PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

BookingBuilder Desktop is incredibly easy to use! You simply install it, configure the suppliers you want it to work with, and it "does it's thing". Very little, if any, training is required. Below is a list of product features and a brief description of each one. Click the Learn More link after each feature for detailed information.

"Basic" Features

• It watches what agents do in their GDS, and unobtrusively takes action at the appropriate times [Learn More]
• Whenever an agent enters an availability request for a city pair similar to those flown by the suppliers in BookingBuilder Desktop, BookingBuilder Desktop slides up a window showing which suppliers fly that route, and the corresponding airports they serve. [Learn More]
• When the agent clicks this window or presses a hotkey, BookingBuilder Desktop shows its Availability Dialog, where the agent can set the return date, enter additional city pairs, and select the suppliers to be accessed. [Learn More]
• With a single click, BookingBuilder Desktop uses its Instant Fare Quote feature to access multiple sites, grab their flights and fares, and display them in a single listing. Through its exclusive Distributed Site Search™ technology, each computer with BookingBuilder Desktop directly accesses the supplier sites, bringing you results significantly faster than any other product. If a site does not allow us to display its information in Instant Fare Quote, the web site can be opened, and the request filled in automatically, with no typing or clicking required. [Learn More]
• Within seconds Instant Fare Quote starts to list flights and fares from multiple web sites. If there is nothing you want to book, but you want to show your customers that you are doing extra work for them, click the "Document" button to update your PNR with the fare quote results. How it documents the results can be fully customized, so it can automatically enter the lines required by your front and back office systems. [Learn More] [Learn More: Custom GDS Entries]
• When there is an itinerary you want to book, highlight it and click the "Book" button. The supplier site is opened, you are logged in, everything is filled in automatically, and you are navigated to the purchase page. [Learn More]
• Click Purchase, and when the site asks for traveler and payment information, BookingBuilder Desktop reads it from a profile, PNR or from Client Base Plus, and fills in the web site. No tedious copying of data required. It can even be configured to read custom data from your profiles and PNRs and copy that to the web site -- data such as cost center codes, agent numbers, etc. [Learn More] [Learn More: Custom GDS Reading]
• When the purchase is complete, BookingBuilder Desktop automatically reads the details and enters them either into your PNR and/or into Client Base Plus. It can create a complete PNR with passive air segments and pricing details, or it can enter non-air segments and remarks. All the entries used to enter the confirmation details are fully customizable, so you can have it enter lines for your accounting system, segment-associated remarks, and even enter different information for different suppliers. [Learn More] [Learn More: Custom GDS Entries]
• All confirmation details are saved until departure, so they can easily be re-entered into the GDS. Certain GDSes, for example, drop pricing records when car and hotel segments are added to the record, so with BookingBuilder Desktop you can easily have it re-enter the pricing record. [Learn More]

Additional Options and Features

• BookingBuilder Desktop automatically recognizes GDS fare searches and allows you to immediately launch Instant Fare Quote to check the same itinerary. It is unobtrusive and doesn't open new windows in front of the agent unless they click the notification window or press a hotkey. [Learn More]
• The agent can initiate the fare search by displaying any existing itinerary and entering "BBD" into the GDS. BookingBuilder Desktop will see this, and will then immediately display the itinerary, read it, and open its Availability Dialog. Nothing could be easier! The agent can also double-click the BB icon to open the Availability Dialog and fill it out manually. [Learn More]
• BookingBuilder Desktop managers corporate site IDs, such as CompanyBlue and SWABIZ. You enter your list of IDs into the BookingBuilder Desktop Configuration Website, and all of your agents will see the list so they can select the appropriate ID to use when opening each web site.
• You can create as many "Groups" of agents as you want, and have separate settings for each group. For example, Leisure might have only certain suppliers enabled and no corporate IDs; Corporate could have other sites and a complete list of corporate IDs; an onsite could have different suppliers and only that company's corporate IDs. You can adjust the options down to the level of an individual desktop or login name.
• BookingBuilder Desktop will recognize traveler and payment information pages and confirmation pages in any open instance of Internet Explorer, whether or not they were launched by BookingBuilder Desktop. This means that if an agent manually opens JetBlue, for example, when the agent reaches the page that asks for the traveler and payment information, BookingBuilder Desktop will offer to fill it in from a profile. This just adds flexibility to how your agents can work.
• When travelers make their own bookings on supplier web sites, you can go to that web site and display the booking details, and BookingBuilder Desktop will read them and offer to create a passive PNR. This makes it easy to ensure that everything makes it into your back office, even when your clients make their own bookings! [Learn More]
• Even if you have not enabled a supplier in BookingBuilder Desktop but an agent goes to that site, BookingBuilder Desktop will still fill in the profile information and capture the confirmation details. This way, if there are carriers where you seldom book on their web sites, when those bookings do occur, BBD will still assist your agents.

