New inventory management software powered by live search data has been released by Triometric aimed at addressing the biggest cause of error messages on supplier and travel retailer sites.
Triometric targets inventory errors with live search monitoring
New inventory management software powered by live search data has been released by Triometric aimed at addressing the biggest cause of error messages on supplier and travel retailer sites.
The system instantly alerts website owners to ‘no availability’ messages being generated by customer searches allowing sites to prioritise low spots in their inventory.
Jonathan Boffey, business development manager for Triometric, said no availability messages typically account for around 70% to 80% of error messages.
“There is a big opportunity here to address some of the low hanging fruit. We’re not saying you fix all of it but you will be able to fix a certain percentage by putting the right strategies in place.
“It allows sites to priorities the best revenue opportunities by looking at what are the most popular destinations and hotels and the best revenue earners.”
In a Youtube video promoting the new system Triometric uses a real life example of an unnamed hotel wholesaler.
During a five day period in March it racked up 24 million valid searches resulting in 10,000 bookings with a look to book ratio of 2,400:1.
Of unsuccessful searches six million were ‘no product available’ errors resulting in a potential loss of 2,500 bookings per week.
This was calculated to represent a potential loss in booking value of $1.875 million per week – based on an average selling price of $750 – and $9.75 million in profit per year.
Users of the system are given a dashboard allowing them to drill down into the data to show availability relative to search volumes and the reason for no availability, and the data can be sliced up on an individual hotel basis, by check-in date, length of stay or number of travellers in the group.
Boffey said: “What is interesting about inventory is online travel organisations spend a fortune trying to attract people through the door and the reality is if they do not have the right inventory that have somewhat wasted their time and investment.
“Travel is certainly a focus for us at this point. We have had a very strong response from the hotel side and we are starting to see a lot of interest from the flight side and car rental.
“They all have roughly the same problems. Most people probably have a reasonable idea of what’s happening with bookings but because search volume is so large they cannot really do anything with it.
“The question is can you process all that information and can you process it in real time. Knowing you had a problem yesterday means you are not that responsive. This system operates in real time.
“We are looking at supply and demand as it’s going on. If any destination is picking up because there is a number of events or a big awareness campaign we can pick that up within minutes. We can quickly monitor how the audience is reacting.
“Quite a lot of travel companies simply run blind hoping the phone is not going to ring from one customer to say why are we not getting anything from you, which can often be the first time they know there is an issue.”
Boffey said any issues the system flags up can be quickly acted upon with a report sent to a contracting agent to supply more rooms of a certain type in a certain hotel that people are searching for.
He said it is increasingly important for travel firms to have this sort of insight as their operations become more international as they move into new markets and offshore activities like web development.
