In today’s post we’re going to focus on one of the most overlooked channels in the sales channel mix of most destinations…

 

… its RESELLERS.

 

By resellers, I’m referring to travel agents, tour operators and wholesalers, even the gas station down the road selling lift tickets. Irrespective of the exact marketing mix of your resort, resellers have the potential to play a significant role reaching customers that would otherwise fall through the net.

 

But, despite the importance of this sales channel, it’s often overlooked and held back by underinvestment. Resellers are usually working with out-of-date or unsuitable tools that hinder their ability to fulfill orders and build itineraries. Also, due to a lack of integration with the destinations themselves, resorts are forced to invest costly man hours importing reseller itineraries and processing their sales. So, when we were asked by some of our world-leading, mountain destination partners to develop a booking platform designed specifically for resellers, we knew we were on to a winner.

 

A strong track record
SPOTLIO’s B2C online direct booking platform has long been recognised as an industry gold standard, helping destinations win more direct booking customers and improve conversion rates through a superior customer experience. So, after studying the needs of the resellers, we set about applying all our online booking expertise into developing a powerful solution that would enable resellers to sell more and reduce the number of costly man hours needed to manage the end users booking through the existing channels.

 

Efficiency through Design
We started off by designing a whole new front end that would give resellers the flexibility they need to grow their sales. Now, resellers can manage and control their customers’ reservations with ease, attaching new itineraries to guests without interrupting the whole booking flow. They can also add or remove guests to existing itineraries at any point during the booking process.
With a truly intranet experience resellers will enjoy partnering with your destination and be empowered to work more and more with you and sell more for your destination.

 

Full Control Over Promo Codes
As well as reseller benefits, there are also some major gains for the destinations. One of the pain points we removed was the inability of resorts to effectively control and manage their promo codes. Margins and profits were being eroded through unauthorised sharing and accessing of these discount codes. But now, with SPOTLIO’s B2B Direct Booking Platform, promo codes remain hidden, no longer appearing in the url. By keeping the codes hidden, even from the resellers themselves, destinations stay in full control with only destination personnel having the ability to assign promo codes, authorise access. Destinations can even decide how each individual reseller will be paying.

 

Cost-Saving Bulk Uploader
SPOTLIO’s B2B Direct Booking Platform also provides a cost-saving Bulk Uploader that allows to upload a very large number of itineraries in bulk, onto the destination’s Central Reservation System.
Whether you receive itineraries via excel files, emails or faxes, costly man hours can be saved by removing the need to manually upload each itinerary. The Bulk Uploader allows you to import itineraries with lodings, lift tickets, rentals etc with a simple click and drag.

 

Join the Party
In the first year, working with just two of the major players in mountain destinations, we connected over 270 reseller accounts, and processed more than $16 million dollars of sales through the platform. So why not join the party and give your resellers a place at the table?