Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. today announced ESPRESSO, a completely new reservation system designed for travel agents selling Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises. Launching in March 2015, ESPRESSO will deliver a faster, more powerful and intuitive reservation system to help the cruise company’s travel agent partners sell more cruises and grow their businesses.
“Royal Caribbean’s relationship with travel agents has always been our number one priority and this is another demonstration of our commitment to making our brands the easiest in the industry to do business with,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales and Trade Support & Service for Royal Caribbean International. “These new tools will deliver an easier and more intuitive booking experience for our valued travel partners. We’re excited to see how this smarter, more dynamic platform will enhance their business results with our brands.”
“The new ESPRESSO will harness the latest technology to deliver the industry’s most advanced booking system,” said Dondra Ritzenthaler, senior vice president of Sales for Celebrity Cruises. “A new simplified, intuitive, and modern user interface reduces the number of clicks to make a reservation – from seven to five – and assembles the most important and frequently used functions up front. All inventory is centralised and travel agents can select up to four stateroom categories at once for quick and easy comparison.”
“We listened to our travel partners and custom designed the new ESPRESSO reservation system based on their feedback to build a powerful tool,” said Ellen Bettridge, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Azamara Club Cruises. “ESPRESSO will allow travel agents to focus more on their clients than on their screens and significantly helps improve the experience when they connect with customers.”
ESPRESSO will provide side-by-side comparison views of selected itineraries to help travel agents identify the best possible cruise for their clients. Once submitted, the new reservation system’s powerful search engine zeroes-in on the best available price and applicable promotional offers to deliver the best cruise options for travel agents to present to their clients.
ESPRESSO will also be able to provide a side-by-side view of Groups and individual inventory at point of sale, or Single View. Travel agents can use Single View to compare individual pricing against their reserved group space to determine the best value and price for their clients. No longer will travel agents need to switch screens between individual and group bookings to query the best deal, freeing up time that could be better used to service their clients and sell more cruises.
The new predictive search function can help travel agents find an existing reservation from a single identifier, saving valuable time when servicing a client’s booking. ESPRESSO will also identify past guests and display a customer’s history, such as recent promotions sent to them, last cruise taken, destination and accommodation preferences, and any other interests that have been shared and automatically populates their information and preferences when making a new reservation.
Furthermore, ESPRESSO is optimised for tablet devices, providing travel agents the freedom to engage their clients wherever they are, at their desks or on-the-go. Interactive deck plans highlight the best available staterooms and filtered selections, like available connecting rooms, closest to and accessible staterooms, and allows the agent to view the best available with the ability to select one or multiple staterooms by simply clicking on them. Stateroom details such as photos and layout are all available in the same place.
Travel agents and partners in Australia and New Zealand will receive updates in the coming weeks regarding training and support for the new ESPRESSO reservation system.
SOURCE Royal Caribbean Cruises