WTM 2017: Inspiretec broadens horizons to hotels and DMCs with full travel tech stack

Integration of Holistic CRM platform with Comtec’s tour operator reservations system, website developer and contact centre technology offers ‘full suite of products’ Continue reading →

Cardiff-based travel technology developer Inspiretec says its expanded suite of products has broadened its potential customer base to include hotels and destination management companies.

At World Travel Market this week the firm exhibited its full range of products for the first time have unified all of its business units under the Inspiretec brand.

The integration of its Holistic CRM platform with the Comtec tour operator reservations system, website developer Sequence and travel and loyalty agent and contact centre technology Incentriq gives it a full suite of products, chief executive Simon Powell said.

“This is the first WTM where we have put the new brand out there. It’s definitely been, from a lead generation point of view, the most successful we have had.

“The quality we have had coming to the stand has been the best that we have seen and overall we are finding what we have done is addressing a real gap that was in the market.

“Linking the reservation system with the workflow, with the ability to empower the agent whether its B2C or B2B with all the information up front is the game changer the industry has been looking for.”

Powell said firms need a “single version of the truth” about the customer that is constantly enhanced with all the interactions they have with the brand.

Inspiretec has signed up its first hotel customer, the Celtic Manor on the outskirts of Cardiff, which will go live early next year.

Powell said it will enable the resort to integrate existing different systems so that it can provide more bespoke packages of product based around customer preferences.

“We are going to help them offer the right types of ancillary selling, so restaurants applicable for families at times suitable for families, or if it’s a couple maybe a spa treatment or golf is applicable.

“It’s about getting the right mix of ancillary product into the booking flow and remarketing and upselling at appropriate times before travel.”

The Holistic CRM enables hotels to understand what customers are interested based on what they’ve browsed before booking and helps them avoid disappointment by booking ahead of their stay, said Powell.

And he said these principals are applicable for all types of travel business and having a full suite of products means Inspiretec can now deploy the right technology for the job.

“Having a full-service stack has, for us, been a game changer,” he said, “it’s changed clients’ perception of what we can offer and existing clients are taking more services off us.

“Upselling to existing clients is fantastic but putting the new solutions out there to hotel resorts and Destination Management Companies has been brilliant.

“We are going to start to target that properly. This was an interesting first step, but we will start to structure the sales and advertising around resort hotels and DMCs.”

Powell added: “Holistic has become a common platform that allows data on the client to be structured in the right way from the point of view of personalisation and marketing.

“That becomes possible irrespective of whether you are a resort hotel, a DMC or a travel agent or tour operator. That’s a standardisation as yet I have not seen within our sector.”