Firsthand feedback still top resource

Firsthand feedback still top resource
By admin


Travel Counsellors have revealed a host of innovative developments to its in-house hotel review system, helping agents choose accommodation based on sales and valued agent and traveller feedback.

The reviews, which sit within the company’s in-house dynamic booking system Phenix, enable the company’s global team of over 1,350 Travel Counsellors to identify the best accommodation for their customers based on firsthand feedback from their colleagues and clients.

As a way of enhancing the content and efficiency of the review system, the company has announced it will now use internal reviews alongside feedback from TrustYou, which analyses, distils and scores accommodation reviews from over 250 websites globally.

Group IT director Paul Speakman said the previous system would give agents a plethora of ‘recommended’ hotels based on previous bookings, which were both limited and time-wasting compared to the new system.

“We now combine a number of factors to calculate an overall ranking for each hotel,” Speakman said.

“This includes sales for the most popular hotels as booked by our agents over the past 12 months and bringing in highly reliable and content rich third party reviews, ultimately presenting agents with three overall property options.”

Travel Counsellors launched its own internal review system in 2012 to provide agents access to honest and impartial feedback when sourcing accommodation for clients.

The system now boasts over 22,000 reviews, covering nearly 10,000 properties, each containing useful information such as fact sheets, videos and ‘best for’ recommendations.

These new developments will improve the content and presentation of reviews, and give an even broader spectrum of feedback with the integration of YouTrust and its 400,000 hotels into the Phenix system.

Australian general manager Tracy Parkinson said the system is a strong tool that gives Travel Counsellors an edge.

“It allows them to tailor-make travel for their customers whilst controlling the margin they make, and we have seen them significantly increase their earnings as well as saving them time and helping them to enhance the overall customer experience,” she said.

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