How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

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After the Covid-19 pandemic-induced travel restrictions ended, millions took to the skies, determined to make up for the time they lost without a vacation.

This phenomenon, “revenge travel” can be utilized to recover airlines’ losses due to the persistent lockdowns around the world.

People are increasingly traveling in groups to their dream destinations and are more than willing to pay premium rates for a great travel experience.

However, this spike in demand isn’t something airlines are prepared to deal with due to their reliance on legacy group booking software. Manual means of processing group requests can’t keep up with the massive number of requests that are currently flooding help desks. Aside from that, airlines have no way of personalizing offers with dynamic prices and ancillaries, which means a lot of potential revenue is lost.

How an automated group booking solution can help airlines maximize revenue from revenge travelers

1. Instant Quote for All Group Bookings

Airlines usually take 1 to 2 weeks to process, calculate and quote group bookings. The pricing isn’t available instantly and the fare quoted is not fool-proof from revenue leakages or losses. The quote then has to be negotiated manually before finalizing the amount.

When you have a group booking system, the users can get instant quotes via a web portal. The Intelligent AI-based algorithm can generate a quote considering various parameters instantly. The group travelers don’t have to wait for emails, calls, and messages, as every step from making the group request to receiving an optimal quote is automated.

2. Optimal Pricing for Group Bookings

Even if airlines manage to seize all their group booking opportunities, there will always be a question about the pricing strategies airlines use. “Does it maximize revenue?”, “Was the group pricing we quoted profitable?”, “Was the pricing too high/low?”.

The current airline group revenue management system isn’t fully capable of optimizing the pricing strategies for high materialization rates and profitability. But with a solution like GroupRM, which comes with real-time dynamic pricing based on factors, like load factor, competitor fare, etc., airline revenue managers can rest assured that the price they are offering is the best possible one that will lead to a booking.

3. Personalizing Ancillaries for Group Travelers

After Covid-19, airlines understood that they needed to extend their services by offering personalized ancillaries to the relevant groups. In the current group booking system, ancillaries are manual and the travelers have to request seat upgrades, meals and baggage, and insurance details separately in emails or chats or by reaching out to the help desk or sales team. This could be a big inconvenience for group travelers and airlines may not be able to give a smooth booking experience.

To solve this, airlines can use an automated system for recommending ancillaries and allow passengers to add on whatever special purchase they want to make. Because of the impact of the pandemic, many people may be concerned about their health, so you can offer up ancillaries, such as travel insurance, telemedicine, etc., to bolster revenue. Providing such a personalized experience will also go a long way in helping the airline retain customers.

4. Self-Reliant, Fast, and Secure Web Portal

Group travelers will be best served using a secure and easy-to-use web portal for all their requests, booking, ticketing, and post-booking modifications, such as changing itineraries, adding ancillaries, etc. This will save them a lot of time and effort because the usual way of booking group tickets is quite tedious. You can expand your customer base by having a web portal with multiple language/ payment options.

5. Making The Post-Booking Process Effortless

The booking part alone isn’t the final step; airlines need to continue providing all the required support to the group travelers till their departure.

It is quite common to see the groups changing their dates, number of people, and destinations. Many steps are handled manually when it comes to upsizing, downsizing, dividing, and changing itineraries. Airlines doing all this manually will end up causing delays for the passengers and consequently bringing down the productivity of the help desk team.

Airlines can introduce automation into the process by using a solution like GroupRM. It can send out alerts, reminders for payment, name updating, etc., that will help group travelers planning trips post-COVID. Meanwhile, airlines can delight their passengers by letting them make their changes to the itinerary straight from a web portal rather than making them contact the help desk via email or phone.

Conclusion

Airlines have been missing out on the potential 28% rise in group booking revenue. With an automation solution like GroupRM, airlines can replace the inefficient process which results in revenue leakages. You can also personalize the flying experience of travelers looking to shake off the boredom from COVID lockdowns and make them lifelong patrons of the airline.

Breaking The Myths Of Group Booking

Breaking The Myths Of Group Booking

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Breaking the myths of group booking

The recent trend has witnessed the growth of air travel at the rate of 6.2 % globally. Moreover be it business, school or leisure trip, travelers prefer to explore in groups. Group booking provides enormous opportunity for airlines to increase their revenue. Yet most of the airlines are hesitant to bring a reform in managing their group booking. Let’s look at some myths that is preventing airlines to recognize the significance of the group booking.

