? VAX VacationAccess April 24, 2012 Enhancements Reference Guide
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Introduction At VAX VacationAccess, we continue to make it easier for agents to research, market and sell leisure vacations. VAX is pleased to announce a series of upgrades to the VAX booking platform aimed at doing just that. These latest enhancements are available as of April 24, 2012: VAX is extremely excited to present a more enhanced appearance of our hotel details pages that can be shared with your customers. Look for a fantastic new resource - the Romance Showcase containing valuable tools and resources to confidently promote and sell romance. VAX continues to seek exciting new vacation suppliers so you can provide more diverse offerings to your customers. VAX has recently added 3 new vacation suppliers to your reservation options and Supplier Showcases. These include Sirenis Hotels and Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the Special Needs Group! Additional enhancements include added alternatives for automating final payments and the ability to view both travel time and layover times in flight itineraries. At VAX, we re staying one step ahead of our customer s demands. This reference guide will communicate all of what s new on VAX VacationAccess and assist your discovery of how VAX can make things simpler, faster and most importantly, help showcase your value to your customers. Please note that the availability of each new enhancement listed may vary by supplier. April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 3 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Vacation Supplier Resources... 5 New Romance Showcase... 5 Additional Vacation Supplier Showcases... 7 Enhanced Hotel Profiles... 8 Hotel Details:... 9 Hotel Details - Interactive Map:... 10 Amenities:... 11 Accommodations:... 12 Dining and Activities:... 13 Share Hotel Profiles With Your Customers:... 14 Automated Final Payment Enhancement... 15 View Travel Times for Flight Itineraries... 16 Conclusion... 17 April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 4 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Vacation Supplier Resources VAX VacationAccess is committed to increasing your productivity and improving your experience with the end goal of delivering functionality and tools to make your vacation research, marketing and selling easier. Part of that goal includes adding more vacation suppliers and opportunities that you can share with your customers. New Romance Showcase The release in April 2012 features a new Romance Showcase that empowers travel agents with valuable resources including the latest promotions and a dedicated media library to help you confidently promote and sell romance. Now you have all the romance tools you need to connect client passion with the perfect romantic getaway - all in one place! Navigate to the Romance Showcase by hovering over the Agent Resources tab and clicking Romance April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 5 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Gain access to important wedding planning requirements for the most popular wedding destinations in the Destination Requirements section of the Romance Showcase: View detailed planning requirements for the most popular wedding destinations April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 6 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Additional Vacation Supplier Showcases New vacation suppliers added to the platform include Sirenis Hotels and Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Special Needs Group! Be sure to check out their Supplier Showcases to learn more about their vacation products. Special Needs Group is the leading global provider for special needs travel around the world. They offer a broad range of special needs equipment for purchase and rental including wheelchairs, scooters and power chairs, oxygen, baby cribs, and more. Recommended by ALL the major cruise lines for superior service and value, Special Needs Group also services guests visiting hotels, resorts, theme parks and convention centers. Sirenis Hotels & Resorts is an international, family-run company with more than 35 years of experience in the hotel business, based on the island of Ibiza (Spain). Sirenis Hotels & Resorts is dynamic and in constant evolution, with new projects for international expansion in the leading tourist destinations. Sirenis Hotels & Resorts offers first class and luxury hotels located on the island of Ibiza (Spain), Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), and Mayan Riviera (Mexico). Caesars Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. The company's resorts operate primarily under the Harrah's, Caesars and Horseshoe brand names. Caesars also owns the World Series of Poker and the London Clubs International family of casinos. April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 7 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Enhanced Hotel Profiles Now VAX provides you with a Best of Class display of hotel details. VAX has enhanced the hotel profile pages to include more consistent display of hotel details across participating vacation suppliers. Key enhancements include: Refreshed appearance Improved imagery Consistent profile design across participating vacation suppliers Room category upsell pricing for all hotel/resort suppliers Room category images bing map view Old Hotel Profile New Hotel Profile April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 8 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Hotel Details: View Hotel Name, Star Rating and Lowest Room Category Price on every page Image captions allow you to quickly select your desired image and/or video Prominent display of Hotel Policies with important information for your customers such as: Check in/out Minimum guest age Minimum check in age Kids Stay Free policy Stay requirements Pet policy General policies Cancellation policies Early departure policies No show policies Hotel information conveniently organized in page tabs View Added Values and Current Promotions organized in one place April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 9 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Hotel Details - Interactive Map: View Hotel location with bing maps in a single click of your mouse View Hotel Policies, Transportation and Property Information at a glance Click the Plus sign to expand the information or the Minus sign to collapse the information April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 10 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Amenities: View a summary of top ranked amenities and other unique services on the Amenities tab View Wedding Services details if offered on the Amenities tab Shop-by-Vacation Experience categories conveniently displayed across all tabs April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 11 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Accommodations: View and select from available room categories for easy upselling in the Accommodations tab Hotel address conveniently displayed across on all tabs Share detailed room category descriptions with your customers April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 12 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Dining and Activities: Share dining options with your customers from the Dining tab Share on and off-site recreation options with your customers from the Activities tab April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 13 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Share Hotel Profiles With Your Customers: Now your customers can see everything you see in hotel profiles. Sharing hotel profiles with your customers is made easy by simply copying the hotel profile URL from your browser window and pasting it in an email. Important: You must copy the hotel profile URL from the Destinations pages to capture the correct URL. URLs captured from hotel profiles viewed from the Reservations page cannot be copied. Step 1: Highlight the hotel profile URL from the Destinations pages in the browser window then right-click and select Copy Step 2: Paste the URL in your email correspondence by right-clicking within your email and selecting Paste April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 14 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Automated Final Payment Enhancement VAX VacationAccess has made enhancements to the automate final payment functionality. Travel agents have the ability to add the final payment after the booking is completed, if the vacation supplier chooses to allow this option. Agents have 3 final payment options from participating suppliers: 1. Schedule your Automatic Final Payment 2. Schedule an Email reminder to manually add the Final Payment 3. Manually Add the Final Payment at a Later Date April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 15 Version Date: April 24, 2012
View Travel Times for Flight Itineraries The display of flights on the flight availability page and within the itinerary summary has been improved to include total travel time and layover time. The Flight Availability page will show the total travel time for each flight leg, when the information is available from the GDS. Travel time is calculated to include the flight time and any applicable layover time per flight leg. The total travel time will also be added to the Itinerary Summary and Email Itinerary pages. View both flight travel time and layover time if applicable April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 16 Version Date: April 24, 2012
Conclusion VAX VacationAccess proactively provides new opportunities to deliver the vacations of your customers dreams by giving you the right tools to research, market and sell customized vacations. This release is another example of how VAX is committed to improving your productivity through evolving technology. April 2012 VAX VacationAccess Page 17 Version Date: April 24, 2012
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