Can I let my customers book flights and hotels separately on my portal instead of forcing them to buy a package?
Yes, you can set up your portal to let customers book individual services like flights, hotels and car rentals without bundling them together. Most booking systems allow you to turn on or off different product types and let each customer choose what they need. Some agencies prefer packages because they are easier to manage and price, but others find that letting customers pick and mix gives them more flexibility and can increase sales because people get exactly what they want.
The way this works depends on which suppliers you connect to your portal. If you work with a flight supplier and a separate hotel supplier, your system can show both on the same booking page so a customer can add a flight to their basket and then add a hotel without any issue. The system will manage these as separate bookings or as one booking with multiple parts, depending on how your portal is set up. Some suppliers bundle their inventory in a way that makes separate bookings harder, so you may need to check what your specific suppliers offer.
Keeping track of separate bookings can create more work for your team because a customer might book a flight with one supplier and a hotel with another, and you need to make sure both confirmations reach them and both are paid on time. Your back office system should be able to link these together so that when you look at one customer's record, you can see all their separate bookings as one trip. This makes it easier to send them all their documents in one place and follow up if something goes wrong.
Ask your portal provider whether your current plan supports mixed bookings and whether your suppliers will allow separate products to be shown together on the same page.
