Internet booking engine

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An Internet booking engine ( IBE for internet booking engine ), more rarely, online booking engine ( OBE for online booking engine ) is a server side usually software for reserving travel services (flights, hotels, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises) via the Internet . Due to the automated search based on specific criteria (route, date, price, etc.), an IBE can be quickly U. create offers that have already been precisely priced and / or vacancy checked. IBE thus form the core of an online travel agency.

Differentiation between B2C and B2B

The majority of bookings are made via websites that are freely accessible by the user via the Internet and generally do not require a login for the booking process, e.g. TeMyra.Consumer from HitchHiker. Since the majority of these are private customers, the term B2C stands for Business to Customer IBE. There is also the B2B for Business to Business IBE. For example, special versions have been developed for use by employees in travel agencies, this is also referred to as Counter IBE (the counter is the counter in the travel agency). Examples of this in Germany are the Amadeus Fare Wizard, TeMyra.Agent, Saber FlightExpress, the Ypsilon.net B2B Agentweb and the BistroPortal from Traveltainment as well as CRUISEA (B2B) from CRUISEHOST Solutions (specializing in cruises). In addition to the clear advantages in terms of search speed and search depth, these offers are also aimed at travel agencies that do not have their own access to a computer reservation system or do not have sufficient knowledge of the often still necessary cryptic entries. The company service travel agencies, which have specialized in the sale of travel services to companies, also use special versions, which include the travel guidelines (including number and costs of flights per employee and year, frequent flyer programs, billing according to cost centers, etc.) in particular Way to consider. An example of this is e-Travel Aergo. All B2B IBE usually have one login-controlled access in common, which makes the booking engine only available to certain customer groups.

Connection to computer reservation systems (CRS)

As a rule, an IBE must be permanently connected to one or more computer reservation systems in order to be able to check prices and vacancies in real time and to make a booking for later processing e.g. B. to be able to do this through a travel agency.

Data storage (caching)

To reduce the query load and costs, the questions asked by the users and the answers to them are kept for a certain period of time; the larger the user group of an IBE per unit of time, the larger and more up-to-date this so-called cache is usually. With the increased occurrence of metasearch engines / price comparisons in the German market since around 2008, the importance of the cache has increased by leaps and bounds, as a user query on a metasearch engine / price comparison in the background usually causes a multiple number of search queries on various IBE and thus in the connected computer reservation systems . In terms of costs, this can only be achieved by answering as high a proportion of these requests as possible from the cache.

Screen scraping

Especially when booking so-called low-cost flights, often only the airline's website is read out in the background ( screen scraping ), as these can often not be booked via the CRS . There have been several recent legal proceedings that have examined the legitimacy of this practice. The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair , which sells almost 100% of its travel services on the Internet, has tried several times through legal channels to prevent third-party IBE from using its website.

Tariff data and calculation

As a rule, tariff data from the CRS or from external databases of consolidators, tour operators or tourism service providers are used. Common formats for the distribution of tariff and vacancy data in Germany are STADAF and STADAF2 (STAndard DAtaset Flight), VFE (VisualFares Entry) and ATPCO. Based on this, there is the possibility of a complex calculation of its own margin for an online travel agency.

Distribution and provider in Germany

In the meantime, almost half of all bookings, especially in the flight sector, are made via an IBE. The proportion is particularly high for less complex products (e.g. intra-European flights). For more complex travel services (fork flights, round trips, stopovers), however, many customers still prefer going to the stationary travel agency. In addition to the in-house developments of online travel agencies, airlines and tour operators, there are a number of multi-client IBE that can be integrated into their website by an online travel agency for a monthly fee (license) or depending on the booking. The largest providers of such “free” IBE in Germany include Partners-Solutions, HitchHiker, InterRes, maxviva technologies and Ypsilon.net in the flight sector, as well as Traffics, LMweb and traveltainment in the package tour sector and CRUISEHOST Solutions in the cruises sector.

Market development

On July 1, 2010, Google officially announced the acquisition of ITA Software for US $ 700 million. According to its own statements, Google wants to improve the online search for flight tariffs and availabilities, using ITA's years of experience and expertise in this area. However, Google is not planning to act as an online travel agency itself and to sell flight tickets itself, but is striving for a more targeted and thus higher quality redirection to the websites of airlines and online travel agencies. This takeover was already hotly debated in the market beforehand, as Google has so far received a significant share of its income from paid search engine marketing (SMM), e.g. B. generated through its Adwords program by placing advertisements for online travel agencies and airlines and they in turn feared that Google would compete with them with their own product.

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