e-pow ering

t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S

Challenges faced by the Travel Agents and Tour Operators

With the airline industries cutting down the commission of travel agents, growth of online travel companies,
mushrooming of new agents, tour operators and travel agents are facing tough competition.
Major Challenges
1. Contracting:

Storing of contracts of different hotels and Resorts seems a tedious task for Tour & Travel Companies.
Most travel companies uses excel sheets for storing the details of the contracted properties.

Delay in getting contracts and updating the contracts in the right time negatively affects the Tour & Travel
Companies.

Other than the periodic contracts, many a times, the travel companies are not included to get the
promotions, updates of best available rates and offers launched by the hotels.

Currency conversion is another challenge of the Tour & Travel Companies. The fluctuation in the foreign
currency creates more harm to the Tour & Travel Companies who are doing outbound and Inbound travel
business.

2. Costing:

Incapability to search the right offers and time taken by the costing team for map an itinerary based on
custom requirements of Guests, adversely affects the Tour & Travel Companies. The expertise of staffs in
identifying guests requirement and mapping the right products like properties, destinations, activities etc
with right price is an ultimate necessity as far as a Tour is concerned. If the staff is unable to map right
itinerary, offers and discounts to the clients, the company is likely to miss the lead. A tour designer and the
costing team in a tour Company should have the updated knowledge about the offers and promotions
provided by hotel suppliers.
Identifying and deciding between direct hotel contracts and Wholesales supplier contracts also plays
a key factor of sales lead conversion.

3. Tracking:

Enquiry Costing, Quote generation, quote editing, supplier follow-ups, all are time consuming process for
the travel company. It is a long process that a Company has to contact different hotels (directly or through
DMCs/Wholesalers) for reconfirmation of rates, vehicle rental agency and costing team before give
quotation confirmation to the guests.

Managing collection and updation of information of the hotels, tracking offers and promotion provided by
hotels need to be filed by the travel agents. Uninterrupted interactions with hotels and know about their
promotions and offers are very important to travel agents for the smooth transaction of business.

Long time taken to prepare a quotation in a presentable format by the travel agents is considered as a
disadvantage. Tracking status of enquiry on the right time is crucial in business. The small suppliers, sub-

Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com

e-pow ering
t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S
agents and channel partners associated with a travel agency bring fortunes to the travel agents. But timely
tracking of commitments to suppliers and keeping a rapport between the agents and suppliers help to
increases the business. The travel agents should ensure prompt follow up of deliverable with suppliers,
guests and channel partners.

Proper management, timely monitoring and planning of income and expense is crucial to maximize
monetary benefits of a travel company.

4. Payment option:
Payment collection is comparatively slower and need manual intervention for Travel Companies. Time spent for
the creation of invoice and vouchers, adds to the cost of operations. Most travelers are geographically
distributed and direct payment collection is a challenge. International money transfers can be time consuming
processes for paying party and the receiver.

5. Competition from online travel companies:

Nowadays there are numerous travel portals and websites with cutting edge technology competing each other
to provide best available rates, hotels, destination, itinerary, activities, packages etc to the clients. The online
travel companies pause real challenge to travel agents and tour operators. A guest can access a travel portal at
anytime from anywhere. The online companies assist the guests to plan their trip with best available rates and
hotels. The instant payment option helps the guests do an easy payment that leads quick confirmation.
General challenges
People attrition:
This industry been a people oriented business and is also an asset-light business process. Hence, Entry
level and Medium level staff seem to change jobs quiet often and even startup same business ventures
on their own more frequently.
Lack of skilled labor:
Lack of skilled human resources is one of the major challenges faced by the travel agents and the tour
operators. The knowledge level of the staff and their expertise in making use of the technology
determines the success of a travel agency.

