You don't have to be big to do bookings online

What to look for in a SME Booking Solution

Offering online bookings can help to boost the number of reservations you receive by making it more convenient for your potential guests. You can expect to experience the same benefits that other businesses have once they made the move to sell online. These include but are not limited to: access to a global market, 24-hour business, receiving payments more quickly and attracting customers who would not normally have found you. Depending on the solution you choose, it may also help you to manage your inventory, store your contact database, generate reports and even support your marketing efforts.

There are a number of different options available for you to allow the booking of your products online.

The first and perhaps most common approach would be to hire a web design and development company to add the functionality to your website. The main advantage to this approach is that you can build the system to suit your specific needs. The major drawback of a customized application is that it can be quite expensive. You should expect to pay from $10K - $20K for your own web based booking system. Add another $5K if you don't already have a website.

Another option and less costly solution would be to sell your tours or packages through a hosted web application. With this solution, you can spread your costs over time. For instance you may pay a monthly fee, a commission on the items you sell or a combination of both. You might think that the pros and cons of a system like this would be the opposite of those I described for the custom approach. That is, what you save in cost is offset by less functionality. However, you may be surprised to find that a hosted web service, especially one that was made specifically to sell travel inventory, may possibly have all the functionality you need and then some. A good hosted application should offer most of the following features...

• Detailed product management
• Real time inventory
• Support for multiple payment methods
• Bookings are made through a secure server
• Generate revenue and passenger reports
• Address book or contact database

It should also allow you to customize the look and feel of your booking pages so that any transitions between your site and the booking application are seamless.

When comparing hosted applications, make sure that you do the math. Figure out how many bookings you typically receive each month. Multiply the number of monthly bookings by the commission rate that one service may charge. Then, compare this projected monthly commission against the services that charge monthly fees. You may want to estimate a higher number of monthly bookings when doing these calculations. After all, the whole point of offering bookings online is to increase the actual number you receive.

How a Commerce Website Development Works

Recently a retailer asked me how e-commerce website development works, and I misunderstood the question and started to detail the technology that we use. Turns out, what she wanted to know was a bit more process oriented; what she needed to know was what to expect, and what we expected of her in order to get her up and running. Here's a breakdown of how it works over here:

1. Working with the retailer, we discuss the visual element requirements, such as colour, look and feel, website elements from other sites that they like, website elements from other sites they don't like, and what their current branding efforts look like. (Design Consultation.) We then discuss the functionality requirements, such as Merchant Account Providers, Inventory Management, and any additional functionality requirements such as Newsletters or Coupons. (Functionality Consultation)
2. Based on the Design and Functionality Consultations, we work on a design that addresses their wants and needs, while addressing the desired functionality of the site.
3. Based on the the Functionality Consultation, we implement the Commerce System with the required modules and customizations, and take the customer on a walkthrough of their system.
4. We present the client with the proposed design, and any changes to the design are applied.
5. The client enters their inventory and content for their site through the administration system.
6. Any additional external vendors are confirmed by the client, such as the Merchant Account Provider.
7. The final design is implemented, and the site goes live!

From start to finish, this process generally takes between 4 to 6 weeks, and is dependent on the speed of the clients responses. The fastest that I have seen a Commerce System be implemented is 7 days from start to finish, and was only possible due to a very organized client with an existing design; I understand that it took them 2 months prior to contacting me for them to develop their content and take their pictures.