partners get an overview of the reservations and the documents that they have made. The whole process is centralized, eliminating the risk of making possible mistakes. Travel distribution platform has become a backbone of travel agencies, who are using online travel portals. 

Nigeria, Algeria and Africa based Travel Agencies are integrating Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre on Travel Website, Portals and Apps

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

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, which is why Amadeus and Galileo software are used for all the top travel agencies worldwide.

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.

Global Distribution Systems

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.

Having Travel booking System and Agency Software, Ways to Boost Bookings on User and Agents Channel

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.

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

Online travel software

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.

Boost Online Bookings

“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.

Agile Travel Software (B2C/B2B) for Travel Agencies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Singapore

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.

Hire Travel Technology Company – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Travel Technology Company

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.

Agile travel portal development

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.