Best Travel Agency Software

The preferences of the customers pertaining to their travel requirements have evolved to a great extent, and due to that, the competition has become fierce in the travel & tourism industry. Earlier, people used to walk into the offices of travel agents to get their travel bookings done. But, now the customers check itineraries, compare the prices, and make their travel bookings online. So, it has become essential for travel agencies to provide competitive prices and best travel experiences to their customers to ensure the sustainability and growth of their business. Current time travel agencies need to adopt a systematic approach towards their internal processes and serve their customers flawlessly, and this is only possible with the help of the best travel software.

This buyers' guide is meant to help all the travel-related businesses to evaluate different travel agency solutions available in the market and select one that can streamline their processes and ensure higher returns on their investment.

Globally, travel and tourism contributed approximately 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars to GDP in 2019. However, the travel industry is so promising; the travelers are also a step ahead in being demanding and seeking the best experiences. Below are some of the key challenges faced by travel agencies these days.

Buyers Have Access To More Options

Currently, a plethora of travel & stay options are available online. Buyers now research a lot about the offers marketed and advertised by the travel agencies. This has increased price transparency and made it highly difficult for the travel agencies to cut through the competition and win the deals.

Decreased Customer Loyalty

As there are so many options in travel & stay packages available, the buyers are likely to go for the travel agencies offering the lowest prices and best services. In the travel industry, customer loyalty has experienced to be declining because people now prefer experiences over the brand name.

Managing a Flood of Inquiries

With the right kind of marketing and advertising, the travel agencies receive a flood of inquiries demanding diversified preferences at the same time. It becomes quite tricky for travel agencies to justify each inquiry and satisfy all the prospects at the maximum level without missing out on anything.  

Increase in Travel for Business and Pleasure

Traveling is not rare now, that seems to be an opportunity more than a challenge for travel agencies now. But, this opportunity results in a challenge of satisfying knowledgeable and highly demanding customers who have visited many places and have already availed services from many other travel agencies.

To overcome the challenges mentioned above, it becomes necessary for the travel agencies to adopt the best travel agency management software that can help in marketing and advertising offers, managing inquiries, and providing the best customer experiences. 

Travel agency software is a tool that can automate the front and back end processes of the travel & tourism business organizations. It helps in managing their travel products & services, including flight & hotel bookings, holiday packages, and other activities. Besides that, it helps the travel agencies & tour operators to launch their marketing campaigns, process payments online, track income & expenses and generate reports showing the financial health of their business. 

A travel agency management software can streamline and automate processes pertaining to -

• Travel Bookings
• Internal Operations
• Sales & Marketing
• Income & Expenses
• Customer Service and Support

As the name implies, travel agency software popularly known as travel software can be used by travel agents, tour operations, online travel booking portals, corporates, and any B2B or B2C organizations that provide services like -

• Flight Booking
• Hotel Booking
• Train Booking
• Bus Booking
• Car/Cab Booking
• Holiday Packages
• Cruise Travels
• Visa Processing
• Travel Insurance

Further, the users of travel business software can be mainly categorized into -

Suppliers 

Suppliers include businesses that provide travel services like booking flights, hotels, tours, buses, cabs, etc. The travel agency management software allows suppliers to manage all the services offered by them, including their marketing and financial operations.

Agents

Agents include businesses that sell travel-related products and services on behalf of the suppliers. Besides managing their operations and marketing activities, the travel agency management software also allows travel agents to display real-time information about the travel products and services offered by the suppliers.

Corporates

Big enterprises and corporates require their employees to travel for business frequently. So, instead of relying on travel agencies, they can deploy corporate travel management software to suffice their business travel needs.

There are different types of Travel software depending upon its functionality and deployment method.

1. Functionality Based

Besides booking flights and hotels, travel agencies are engaged in various other activities like designing travel itineraries, providing consulting services, managing suppliers’ information, creating personalized itineraries, and suggesting the best travel products at the best prices to the customers. Obviously, all these activities cannot be done manually or using excel spreadsheets. For that reason, travel agencies use different tools as mentioned below -

i) Booking & Reservation Software

This type of software allows travel agencies to make flight, hotel, and other travel-related bookings for their customers, generate invoices, collect payments online, and integrate 3rd party suppliers.

ii) Tour Building Software

The tour building software includes different templates allowing you to create customized travel itineraries and even travel packages offered by the suppliers.

iii) Travel CRM System

The CRM for travel agents allows you to distribute leads, monitor sales funnel, manage marketing campaigns, and maintain the record of communication with the customers and prospects.

iv) Travel Agency Accounting Platform

The travel agency accounting software is built to calculate the commissions of the agents, analyze income & expenses, generate financial reports, and ensure profitability in the business.

