Today we are not going to talk about what a booking engine is or the advantages of having your own booking engine. This has already been openly discussed in other articles in our blog. That’s why today you will have much more practical information: what types of standby engines are there and what are their characteristics?
But in case you haven’t been able to read the previous posts and so you don’t get lost, here are the two most read articles on booking engines, so you can catch up and make the most of today’s article:
Become independent from the TTOO: your website with your own booking engine
Checklist for choosing the right online booking engine
There are plenty of booking engines, so it would be impossible to present them all in a single post. That’s why here is a selection based on the different characteristics, so that you can get a broader view of the different types of booking engines you can find.
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Availpro
smart booking engine available in more than 20 languages
Availpro is a booking engine that adapts to all virtual environments, always thinking about the user’s experience. Customers will be able to book their room regardless of whether they make the inquiry from a PC, Tablet or Smartphone. Availpro is intended to be used in up to 20 languages. And these are some of its most outstanding features:
Engine for Facebook pages
As you may already know, for some time now Facebook has allowed you to make, among other actions, purchases through its platform. Availpro offers hoteliers the possibility of having their own booking engine on their Facebook profile.
Virtual payment platform
Availpro offers the possibility for the guest to make a total or partial payment for the stay he/she is booking through the booking engine. In other words, Availpro’s booking engine offers the possibility of integration with virtual payment platforms.
Corporate and travel agent access via the engine
This is an important feature if the hotel wants to control its revenue management
revenue management
and test with the booking engine.
Exportable database
As we have commented on many occasions, a good segmented database with information provided by the users themselves is a very powerful tool for any business. Normally, when a customer makes a reservation through the booking engine, he/she must include an email address, as well as other information (name, surname, country of residence…). This information can be extracted and stored from the Availpro engine and, in this way, increase the database with relevant and first-hand data.
Promotional code option
For some years now, promotional codes have been working very dynamically. A booking engine that allows you to offer discounts and promotions through these codes is an advantage for you and your customers. This way you can launch contests or email marketing campaigns with these promotional codes and the customers who can use them will feel that they are getting a special and personalized treatment from you, for example, for being repeat customers or followers of your social profiles.
Adaptation to the hotel’s corporate image
It is very important that your booking engine is adapted to the image of the hotel. Do not work with templates, but with an engine that adapts to your needs and the aesthetics of the rest of your website. This way your customers will feel more confident with your engine and will not hesitate to leave you their data and book directly from your site.
Vertical booking
all options according to tourist establishment
Vertical Booking Engine adapts its features according to the type of hotel establishment you work with. The booking engine offers different features depending on whether it is a hotel chain, a group of villas, an independent hotel… These are some of its most important features:
Upselling tools
Upselling is the offering of alternative products or the improvement of the previously booked product. Vertical Booking’s booking engine offers this option, showing the client services to improve his stay: breakfast service, welcome glass of champagne… It is a way to increase the services sold and to offer the client options that he may not have considered, but that he may find interesting.
Alternative offers
Vertical Booking offers the possibility to include among the services of the booking engine, other alternative services, even related to partner companies: car rental, airport transportation… Again we are offering the customer a service that, otherwise, would have to look outside our website.
Intelligent calendar with flexible dates
Vertical Booking thinks about how the user navigates in a booking engine. Therefore, it offers an intelligent calendar that will provide the customer with alternative dates in case there is no availability for the initial dates entered. It is an option that will help us not to lose the sale since, perhaps, the user has not closed his trip and has flexibility in his dates.
Four interfaces available
Depending on the type of tourist establishment and the content that you want to work with within the booking engine, Vertical Booking offers four different interfaces: Smart (for business hotels and very simple content), Advanced (for leisure hotels with vacation packages and offers), Villas (for residential hotels, villas or hotels that want to highlight their rooms and/or apartments) and Premium (the most complete of all, adaptable to any type of property).
Creation of virtual rooms
So that the hotel can sell the same rooms with different definitions, but within the same inventory. It is a resource to expand the marketing strategies of the establishment.
Avvio’s Convert booking engine
Avvio
with the user experience in mind
Avvio’s Convert booking engine is fully focused on the user experience, offering a very simple and understandable interface. Avvio’s booking engine offers options that accompany the guest to the end of the sale, to the conversion.
Responsive design
Convert, Avvio’s booking engine, has a fully customizable design. Regardless of where the user visits the engine from, he/she will be able to make a direct reservation with a correct UX, designed for each mobile device (Tablet, Smartphone or computer).
Adaptation to the hotel’s image
Avvio adapts the Convert booking engine to the colors and image of the hotel, making, as far as possible, a maximum approach to the design of the hotel’s website.
Preference filters
As many hotel metasearch engines offer, Convert also has filters for price, room occupancy and length of stay. In this way, the user can choose some parameters and will be shown the best stay options within those limits.
Sales reinforcement messages
This is one of the features that sets Convert apart from other booking engines. To ensure the completion of the booking directly on the hotel website, Avvio has included positive reinforcement messages for the sale in its booking engine. That is, a personal message signed by a hotel employee telling the user that he/she must complete a series of steps to make the reservation and that he/she is getting the best rate by booking from the hotel’s website, for example.
Complete calendar
By showing the user a complete calendar of the coming months in terms of availability, prices and offers, we are improving the user’s experience, who, perhaps, will decide to extend their stay or book on other dates according to the promotions we show them. It is a way to offer the user more stay options, thus preventing them from leaving our website to search for the product in a metasearch engine or another hotel.
As you can see, each booking engine has small features that differentiate it, although there are already basic ones that all booking engines should include.
Depending on your tourist establishment and your online sales strategy, you should find the one that best suits your needs. But regardless of your business style, you should avoid engines that work on templates and cannot adapt to the evolution of your hotel.
