GetThere Enhances Online Booking With Dynamic Messaging Features
Travel technology firm GetThere is taking advantage of previously unused real estate in its corporate online booking tool for enhanced messaging features that can be controlled by travel managers or site administrators.
The online booking tool now can display dynamic messaging—which can deliver information about a particular city, provide travel alerts or key into travel policy—when accessing air, hotel and car information. "It can be customized to the scenario, the situation, the travel program," according to Bev Heinritz, general manager of GetThere.
When a traveler is searching for a flight, the messaging can key into policy by communicating information about preferred carriers on the route or preferred hotels in a specific city. The feature also can notify travelers about efficient modes of transportation, including public transportation.
The feature, which has been in use since May, is free to those travel managers and site administrators with the technical ability to integrate it into their tool. GetThere will program that integration for a fee, Heinritz said. The JavaScript programming also can be enhanced with logos, hyperlinks and images.
Some GetThere corporate clients said they see value in the enhanced messaging features and will consider implementing it in their tool. "If you can pinpoint your messaging on that level, it can be useful," said Michael Hall, global travel manager for Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls.
What may seem like a small technological step still could help buyers communicate policy, especially on specific air routes where there are preferred vendors, said Tom Wilkinson, president of TRW Travel Consulting, based in Pennington, N.J.
"The messaging capabilities of corporate booking sites have always been important because travel managers need better abilities to manage point of sale, and this is the next step in that," Wilkinson said. "From a pure technology standpoint, it doesn't seem like much, but it creates more flexibility and specifically guides travelers where the company wants them to go."