2. Deployment Based

The travel agency management software can be differentiated in two ways based on its deployment, as mentioned below- 

i) Cloud-Based Travel Agency Software

The cloud-based travel agency software, also known as SaaS (Software as a Service) allows users to access the application using any device having internet facility. This type of online travel agent booking system is hosted on cloud servers, and all the data needs to be accessed online. Most of these cloud-based travel agency solutions are available at monthly or yearly subscription charges. This option proves to be quite cost-effective, as there are no implementation and maintenance costs involved in it.

ii) On-Premise Travel Agency Software

On-premise travel agency software requires purchasing the software license and hosting it on your local server. The benefit of using this type of software is that you have full control over the data as it is stored within your premises. Using on-premise software includes deployment and maintenance costs, which can prove to be expensive for small businesses. In that case, there are free and open source travel agency solutions available in the market that can be deployed on-premises without any investment.

Yes, there are all-in-one travel agency tools available. Besides building travel itineraries and booking flights & hotels for the customers, many travel agencies require automating all the internal processes, including operations, sales, marketing, accounting, etc. In that case, the businesses prefer an all-in-one travel agency software or booking & reservation software that can integrate other applications used for the internal processes of the organization.

There is a possibility that even an all-in-one travel agency software may not include the specific functionalities required by your business organization. In that case, you can go for an open source travel agency booking system or avail travel software services and get a customized travel agency application built that can fit your specific business logic and requirements.

Each traveler has his/her own preferences when it comes to their travel arrangements, including mode of travel, stay, food, etc. That means the travel agencies need to provide personalized attention to the travelers to provide ultimate satisfaction to their customers and achieve their sales goals. A travel management software can help in doing that by providing the below-mentioned benefits -

Allows Multiple Bookings Online

The foremost benefit of implementing a travel booking software is that you can make multiple bookings online for flights, hotels, vacations, etc., and also allow your customers to do the same. The corporate travel software would also enable you to accept payments online and facilitate you to make the entire booking process quick and easy. 

Ensures Flawless Processes

In a travel agency, there are various tasks to be done like travel bookings, returns, collecting payments, replying to customer emails, and many more. Missing out on a single thing can result in losing business opportunities. Negative reviews get viral within seconds through social media networking these days easily. A corporate travel booking software can ensure that all the processes in your organization are streamlined so that flaws can be avoided at a maximum level, and customer satisfaction can be achieved.

Saves Time

The online travel agent booking system allows you to view the suppliers' information, including their services and prices offered from a single interface. This saves your time spent on visiting the website of each supplier and extracting the information and then submitting it to your customers. Instead, all the suppliers' information is on your fingertips, which can also be accessible by your customers. When monotonous jobs get automated, you save time, and that gives you the chance to focus on many other strategic jobs that can benefit the profitability of your business.

Improves Sales

The business travel management software enhances the way you market your business in front of your customers. It can also help in creating customized tour packages as per the customers' specific requirements, offering discounts, upselling travel products, etc., to attract maximum customers. With the right kind of approach towards promoting travel-related products and personalizing customer experiences, travel agencies can generate more leads and improve sales.

Provides Clear Visibility

The online travel agent booking system can generate reports about their travel bookings sold by the end of the day, week, or month. Besides that, it can also provide information about the net profit your business has earned for a specific tenure. This facilitates you to have clear visibility about your business ups and downs, helping you to gain the opportunity of improving your processes or marketing strategies if required.

The business travel software you choose should help you in achieving maximum efficiency and productivity. Simultaneously it should empower you to serve your customers excellently and keep the overall cost of your business operations in control. For that, you need to ensure that your travel agency management solution includes the features mentioned below -

Reservations Management

Whether it is about booking a hotel room, flight ticket, or a vacation, the travel agency tool you choose should facilitate you to do that online from any location and device. Similarly, the travel software should allow you to manage reservation cancellations and refunds accurately. Immediately after the booking is made, the travel booking software should send an automated response to the customer about the complete details of their booking. This would help you in gaining the trust of your customers and encourage them to return to you for their future travel related requirements.

