Tourico Holidays has announced that it has launched a new Group Bidding Engine, where travel agents and other distributors submit highly-specific group reservation requests and selected hotels have a 24-hour window to bid on them.
p>Tourico Holidays has announced that it has launched a new Group Bidding Engine, where travel agents and other distributors submit highly-specific group reservation requests and selected hotels have a 24-hour window to bid on them.
The new system is completely transparent and also allows travel agents to bundle their hotel selection with group transfers, activities and attractions, making it a one-stop transaction for all group services.
The company's vice president of global activities and groups, Ofir Cohen, said: "The Group Bidding Engine simplifies the reservation process and encourages healthy competition, revolutionising the way group travel is booked by agents and quoted by hotels. Our clients will have the ability to specifically choose all of their desired trip details and then review hotel bids over the next day as they come in at real-time.?
Using the new engine, clients can search for hotels based on destination, the number of rooms desired, the check-in and checkout dates and star ratings. Agents can then filter their results based on location, price range, hotel names and brands, amenities and more. They can then select up to seven specific hotels from which they would like to receive pricing quotes.
Once a client has submitted their specific group request, the automated system notifies the selected hotels and initiates a 24-hour period where they can adjust rates multiple times in order to attract the group business.
Clients can review the quotes in real-time and select a hotel at any point during the 24 hours.
Bookings are finalised and processed on the site after agents have been given the option to add specific transfers, activities and attractions to their reservations.
