Holiday Packages

And here you are finally!!!

I am very glad to be able to announce our “Holiday Packages“, the last WuBook feature. First of all, I’d like to explain the reasons why we have been delaying this kick off and probably troubled a little bit some WuBooker: the Online Reception from now on has a new “Product Manager”: Amber. And of course, Luca suddenly found himself browsing in a completely new galaxy. This way, we have to consider the time to develop and the time to browse, analyze, discover and get familiar to. On the other hand, WuBook has gained  a new manager for the future development of the booking engine and it will be very important for the challenges we have to face to, such as the Mobile and the evolution of the Online Reception itself.

So, let’s go and analyze these Packages. As already mentioned in our Forum, we decided to realize much more than a simple offer, with photos, descriptions and a few more contents. We’d like to offer and develop a new reservation model, which for the rest of this article will be called as “Two Clicks Reservation”, with a clear reference to the 1-Click ordering of Amazon (but differently from it, we had to add a click, becoming 2 clicks, cause customers need to identify themselves and provide garanties).

Packages appear on the Online Reception like special offers do. This way:

Then, once the booking engine has been opened, Packages you set up and offering availability could be choosen and booked. The integration is not very different from the one of Special Offers. On the contrary, it looks like slower  cause packages have an availability system more complicated (we’ll explain details soon). Here you have an image of how it looks after they have been selected:

The real innovation stands on the fact you can export packages on your own website, allowing customers to book them with 2 simple clicks, completely avoiding the classical “preliminaries” (availability search, etc) of common booking engines. Packages will be presented this way, on your own website:

Now, to deeply understand how things work and how to use packages best way, we must enter the packages configuration. A package (mostly) is created by these parameters:

• Bookable room (tipology) for the package
• Night number
• Pricing of the package
• Description and photos
• Commercial conditions (occupancy, mandatory costs, depostis, etc.)
• Activation period

Well, we have two type of Packages: Rigid and Flexible. Rigid Packages have a predetermined check-in date, mandatory. For example: “Book for San Valentin, arriving the 14th, staying one night with romantic dinner and a bottle of red wine”. They are obviously compatibles with the “Two Clicks Reservation” model, cause the customer doen’ have to require the arrival date. One click is enough to determine the stay. The customer is redirected to the last step of the online booking process and he just has to add personal infos and guarantees.

The drawback stands on the inflexibility of this offer on the arrival date. This problem would be totally solved by the Flexible Packages. Their aim is to allow flexible arrival dates and, differently from the rigid ones, the customer has always an “additional clik” (he has to choose the date for the arrival) before buying the offer. The additional clik, is clearly the disadvantage of this formula.

Ok so, let me share some personal consideration about it. You have been waiting long time this new feature on your Online Reception. I am sure lots of you will like it, but are packages so functional? I am really curious about it! We still have dubts. The “Two Clicks Reservation” (it is true) resets the preliminaries, fasting all the online booking process, but, wouldn’t they become cold? Being redirected to a web on which you just ask me for credit card details and personal info without any previous process of confidence could turn into a negative weapons.

As many times happens, Packages have been designed to be flexible. You can setting it up the way you prefer. In my opinion, packages will ive the best result when they are offered directly on your website and when they are rigid. he best situation is, again in my opinion, this:

• To implement a new page on your own website with all the Packages offer
• For each package, create sections with descriptions, images and more
• After the presentation of the package, you can add the Widget; so, the confidence comes from your manual presentation and the clicks reduced into 2
• At this point, you could also decide not to show the packages on the online reception (each package has this option)

With other words, I am suggesting that maybe Packages need to be used like a different tool of the Booking Engine. Do not mix tools. Eventually using them in a dedicated page.

Obviously, these are only my personal ideas and youe experience is that one which has to drive you to find the best solutions and configurations. I’d like to remind you we are listening to your opinion, discussion, complaints, etc. ion our forum.

Enjoy Holiday Packages!!!!