Travel agencies rely on GDS-trained personnel for real-time bookings, but hiring and retaining them is challenging. We recommend a travel automation solution automating 95% of bookings.
How Can Travel Management Companies Use The 80/20 Rule For Profit Optimization?
Travel management companies will have 80% of their revenue originating from the top 20% of their customers. If you are wondering how to apply the 80/20 rule, read this on how to achieve it.
Why tour operators require back-office software
Tour operators are responsible for managing and organizing various complex tasks, from booking flights and accommodations to coordinating transportation and activities for travelers. This can be challenging and time-consuming, especially for operators managing large groups or multiple tours at once. This is where back-office software can be a valuable tool.
Back-office software helps tour operators streamline and manage their business operations. It can help with everything from financial and inventory control to customer relationship management and communication. Tour operators can improve their efficiency, reduce errors, and provide a better overall customer experience with the right back-office software.
Here are the key tour operator back-office software capabilities that enable it to do that.
Inventory management
This feature of the back-office system allows tour operators to store and manage all the content they offer to partners and clients. Using this functionality, tour operators can manage their inventory availability, such as the number of tickets, rooms, etc., over a period.
Usually, tour operators fill their inventory manually by entering it via the CMS (content management system). Another possibility is that the tour operators receive their inventory via connectivity with third-party APIs. The APIs from various travel suppliers enable the tour operators to see product availability in real-time.
If the travel suppliers don’t have an API, they can even provide their inventory via an extranet. This method involves the supplier accessing the tour operator’s back office to share their inventory.
Booking management
Modern tour operator back-office software comes with reservation management capabilities to process incoming bookings. Crucially, the incoming booking requests are assigned to the respective managers/ teams by the software for confirmation and further processing.
Distribution management
It is worth mentioning that tour operator software takes care of distributing the inventory to travel agents under the umbrella of the tour operator, corporate customers, or even the end retail travelers.
For corporates, tour operators can employ their back-office systems to offer the option of creating their own unique branded booking portals and managing contracts & employee travel policies/ booking rules.
Meanwhile, for tour operators catering to the b2c segment, the back-office software can be integrated with their own branded and unique customer-facing website.
Sales automation
Basic CRM functionalities are also an unavoidable part of every good back-office software. This is because tour operators need to track all their customer interactions in one place, segment their customers based on various factors, and even automate mundane aspects of sales, such as sending welcome emails, confirmations, reminders, etc.
User management
For a tour operator to function effectively, a lot of people, including suppliers, managers, travel agent partners, corporate client’s employees, and administrators must work together. Tour operator back-office software needs effective user management capabilities so that all these people can work simultaneously and collaborate as needed. This includes separate login credentials for each user, the ability to store user details, permissions for each user based on the requirement, and the ability for managers to supervise the whole operation. User management
Powerful business rules engine
With this functionality, the tour operator can ensure optimal revenue by setting up markups or commissions based on the supplier. Besides, this feature can come in handy while configuring various internal rules for operating.
For instance, the tour operator can set up a rule allowing a travel product, such as a flight ticket, to be booked only a particular number of days before departure. Also, they can prioritize selling their inventory before making travel products contracted from a third party available.
Additionally, tour operators can set up specific payment rules, such as permitted modes of payment, applicable taxes, timelines for clearing the payment, reminder frequency for overdue payments, etc.
Accounting
What would normally be a massive pile of out-of-control paperwork can be reduced to a few easy-to-read charts with the accounting capabilities of back-office software. Notably, the system allows tour operators to keep close track of the financial activities of all the stakeholders involved, such as suppliers, partners, travel agents, etc.
Within seconds, the tour operator can gain an overview of their businesses’ financial health because the back-office software consolidates information from numerous invoices, booking stats from various channels, and financial reports.
Actionable insights
Tour operators can make great business decisions if they have a back-office system that can provide them with live insights into business performance. Using the right software, tour operators can generate reports on all aspects of their operation, including the number of bookings, cart abandonment rate, most booked segments, most profitable corporate customers, suppliers with the best deals, commissions earned via partners, etc.
Customer care capabilities
Comprehensive customer care throughout the client’s lifecycle is usually overlooked, but the right tour operator’s back-office system can make it a painless process. The customer will get a great experience throughout their interactions with you, and you don’t have to pay hefty sums to train a huge customer support team.
Software tour operator to provide live chat support, automate notifications to clients, manage incoming customer support tickets, and send out live updates on flights, deals, and other important information.
