Advantage Travel Centres is poised to begin conversations with suppliers to insist they “make themselves more relevant” to members – and warns the talks could result in some being dropped.
It’s a year since the consortium introduced its new ‘Gateway’ b2b booking system which has now given Advantage far greater visibility and transparency on what’s being booked.
Leisure director Julia Lo Bue-Said explained: “The platform is now being used by 400 members and is allowing us to better understand what they are selling.
It tracks what they are searching for and what they eventually book, the average selling values and durations. So we can see what’s selling well – but also where the gaps are. We can really drill down – it’s giving us some really insightful market intelligence.”
She said a year in, Gateway was now at the point where it would allow Advantage to “negotiate better” with suppliers.
“We are going to talk to different suppliers about what has sold well and what we need more of, what’s missing and what gaps there are in their programmes that we would like filled.
“If operators are not providing the right product for our members to sell, then we will tell them. We’ll give them a chance to change it to suit us, but if they don’t then we may well decide not to work with them anymore. It will become very evident, through this system, which suppliers potentially aren’t right for us.”
Advantage incentivises its members to conduct their business on the Gateway system and wants more and more to switch over from Viewdata.
“Agents don’t want pretty screens and pictures, they want a functional system that works and the right product at the right price to book,” said Lo Bue-Said.