In keeping with the trend of online booking tools embracing the look and feel of leisure booking sites, TRX is showcasing some enhancements and a new user interface for its online booking tool, ResX, at the National Business Travel Association convention this week in Chicago. The enhancements aim to make ResX faster and more streamlined, said Ellen Trotochaud, senior vice president of online technology solutions at BCD Travel, a division of BCD Holdings, the majority shareholder in TRX.
ResX's new interface still is in design and will not be released until sometime this fall, but NBTA exposition attendees can preview such features as an airfare matrix display with more flight options, the ability to alter a traveler's profile during the booking process and more robust hotel mapping and information. ResX also soon will allow users to look at content from multiple sources. "It's one of the things we've been working on quite a bit, though we haven't really started using it yet," said Trotochaud. "TRX has done a good job allowing users to book multi-global distribution system segments, in terms of Web integrations and being able to work with Web bookings. Now they've started to integrate content with some of the non-GDS providers, similar to a G2 SwitchWorks."
TRX began a formal usability study on ResX's new interface in the spring of last year and has spent the last several months gathering requirements and feedback, said Holly Brosam, director of client services for TRX.
Trotochaud said BCD Travel has a handful of clients involved in either the usability studies or individual input meetings. "Certainly my team, who has been working with multiple booking tools on a regular basis, has been very engaged with discussions on requirements and actually getting into helping with design documents," she said.
Initial feedback from customers who have seen screenshots of ResX's enhanced interface have been positive, said Trotochaud, with most comments centering around interest in a more user-friendly look and consumer-oriented shopping experience. "In the corporate online booking arena, it's really an important blend of policy and usability," said Trotochaud. "You really have two audiences: The corporation that really wants their program to work and the end user that's used to a consumer feel to their products."
Gordon Gunther, director of global procurement and travel services at Flextronics International in Singapore, has been using ResX for just under one year and he expects the tool's adoption rate to climb once it is implemented later this year. "It will definitely make ResX a more consumer-friendly tool, similar to the online travel management companies," he said. "Most of the changes are very positive—possibly the only option to add would be online refunds and exchanges, but there are limitations with this and most online booking tools that have this feature are doing it with smoke and mirrors."
Indeed, most of the larger online travel management companies have rolled out enhanced booking tools that feature a more leisure look and feel over the last year. GetThere in March began rolling out to Sabre clients an enhanced air booking interface that boasts a new display matrix and expanded search capabilities that include alternate airports, connecting cities and shopping by reference point. Expedia Corporate Travel in May unveiled a redesigned flight matrix and tools and announced a business intelligence initiative that offers enhanced and integrated reporting and analysis features
(BTNonline, May 8). Travelport—which Cendant recently sold to The Blackstone Group
(see story)—has similar enhancements in the works for its tool that, like TRX, are set to be unveiled at the National Business Travel Association convention in Chicago.
Some online booking tools also are taking the leisure concept a step further, adding features to help travelers plan such activities as restaurant reservations, golf and events during the booking process. Dean Sivley, COO of Travelport, said the company is in talks with a restaurant association to integrate such content as company-specific restaurant promotions and dining club rewards into the booking tool. GetThere offers a similar feature, allowing clients to the option of activating a link on the tool's homepage to OpenTable.com.
"One of the things with corporate tools everybody stayed away from is advertising, so some people may find the offering of restaurants and whatnot as an infringement whereas others find value, so it's got to be an opt-in, but we're definitely headed down that line," Travelport's Sivley told BTN in March
(BTN, March 20). Carlson Wagonlit Travel in several countries already has an icon to it's sister leisure site on it's corporate travel desktop.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Expedia Corporate Travel in May said the company does not have plans to implement such features because it's not something for which Expedia Corporate Travel clients are asking
(BTN, May 15).