Still Scribbling Reservations by Hand?
It's Time to Consider
Technology Alternatives
By Murray Bartholomew, ATTA Membership Administrator
Today’s websites set a high bar. On top of the difficulty and expense of creating an attractive, informative virtual “front door” for your business, purchasing products and services online seems to be turning into a consumer expectation. We at the ATTA know first-hand that developing this capability in-house is a daunting task.
If you run a small to medium operation, consider, if you haven’t already, outsourcing your online booking system to a service provider instead of dedicating valuable internal resources to the process. Several good options made specifically for the adventure travel industry are available to allow you to focus on other critical matters.
Though there are several options on the market, including Adventure Engine, Peak 15, ResLogic, ResMark and TourTech, this article dials into Adventure Central’s online booking and inventory management solution. Adventure Central’s Adventure Web™ and Adventure Office™ suite brings adventure tour operators a customizable, integrated web-based package. The two applications combine to offer critical capabilities: customer reservations, inventory management reflecting up-to-the-minute bookings, customer resource management (CRM) and automated reservation email communications.
How does it work? The Adventure Office back-end allows your staff to input trips, trip dates, prices and bookings available. The front-end of Adventure Web emulates the look and feel of your site and its elements are placed within your existing website. After the customer’s credit card order is received, trip inventories are updated instantly, the customer receives an email confirmation of their reservation, and your inventory gets updated for other customers to see.
“Adventure Central has allowed us to be open 24/7” said Jaci Dvorak of Dvorak Expeditions. “We can see what's happening with reservations from anywhere at any time. Today we don't miss a step if we're out of the office for a few days.”
Since nearly the launch of the new ATTA Membership program in 2005, Adventure Central has offered a substantial set-up discount for ATTA Members—$2000— on Adventure Central’s complete booking and inventory management solution.
“ATTA is a significant supporter of the adventure travel industry and continues to demonstrate its value to its members” said Adventure Central’s CEO, Dick Schulte. “As a result, we are pleased to extend to ATTA tour operator members interested in Adventure Central’s robust and cost-effective online booking and trip inventory system a reduced-cost start-up opportunity.”