Open Travel CRM

This morning I’ve been poking around Open Travel CRM. I figured I’d share my initial thoughts.

Open Travel CRM is essentially a back office solution for travel agents. I kinda question the logic of building an elegant software package for the (arguably shrinking) travel agents market, but the software package looks to be very useful. I had to dig pretty hard to figure out what this product does to help travel companies, but I think I’ve got it figured out (**rant** EVERY software company should have a short explanatory video on their site. While I’m ranting, every Adventure Travel company should probably have videos on their site as well. If you need advice on getting video content, contact me**end rant**).

So, how can this product help travel providers? For a fee, travel providers can send offers to those travel agents currently using OpenTravel. Tour operators are required to pay for listings within the system. As of last February, OpenTravel had around 2,000 users. I’d be curious to know what percent of those users are actively using this product every day.

I personally feel like the product is kinda missing the boat here. Wouldn’t they be better off allowing all travel providers to upload realtime inventory for free and then only charge based on actual transactions? As it stands, I don’t think the service offers a ton for travel providers. If you’re a travel agent, I’d definitely take a close look at it. The free version has some valuable tools.

VERDICT: If I were a travel agent I’d probably use this tool. As a tour operator I might wait until they get more agents onboard before paying to list. Nicely designed software that is worth keeping an eye on.

OpenTravel was developed by Travel Sciences Inc. It looks like TSI has some other compelling products that I may discuss in the near future.