In today’s world, every traveler wants to book their travel from the comfort of their home. So, to have an edge over the competitors, you need to switch to digital products that provide impeccable solutions for the travel services.
A travel management system is a software that helps the travel agents or the end-users to manage all their bookings, service providers, pricing, tracking and analyzing their business travel. It might include managing hotels, cars, flights, etc.
Key features of a travel management system
Always look for a travel management system that helps you to work efficiently and deliver good results. Here are a few key features that you should look for when selecting a travel management system –
Travel policies that can be customized:
Travel policies are one of the most important feature in the travel management system for both the end-users and the agents/agencies. Policies should be customized according to different criteria.
Pricing policy for senior citizen and normal citizen should differ.
Domestic and international travels should have different global policies.
Maximum cost of the train/flight travel for certain routes.
Advance booking policies.
Workflows that can be customized:
What would you do if you have a trip that is not listed in your policy? Every Travel Management System should have approval workflows in case a person requires something that is not included in the policy. This would save the time of the user by not having to send an email for the additional request.
Have substantial inventory:
In order to thrive in this competitive world, you need to have large amount of inventory such as hotel/car/flight vendors and agents. You should have a low priced accommodations and flight carriers so that you do not miss on the big opportunities that are available in the market. People mostly look for the budget booking options and this can be great chance to increase your sales.
Excellent Customer Care Services:
Gone are the days when you need to pay for the customer support calls. Travel Management System should allow to have customer support calls at no additional costs. The travel companies should provide the best customer care services to their customers. This would not only satisfy the customer with the services provided but also help the businesses to grow with the customer’s feedback.
There should be no redirects:
Many companies do not have service providers of their own, so they have a contract with the other service providers and sell their own companies. When a person is booking a travel, he/she should not see any redirects as this could be annoying as well as little nerve-wracking. This would break the trust of the customer in the company as he/she is not sure whether they can trust the new vendor or not.
Integrated invoicing option:
You should always choose a travel management software that keeps all your booking in one place. This would save time and keep all the monthly travels into a single vendor invoice. Prices are divided into different categories so the price breakup should be in such a manner that the customer is aware of all the amount that he has paid.
Ease of Booking:
If a user is facing any problem while booking through your site, he/she will approach other TMS. You should always build a user-friendly booking tool that helps the users to book their travel, accommodations, etc. easily and in turn, you will not lose your customers.
Method of Transportation should be kept in consideration:
When a person is booking an air and hotel services, he/she may expect that you provide the other transportation services like cars, trains, buses, etc. that would be helpful during the pre and post air travel. So, you should think of including these services also in your travel management system.
Mobile App is a must:
Around 83.89% people have smartphones today, so the travel management system should have their own apps. This would help in sending alerts and notifications to the users regarding recent updates.
Inform about the Services that are pout of Policy:
You should send a message to the user if any hotel/flight/car are out of service and not operational due to some reasons. Suppose, a user is excited to book a hotel and later on, he finds that the hotel was out of policy, it would be quite disappointing for him/her. So, you should always avoid such kind of situation.
Save user profile:
You should have the option to auto-save all the information of the user including the legal name, number, birthday, travel history, etc. This would not only save the time of the user but also make the business travel booking a lot easier.
Payment options should be feasible:
You should give the customers an option to pay through various modes like debit card, credit card, QR scanner, online methods, etc.
Tracking users trip:
You should provide viable services from booking to billing to check-ins and check-outs. Tracking of the customers is also important.
Market affordable packages:
Every user needs a pocket-friendly package that suits him during his/her travel. Travel agencies offer various discounts in order to attract the customers. But, the marketing of the product is also important as it would help to reach more and more people, which in turn would be beneficial for the company.