Multiple Currencies and Languages

The travel management software that supports multiple currencies and languages would allow you to target different countries. The requirement of this feature depends on your business model and the geographical reach of your business. If your travel agency business targets a global audience, multiple currencies and languages support is the feature you need to consider.

Customized Tour Packaging

Not all of your customers may have the same requirements while planning their vacation or official trips. Your travel agency solution should allow you to create customized tour packages for your customers, demanding personalized services. This would help you in closing more deals and satisfying your customers, ultimately helping your business to achieve sales goals.

Client Management

The travel industry is all about satisfying customers, and that makes client management one of the most important features your business travel management software should possess. The travel agency software with CRM features would help you in managing inquiries received from your customers, create and send customized quotations, managing leads, setting up reminders for followup with the customers, and many other tasks allowing you to run your travel business flawlessly.

Sales Management

The travel software with sales management features can automate your pre-sales and after-sales tasks improving efficiency in achieving sales goals and reducing costs. Whether it is about managing multiple sales channels, scheduling quotations & invoices, or upselling procedures, the travel agency software including marketing automation features allows you to streamline the sales processes in your organization. 

Accounts & Finance Management

The travel agency software you select should be able to automate the process of calculating your business income & expenses, manage taxation, and other accounting formalities to keep your business compliant with Government rules and regulations. Moreover, it should allow you to track the financial situation of your business on a real-time basis helping you to make smart and informed decisions.

Detailed Reporting

To ensure the sustainability and growth of the business in this competitive era; it becomes necessary to analyze the efforts your team is putting in to attract new customers, managing leads & prospects, and ensuring conversions at a maximum level. For that, you need in-depth reports valuable to your company, providing insights about your operations and sales & marketing, leading you to take corrective actions.

Mobility

In a recent study conducted by Google with PhocusWright, it was found that around 48% of all consumers say they feel comfortable in researching, booking, and planning an entire travel experience on a mobile device. Based on this fact, you need to ensure that your travel booking software supports multiple mobile devices.

Artificial Intelligence & Chatbots

The primary use of artificial intelligence in travel software is in the form of chatbots for enhancing customer service processes. Applying chatbots in your travel agency management solution can help you in serving your customers 24/7. Whether it is about answering customer queries or their emergency requests, the chatbot can be of great use. This way, it helps in boosting sales and improving the reputation of your business organization.

Personalization

The experience of your customers can be one of the most critical factors that determine the success of a travel agency. Most of the customers these days expect personalized recommendations and travel options while dealing with travel agencies. The travel booking software should be able to cope up with the demands of the travelers these days to stay ahead in the competition.  

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has played a significant role in improving customer service and taking the travel industry to the next level. Cloud computing enables users to access their data easily from anywhere in the world at any time. Moreover, it ensures that the crucial data is secure using encryption methods, firewalls, and backup recovery options. The business travel management software based on cloud computing technology can help businesses to boost the productivity of their employees, and achieve high efficiency in their services.

Voice Search

Voice search has become quite popular these days in the travel & tourism industry. Whether it is about reservations, or searching for a travel package, the consumers are using voice search as it has proven to be a convenient and quick way for them to get their tasks done. To stay ahead in this industry, it has become imperative to provide voice search facilities because, as of now, it is one of the essential requirements of your customers.  

Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR & VR)

AR & VR have been discovered as one of the most promising technologies that can benefit travelers. By just having a device connected to the internet, the travelers can virtually experience the hotels or destinations they are likely to stay and visit. This possibility of getting in-depth information on the fingertips has made the customers highly demanding and thus created a fierce competition for travel agencies. The businesses in this sector need to consider this trend as it is the major purchasing determinant prevailing these days.

Blockchain

Blockchain is recognized as one of the most significant technological innovations as far as security of the data is concerned. The travel industry highly depends on data transfer between travel agencies, air carriers, tour operators, hotels, and other suppliers & vendors. The personal data of the travelers require to be transmitted and stored in a highly secure manner across this network. Blockchain technology helps in transferring the data in clusters, ensuring that the critical information for the travel-related businesses and customers is transparent, traceable, and secure at the same time.

Recognition Technology

The recognition technology includes biometric authentication methods like fingerprint, retina scanning, and facial recognition. This technology has already been deployed to a great extent in the travel & tourism industry. This technology includes collecting the recognition data of the travelers, identifying their personality, and, based on that, providing them with exclusive services like access to a hotel without a check-in process or easy entry to a business lounge.

