Inside Shopper

Allowing agencies direct access to your CRS from the initial availability screen for the most up-to-date rates and availability.  Inside Shopper is our most advanced connectivity option providing agents the confidence to book your brand and produce dramatic booking results.

Inside Shopper, also generically called ‘Next Generation Seamless’, simply interfaces with a hotel’s CRS during the shopping process as well as the selling process.  So, when an agent requests hotel availability in a given area, Inside Shopper participants send Galileo live rates and availability directly from their CRS. 

Since its introduction in 2002 Inside Shopper has become the ‘preferred’ method of connectivity to Galileo with over 118 hotel groups utilizing the new technology.  

Benefits of Inside Shopper Participation:

• The same up-to-the-minute accuracy and room availability for travel agents, online travel providers and corporate clients as offered through your own internal reservation system. 
• Reduced rate and availability maintenance in RoomMaster. With Inside Shopper Bypass, multilevel rate maintenance at the property level is practically eliminated entirely.
• Enhanced effectiveness of your GDS distribution, thus generating more sales.  (e.g. A leading hotel chain that implemented Inside Shopper, realized a 32 percent increase in sales volume during the first month of implementation) 
• No more complaints on inaccurate data on rate and rule information as it comes directly from your CRS!
• 1-2-1 Marketing on Shopping Requests – ability to accept and respond to availability requests specifically from Frequent Guests 

 Why is Inside Shopper producing such dramatic sales results? Simple, straightforward process, without requiring huge investment or time to implement. Agents do NOT have to learn new formats Agencies are moving market share by booking Inside Shopper participating hotels More ‘requests’ are being converted into ‘bookings’ as a result of this enhanced data accuracy (E.g. In January 2003, 34 percent of room requests resulted in bookings, compared with 19 percent in June 2002, prior to Inside Shopper being implemented).

Detailed Hotel Company benefits: 

• True Availability – Inside Shopper provides you with the ability to show “true” availability directly from your CRS when the travel agent is shopping on the initial Hotel Availability (HOA) screen.
• Increased Visibility – Inside Shopper allows you to return properties that meet the agent's criteria even if the rate requested is currently not available or if the property is "sold out." While Inside Shopper will alert the agent/user of these conditions, it will also provide you with the opportunity to market other rates, or in a closed out situation, market other properties through Alternate Availability.
• Reduce Database Maintenance – With the rates and availability being sent from your CRS, only a minimal number of rates will need to stay in RoomMaster. These will be used only for backup in case the link is not responding.
• 1-2-1 Marketing on Shopping Request - Knowing an availability request is coming from one of your valued Frequent Guests, (frequent guest number included with request) allows you to send back availability that is specifically geared to that guest.
• Promotional/Short Duration Rates - RoomMaster users can request special promotional/short duration rates from Inside Shopper participants by using an ID code in the shopping request. The competitiveness of the Hotel Company’s product is enhanced as the shopping request can reflect this promotional rate.

RoomMaster User Benefits:

• Increased credibility of availability and rates on the HOA screen
• Elimination of confusion associated with HOA and HOA data discrepancies
• Enhanced availability display (HOA)
• More efficient hotel search and booking process, resulting in enhanced productivity

A NEW LOOK HOA SCREENS IN SUPPORT OF INSIDE SHOPPER
Please review the attached pdf document in the 'Resources' guide in conjunction with the following descriptions:

SCREEN DISPLAY CHANGES

• Inside Shopper Availability Indicators - Inside Shopper participants will be identified on the HOA screen with an indicator of either A, O, or C. These indicators are defined as:

A = “AVAILABLE” - The property (and rate requested - if applicable) is available in the Hotel Company CRS.
O = “OTHER RATES” - The rate type requested was not available, however, the Hotel Company has “other” rates available.
C = “CLOSED” - The property is not available for the dates requested, but alternate properties are recommended

• Rate Range vs. Rate Value - Rates now appear as a range versus a specific value, improving the credibility of the data. The rate range will reflect only available non-credential rates, unless specific room rate/types have been included in the request. “Non-credential rates” are described as rates for which anyone can qualify. Examples include Rack (RAC), Weekend (WKD), Corporate (COR), Club (CLB), Special (SPL), and Package (PKG).
• Removed Blank Line between properties - allows more properties to appear on each screen.
• Remove Selected Rate/Property Indicators - based upon feedback from travel agents, several inaccurate or misleading indicators have been removed from the HOA screen.  Removed indicators include: Guarantee/Deposit/Hold time, Location Code, Transportation Code ( This data will still appear in the appropriate Hotel Rules (HOV) and Hotel Description (HOD) displays)
• Inside Availability HOC Changes - The HOC screen will allow a fourth line of text in the room/rate description for identification of special rates, promotions, or program offerings when a Frequent Guest number or Promotional rate was requested using the FG/ID fields, respectively

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

The following are prerequisites to participation in Inside Shopper:

• Inside Availability is a prerequisite to participation
• CRS Validation Requirements – It is critical that your CRS is able to validate rate related search qualifiers on an HOA Request and return the applicable rates and indicators as appropriate
•  While the RoomMaster® database will be interrogated to identify the properties that best match the availability request, without concern for availability of requested rate data - validating search criteria such as distance, transportation, property features/amenities, chain code, and  Point of Sale rules, the CRS will then be expected to validate the rate/room type requests and respond appropriately

For more detailed information on Inside Shopper contact your local hotel relationship manager.

For hotel clients wanting additional training and support on this product visit our dedicated client website.