EZ Does It

With Vacation.com’s (Vcom) newest booking engine, EZguider, the Alexandria, Va.-based travel marketing organization wants to help agents become more efficient, get the best prices and make higher commissions more easily than ever before.

It’s a tall order, president and CEO Steve Tracas realizes, but if there’s anything up to the challenge, he said, it’s EZguider.

Vcom members make up nearly one-quarter of all travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

"It’s amazing," Tracas said. "It’s never been built before. It’ll really be a home run as more members start to use it."

EZguider is just one of many tools Vcom provides to more than 5,100 agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada (approximately 1,000 in the Western U.S. alone). As one of the largest of its kind, it occupies a unique position in the industry, negotiating with about 100 preferred travel suppliers for almost a quarter of all agencies in North America.

"Our buying power is significant," said Tracas. "There’s no other organization outside who can educate a network such as ours about [our preferred suppliers’] products."

It wasn’t always so large: Back in 1998, a Boston-based Vcom was one of 10 smaller, regional consortia (GEM/GEM Canada, Cruiselink, SPACE, ACTION 6, TIME, Consolidated Travel Services, Crown Travel Group, The Consortium and AURA) purchased by former ASTA president Dick Knodt and former Amadeus CEO Tony McKinnon’s Travel Associates Network. Its name, with its allusion to technology and the Internet, stuck, and two years later, a nearly 8,000-member-strong Vcom was purchased for $90 million by GDS giant Amadeus.

When still publicly owned, Vcom reported more than $18 billion in annual sales; financial figures are no longer available since it became private.

"This year we’ve had more growth, year over year, in preferred supplier sales than we’ve ever had in our history," Tracas said.

In 2006, Knodt stepped down from his CEO post and Tracas, a former Orbitz Business president and sales and marketing executive at US Airways, American Airlines and Sabre, stepped in.

Ten years later, although Vcom’s membership has decreased by about 38 percent, its size is both an asset and a challenge when it comes to achieving its original mission: keeping agents profitable. To do so, Vcom is evolving its suite of sales tools, marketing services and incentive programs.

"We’ve taken these programs to such a level that never existed 10 years ago, all to benefit the member who could never create these programs on their own," Tracas said.

By banking on its technological savvy, Vcom hopes to revolutionize the industry.

"The timing is right to be building this," said Vcom vice president of marketing, Stephen McGillivray, CTC. "When we built the company, the technology wasn’t there to do something like [EZguider]. Now it is."

EZguider: The Next Big Thing?
EZguider is ground-breaking because it was designed to be a one-stop-shop for searching, quoting, documenting and booking leisure travel.

"[Agents] were telling us that the amount of information they were required to know was overwhelming," Tracas explained. "Going from supplier site to supplier site was terribly inefficient."

EZguider, said Tracas, does all the legwork for agents, even making side-by-side product comparisons by price and by dates.

"That ability to put preferred supplier content on [EZguider] that they can compare and contrast is really what makes that tool unique," said McGillivray.

The new Web-based tool also has the look and feel of an online shopping site with its user-friendly tabs, online shopping basket and emphasis on special deals from preferred suppliers.

Members access the platform through Vcom’s extranet, AgentNet, at no extra cost. Once logged in, agents can search for and book cruises, tours and travel insurance, as well as e-mail quotes directly to clients. Agents can also store bookings and client history in EZguider, allowing agency owners to create reports from operational, statistical and management data. It also exchanges client data with the TRAMS Back Office through ClientBase.

EZguider was officially launched this June at the 10th annual Vcom International Conference and Trade Show after being in development for more than a year. Since then, Vcom has encouraged its agents to adopt EZguider via comprehensive Webinars and other technical support services. Agencies that make 30 to 59 bookings in a quarter are rewarded with a $150 incentive; those that book 60 or more vacations a quarter earn $250.

What Agents Are Saying
Because the product is still in its infancy, it’s hard to say exactly how many members have started using the new tool — and if they’re using it on a daily basis.

Awards night at this year’s Vcom International Conference and Trade Show honored preferred suppliers and member agents.

Right now, EZguider is also limited in its product offerings; agents can add hotels, flights and car rentals that are available as add-ons from tour operators. Vcom expects to add air, car rentals, hotels, rail and other extras in the near future. And, as with any new technology, EZguider hasn’t been without its bugs.

Agents who are using it, however, appreciate EZguider’s accessibility and simplicity.