Conclusion
In conclusion, back-office software is essential for tour operators looking to streamline their business operations and improve their efficiency. With the right back-office software, operators can manage financials, inventory, customer relationships, and more all in one place. This can lead to increased profitability, better customer experiences, and overall success in the competitive travel industry.
If you’re a tour operator needing reliable and user-friendly back-office software, consider giving AgencyAuto a try. AgencyAuto is a comprehensive back-office software solution specifically designed for tour operators. It offers a range of features and tools to help you manage your business effectively, including financial management, inventory control, customer relationship management, and more. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your business operations – give AgencyAuto a try today and see the difference it can make.
Top Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
Across the world, people have begun flocking to tourist destinations in numbers that match pre covid levels.
Given the rise of trends like remote work, travelers are also exploring offbeat places, meaning online travel agencies are experiencing a surge in demand.
However, there is little room for optimism due to rising competition, operating costs, and travelers’ newfound appreciation for personalized trips.
As pressure mounts on the margins of online travel agencies, it is vital to track and improve several key performance indicators (KPIs) that demonstrate the business’s health.
What are Online Travel Agency KPIs for managers?
In online travel agencies, KPIs refer to several performance metrics that reveal how well the business is doing.
Typically, companies track customer lifetime value, conversion rate, average sale value, etc. Still, these metrics are often insufficient to get a holistic view of how efficiently your business is running and how customers perceive you.
These metrics are crucial for your success as they not just get you new business but also help retain old customers. The latter benefit’s importance can’t be overstated because it costs five times more to acquire a new client than to retain one.
Let’s look at the top KPIs that OTA managers need to track.
Average sale value
How much money do customers spend on average with you per sale? This question is answered by measuring the Average sale value KPI. Getting the number is quite straightforward; divide total sales revenue by the total number of sales made in a given period.
Return on advertising spend
The return you get on your advertising spend on each channel is the ratio of the total revenue and advertising spend on that digital marketing channel. The metric enlightens you on how much money you made for each advertising dollar you spent on a pay-per-click channel. A good benchmark for this KPI would be 4:1, meaning you make 4$ for every 1$ spent advertising on a channel, such as Google Ads.
Cost per acquisition
An OTA’s cost per acquisition refers to the average amount of money spent advertising to get a sale. With this metric, you can clearly understand what types of customers are profitable, which advertising channels are lucrative, etc.
Cost of sales percent
The cost of sales percent is also known as the expense ratio, and it is crucial to optimize your spending on ads. To determine the value, you need to figure out the cost of clicks on your ads per purchase and divide the value by the revenue from the purchase.
Customer lifetime value
This metric may be one of the most useful of your KPIs.
Essentially, it reveals each customer’s entire net profit throughout your relationship. Identifying it with respect to every customer will show you whether the cost of acquiring them was worth it.
To find a customer’s lifetime value, you must multiply the average customer retention time (years), the number of repeat sales, and the average order value ($).
Conversion and Abandonment Rates
Conversion rates tell you how many site visitors purchased from you. You can also consider customers signing up for a call from you as a conversion. This number will give you a definitive answer if you wonder how effective your website, booking engine, or app is.
Conversely, the abandonment rate is the measure of how many people came to your site, filled up the shopping cart with your travel services, and left the site before paying. From our experience, OTAs have an abandonment rate of around 94%, so you can benchmark your performance against that.
Rate of customer referral
Getting referrals from customers who have had a great experience with you is the most cost-effective way to acquire customers. Referrals can be of many types; an influencer may have mentioned you, a friend or colleague may have passed on a good word, or someone who used your service may have left a positive review somewhere. You must ask incoming customers where they heard about you and try optimizing that referral source.
Customer complaints
What your customers say about you can serve as a goldmine of insights to improve your line of products or services. Ensure that you closely track all the complaints that come in.
Let the complaints be called in, emailed, sent via social media, or left on a review site. Consider it a priority to note down your customer pain points and the number of promoters, detractors, and neutral feedback you are getting.
Crucially, you also need to note down the time you take to resolve each complaint and ensure the time taken goes down over time.
Mobile based bookings
To be competitive, travel agencies need to take a mobile-first approach. This transition will prove valuable, given that more and more customers research and make travel bookings online on their smartphones without any human interaction.
