Royal Caribbean's New Espresso Reservation System Goes Live

Espresso // Photo by Susan J. Young
Espresso // Photo by Susan J. Young

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s new Espresso reservation system has officially gone live.

The new reservation system allows travel agents to sell cruises from Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Club Cruises and CDF Croisieres de France. Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises have just completed a six-city seminar and online webinar series to train more than 6,000 travel agent partners across the U.S. and Canada to prepare for the transition to the new ESPRESSO reservation system, which Travel Agent got a chance to attend -- you can check out our hands-on here

Travel agents who have not been trained on Espresso can contact their business development managers to schedule a personal session or use the virtual training tool on www.espressocbt.com.

“We are very happy to bring the new Espresso reservation system to our valued travel agent partners,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and service for Royal Caribbean International. “Espresso puts the industry’s best reservation system at travel agents’ fingertips and provides them the freedom to engage their clients wherever they are.”

The new system is also optimized for tablet devices, and the new user interface reduces the number of steps to make a reservation from seven to five, and assembles the most important and frequently used functions up front.

“We created a brand new reservation system that serves the needs of our travel partners, based on what they tell us they need,” said Dondra Ritzenthaler, senior vice president of sales, trade support and services for Celebrity Cruises. “Espresso makes it so easy for travel partners to instantly access the resources and information they need to help their clients make the most informed decision for an unforgettable vacation.”

All inventory is centralized and travel agents can select up to four stateroom categories at once for quick and easy comparison. They also can use the new interactive deck plans, which highlight the best available staterooms and filter specific criteria, such as connecting, closest-to or accessible staterooms, as well as offers the ability to select one or multiple staterooms by simply clicking on them to view their photos, layouts and other details.

Another new feature, Espresso provides side-by-side comparison views of selected itineraries to help travel agents identify the best possible cruise for their clients. Once submitted, the new reservation system’s search engine zeroes in on the best available price and applicable promotional offers to deliver the best vacation options for travel agents to present to their clients. The new reservation also provides a side-by-side view of Groups and individual inventory at point of sale, or ‘Single View.’ Travel agents can use Single View to compare individual pricing against their reserved group space to determine the best value and price for their clients.

The system's new predictive search function can help travel agents find an existing reservation from a single identifier, saving valuable time when servicing a client’s booking. It also can identify past guests and display  recent promotions sent to them, accommodation preferences,  and automatically populates their information  when making a new reservation. If travel agents have any questions, they can get fast support from the Automation Consultants using the integrated “live chat” or “request a call” function.

Espresso replaces CruiseMatch. To assist with the transition to Espresso, travel agents will have access to CruiseMatch until August 3, after which it will be completely discontinued.

Visit www.bookespresso.com