Even More

• BookingBuilder Desktop is well-known for its Notification Dialog -- the yellow prompt window that slides up to tell you which suppliers serve a particular market. You can now customize the messages in this window by city pair and date. For example, whenever your agents enter availability from NYC to LAX, you can display "Book YY on this route to get our deal!" And for all availability request to Jacksonville, FL during the first week of February, 2006, display "Ask if the traveler wants Superbowl tickets". Use this feature to ensure that agents sell your preferred suppliers, and to maximize other areas of your business. [Learn More]
• Certain web sites allow additional information, such as cost center codes, to be entered into them. BookingBuilder Desktop can be told how to read this data from your profiles and where to enter it into the web sites. [Learn More]
• Some GDSes do not allow you to store frequent flyer numbers in the normal place for non-participating airlines. BookingBuilder Desktop can be easily configured to read your FF numbers wherever you store them, such as in remarks. [Learn More]
• Depending upon your GDS, you may store email addresses in the remarks or other areas. BookingBuilder Desktop can be easily configured to read your email addresses wherever you store them, and you can create custom character translation tables so it can read your underscores and other non-GDS characters in email addresses. [Learn More]
• GDSes do not have standard places to store the Credit Card Card Verification Value (CVV, also called CVV2, CVC2 or CID). BookingBuilder Desktop can be configured to read this value wherever it may be stored. [Learn More]
• BookingBuilder Desktop can copy profile data into any web site and nearly any other application, such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Even if we haven't programmed a website into the product, you can still copy in profile data! [Learn More]
• We spend a lot of time on the little features. Many web sites require a title, such as Mr. or Ms. with each traveler's name. When BookingBuilder Desktop reads profile information for one of these sites, it has an internal database with thousands of first names and their genders, so in most cases it automatically selects the title ("Mr" or "Ms"). The agents usually don't even realize that this has happened, and just have one less thing to worry about. It's all about making agents' lives easier!

Installation and Updates

• BookingBuilder Desktop is an application that is installed on each computer. With today's security concerns, many companies "lock down" their computers so individual users cannot install software. This can make it difficult to install new applications on many computers, since each computer must be logged in with installation privileges. Our "Run-As" installer allows you to easily configure it to allow your users to self-install BookingBuilder Desktop without logging in with installation privileges and without any reduction in security. [Learn More]
• BookingBuilder Desktop is fully compatible with Citrix and Terminal Services. [Learn More]
• We periodically release updated versions of BookingBuilder Desktop, typically with great new features. BookingBuilder Desktop can automatically download and install these updates, even in a "locked down" environment, without compromising security. [Learn More]
• You can use Ghost or other image utilities to make an image of a computer with BookingBuilder Desktop installed and copy that image to other computers. It is very important that the first time you run BookingBuilder Desktop on the new computers that they have internet access and be logged in with administrator privileges so BookingBuilder Desktop can update one of its registry entries.

Data Security

• At BookingBuilder Technologies we take data security very seriously. At no time does BookingBuilder Desktop ever transmit personally-identifiable traveler information to us. Your data is kept in your office. [Learn More]
• When profile data, including credit card numbers, is copied into a supplier web site, it does not leave your computer until the agent clicks "Submit" on that web site. All of these web sites use SSL to securely transmit this information. BookingBuilder Desktop does not transmit this data off your computer; it just fills in the web browser, which in turn uses state-of-the-art security to transmit that information.