It is worth mentioning that 72% of bookings done through mobile happen within 48 hours of last-minute Google searches involving the words ‘today’ or ‘tonight.’ As a result, you need to know how many people are booking via your mobile site/ app vs. the desktop site. You also need to closely monitor the conversion rates of all your booking channels to see if you are using them best.
Conclusion
Tracking these key performance indicators is mission-critical for every OTA manager. The need for constantly monitoring these online travel agency KPIs is only going to grow, given how competitive the space is getting. However, tracking the metrics isn’t enough; OTA managers must also keep improving the KPIs with a clear target.
If you are successful at measuring how well your travel agency is performing and make constant changes to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and revenue, you’ll find your company thriving as record numbers of people are prioritizing traveling in the coming few years.
If you are interested in optimizing these KPIs and providing your customers with a shopping experience, AgencyAuto will be perfect for you. The travel agency software streamlines your mid-office processes and lets you delight customers with personalized tours at a reasonable rate, beating out the competition for good.
How tour operator software can get you more bookings, enhance customer experience, and skyrocket your revenue growth
For the longest time, tour operators have been making bookings through traditional means, like phone calls and emails.
Or they work with platforms lacking in web service and API integration capabilities.
Even after booking, the work of a tour operator is far from over; they must provide post-sales support, such as invoice creation, payment reminders, modifications/ cancellations, etc., manually.
As a result, they need large teams operating round the clock even to process straightforward booking requests. Given this reality, tour operators are overworked, generate low revenue, and frequently end up with dissatisfied customers.
This is where tour operator software comes into the picture.
What is tour operator software?
Tour operator software is a web-based application that allows your customers to make bookings and payments online. Besides, tour operator software can integrate with APIs to connect with the GDS, destination management companies, travel providers, etc., to get flights, hotels, activities, car rentals, etc., booking information that can make your customers’ trips memorable.
The solution automates a lot of your mid-and back-office processes, including:
- Quote generation
- Itinerary creation
- Reservations management
- Payment processing
- Managing series/ group bookings
- Commission/ markup management
- Accounting
- MIS report generation
How investing in tour operator software can turn your business around
Tour operator software makes bookings, payments, and post-sales support convenient for you and the customer. Also, it lets you seamlessly connect with travel providers to provide customers with rich booking options for travel along with ancillaries, making their trip a memorable experience.
Here are just a few of the tangible benefits that come from implementing tour operator software.
Increase your direct bookings
As a tour operator, you have potential customers all over the world. E.g., if your customers are in a different time zone, calling to make a reservation is cumbersome. However, with an online booking engine, your website is open for sales 24x7x365. Customers can make bookings and pay at their convenience.
Optimize your tour operator firm’s workflow
Web-based tour operator software optimizes your workflow by automating your back-office chores. An online booking system automatically updates all the booking information on your platform and sends confirmation and reminders to your clients for payment, name updating, etc.
You can even track agency performance, maintain customer accounts, view booking information, etc., from a single screen without the need for countless spreadsheets.
Serve people from across the world
You can sell your services across time zones, currencies, and regions with the right tour operator software. You can service customers in multiple languages and allow payments in various currencies with an online booking system for tour operators. Notably, you can also communicate and coordinate with all your suppliers worldwide with a single platform.
Third-party integrations
Serve your customers with exciting travel options, like flights, hotels, sightseeing, activities, etc., by integrating with third-party suppliers of these services. These will be an upsell for you while also adding value to the customer, as they can customize their trip with the click of a button. Interestingly, tour operator software with AI capabilities can offer recommendations to customers based on previous buying habits, budgets, etc.
Further, the third-party integrations possible with the tour operator software can streamline tasks like accounting, payroll management, invoice generation, and sending reminders to customers to make payments.
Conclusion
Tour operator software is essential if you want to scale your business. Using the same, you can allow customers to make bookings easily and with a great shopping experience. Consequently, you can retain more customers and boost your revenue with minimal effort.
AgencyAuto is a leading tour operator software that allows you to automate your mid and back-office functions, delight customers with a painless booking experience, and increase revenue through ancillary sales and customized packages for all customer segments. If you want to invest in tour operator software that will provide exceptional growth prospects, reach us for a demo
How travel agents can catch more MICE
The MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) tourism business is picking up pace amidst many companies’ push to have in-person events now that covid has declined and restrictions have eased.
Hospitality, events, and travel companies confirmed a substantial rise in MICE tourism inquiries and bookings over the last month. Also, according to Allied Market research, the Global MICE tourism industry is predicted to reach $1337.4 Billion by 2028.