Heather Christopher, a frontline agent with Lake Ridge, Va.-based Classic Travel, began beta-testing EZguider in March. Her agency joined Vcom in January. Initially, Christopher expressed major doubts about using the new program.

"[In March], I remember specifically saying, ‘There’s no way I’m booking anything on this thing. I don’t trust it,’" Christopher said.

Christopher has since changed her opinion.

"It took us a few months to actually really learn to like it and trust it. But we love it now. … We use it everyday. It’s definitely gotten better over time," she said.

Toby Nash, president and owner of Cruise & Travel Masters in Salt Lake City, has been with Vcom since 1998 and, like Christopher, beta-tested the program.

When asked if Nash was using EZguider regularly, however, she said, "We’re attempting to do it. We have some peculiar things [with it] because we’re more West Coast. With a lot of the West Coast destinations — Baja, the coastal cruises, for example — we [sometimes] have a little bit of a hard time finding those [on EZguider]. For the most part, though, it’s quick, it’s fast and it makes it easy … It’s been good."

According to Christopher, her agency was the only one to make a Vcom incentive goal of 25 bookings between Aug. 1 and 31.

Still, Nash is pleased with EZguider and sees it as a useful way to manage her business.

"As an agency owner, I’m really excited about having all our preferred vendors under one umbrella of a booking engine. Even though my agents are independent and they can book with whomever they want, if I can get them into that booking engine I think we have more control," she said.

Both Christopher and Nash were satisfied with EZguider’s selection of suppliers, too.

Said Nash, "[They’ve] done a good job of narrowing down quality vendors for us to support … companies I feel good about selling."

EZguider, however, remains a work in progress. Christopher cited specific problems with the system, including freezing up; confusing booking confirmation screens; the lack of children’s rates on some tours; the lack of standard two types of cruise insurance; and trouble with general searches.

"We definitely have issues with EZguider, but they have a really great support team at Vcom so they’re really good about getting things fixed," Christopher added.

What Lies Ahead
Technical glitches aside, there are also larger issues that the new platform must contend with, one of which is competition from suppliers themselves.

Christopher said that, when booking a Travel Impressions tour on EZguider, she must re-enter all her client’s information if she wants to change the hotel: "If I went to the Travel Impressions Web site, I could just hit ‘replace hotel’ and it keeps my other data in there."

Travel suppliers’ own booking engines could be a potential source of competition for EZguider.

For the Globus Family of Brands, however, that’s simply not an option.

Steve Born, Globus vice president of marketing, said, "Our job is to be easily accessible where travelers are shopping. … If it’s easier for Vcom agents to have access through our products on EZguider, we’ll invest the time and effort to make sure we’re there."

"[EZguider is] also a positive for suppliers because it allows our agents to book their product electronically and ultimately reduces their cost of distribution," Tracas said. "It’s a win-win for everyone involved."

Globus, in fact, played a major role in helping Vcom develop EZguider’s tour operator system.

"We were in constant contact with them in building it together," Born said. "It’s uncharted territory for a tour operator to build a transactional API [application protocol interface] with an agent organization like this."

Another concern is whether or not EZguider can always offer the most current supplier information available. According to Tracas, each vendor has its own unique API, or "technology bridge" to ensure that everything is valid and up-to-date.

Nash hasn’t noticed any differences between EZguider and other travel supplier sites.

"I haven’t seen any better prices on a vendor site directly than I’ve seen on EZguider. In the past, that was true when it was the cruise lines," she said.

While cruise lines traditionally have more experience with APIs, tour operators have not, making EZguider a trailblazer in this "uncharted territory."

EZguider represents a huge step toward simplifying the often confusing and complicated methods necessary to complete an agent’s most essential task: the booking and selling of travel.

Christopher said, "We love EZguider. We love Vcom. I would highly, highly recommend it to any agency. You just have to put forth the time and effort but it’s worth it."

Focused on the Future
Current (and future) trials aside, EZguider is something Tracas and McGillivray hope will encourage agents to see Vcom in a whole new way.

Looking ahead to the future, Tracas remains optimistic.

"When you launch a desktop seller like EZguider that’s never been introduced in the industry like we have, that in itself is a huge game plan," he said. "Our game plan over the next year or two is to get as much content, as many suppliers, as possible onto EZguider, to train our membership and to display the preferred suppliers in a way that we can influence the sales of our membership. … It will tell our members to sell these preferred suppliers above and beyond any other suppliers. As you increase that, you will increase the growth … preferred supplier growth is built into the EZguider platform."

