Many lodging providers realize selling packages is smart, as they provide your guest with a better overall experience and add to the profitability of your business. There are two general places to sell your Packages: Packages on your web site or a Portal Build your own custom package with complete control over the rooms, items, pricing, dates, and minimum stay requirements. Example: 'Romance Package' combines a room, flowers, and a bottle of wine, etc… and sell it from your website with a two night minimum, available any day of the week. Example: Midweek Package. Bundle a room, a meal + a spa treatment, etc… and sell as a package to increase midweek bookings. Available Sunday – Thursday only. Packages on the GDS systemsChoose your rooms, rates, dates, and minimum stay requirements, and allow travel agents and large travel portals to add it to their systems to sell as a 'Package'. Example: Business PackagesProvide the GDS systems (travel agents and corporate planners) with a special rate and stay restrictions from Sunday – Thursday for business travelers requiring early breakfast, business office services provided by your staff, and 'turn down' service. A great way to entice mid-week business travel to your inn. Example: Orbitz Package : Provide a Bed, Breakfast, and Spa Package that Orbitz will sell as a composite package to its millions of shoppers. How to Setup a Package The first step is to plan what is desired in the package. Will you simply make a 'Fixed' Package consisting of a marketing 'concept' tied to a Room? Or will you make a 'Dynamic' Package that taps into Rom Rates that vary season by season and add to these 'dynamic rate' changes Items that may be dynamic added as well? What dates will the Package be available on? What minimum stay and maximum stays must be met to purchase the Package? Planning ahead strategically will help when setting up your Packages. Details on Making Packages Example of a Package: Package Image Added Live/Not Live: This is how you can 'turn on/turn off' the Package from being shown anywhere.
- Short Description: The short description that shows on the BookingCenter Booking Engine that entices Guests to look at – and book - the Package. If the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, then do not place HTML in this field as it will be rejected. Maximum 100 characters is recommended for this field.
- Long Description: The long description that shows on the BookingCenter Booking Engine that entices Guests to look at – and book - the Package. If the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, then do not place HTML in this field as it will be rejected. There is no recommendation for how many characters this field will support, but some GDS systems only support a maximum of 100 characters for the length of any description – long or short. For this reason, if the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, keep all relevant text in the first 100 characters.
Example of drop-down list with available Rate Plans Image Added
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