This blog is for you if you are a travel agency interested in taking up MICE tourism opportunities. Here, we will look at how travel agencies can embrace MICE tourism to boost their revenue.
Before we get started, let’s first understand who MICE travelers are and what they are looking for.
Who are MICE travelers
Typically, MICE tourism is undertaken by corporations. It is also something that people with similar causes undertake. Examples include crypto conventions, movie screenings, and company retreats. It is worth mentioning that MICE events can be formal and informal, depending on the group and their cause.
As a result, a MICE traveler can be just about anyone. It can be high-ranking CEOs, movie reviewers flown out to a special screening, business people on stay-cations, or people who share a similar interest, such as a political cause, cryptocurrency, marketing trends, etc.
Why travel agents need MICE travel
Since many companies and organizations view holding Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions as a means of earning credibility, engaging their employees, and generating interest in their projects, they will be willing to pay for premium experiences for their MICE travelers, which is a distinguishing aspect of the sector.
Besides getting travel agents high revenue yielding customers, the MICE segment also provides excellent customer retention opportunities. Once travelers get a memorable experience, they are likely to return yearly or with higher frequency.
Apart from that, travel agents can increase revenue per traveler by offering various upsells, ranging from travel insurance to in-flight meals and airport pickup to checked baggage.
Crucially, MICE allows travel agents to attract a global customer base.
How travel agents can tap into MICE travel potential to increase their revenue
One of the essential things travel agents can do to incentivize this kind of group travel is to assure the travelers about the safety precautions. Ensure that the travelers know thoroughly about the protections they get, such as travel insurance, flights that follow covid protocol, etc.
You also need to offer highly personalized packages for each MICE group. Depending on the type of people on the trip and their reason for travel, make sure that your package reflects their budget and travel needs, including the class of flight, car rental, etc. If you can satisfy these requirements, you can even pitch ancillaries to individual travelers, offering the ultimate level of personalization while adding to your bottom line. Note that you can do all this only if you have a well-defined target market.
Another way you can increase your MICE customer base is by partnering with sub-agents worldwide who can distribute your inventory. Doing so opens new opportunities for you to boost your revenue.
It is further worth mentioning that you need to offer substantial discounts on group travel to retain your customers. In the long run, you will benefit from this because, typically, MICE customers end up being high-value ones who appreciate good service.
Most importantly, you need the right corporate travel booking software to offer your MICE customers a single platform to book whatever services they want. Software like AgencyAuto will help you manage your inventory effectively and automate tedious manual processes, like invoice generation, booking/cancellation policy enforcement, report generation, etc., allowing you to be super productive and focus on negotiating better deals with corporate MICE customers.
Conclusion
In the coming years, MICE groups will only increase, and you need to be prepared for your travel agency’s sustained relevance. Using the right software, you can provide customized experiences for your MICE travelers and convert them into repeat customers, which will go a long way in bolstering your revenue. Also, with travel agency software like AgencyAuto, you can automate all the tedious work that goes into running a travel agency that takes on vast volumes of MICE travelers.
Reinvent your travel business with dynamic packaging
Today’s consumers prefer personalized holiday packages that consider their preferred travel dates, location, family/ group size, budget, and other requirements, such as insurance, checked baggage, etc.
This is where dynamic packaging comes into the picture. With dynamic packaging, travel companies can have their customers build their trips comprising of flights, hotels, tour guides, car rentals, etc., based on their needs.
Apart from having the holiday or business trip they envisioned, customers can save time and money by not having to pay for or be part of any aspect of the journey they don’t want.
Given how dynamic packaging allows travel agents and tour operators to increase revenue and win customer approval, we have created this blog as a comprehensive guide.
What exactly is dynamic packaging?
Dynamic packaging allows customers to build or customize their travel package by combining multiple services like flights, transfers, car rentals, sightseeing guides, hotels, etc.
It is especially popular among customers who are cost conscious, as they can eliminate aspects of the trip that doesn’t fit their budget. Further, dynamic packaging allows travel agencies to have a wider reach, sell more ancillaries, make their customers happy, and increase revenue.
How dynamic packaging helps travelers
Customers get a higher degree of choice and flexibility regarding their tour packages. Notably, travelers can determine their departure date, pickup location, places they want to see, etc. Having these many options is especially important if you want to serve a diverse range of customers.