To address the above Challenges of Travel

companies, CRS Technologies has designed a
system which minimizes these effects.
OTA INTERNAL SYSTEM
Powered By CRS Technologies Pvt. Ltd

Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com

e-pow ering
t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S

Table of Contents

WebCRS - Travel Internal System Features & Advantages.................................................................. 2

Manage Hotel/Resort Information ........................................................................................................... 2

Manage Hotel Contracts........................................................................................................................... 3

Enquiry Handling ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Contact Management ............................................................................................................................... 3

Costing....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Quotation Amendments ........................................................................................................................... 5

Operations ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Service Delivery ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Supplier Management .............................................................................................................................. 5

Integrated Accounting.............................................................................................................................. 5

Follow Up Setting And Time Management ............................................................................................. 5

Management Reports ............................................................................................................................... 5

Integrated Mail Management System ..................................................................................................... 6

Integrated Payment Gateway .................................................................................................................. 6

Integrated Telephone Interface ............................................................................................................... 6

WebCRS - OTA Internal System Features & Advantages

Manage Hotel/Resort Information
OTA Internal System helps you enable to store hotel information of features, facilities, photographs, contact
information etc. It can have preloaded static public information about the properties of about 1000 hotels in India
with the capability to add more properties and information. The Key contact personals regarding sales
/contracting / reservations data is also available.

Manage Hotel Contracts

Contracts from different properties are received as pdfs, word documents and excel sheets. This
information can be uploaded and stored for future references in online working environment into the
OTA Internal System.
The contracts can be then entered into searchable and computable data for calculation purposes at the
time of costing.

Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com

e-pow ering
t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S

Contracts data when entered, can set in an approval stage by a senior person to ensure no mistakes
are happening on the contract information loading.
Traceability of contracts loading status is available.
Multiple suppliers contracting can be handled for same property and is used in case of properties
handled through DMCs and wholesalers.
Preloaded data from the hotels on their public rates can be subscribed by the agency thereby reducing
the manual work necessary for translating/loading hotel contracts to processable data. After seeing the
public data, net rate negotiation can be done by contracting team and stored in the platform.
Extranet logins can be given to hotels to update the contracts.
On- the- fly contracting and ad-hoc contracting with capability of making requests for special rates, for
specific enquiries on properties without contracts on immediate basis can be done from the system.
Rate/Availability request can be sent to Multiple Suppliers at one click.
Suppliers get system generated mail with capability to Update the information into the system directly.
The reply to supplier request status can be monitored.

Enquiry handling
Enquiries are received through phone, email and direct interaction. Another major source is from
website.
The enquiries received are stored into the system and can be tracked to costing, quotation, execution,
supplier handling and feedback.
Enquiries may be generated from B2C market or B2B.
Contact Management
Profiles of people who have been contacted for business (Direct Guest or B2B) can be stored and managed in
the system. In B2B environment even booker information is collected with contact details so that direct
communication with the bookers is easier and the performance of the booker can be evaluated in the B2B
environment.
Costing
Enquiries from the sales and reservation team are submitted to the costing team automatically by the
system.
Docket numbers are created automatically in series by the system
Itineraries are created and set by the destination expert/ costing team.
Costing team can access the contracts stored into it based on the requirement in few clicks.
Search for the best deal in destination from the contracts available directly and through hotel suppliers
Search for online rates as on the costing data of the property and comparing it to contract rate
Costing team can search for similar itinerary previously done and can make a copy of the same and
further modify the same for the current requirement that saves time.
Costing team can quickly refer property information like facilities, no: of rooms per room type and the
key people inside the property with contact details, email address and phone numbers.
The contact information can be quickly used for contacting for ad-hoc rate for property.
Wholesalers contact information and their special negotiated rates given can also be viewed and used
at the time of costing.
While costing, cost of specific requirement and other variation also can be taken and stored, so that if
there is change in occupancy can be instantaneously done.
When it comes to taking the costing from multiple suppliers (multiple properties or even multiple
suppliers for the same property- hotels, direct, wholesales and DMC). Request mail can be generated of
the system and status of the request for costing updated.
The supplier gets email notification of the specific requirement with capabilities to respond on the
requirement by entering specific rates or even sending the contract to the contracting team.
Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com