Groups are low yield

Group booking has always been considered as a way to fill up distressed inventory, but in reality the situation is divergent. On the contrary, airlines can set up multiple pricing strategies for different scenarios with various discounts and markups that will result to higher yield. Also group booking opens up opportunities for airlines to sell more ancillaries that adds up to its revenue. In fact, proper revenue management and demand forecasting helps airlines to generate revenue and grow profitably.

Groups have low retention

Group desk analysts always have a premonition of loosing clients. The reason for such low retention is not the low demands of a group, but unsatisfactory service of airlines. Requesters tend to loose patience and switch over to other vendors when there is long delay in responding to travel requests. Airlines have to upgrade themselves, give the user the option of negotiating for better fares. Quick response and enhanced customer service will make the groups return again and again.

Groups are difficult to serve

The battleground in the airline industry is moving away from the sky to technological cloud, it is an old adage that groups are difficult to serve. When earlier it took two to three days to respond a group request now it can be processed within few seconds. Gone are the days when airlines had to maintain a large group desk, and group desk managers had to closely work with revenue management team to announce a quote. In this technological era, there are endless possibilities of increasing the coordination between the group desk analysts and revenue management team and reducing the inconvenience of serving.

High demand flights don’t need groups

High demand flights will have a higher price range than normal flight. Usually in such flight travelers for whom it is important to fly will be ready to pay a price surge. The load factor of such flight will be less. When we have an opportunity to increase our load factor why not consider group booking as a way to increase the revenue! With analytics it has become all the more easier to predict the demands and quote fares to the group requester.

So why shy away from group booking? These myths have no relevance in todays world, where airlines have started to revamp their former ways of group booking with group revenue management solutions that automates the entire group booking process, making it quick and effective. There will always be excuses behind the mind, but recognizing the opportunity in business at the right time and taking the right step paves the way for success.

3-Tips-for-Exceptional-Group

3 Tips For Exceptional Group Sales Experience That Retains More Passengers

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Airlines have their work cut out as people worldwide make frenzied travel plans to shake off the misery of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. To benefit from the burgeoning demand for group travel, airlines need to digitize and make the entire process of group booking and pricing pain-free. 

This means that the days of customers emailing the sales team, waiting for days on end for a quote as the sales and revenue management team tussle over optimal pricing, and finally getting an unsatisfactory deal need to be over if airlines ever hope to recover from the pandemic. 

Here, we explore how airlines can start treating group sales as a mission-critical aspect of their operations and provide a booking experience that leads to higher revenue and passenger retention. 

Invest in an intelligent group revenue management solution

Over 60% of group booking business goes to airlines that send the quickest quote. With manual group sales processes, airlines usually spend 5-6 days coming up with a quote that is satisfactory for both the sales and revenue management team. 

Consequently, airlines need an end to end, automated booking solution that can generate instant quotes (based on passenger willingness to pay, market demand & competitor pricing) and contracts while also ensuring airline policy compliance in group bookings across all users, including internal sales team, revenue managers, and travel agents. 

Further, look for a solution to automate bookings, approval, and even the ticketing process for group travel requests across every sales channel. 

Notably, the solution should allow bookings and contracts to be managed in one place to facilitate changes to Passenger Name Records (PNRs). 

Ensure a frictionless user experience

Travel agents and other users who depend on your booking solution need to have a seamless experience with it. Airlines can achieve this using a digital booking solution that eliminates the need for manual review of group bookings, delivers real-time alerts related to the booking, automates contract generation, enables easy payment tracking, and allows users to book tickets based on group/ trip type. Real-time, data-driven recommendations to users is another way to enhance their experience and boost revenue through the sale of ancillaries. 

Prioritize relationships

Ensure that your group sales management solution allows you to effectively manage the relationships between stakeholders, such as travel agents, internal sales teams, and revenue managers. 

Crucially, the solution should allow travel agency level rules to be set up and managed, facilitating trust between sales and revenue teams by ensuring that the group pricing aligns with their goals.

Moreover, airlines can foster transparency between revenue management and sales with a solution that allows both teams to manage group pricing and policies from the same location. 

Apart from this, airlines should use a tool that provides real-time price comparisons so that customers don’t cancel contracts. Leveraging a tool that can track metrics, such as individual customers’ conversion and materialization rate, will also go a long way in facilitating a better relationship between the airline and its group passengers. 

