What impact can new booking tools have on hotel sales in the agency market?
Don: I’ve observed a great deal of change over the years. The Internet makes booking processes both easier, and more complex. I am not sure how many vendors understand that in the travel retail environment, the number of transactions that most individual travel agents will handle is not high. The travel agent can develop proficiency in only so many systems and booking formats. The best development for all would be a uniform process for all types of booking. In the tour operator side, this is available through VAX. For hotel sales, the CCRA tool now offers this efficiency. CCRA gives agents the ability to adopt one simple process to access a ton of inventory in one place. This is an exciting prospect. Q: Should agents present direct booking access from their website? Don: Agents who try to offer clients a direct booking option are not providing a customer service touch. Why go into that area when the big players like Travelocity have already invested so much there? A better way for agen
