Products - Dynamic Packaging
Dynamic Packaging has always been talked
about in the travel trade press as relating to Travel Agents.
At Mach Associates we believe that Tour Operators can offer Dynamic Packages of
their own, whilst providing the financial security that the travelling public
seek. That's not to say the travel agent is left out...they can still earn their
commission!
For tour operators DP allows you to offer individual components such as �low
cost airline seats or accommodation without (necessarily) having to take
expensive allocations. When you offer DP you are offering flexibility and
attractive pricing that your customers expect whilst protecting and hopefully
increasing your margins. For example; by offering accommodation and transfers
combined with a return Easyjet flight you can ensure that the ground
components are profitable while still offering a bundled package price to your
customers.
Technology is the key to the booking and distribution process. New technology is
required as then old legacy systems like windows cannot cope or are just too
expensive. Mach Associates offer probably the best DP packaging in the market,
below we discuss some of the key Dynamic Packaging features to illustrate how,
regardless of the products you offer, it can work for your business.
Examples of MARS Dynamic Packaging for any of the following combinations:
Air + Hotel
A dynamic package is the combination of an air booking and a hotel booking, with
pricing and available being calculated at the time of the enquiry. This means
that as the budget airline price moves so the Dynamic Package price moves.
Air bookings
We link to most budget airlines, charter and scheduled flights with availability in real time.
This combination of availability guarantees you the
up to the minute availability at a competitive price. It supports searching of
multiple suppliers concurrently for most combinations and you have a sub 5 sec
availability search process.
+ Transfers
We use the dynamic packaging technology to manage the process of resort transfer,
this lets a Tour Operator use the Budget air as if it was scheduled or
chartered.
+ Fly Drive Package
Fly Drive package is similar to the Air above in that it uses Air Availability
from scheduled, charter and budget, the difference is that instead of managing
resort transfers the customer books a car at the same time, again dynamically,
and drives themselves to the resort.
+ Availability Grid
Dynamic Packaging is a great product for the Tour Operator as it incurs
very little admin overhead, the major drawback is that there is no grid of
availability. To overcome this problem MARS builds a grid of availability by
searching the links for the combinations that are required for the Grid and then
stores this in the database. This grid can then be used for a number of
purposes, such as:
Display Availability during the booking process.
Highlight the best deals by Resort and/or Date.
Powering any/any Searches, by this we mean Any Country, Any Resort for a set
date.
For sending to partners to enable them to sell your product. This can be by
loading availability into their system or simply for comparison purposes.
+ Working with Agents or Affinity Partners
Agents or partners can use the availability in a number of ways, such as:
Imbedded web pages similar in concept to "white pages" but with greater
security and flexibility for their own websites.
Access to their own web pages on the operator's site.
Commercial agreements on commissions can be built in.