Resco CRS: Central Reservations
Resco CRS can handle complex booking environments of packaged, dynamic, group, allotments and tour reservations. Complex price structures are supported as surcharges and taxes for each trip within a reservation can be defined. Additionally, rules control the payment schedule, cancellations, invoice generation, commission calculations and agency access restrictions. The system covers all aspects of operations, from bookings, reservation modifications, payments, generation of sales invoice and commissions to reconciliation of agency accounts. Data can be exchanged with external systems such as General Ledger and Property Management systems.
Pricing and Yield Management
Sale prices are created using sophisticated price rules. Automated yield management functions based on current inventory, time restrictions, repeater levels etc. can be part of the rules. Additional surcharges and reductions can be defined to handle discounts, tax, commissions etc. Moreover, extensive calculations can be defined based on other surcharges, number of people in a booking, number of days before the trip begins etc. Finally, pricing can be defined globally or separately for each agency with inventory restrictions.
Sales can be defined to be calculated per day or per predefined period (event, cruise etc.). Sale prices can also be calculated based on costs even for items that are in different currencies with automated margin and rounding to e.g. nearest “99″.
Invoicing, Payments and Cancellations
Invoice rules allow the user to define payment terms separately for each agency if required. Terms can be based on trip start date and can be triggered by purchase type, traveler status (e.g. repeater status) as well as others. Outstanding balances and payments due can be checked and acted upon. Delays in payments can even influence the inventory available to an agency. Cancellation rules can also be defined for each agency separately based on different purchase items and other criteria.
Allocations and Allotments
Each agency can be assigned sets of allocated units, and can have them for exclusive use or shared with other independent agencies. Allocation cut-off, outstanding balance and user restrictions can be defined as well, either on a per user or per group basis. The system tracks agency allotments including past performance per individual allotment or average including individual contact history in terms of familiarization trips. Agencies can be ranked in terms of performance, revenue and other criteria.
Bookings
The application allows for day by day (from-to) and event based bookings, fixed predefined period. Pre-packaged, dynamic packages or simply any trip items can be selected during a booking. Bookings can include multiple trips, additional items such as excursions, transfers, flights, predefined dining options, auxiliary items such as flowers. Each item selected to be included in the booking affects the total price of the booking in real-time. Selected units, rooms or cabins are locked during the booking process thus preventing undesired overbooking.
Confirmed bookings or options with expiry dates and inquiries are recorded and can be used to re-trace the booking process. Moreover, booking changes such as the recording of a payment can be defined to automatically change the booking status.
The Resco CRS inventory can be made available to external systems via an XML interface. These include other bookings systems (B2B) as well as other web booking engines that support agency or direct bookings. Regardless of the source of the booking the system can automatically send a booking confirmation by email in addition to printing tickets and invoices. Each generated printout is stored and can be retrieved quickly for future viewing or reprinting.
Travelers and Agents
The system maintains a traveler’s as well as agent’s previous arrangements, correspondence and brochure requests including the booking’s history of changes. It is also designed to detect and consolidate travelers with the same personal details automatically.
Custom dialogs can be defined to record communication with a customer, be it via brochure request, phone call, complaint or special dietary request. All details can be passed directly to the PMS system and used in the CRM module.
Audit and Reporting
All transactions recorded in the system follow general accounting rules, i.e. any financial change in the system voids a previous transaction and creates new postings. This way an audit trial is always maintained and every financial change is recorded, associated with a user and given a date. Additionally non-financial operations are recorded in a log for viewing.
Resco CRS contains a comprehensive list of standard reports which we will modify as per each user’s requirements. Various financial, occupancy statistics, performance and forecast reports are equally available.
Interfaces
Resco CRS is an open product and contains a number of interfaces that allows for the exchange of data with external systems such as:
- Property Management Systems (PMS) – e.g. Resco HMS/SMS
- Global Distribution Systems (GDS) – e.g. Amadeus, Sabre
- Electronic Payment Providers – e.g. PayPal, Cybersource
- General Ledger (GL) systems – e.g. SAP, MYOB, Sage
- Address verification and cleanup providers – e.g. QAS