Conclusion 

Group sales account for 5-10% of airline revenue, and in some regions, it is even more than that. Given that corporate travel and tourism is making a comeback with relaxed covid restrictions worldwide, it is time for airlines to invest in an intelligent booking and pricing solution that takes away the pain of group bookings. 

The need of the hour is GroupRM. Its automated itinerary building & relationship-building capabilities, intuitive user interface, and intelligent pricing will keep you ahead of the competition. 

Reach us for a demo / consultation. 

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How Automated Group Revenue Management Can Fuel Airline Recovery

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Airlines are increasingly flooded with group booking requests, and there is every reason to believe these valuable revenue-generating opportunities are squandered.

All thanks to legacy systems that include an outdated help desk and an overburdened revenue management team.

The group revenue management process is among the last areas airlines are yet to optimize by leveraging the latest technology, and the results are telling.

Travel is returning to its pre-pandemic highs, but airlines are still struggling to find a footing by differentiating themselves from their competitors with dynamic, transparent group pricing and exceptional customer experience. 

Reinventing group revenue management—the way out of the pandemic and beyond

Taking a group booking request and turning it into a source of revenue growth and customer satisfaction requires that an airline is on point with every aspect of the group booking.

Unfortunately, most airlines are in no position to pull off this feat.  

This reality warrants the reinvention of group revenue management via a next-generation tool powered by AI, GroupRM.  

Here is what GroupRM offers that will make you stand out from all your competitors and enable your airline to generate the best possible amount of revenue from group bookings.

GroupRM benefits for soaring airline revenue

Optimal prices delivered at the earliest and to the right groups

One of the biggest pain points of group booking customers, whether travel agents or retail customers, is the seemingly arbitrary pricing.  

This misunderstanding happens because the flight prices would have changed several times before the airline came up with a quote, many days after the group booking request came in.

Doing away with all this hassle for the customer and airline, GroupRM automatically generates the best possible price for the group instantaneously and sends a quote.

The customer can then negotiate for better group rates with the revenue management team, which would provide the former with a sense of control over the pricing that wouldn’t be possible if the airline came back with random prices after wasting tons of the customer’s time.

Another striking ability of GroupRM is the capacity to identify high yield groups based on historical analysis to deliver the best possible pricing

As a direct result of the automation, the airline is guaranteed better fares, higher group conversion rates, and more revenue.

Unified platform for seamless booking, negotiating, finalizing, and tracking of group requests

Retail customers, travel agents, group desk analysts, corporate travel managers, airline salesforce—wherever the group requests come from—have a single, easy-to-use interface to request a group booking.  

The booking is processed and evaluated by the airline right away, considering the historical buying behavior of the group, load factor, and competitor’s rate.

Through the same platform, customers can negotiate special rates with the airline in a transparent manner.

Supercharge helpdesk productivity

Generating quotes based on current prices, sending reminders for making payments, deciding the best pricing strategy, and checking for policy compliance in the booking are all tasks that can be automated. 

GroupRM takes care of the automation so that the revenue management team can focus on more revenue-generating tasks, such as negotiating and finalizing the best group prices.

Discover new revenue streams and optimize existing ones

Using GroupRM, airlines have the unique opportunity to run sales campaigns for high yield tickets after considering industry standards and competitor pricing.

Owing to the custom offer management capabilities that GroupRM provides, airlines can also optimize revenue by cross-selling ancillaries and providing personalized discounts.

Further, airlines can prevent revenue leakage with consistent reminders to customers for payments and for updating the name lists through the customer’s preferred channel. Notably, the GroupRM tool takes convenience to another level by allowing customers to pay in the mode of choice.

No more friction between sales and revenue management

The GroupRM team conducted a poll of airline sales and revenue professionals, and we got hard evidence for something we’d already sensed was happening; there are huge conflicts regarding group pricing.

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With software like GroupRM, there won’t be any more friction between revenue management and sales; the group policy enforcement is automatic and centralized, meaning both sales and revenue management can rest assured that their pricing policies have been met. 

Since everything is done transparently, any escalation between the customers, sales, and revenue teams can be resolved efficiently. 

Conclusion 

GroupRM has led the way, processing millions of group requests each year that make both the sales and revenue management teams of airlines happy, with fully booked flights of high yield passengers. Further, travel agents throng the airlines implementing our solution, thanks to how they can get the best group booking deals for clients at lightning speed. 

To know how your airline can join the league of high revenue growth airlines that also delight customers, reach us for a GroupRM demo/ consultation with an airline revenue maximization expert.