Letting customers choose aspects of the trip they want can also save them a lot of money, leading to higher retention rates. For instance, some travelers may wish to travel in first class and spend their vacation or business trip at a single location. In contrast, others may choose cheaper flying options to splurge on food, accommodation, and local sightseeing. Using a dynamic packaging solution, you can satisfy all these customers.
Why embracing dynamic packaging will be a win for travel agents
For tour operators to compete in the global travel market, a dynamic packaging solution that can simultaneously manage inventory, define business rules, set prices, set markup, and build packages per customer requirements is the need of the hour.
Such a solution can leverage advanced XML API integration to provide you with real-time access to an inventory of flights, hotels, car rental services, etc., from global travel suppliers.
Consequently, it delivers the following advantages and serves as a launchpad for travel agents to enter new markets and stay ahead of the competition.
• Increases the number of distribution channels
Using a single platform, you can enable customers to purchase customized holiday or business travel packages from multiple distribution channels, including the website, social media, etc. Tour operators can also apply markups to the packages based on the demand, optimizing their revenue.
• Serve a wider audience with niche offerings
Tour operators must use dynamic packaging to offer tailor-made solutions to their customers, who may have a whole host of requirements. With the right software, travel agents can expand their product offerings, make booking management easy, and increase conversions across all customer segments.
• Be more customer friendly
Dynamic packaging provides a wide range of flexibility regarding travel dates, departure places, travel duration, budget, etc. The customers can make any changes during the planning and purchasing stages. This self-service ability you can provide customers leads to a more efficient business with lower operating costs. Also, you can leverage a dynamic packaging solution with multi-language and multi-currency features and payment system integration to up your customer service game.
Conclusion
Dynamic packaging helps travel businesses of all sizes create massive value for customers while increasing their global reach. Besides, offering dynamic packaging will go a long way in ensuring high customer retention rates and satisfaction with the travel agency, enabling you to stay ahead of the curve.
Five actionable tips to reduce travel booking abandonment
Booking abandonment remains a significant issue in the online travel business.
According to SaleCycle, 87% of all travel bookings are abandoned before checkout. Sometimes, it isn’t the travel platform’s fault. Customers could just be browsing or comparing prices from various sites.
However, in many instances, the website or app is simply not engaging enough, or the travel platform has other issues that drive customers away, such as a slow loading page, hidden fees, etc.
So, how do you keep engaging the customers and convince them to purchase your travel products?
Before digging deep into answers to this question, you need to understand the meaning of booking abandonment and the factors behind it.
What is booking abandonment?
Booking abandonment / reservation abandonment is when potential customers leave your website before checking out. They may have even gotten to the final step of the payment process before clicking away for some reason. As a result, you are left with fewer customers, lower revenue, and a poor return on investment on your marketing and website design costs.
Why are booking abandonment rates in the travel industry so high?
According to SaleCycle, the following reasons significantly impact the booking abandonment rate.
• Account creation before purchase
Before making any booking, some merchants require their consumers to register. But customers are not comfortable providing the details to make a single booking.
• Prices are too high
Almost half of the customers say unexpected costs are the main reasons for abandoning their booking.
• Need to check with other travelers
It isn’t easy to organize a trip for two or more people. So, travelers discuss with their buddies before making any booking decisions.
• Need to check with other travelers
A recent study found that 87% of online travelers abandon their carts during checkout if the process is too long or complicated.
• Technical issues
Technical issues can erase all the previous efforts the customer has made or unnecessarily increase the waiting time.
• Lack of payment options
Also, the lack of preferred payment options is a factor in the increased booking abandonment rate.
What can be done about booking abandonment?
With the right travel agency management software and practical strategies, travel agents can reduce abandonment rates and gain a greater return on investment.
Let’s explore some strategies you can leverage to tackle booking abandonment.
• Clarity over pricing
One of the primary reasons for booking abandonment is a lack of transparency in pricing. Most websites don’t show the complete price on the home page. So, when the user reaches the checkout page, the new price comes as a surprise. This may become a deterrent for the users to complete the checkout.
To tackle this situation, display the detailed price to the user on the product page. This helps the customer know the price to be paid and ultimately leads to a lower booking abandonment rate.
• Clear cancellation and refund policies
To minimize booking abandonment, it is crucial to add your cancellation and refund policies to your website. This gives the customers peace of mind because they can get their money back conveniently if they decide against the trip.