After analyzing the business needs of different travel agencies, we have come up with the following important factors that you need to consider while selecting a travel software -

Managing Multiple Sales Channels

The buyers usually approach a travel agency through multiple sales channels like phone, online travel portal, walking into the office, email, etc. Having so many sources, it becomes difficult to manage the customer data and keep track of sales and services provided. The travel booking software you choose should allow you to keep track of the customers approaching you from any source and help you in selling online and offline both.

Flexibility

When it comes to the travel & tourism business, being flexible for your clients is very important to win their trust and close the deals. Many times, the clients may ask you to offer the travel service, which is not listed on your website, and you do not offer. But, you have sources through which you can offer those services. The travel agency tool should be flexible enough to help you quickly adapt to the changes in your services and adjust according to the options you are offering to your clients. 

Integration

It may happen that the travel agency software that you have chosen within your budget limits doesn’t cover all the processes in your organization. In that case, you need to ensure that your travel booking software easily integrates with the other programs you are using for accounting, CRM, marketing automation, email marketing, payment gateways, etc. This would help you in getting your tasks done from one place using a single interface.

Easy To Use

User-friendliness is one of the most important aspects to look for while selecting a travel booking software, as you are providing access to even your customers to make their travel bookings. If the travel agency solution is too complicated, your employees may take more time and put extra effort into getting the tasks done. So, ensuring that your travel agency tool is user-friendly and extremely simple to use is essential.

Pricing Models

The travel agency software vendors offer different pricing models generally based on the deployment and features of the software. Generally, deploying on-premise software proves to be more expensive than cloud-based software as there are other costs like implementation, training, etc., involved with it. Cloud-based tools are considered as cost-effective and based on monthly, yearly, or on-time subscription models. Also, there are free tour management software available that you can consider if you are not planning to invest. So, depending on your business size, type, and features requirement, you can choose the one that suits you.

Customer Reviews & Ratings

You need to check the reviews & ratings given by the customers already using the travel software you have short-listed.

Travel software for companies can vary in cost depending on the features offered and the size of the business it caters to. There are various different types of travel agency tools available in the market charging monthly & yearly subscription. For example, Tutterfly CRM is available at $18/month, whereas R24K Travel Manager is available at $99/month. If you are not comfortable with the monthly subscription pricing model, you can go for TripControl, which can cost you $60/year.

If you are looking for better options in travel agency software that can offer you the price depending on the features you require, then you can consider solutions like iTours and Lemax. These tour operator software vendors would quote the price as per your business needs. That means you are paying only for the features you require and saving the costs.

Just go through the complete list of travel agency tools to choose the one that suits your budget and is worth its price.

Also, there are many free and open source travel agency software that you can consider if investing in a new software system is not on your list at present. These free tour booking software may require technical skills and certain hardware requirements to ensure the right deployment and use of the software within your organization.

Deploying a travel agency software includes ensuring it is up and running properly in your organization. Also, your employees are using it to improve the processes of your business organization. This switching process from one system to another or a manual process to an automated system can be critical and time-consuming initially. But, with the right actions and measures as given below, successful deployment of travel agency software can be ensured.

• You need to have a consistent method of categorizing your travel products and services and make sure that the travel agency software you have chosen suits that method.
• Assign a tech-savvy leader who can monitor the activities relating to the usage of the travel agency software you have implemented and help the employees in solving problems relating to the usage of this system.
• Many of your employees might be reluctant to change their habit of working manually. Explain to them the benefits of using the travel agency software over manual processes and provide them with the right of information and training.
• You can set up a reward system for the employees using the travel agency software in your business organization that can ensure the smooth running of the implementation of the project.
• Conduct internal meetings with your staff regularly to collect feedback on the implementation process of your travel agency software that would help you in applying improvement measures if required.

The travel agency software listed by GoodFirms' is provided by the most trusted vendors available. Besides that, below are some reasons that justify that referring to GoodFirms' list of travel agency software would be a wise decision to make.

• GoodFirms follows a systematic approach towards curating only the best software and applications following the latest trends, technologies. 
• The in-depth details about each software listed here help you in understanding each option intricately and making a choice that includes features and functionality your business requires.
• Along with software details, GoodFirms includes authentic and legit customer reviews about each software listed, helping you to make a reliable choice.

We hope that this buyers' guide to travel agency software has helped you in finding the travel agency software, including the criteria important to your business, and also fits into your predetermined budget. If you have used any of the applications and tools mentioned in the complete list of travel agency software here, please leave your feedback here, as it would be of great help to other buyers looking forward to buying the best travel agency software.