Features Make The Cruise Booking Engine

1. Features Make The Cruise Booking Engine More and more travel agents and consumers are using an online cruise booking engine to research and confirm their cruise vacations. The features, functionality and content available via online cruise booking solutions have evolved tremendously over the past two decades. If you have not taken the time recently to review how your business handles cruise bookings, you may be missing out on the advantages these advances can offer your business. It's no secret that today's consumer is attached to their mobile devices and in many cases are the first thing someone grabs when they are looking for information or to make a purchase. Researching and shopping for travel is no different. Today's mobile ready technology has made it possible to extend the reach of your online cruise booking solution to be accessible via just about any type of device. So why not have your cruise booking engine available so they can start their research and complete their booking how and when they

2. choose. There are even features available that allow a host agency to extend the reach of their booking engine quickly and easily to affiliated homebased agents. Some even allow for the booking engine's header and footer to be customized to that of the affiliate. Another area to consider is the extent that you can control the selling price customers see and how you are able to promote special offers that the cruise lines may be offering to promote certain sailings. Your cruise booking engine needs the ability to control a product selling price down to a specific cruise line, sailing and cabin category, including the ability for you to easily mark-up or discount the selling price depending upon criteria that you choose. You should be able to include your own special "value add" offers and promote those offered by cruise lines right in the availability display so that the User has a full picture of the "value" a certain fare may have. Today's technology now allows for a cruise booking solution to integrate a vast amount cruise line, cruise ship and cabin descriptions linked to media files & rich content such as cabin photos, ship images and deck plans to assist in the shopping process. Users can view pictures of a particular ship, including sample guest cabins and public areas. Maps depicting ship itineraries with ports of call, information about activities onboard, even videos in some cases help provide the User a better idea of what a specific cruise has to offer. Many cruise lines offer special rates for Past Passengers and in some cases provide special value add offers and onboard amenities to their best repeat customers. To make taking advantage of these benefits easier, some of the more advanced online travel booking solutions include User friendly features like Past Passenger Look-up. This feature allows the travel agent or consumer shopping online to easily look up a Past Passenger number to be used during the booking process and ensure they receive all the discounts and benefits they deserve as a Customer Loyalty Program member. Choosing a cruise booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will

3. help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.