Tuesday, 20 February 2018

How to Get a Cost-Effective Travel Portal with GDS API Integration?

This is an era of progressive technology, that’s why it has been called a digital era. Technology is ruling every sphere of human life and every sector in the commercial industry. Travel and tourism industry is no exception. The travel industry is also adopting technology to ride over the increasing competition.  In fact, technology has become an integral part of the travel agencies to help them survive in this highly competitive marketplace. You might be curious to know what the technology has brought for travel agencies. Well, technology has blessed travel industry with travel portal development software. This is an automated way of handling your online travel agency.

To reap the maximum benefits of technology, you need to integrate your portal with GDS API integration (Global Distribution System). Often people think that it would be a costly affair. But, this is not the truth all the time. You can get a cost-effective travel portal with GDS integration if you know the ways to integrate the travel portal software.

Let’s explore how to develop travel software with GDS API integration:

Association with Suppliers
You need to enable your online travel agency to access the inventory of the suppliers, such as the inventory of airline service providers, hotels, and other rental services. You should also access their holiday deals to open those options to your customers. If you want access to the inventory of multiple travel service providers, you need to integrate your travel portal with multiple GDSs.

Association with Aggregators
Aggregators can provide you with consolidated data from multiple resources of different service providers. In this way, you can get highly competitive rates for your online travel agency.

Use of SaaS Platform
If you want to promote your travel agency in a short time, it would be a wise decision for you to choose only Software as a Service or SaaS cloud-based travel platforms. Cloud-based platforms can help you launch your travel site within a few seconds. You can operate this platform both in B2B and B2C mode.

Now, let’s head towards our next discussion- how to manage the cost of travel portal integrations:

How to Manage the Cost of Travel Portal with GDS API Integration

Before starting the development of a travel portal, you should be clear about the expenses you need to spend on setting up a portal. For an online travel agency, you will require a travel booking engine on your homepage. Whenever someone visits the portal, this engine gets connected with GDS API to display the real-time data on the front-end. The cost of a travel site with GDS API integration depends on several factors. Listed below are some of these important factors that should be taken into consideration:
·         Choice of Travel-Commerce Platform
The overall cost of travel software with API integration depends on your choice of travel-commerce platforms to some extent. Multiple flight booking engines, hotel reservation systems, and other services are available for you. You should know the cost of each individual service before selecting one. First of all, consider which services you need for your travel agency if you are not covering every possible travel-related service, and then choose only those ones that you will provide. For instance, if your travel portal is designed to deal only with airline services, then you need to integrate only flight booking API.
·         Types of GDS API Integration
There are various types of GDS APIs. The three most popular ones are- Amadeus API integration, Galileo API integration, and Sabre API integration. Each of these three types has individual features, specification, and pricing. You should learn about each of these GDSs to determine which will be the most suitable one for your business. You should also compare the pricing to get a cost-effective GDS API Integration.

A Final Takeaway
The cost of travel portal development with GDS API integration depends on how the integration is being done. If you want to be associated with all the travel-related service providers and adopt SaaS platforms, your cost will be a bit higher. In this context, it is important to note that you can find a decrease in the time to promote your online travel agency. So, keep a careful eye on the market and try to invest in a travel portal development with GDS API integration when there is a decrease in the market.


Is Your Flight Booking API Integration Able to Act as Your Big Asset?


There is an excellent contribution of online reservation systems towards the increasing number of sales in the travel industry. Flight booking API Integration an online reservation system that is not a mere booking point, it is something more prominent and relevant in the current travel market. Flight booking API provides the services of searching, booking, checking booking status, cancellation of booked ticked, etc. Flight API has many other benefits as well. It offers information about different destinations and different airline services.
 
Flight booking API Integration could act as one of your most significant business assets only if you utilized it smartly in a bit tricky way.  Does your flight API possess all the essential features that can allow the travelers to go through a vast array of choices to compare various options and book the one most convenient for them? With the progress of technology, the trend of traveling is being turned into a more profound passion which is increasing the number of travelers. As an outcome, the demand for comparing multiple airline service providers is growing. To address this requirement, you need to consider one thing at the time of development that most of the travelers tend to look for a quick booking service at a pocket-friendly price.

Nowadays, most of the airline services provide their customers with multiple options to purchase air tickets online. If you want to make your travel-related services stand apart from the crowd, you need to launch an excellent flight booking API integration that can offer the clients multiple options and details about different airline service providers including price, departure date, and facilities provided by the services.

 Apart from this, these are some other features that must be contained by an ideal flight API such as:

Loading Destination
An efficient flight API should include all the possible destinations where the travel agent can provide their services. Travelers just need to select a starting point, then the flight booking engine will display all the possible combinations of destinations.

Routes Availability
Travelers should be allowed to search flights by their criteria like the date and time of their departure. The search must be able to display all the relevant and available options along with some vital information including timings, fare, boarding points, etc.

Seat Layout
This feature enables the travelers to view the seat layout of a flight so that they can pick the available seats for their journey. Travelers can choose from different types of seats like sleeper berths, semi-sleeper seats, etc.

A Final Takeaway
If you think that the role of a flight API is limited only to booking tickets, you are wrong. If you want to win the heart of your customers, a flight booking integration system is required that can help the customers to select the best domestic and international flights suitable for their requirements and budget. Does your flight API serve this purpose? If your answer is “no,” then you should immediately look for an air ticket booking API that can avail enough information about different domestic and international flights. Only domestic flights would not serve you the expected outcome.
If your flight booking integration system possesses all the features mentioned above, then you are all set to win your travelers’ love. Otherwise, you need to implement a useful flight API without further delay.