• Make the booking process easy
To lower your booking abandonment, you must simplify the booking process. Complicated registration and payment processes make customers distracted and frustrated. So, including user-friendly forms, preferably asking a few basic details on a single page, and letting the customer checkout in a few clicks is the way to go to avoid customer burnout with your booking process.
• Build a mobile-responsive design
A poorly designed site or booking portal or app that can’t provide a mobile friendly experience to customers will drive away 36% or more of your potential customers who make it to the checkout page. So, travel companies need to prioritize building mobile responsive sites that are easy to navigate, visually appealing, and secure.
• Provide a choice of payment methods
Travel websites must keep up with the customer’s payment preferences to reduce booking abandonment. Ensure that you go beyond the usual credit cards and debit cards and let customers pay with new age methods, like digital wallets, UPI, etc. Besides, you need to be able to accept payments from third parties that facilitate corporate payments.
Conclusion
While 100% booking conversions are impossible, you can follow the above effective ways to reduce booking abandonment significantly. AgencyAuto provides an intuitive and easy-to-use portal with rich features like multiple inventory options, a fast-booking engine, different payment methods, and a mobile-responsive design. We have helped countless clients sell their inventory online and maximize conversions.
Schedule a Call now to help you tackle booking abandonment and unlock your growth potential.
Ancillary sales: the travel agents’ gateway to increased profits and customer loyalty
Given the rapid increase in online travel agencies (OTAs) in recent years, customers are spoilt for choice.
Besides, in the wake of the pandemic, customers are increasingly looking for safe travel options and the ability to go on “experiences” rather than trips to make up for all the time they lost in the last two years.
Now that customers value hyper-personalization and safety, OTAs must rethink how they service travelers, bringing ancillary sales into the picture.
Undoubtedly, ancillaries are an excellent way for travel companies to satiate their customers’ needs for curated experiences, increase revenue via commissions, and stay ahead of the competition.
What are travel ancillaries?
An ancillary can be anything a traveler chooses to “add on” to their purchase other than the flight tickets themselves. These extra services make the trip comfortable, secure, and enjoyable.
Nowadays, travel insurance is a hot commodity in the ancillary space, as travelers don’t want to pay for flights they booked if they can’t make the trip due to covid or other illnesses. Travel insurance can even cover the loss of baggage, passport, or other valuables.
A few more ancillaries offered as a value add apart from tickets include visa, foreign exchange services, tour guides, sightseeing, etc.
What type of travel ancillaries should OTAs focus on?
• Airline ancillaries
Don’t restrict yourself to offering tickets to customers. Take your customer experience to the next level by providing seat upgrades, wireless internet access, in-flight meals, beverages, onboard entertainment, baggage check-in, excess baggage, priority check-in, screening, etc. When you do this, you do not just increase customer satisfaction and retention, but you also add massively to the revenue you generate per customer.
Travelers will also pay extra for the convenience of wheelchair assistance, airport lounge access, easy to access parking, transportation between various parts of the airport, etc.
Besides, travel agencies can generate revenue through services, such as passport validation, visa application, travel insurance, exchanging foreign currency, cabs to the airport, and even something as simple as an international mobile sim card.
• Car hires and transfers
Travelers, especially tourists, will be willing to pay for a car rental or two-wheeler to explore the place they are visiting. So, offering the same will go a long way in making your customers’ journey a fulfilling one and bolstering your revenue.
• Tour guides and on the ground services
If your customer has booked flights and a hotel through your travel agency, you can go the extra mile to make their trip worry-free and memorable by offering the services of a tour guide.
Given the increased focus on health and wellbeing nowadays, you can even offer calming spa and massage services as ancillaries, which will enrich the customer’s experience.
Also, several cities offer transit passes that you can provide to your customers, making it easier to explore the place via public transport.
• Loyalty programs
One of the surefire ways to make your customers feel special and bring in additional revenue is by offering loyalty programs, which extend privileges, such as priority boarding, business class upgrades, a free night at a fancy hotel upon staying for 4-5 days, free cancellation, guaranteed cashback, etc.
• Other travel-related products
Travel agencies also can cross-sell travel essentials in partnership with e-commerce sites. You can leverage artificial intelligence to gauge customer needs and smartly recommend things, like binoculars, trip memorabilia, etc.
Doing so will drastically enhance the customers’ trip experience and add to your revenue.
How AgencyAuto can help OTAs generate ancillary revenue
With the AgencyAuto online travel agency booking platform, travel companies can effortlessly sell ancillaries along with flights, hotels, and travel packages, ensuring that the revenue per customer is maximized.
