Hello everybody,
today's topic of my blog article is "Booking Systems". What are different types of booking systems and how they have changed through years.
Booking system
Internet has surpassed television, radio and print media as a tool for information on planning your vacation, and the percentage of people using the Internet to assemble their ideal vacation, without resorting to a tour operator or travel agency increases remarkably every year. Against this background, it is normal hoteliers to look new and modern ways of marketing and there is only one way - the Internet network and the online booking system.Electronic exchange and booking systems in tourism has been known for a long time. In the 60s the major world airlines developed centralized booking system named CRS, in order to better control sales. In the 70s that booking system became an essential tool for travel agencies.
Over the years, the booking system has been constantly improving and expanding the number of services offered today. Booking systems form the basis of one-stop shop at today's travel agent offices. The most widely disseminated and known booking systems are Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan and Sabre. These booking systems are mostly used by travel agencies. The main purpose of the booking system is the sale of tickets. Some booking systems have additional services including a large selection of hotels, car rental, cruises, etc.
In the last decade the rapid development of Internet totally changed the interface of the typical booking system. Because of the sea of information in the cyberspace consumers became more demanding, more spoiled and lazy. Therefore, booking systems are flexible to the desires of the demanding consumers.
What does the modern traveler expect?
Simply put, he wants to plan his holiday for a few hours, lying on the sofa at home with his laptop. That means that he is aware of the existence of booking systems that can ensure his reservation. After checking the available tourist destination he wants to make a reservation through a booking system. He wants to plan his days-off without losing unnecessary time. Modern booking systems are available and they work quickly and reliably.Not less important is the selection - a website is not enough. The tourist wants to compare and choose the most advantageous offer. When he chooses it, he will call the official travel agency to save it through the booking system.
On the other side, all that should happen as soon as possible, without waiting for some time to confirm whether the selected hotel room is free. This is also verified by the booking system. And last but not least, consumers overcame their fear of online booking systems and online payment through credit card. Now that method is more preferred. Once verified the possibility to make a reservation, the client pays for the room and the reservation becomes relevant in the booking system.
Some booking systems has no longer met these requirements because they have one major disadvantage - the booking systems are not supposed to be used by the users directly. Only hotel servants, tour operators and airlines have operational access to the programs of the booking system.
Whether the needs of the clients forced the tourist industry to respond quickly with new booking systems or offering itself changed the behavior of tourists, it is not essential. The important thing is that today millions of people share a new forum religion called Online information about booking systems.
Another type of booking system is online booking system. Most of this kind of softwares are hosted and are designed directly for the hotelier or the owner of the lodging property. Usually they have direct connection with major booking portals, mentioned above.
Last week I had a great need of such kind of booking system and found this one - innHand.com . I think it has everyting that I was looking for - online booking system for hotel's website, it was fully designed to use it on mobile device (my iPad in my case) and additional to this they have Facebook booking application, which I think is great idea, especially when FB gather so much popularity nowadays. The best thing of all is that everything that I mentioned was absolutely free. They also have and paid version, I subscribed for one month free trial and now I am getting offline reservations as well and I am able to issue invoices. For more information visit innHand.com
I have some spare time and record a small video to see what innHand online booking system is capable of:
... and some screenshots from my iPhone
 |
| Inovoice |
 |
| Room plan |