To watch an online demonstration of how EZguider works, visit www.ezguider.net

Vacation.com's Preferred Suppliers

Here are just a few of the cruise lines, airlines, hotel companies, tour operators and rail lines that share a preferred supplier relationship with Vacation.com.

Airlines
Air New Zealand
Mexicana Airlines
Virgin Atlantic Airways

Cruise Lines
Azamara Cruises
Celebrity Cruises
Crystal Cruises
Cunard Line
Holland America Line
Norwegian Cruise Line
Princess Cruises
Regent Seven Seas Cruises
Royal Caribbean International
Silversea Cruises
Viking River Cruises
Windstar Cruises

Hotels
Marriott International
ResortQuest Hawaii
Starwood Hotels & Resorts International
Villas of Distinction

Rail
Amtrak
London Gray Line
Rail Europe
Rocky Mountaineer Vacations

Tour Operators
Air Jamaica Vacations
Avanti Destinations
Brennan Vacations
CIE Tours International, Inc.
Classic Vacations
General Tours World Traveler
Globus Family of Brands
Happy Vacations
Isram World
Mark Travel Corporation
Pacific Delight Tours
Pleasant Holidays
Travel Bound
Travel Impressions
Viking Tours

Contact

Vacation.com
800-843-0733
www.vacation.com
www.joinvacation.com

Members Only

EZguider isn’t the only product Vacation.com offers to its members. The travel marketing organization also has marketing programs, special cruise vacation packages, training and support programs and technical features to help its agents increase profitability and communicate with their clients.

AgentNet
This online portal serves as a gateway for Vacation.com members to find specific programs and information on any Vacation.com-related products and resources. Through AgentNet, agents can access EZguider, the Amadeus Selling Platform, Consolidator Shopper and Amadeus Cruise. The site also offers a VacationPort section that connects members to a database of industry specials and exclusive preferred supplier offers.

Engagement
Approximately 2,000 member agencies have signed up for Engagement, Vacation.com’s consumer marketing program which operates through direct mail and e-mail to reach members’ clients. The promotional materials range from targeted e-mail blasts to glossy and personalized brochures and magazines.

"All the agent has to provide is the name and address and we append all the intelligence to that record," McGillivray explained. "When we want to [promote] a family cruise, we go in and we pick a household that has all the children and send a brochure with photos of mom and dad and the kids walking on the beach. Our mantra for Engagement is ‘The right offer to the right audience at the right time.’"

A brand-new extension of eEngagement, TripBlip, works to remind consumers about special travel deals and promotions specifically tailored to their travel preferences.

"It’s an alert system that’s not overly intrusive. The consumer downloads it and we push, on the agent’s behalf, different offers," McGillivray explained. "When you download this little Trip Blip, you fill out a little profile. Anytime it dings [on our desktop], it’s for a trip that you talked about in your profile. … It comes to you from your travel agent. It’s our new widget this year."

Field Support Team
Every member agency is assigned to a regional business development manager (BDM) who meets with the agency on a regular basis to discuss new products and services and helps agents increase their profitability.

"One of the things I think we are most proud of is that the main function of our BDM is to go into our member agencies and help them become more profitable. The vast majority of their time is spent developing business with our members," said McGillivray.

Hotel Elite
Vacation.com’s newest hotel program, which debuted at this year’s annual conference in June, assists agents who are booking four- and five-star hotels for clients worldwide. It features contracted space with negotiated rates and higher commissions that range anywhere from 13 to 15 percent.

With Hotel Elite, clients receive free breakfast, upgraded rooms at check-in when available and early and late check-in when available. Agents can book all properties centrally through an exclusive 800 number provided by preferred supplier Travel Bound.

Participating hotels include The Westin Beijing; The InterContinental Berlin; the Grand Elysee in Hamburg, Germany; The Ritz London; The Westin Excelsior in Rome; and the Crowne Plaza Metropolitan Tokyo.

NexCite
NexCite is the technology tool that delivers VacationPort content and helps agents create Web site and e-mail marketing tools. With NexCite Express, agencies can even customize their own Web site that is fully hosted and managed by Passport Online.

Vacation Vignettes
Because the majority of Vacation.com member agents use Vacation.com to sell cruises, the company has developed Vacation Vignettes, exclusive cruise vacation packages, with its preferred cruise suppliers.