February 1, 2024

Why Supply Relationships Matter in the Travel Industry

Sarah Moore

Customers are prioritizing travel in 2024 and they are looking for an abundance of hotel, car, flight and activities at good prices that bring more value to their booking. Robust inventory that delivers the benefits your members are looking for is critical to ensure your travel platform is successful and drives loyalty. Without it, your loyalty program can’t deliver the value today’s customers are looking for.

Brands that partner with Rocket Travel by Agoda are backed by the powerful breadth of supply and strong industry relationships of Booking Holdings, enabling them to deliver compelling value propositions to their customers that drive bookings and engagement throughout the entire travel experience.

Securing price and value for customers

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Today, customers have so many options to plan a trip, but are hungry for all options available to book in one location with added value. Brands working with Rocket Travel by Agoda are achieving this goal, streamlining the travel booking experience and improving customer satisfaction.

The value proposition that motivates audiences can vary significantly among brands. Some customers are motivated by the opportunity to earn loyalty points, while some are motivated by discount pricing. Additionally, certain global audiences are motivated by pay in advance options, where others are motivated by pay upon arrival.

As part of Booking Holdings, we have direct access to the largest network of travel suppliers in the world. This allows us to negotiate specialized rates, obtain higher margin spreads, secure additional ancillary products and deliver better value to the customer. Our partners are leveraging our robust supply relationships and economic strategies to deliver compelling value propositions that respond to the nuances of their unique audience and drive business growth.

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Establishing transparency and trust

A critical element of a good supplier relationship is the ability to identify rates, determine a mutually beneficial margin, and prioritize pricing transparency for the customer.

Brands that work with tech intermediaries risk a poor customer experience because intermediaries take a portion of the established margin, causing brands to compensate by raising their prices. Those costs are passed on to the consumer so they're stuck paying higher prices for fewer rewards - and your entire loyalty program is devalued.

We set the standard by working with our partners and agreeing upon the best reward value for the customer after determining our negotiated supplier rates. We then clearly publish all the information the customer needs so they understand pricing and the value of their purchase early on in the booking process - protecting them from being hit with hidden fees after they’ve reached the point of purchase.

Customer service and value are all major considerations and necessary for the success of a relationship with suppliers and travel consumer brands worldwide. An increase in reward generosity built from trusted relationships and the ability to offer customers more value per booking leads to higher booking conversion, higher average order value, higher repeat rate and higher revenue for our partners.

Want to learn how we can help you take your travel loyalty program to the next level? Get in touch. If you’re a travel supplier interested in working with Rocket Travel by Agoda, a leader in the global travel industry to push your inventory to travelers worldwide, we’d love to have a conversation with you as well.

In-depth consumer journeys drive engagement throughout every phase of the customer lifecycle. A robust suite of transactional emails ensure customers have all the information needed at their fingertips from booking, to check-in, and post-trip. Dynamic cross-sell strategies allow us to drive high attach rates with other travel products offered by our partners, generating incremental bookings and boosting the value of each trip, and abandoned search and welcome series ensures customers understand the value of our partners’ travel platforms and stay loyal to our partners’ brands.

Personalized content leveraged throughout our emails, delivering a unique experience for the consumer. Our personalized email communications ensure each customer has all the information they need throughout their travels, easy ways to contact our customer loyalty team for assistance, and suggest travel destinations based on their personal travel preferences. This adds a level of convenience to the consumer experience and drives engagement with our partners’ brands.

Utilizing AI is quickly becoming a cornerstone of email marketing. Using artificial intelligence allows our marketing teams to quickly drive innovation through A/B experimentation. In testing, we have found it to be very effective at driving results and are developing new ways to leverage this emerging technology as email marketing services continue to expand.

Segmenting audiences based on previous engagement data to deliver new messages to the customer and drive continued engagement with our white label platforms.

Robust reporting enables us to continually optimize the performance of our campaigns, and keep partners informed of success and areas of opportunity at every phase of a partnership.

About the author

Sarah Moore is the head officer for Rocket Travel by Agoda, previously serving as Senior Vice President, Commercial for the team. Before joining Rocket Travel by Agoda, Moore served in leadership roles with both Expedia and Orbitz Worldwide. She’s also a founding member of Chief, a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there.