Notably, the customers can get all their travel needs met in a single place because of AgencyAuto’s inventory management module, where travel agents can manage all the pricing and availabilities.
Besides, travel agents can offer retail and corporate customers promotions, such as one night free at a hotel, based on their loyalty or other criteria.
Due to the extensive API integrations possible with AgencyAuto, OTAs can provide ancillaries, such as insurance, airport lounge access, transfers, etc., via third-party suppliers.
Importantly, travel agencies can sell ancillaries via multiple sales channels, including b2b, b2c, corporate, and call centers. For all these booking channels, you can also set up business rules via a single interface and generate in-depth reports to gauge the performance of your business.
Conclusion
Now is the perfect time for travel agents to jump on the ancillary bandwagon, given that the ancillary market is projected to reach USD 216720 million by 2028. If travel agents capitalize on this massive opportunity, it will undoubtedly lead to a higher return on investment and customer satisfaction.
If you want to stay ahead of the competition by offering ancillaries to your customers, reach us at [email protected]
Top 6 ways to boost your direct bookings and increase OTA revenue
Online Travel Agencies (OTA) have become an integral part of many travelers’ “search and book” routine.
Before the internet, booking travel involved a phone call or a visit to the local agency. But now, travelers have a myriad of options to choose destinations, compare prices, and make bookings easily. They are also investing a significant amount of time planning travel in the weeks leading up to a purchase.
The competition in the online travel industry is high, and margins are low. Online travel agencies cannot succeed in their business in the way they used to. And with the cost of travel continuously being driven down by low-cost carriers, discounting, and disruptive competitors, OTAs need to be adaptable and agile to stay ahead of the competition.
So how can you gain an edge over others and become successful in the travel business? What can you do to increase your OTA revenue? Here, we have compiled six sure-fire ways to increase your OTA revenue.
• Aesthetically pleasing homepage and booking engine
Using a visually appealing homepage and booking engine will provide an optimal booking experience to your customers and consequently drive revenue growth. Ensure that customers can instantly find what they want, compare & book cost-effective travel plans within minutes, and pay smoothly and securely.
• Unlock revenue opportunities with ancillary services
Booking patterns have changed drastically as travelers want “experiences” rather than a simple trip. They also highly value safety and hygiene.
In this scenario, incorporating ancillary services, such as travel insurance, car rentals, food and beverage, hotel transfers, and visa services is the best way to increase profits and enhance the customer experience.
Ancillary services make the entire travel experience very comfortable and enjoyable while increasing revenue for online travel agencies.
• Improve booking conversions with a travel chatbot
Imagine you have a huge number of potential customers bombarding you day and night with requests. Your job is to assist them, but it wouldn’t be easy to send them a response every time.
So, you can incorporate a chatbot into your website to ensure that all your leads are handled intelligently even without human intervention. The chatbot will provide you with 24/7 customer service at an affordable price and help customers with various concerns, such as booking their flights, making hotel reservations, FAQs, etc.
Chatbots are a simple way to save money and human power. By integrating the chatbots, you can create better user experiences, boost visitors’ engagement, and eventually increase your booking conversions.
• The right price for the right moment
Adopting the right pricing strategy is crucial to increasing sales and profits. Analyze the past data, industry trends, and current bookings to implement the pricing strategy. You can charge more at times of higher demand (e.g., during the festive events), and when demand is low, you can reduce the prices.
• Establish strategic partnerships with the suppliers
The main asset of a travel agency is the strategic partnership with the service providers, like airlines, hotels, tour operators, etc. You can negotiate the rate and deals with the suppliers to provide more attractive offers to the customers.
With a booking engine, you can integrate with different service providers’ APIs. Combining different suppliers’ offers can provide a unique travel experience for your customers.
• Mobile-friendly website
Nowadays, people prefer to search and book their trips from devices like mobile, tablets, etc. Thus, ensuring that your travel website is adequately responsive to multiple mobile devices is essential.
A mobile-friendly travel website and mobile app are beneficial for creating a better online experience for your customers. It allows visitors to read text, navigate it, and fill out the forms quickly from just about anywhere.
Conclusion
Getting more customers for your travel business is not rocket science. Implementing the above tips is a great start. If you need help increasing your booking profits, don’t hesitate to contact our team. Our online travel agency software can help you unlock a whole new world of revenue opportunities.
Ready to increase your business revenue? Contact us now
