We continuously been talking with existing as well as potential customers and internally too we keep discussing on as varied topics like: what is a great experience to the traveller, what are your needs, your customer needs, what part of daily routine can be automated, what do you love doing day in, day out and so on.

Last few months ( almost 8 months now) we have been building a brand new application for the travel industry. We have been burning the midnight oil so as to say. 00’s of questions crop up, the base being :

“ How can we better? ‘‘

For some days we have been discussing amongst others two important topics:
A) Rooming B) Currencies
There are wide, varied views within the industry and we would want you to share your thoughts around this.

I am sharing the NOTE, you can react on the same ( even opposing views are welcome, but with some justifications )

Rooming

Rooms have different types:

Standard, Deluxe, Super Deluxe, Suite, Maharaja Suite, Sea View, Garden View, etc.

Then each has an occupancy:

Single, Double, Triple, Quadruple ( rare)

Based on size, etc. each room has Max. occupancy

Normally 3-4 or even 2 occasionally

Minimum is always 1 :)

Hence, a room is charged based on room type n occupancy

Single Occupancy

Double Occupancy

Triple occupancy ( 3A or 2A + 1c)

All above 3 cases hotel may charge extra for CNB and Infant.

Further, in the above rates would again differ based on meal type. An infant ( age to be specified ) may not be charged on EP ( European Plan - only room ) or may charge same as Child if on AP or APAI plan

* normally infant is age below 2 but some may specify 3

( In some places like US in an activity a child is upto 16 years whereas in most cases a child is below 12 yrs )

Also, if it’s a Honeymoon couple, I would restrict it to 2 adults .

Mauritius resorts mostly have honeymoon packages some freebies. Many years ago , a customer wanted to book 3 pax ( including one child) in a honeymoon package:)

In an app, front end for a stand alone hotel I would have:

Room 01: Adult +. Child. +

Room 02:

with a restriction I can’t add more than 3 or 4 pax in a room

Currencies

Whether I am a vendor or a travel agent, I would have a base currency in an app, it’s always the country one is based and deal maximum in that currency. It also helps in keeping books of accounts. So, the base currency is the currency of the country where this entity originates.

( very rarely I may be in a country but invoicing only in USD or others but let’s park this for the moment)

As a vendor, I may be in Thailand ( Thb as base currency) and a large part of invoicing can be THB. However, most of my travel agents who give me business come from 15 countries, including say China n India. In this case, my invoicing would largely be USD. Occasionally, I may invoice Indian agents in INR. Some vendors may have bank accounts in different currencies Thb, USD, GBP etc. Hence, they will invoice in multiple currencies. A Dubai vendor may invoice in AED or USD and so on.

Now, coming to a TA: if registered in India, a large part will be in INR. However, he may have clients outside India n may invoice in USD. Whether he has a USD bank account or not, he may invoice in USD or others.

So, in the app, while I add a vendor I should be able to create with multiple currencies and,

a TA can create quotes, vouchers n invoices in multiple currencies.

For the above, taxes may differ so the TA should have an option to choose ( or add) a currency as well as taxes apart from the default base currency.

In India, for outbound tours there’s a 0.5% tcs tax, same not for domestic tours. They should be able to pick n choose accordingly.

So, what are your thoughts, do you have something to contribute on these topics? Please go ahead….

Best,

Narayan
+919158932320
narayan@innowayt.com