Friday, 9 February 2018

Best GDS Integration Solution to Boost Your Travel Business


Online travel agencies are always going through challenges thrown by the competitors.  The entire travel industry had witnessed a revolutionary enhancement when the Global Distribution System or GDS was introduced. GDS integration solution is a primary reservation tool that allows your business to stay one step ahead of your competitors. It exhibits a rapid yet steady growth in the travel industry. Travel agents use it for supplying travel products to their retailers.

Why is GDS Integration Solution so Important?

GDS API integration can be considered as a platform that enables the travel agencies or their clients to access travel data, book air tickets, compare various prices for flights, hotels, buses etc. Major GDS integration solutions include Amadeus, Galileo, and Sabre. With these solutions integrated into your travel website, you can earn a really huge amount every year. After all, these tools enable you to access the real-time inventories of airlines, hotels, and bus, car or railway services.


Just try to visualize a large room with a number of roundtables, airline reservation employees are seated around each of the tables. Whenever a booking request is called in, an airline reservation employee reaches goes to a large rotating Susan placed on his/her table. This Susan contains file cards under cubby holes. Now, the employee pulls a card and marks the card to indicate that a seat is booked. Next, a ticket is written manually, the call is concluded and the picked index card is returned to the cubby hole.  The entire process of the reservation requires 90 minutes to 3 hours.

Relax! The picture you are asked to imagine belongs to the year 1953! GDS API integration has replaced this age-old process. Let’s explore the major benefits of GDS API integration:

The Benefits Offered by GDS API Integration
·         Rises the number of leisure and corporate traveling
·         Allures the international travelers
·         Improves shopping experience and convenience of the online travel agencies
·         Avails services to the consumers globally
·         Updates the status of inventory in real-time data
·         Places the holiday booking services and inventories without affecting the marketing budget

A Few Important Aspects of GDS API Integration
Whenever you are going to choose a GDS integration solution, you need to consider a few aspects, such as:
·        Assure that there is no commission fee for reservation delivery to the PMS
·        Look for a system that is able to deal with pooled inventory
·       Ask your providers for integration with front desk and PMS

A Final Takeaway
GDS integration solution has been serving online travel agencies for ages. Travel agents rely on GDS for its reliability, security, and speed. According to the market experts, the future of GDS API integration is really prosperous. GDS will create robust e-commerce tools in future to ease functions in the travel industry. With the advancement of time, GDS is satisfying the growing and ever-changing demands of airlines and hospitality industry. This reason is enough to believe that GDS integration solution will soon rule the entire travel industry.

Do you want to add any other aspect of GDS integration solution that the article has missed to list? Please feel free to share your knowledge with the readers!

Monday, 5 February 2018

Why Do Travel Businesses Require Galileo GDS API Integration?


The progression of Internet has made traveling more comfortable and pleasing while this is the reason behind the growing competition in the travel industry. It is really important to serve extraordinary services if you want to survive in this industry. Global Distribution System (GDS) allows your business to surpass your competitors and maintain a steady growth of the business. Galileo API integration is one of the best solutions of GDS.
 
Galileo is a classic global reservation that is used for business management as well.  It is a productivity system that is used to book air tickets, trains, hotel rooms, cruises, rental car services etc. In other words, Galileo acts as a virtual gateway to enormous content options, accurate pricing capabilities, and highly functional booking tools. This is one of the Galileo GDS API integration solutions that connect customers and businesses through multiple travel channels.  Both the clients and the businesses gain profit as the system reduces expenses for both.

Galileo API integration has brought revolutionary changes in airline software solutions. It is really effective in dealing with airline data management solutions, and data intelligence products for international air services. Its other contributions include passenger management, e-ticket system, and ground handling. Galileo API integration facilitates online shopping, booking, and business management system. You are allowed to customize it as per your business requirements.

Here’s a quick glimpse of the benefits offered by Galileo GDS API integration solutions:

·         Online travel agent software (B2B, B2C, B2B2C, corporate module)
·         Single or Multiple PCC interfaces
·         Flight booking system
·         Hotel reservation system
·         Bus and car booking system
·         Cruise reservation system

Now, let’s find out how Galileo API integration is helping the flight module in particular:

·         Search for one-way flight
·         Search for round way flights
·         Search for flights by city or airport
·         Filter flight search results
·         View flight fares
·         Dealing with confidential tariffs
·         Search air tickets by traveler’s name, ticket no, and air carrier
·         Use-Frequent-Flyer-Programs

How to Reap Optimal Benefits of Galileo API Integration:

·         You can reach maximum number of travelers or business partners
·         You can easily increase your business revenue
·         You can improve the efficiency of your travel operations
·         You can improve the productivity of your business
·         Get your operating cost minimal
·         You can capture new market opportunity
·         You are allowed to capture real-time access

Galileo API integration solutions will boost your operational efficiency, allow you access to high-speed providers, worldwide low-cost carriers along with contents from multiple sources via a single API. From the above discussion, it is crystal clear that Galileo GDS system plays a crucial role in the online reservation system. This GDS system offers desktop solutions and XML services, connected to the core database.  

A Final Takeaway
If you own a travel agency and looking for a reliable platform o take your business to the next level, Galileo GDS API integration solutions can be the best option for you. To know more about GDS and other travel technology solutions, get in touch with us!