At its 2011 Annual Convention, Cruise Holidays briefed franchise owners on a number of completed technology enhancements to make running their businesses an even more efficient and profitable endeavor. Among other things, the enhancements primarily involve CruiseWeb, Cruise Holidays’ front office to back office proprietary system, which is also fully-integrated with Sabre Cruises and Tandem, a new consumer-facing booking engine.

            Most of the CruiseWeb enhancements are geared toward making owners’ or agents’ daily tasks and client marketing more efficient and include upgrades such as Advanced Client Invoicing Variations and continued focus toward gathering the most important client information into the Client Profiles, plus a Gift Module (for managing gifts or shipboard credits within a group). It offers Group Leader Management (including better management of departure reports, Tour Conductor status, and vendor-related expenses or profits), and group reconciliation (involving disbursement of group level funds, details of vendor pricing and activity, and detail of client balances). It has upgraded overall accounting workflow and visibility (including the introduction of a Quick Books-style bank register, making reconciliation of the bank statement a simple task, as well as having full visibility of the current account balance).

            The Cruise Holidays website has also undergone several enhancements, including an upgraded consumer-facing booking engine. There was no downtime on the website as the transition to the new booking engine took place, and franchise owners maintained complete editing capabilities on their sites the entire time.

            The website upgrades further enhance Cruise Holidays’ layered marketing approach. Email marketing is sent to targeted customers on the franchisee’s behalf. If consumers click on the offer within the email, they are taken directly to the franchisee’s own landing page and can complete the booking online. Similarly, all direct mail pieces include an offer code, which, when typed in on the website, directs the user to the franchisee’s landing page for that offer. For more information, call 800-824-1481, email franchiseopportunities@cruiseholidays.com or visit www.joincruiseholidays.com or www.canada.joincruiseholidays.com.