e-pow ering
t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S

The contracting team gets updated email mentioning the costing updates from the suppliers with
consolidated states and information of other suppliers contracted.
Accommodation costing can be stored as drafted or as finalised
Costing of an accommodation can be taken under multiple categories like Standard, Deluxe, and
Premium for the same destination.
Costing details as like meal plan can be stored along with supplier comments.
Margin specifically on accommodations can also be set.
Further transfers related costing activities and add-ons, flights, dine-outs guides, information with
suppliers details and relevant costing structures can be set and stored.
For group movement, tour guide costing partly or fully may be loaded on to the per-pax costing.
Margins can be set in the overall costing sheet and taxes calculated.
Net selling price with round-off options to any figure can be easily done which will re-calculated the
margins instantaneously.
Suppliers may quote in different currencies and that information is stored in the system in the supplier
quoted currency.
When costing is done the suppliers quoted currency is converted into clients, quote currency as per the
date of costing. This conversion rate is picked dynamically from Forex rate of the day and stored for
future references and mentioned in the quotation to the client.
At time of closure of the deal the update currency conversion can be close by the agency and
differentiated transfer to the client if needed.
The costing/sales team can set also the payment schedule for the quotation amount which will remained
sales/collection team on appropriate rates.
Suppliers pay out can also be stored in the system with dates scheduler, so that the payments to
suppliers are prompted to the accounts team.
Add-ons and other services may be marked as mandatory in the quotation or as optional.
Optional add-ons, add-ons costing are shown separately in the quotation.
Accommodation suggested in the itinerary may be marked as specific or marked as equivalent/similar.
Quotations can be generated from the system as all details as email in company formatted templates of
the brands
Costing detail sheet can also be generated for internal circulation showing buying and selling prices
committed.

Quotation Amendments
Amendments in requirement lead to rework of quotation which can be easily done in the system and
can be mentioned.
Revised quotation sent out can be reviewed for different versions.
Multiple options of itineraries can be offered in a quote in variants of prices
Operations
When a quotation is converted to a deal the status is changed and immediately the vouchers to clients
and hotels are automatically ready in a click.
Amendments that lead to change the deal is closed can also be entered and managed in the system
including payments.
Logs of activities done on the system are maintained.
The Time utilization of the Human resources is also logged in the system.

Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com

e-pow ering
t ravel & hospit alit y

CRS

TE CHNO L O G IE S
Service Delivery
The reports are available which prompt operation team to look into all service planned/delivered for the
current day or for the any day into the future and contact suppliers and keep re-conformation and any
other related information.
Day summary reports are available which gives track of enquiries generated and closure of deals
happening on a day to day basis.
Back-ups security are also managed for the systems
Payment system can be connected to payment gateway for collection of payment.
Supplier Management
Supplier contract and data base can be stored and managed in the system. It helps in managing and
monitorability of payouts to suppliers.
Integrated Accounting
The system offers capabilities to handle entire account of the company till balance sheet. It handles bank
accounts, reconciliation, cash book and ledgers.
Follow up setting and Time Management
The system has facility to mark and manage the followup actions to be done against each deals in the process.
Management Reports
Dashboard allows you to get a glance of the days productivity in one screen.
Integrated Mail Management System
Check Company mails inside the Internal system.
Mail Communications are linked automatically to Enquiries, Buyer and Supplier profiles.
Mail communications can be retrieved from the Buyer and Supplier Profiles.
Mail communications can be retrieved regarding the Enquiry Dockets.
Keep track of All Incoming and Outgoing mails of the company.
Keep track of System Generated Mails sent out from the company.
Auto Segregation of mail by Supplier mails, Client mails, Sub-agent mails, System generated Mails,
promos, Social media mails, etc.
Integrated Payment Gateway
Enables you to send Online Payment Request you Buyers through Email.
Monitor the request Sent to Buyers which helps in follow up of collections.
Payment Mechanism can be connected to Your Online merchant Account ( Federal Bank, ICICI, Citi
bank, HDFC, Axis Bank Etc) or aggregator accounts (like PayPal, Payu, Atoms, CC Avenue etc).
View all payments collected.
Integrated to accounting system which is automatically updated.
Integrated Telephone Interface
This Hardware Interface helps you track all Incoming and Outgoing calls.
When the incoming call rings from a Known Number in the internal system (Like from Direct Guest,
Travel Agent, Supplier), there will be popup on the monitor of the operator showing the incoming caller
and the appropriate details of the caller with relevant current transactions in process.
The Voice call may also be recorded for future references.
The Time utilization of the Human resources is also logged in the system.

Corporate Office: CRS Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., PWRA 10, West Pulikkillam Road, Chembumukku, Kakkanad, Kochi 682030
Tel: +91-484-4069933 email: info@webcrs.com

website : http://www.webcrs.com