As Travel Leaders Group's Stream prepaid hotel program passes the 10,000 bookings mark, the company is providing its agents with a new fact sheet to help them "debunk" misconceptions about prepaid hotel programs, the company reports.
“We couldn’t be happier that Stream bookings have begun flowing like a river now that our prepaid hotel program is available in each of our business units,” noted Barry Liben, CEO of Travel Leaders Group. “But our ongoing process of educating agents continues as there are a variety of misperceptions their clients may have about booking a prepaid hotel room. We’re proactively arming our agents with just the facts.”
The foremost misconception, Liben said, is that prepaid hotel rooms are nonrefundable.
“The truth is an enormous number of our 70,000 properties worldwide allow a full refund if rooms are cancelled more than 24 hours in advance of check-in – Stream’s ‘Purchase Information’ page provides each property’s individual cancellation policy for easy reference,” Liben said. “And my emphasis on ‘worldwide’ is particularly important, because some erroneously think that participating Stream hotels are all within the United States. The fact is that 26,000 hotels are in Europe and another 8,600 are in Asia, as well as many more from which to choose in the Pacific, Africa and South America.”
Top cities in the program include Las Vegas, New York, London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona.
“There’s also a misconception among clients that using prepaid programs automatically relegates them to the most undesirable rooms within each property,” Liben stated. “In reality, Stream offers a wide selection of room types that can be guaranteed for each client – Stream’s handy ‘Show All Room Types’ enables our agents to see what is available.”
Another misperception that is being overcome is that all rooms are automatically priced for double occupancy; however, clients are actually able to save substantially when booking at a single occupancy rate, the company reports. Likewise, some agents think that all other online agent booking tools at their disposal offer mark-up options similar to that offered by Stream but that is simply not the case. Stream offers an option for agents to “supercharge” their profits further by adding a mark-up that’s opaque to the consumer, as well as the ability to include a service charge for their professional services.
“We’re also making it exceedingly clear that Stream prices are extremely competitive with those found through online travel agencies,” Liben explained. “We benchmarked Stream pricing on a large number of properties worldwide and found our prepaid hotel program offered pricing the same or better than the most frequently used booking channels, be it consumer or agent only. This analysis showed a savings of anywhere from 1.69% to 10.84% when compared to the other booking channels surveyed. No wonder sales through Stream continue flowing well.”
Notable features of Stream include:
• 12 percent guaranteed commission paid the month after the stay is completed;
• Pricing competitive with other agent and consumer booking options;
• Ability to add a service fee and/or opaque markup;
• Robust search/sort parameters to simplify the reservation search process;
• Hotel level photos, maps, and property details;
• Convenient searching by distance to major cruise ports;
• Real-time reporting on demand at agency/agent levels;
• After-hours 24/7 support for agencies/agents and clients on check-in date;
• Ability to set up unique accounts for all agents in the agency.
Travel Leaders Group’s Stream is now available to all of the company’s wholly-owned, franchised and affiliated travel agencies and agents, including Cruise Holidays, Luxury Travel Network, Nexion, Results! Travel, Travel Leaders, Tzell Travel Group and Vacation.com.
Visit www.travelleadersgroup.com