Information about Central Reservations services for Grand Junction, Colorado.

1. Gateway Reservations
Presented to The Grand Junction Convention and Visitors Bureau
Director of Sales: Barbara Bowman

2. Over the last 25 years, Gateway Reservations has become
a leader in providing a comprehensive, flexible and
scalable reservations solution including:
 A “One-Stop-Shop” travel planning and reservations service
allowing incoming visitors to compare rates, amenities and
availability for lodging and activity options.
 A feature rich, 24/7 online booking engine.
 An optional, professionally-staffed call center service option.
 Fulfill unique “packages” utilizing any participating supplier.
 Other services include:
 Group services, equipment rentals, ground and air transportation,
lift tickets, car/limo/shuttle rentals, spa products, event tickets,
dining and more.

3. Leverage our 25 years of experience and service to help
you make the most of your Central Reservations Service.
Our services include:
 Grand Junction CVB Service and Support:
 On-demand, performance and marketing effectiveness reporting to aid
in marketing efficiency.
 Ability to create on-demand package development and promotion.
 Supplier management:
 Support – Technical support as well as supplier revenue and sales goal
support.

4. The Online Booking Engine
 Online Booking Engine’s (OBE’s) have become a service
standard in the tourism industry. However, not all OBE’s are
the same. A standard OBE may be insufficient to manage the
Grand Junction CVB’s branding, targeting, reporting, and
conversion needs.
 Gateway provides one of the most comprehensive, customized
and scalable online booking engines in the marketplace with
built-in packaging, cross-selling, and up-selling functionality to
go beyond a simple hotel reservation.
 Our OBE is supplier managed meaning the supplier maintains
complete control over their inventory, descriptions, etc. so the
CVB doesn’t have to waste resources managing the supply.

5. The Call Center Option:
 An optional professional, sales-oriented call center service:
 Take call volume and customer management off of CVB
staff’s workload so that they can concentrate on revenue
generating and growth activities.
 Quote and booking follow ups on all itineraries for cross
selling and up selling opportunities.
 Emphasis on closing, up selling, and cross selling during
calls.
 On average, in 2011 more than 62% of revenues were
generated through the call center.
 Call center services, on average, convert more than 45%
higher revenues per itinerary.

6. As a simplified overview, here is how CenRes works:
1. A Supplier loads their rates and availability through their
secure, online account.
2. A guest enters their arrival and departure dates into the online
booking engine or gives them to a call center agent.
3. Any supplier that has availability during the guests dates will show up
along with pictures, rates, descriptions and more comparison tools to
help the guest select the best option.
4. The OBE or call center agent will then give the guest ideas of
complementary options such as activities, packages, etc. to consider
adding to their itinerary.
5. Once the guests itinerary is confirmed, the guest and all individual
suppliers on the itinerary get an instant email and/or fax with all
reservation details.
6. From there, CenRes disperses all fulfillment instructions , tickets, etc.
to the guest as well as any payments due to the supplier.

7. Our CenRes services can help the Grand Junction CVB to:
1. Create a conversion and fulfillment tool.
2. Segment and target the market more effectively.
3. Position the Grand Junction brand.
4. Increase marketing efficiency and effectiveness.
5. Increase tourism related revenues.
6. Decrease overhead and allowing more money to be spent
on marketing and generating demand.
7. Providing tourism partners a tool for incremental growth.
8. Providing potential visitors with a comprehensive
vacation planning service.

8. 1) CenRes as a Conversion Tool:
 Gives the Grand Junction CVB a tool to convert
destination marketing efforts - taking the demand it
generates and converting that demand into
booked, measurable sales.
 Converts visitors during their planning stages.
 Provides convenient “One-Stop-Shop” to streamline
booking for potential visitors.
 Creates a single call to action for marketing efforts.
 Provides itinerary quotes by email so guests can
review, share, and click to book when ready.
 With Call Center Services, all quotes and bookings are
followed up on regularly to increase conversion and
maintain top of mind positioning.

9. 2) CenRes as a Segmentation Tool:
a) Allows the Grand Junction CVB to target and segment its
marketing efforts with unique package offerings.
 Packages allow the CVB to create new “products” to attract desired
customer segments and help position the destination in the
marketplace.
 In CO, over 1.85 Million vacation packages were booked in 2008 – up
over 200% from the year 2000 which was at approx. 830K*
 In 2011, an average of over 65% of all CenRes bookings were packages
b) CenRes can customize and build packages on-demand to suit
the Grand Junction CVB’s marketing efforts quickly and easily.
c) CenRes creates unified package offerings for the Tourism
community.
 Creating consistency when compared to individual, supplier-created
packages which can be hard for visitors to find and inconsistent in
offerings.
*Source: Longwood's Colorado Travel Year 2008 Final Report

10. 3) Helps Grand Junction to position its brand and add to
the accessibility of its offerings.
 Packages can help to reinforce the brand in the mind of the
visitor and relative to its competition.
 For example, if branding a destination as a family friendly
destination, a CenRes can build a package utilizing family friendly
options and use that as a call to action in marketing.
 Creating more experiential vacations also helps guests to make the
most of their vacation while reinforcing the brand image.
 Qualify guests’ needs and to fit the customers expectations and
budget, making the destination more accessible.
 Providing neutral recommendations based on needs and real-time
comparisons of rates, availability and amenities.
 The customer has seamless access to lodging and activity options
in a single place.

11. 4) CenRes as a tool to increase marketing effectiveness:
a) Providing a comprehensive and in-depth reporting tool
including
 On-demand, customizable reporting on performance indicators such as:
 ADR (Average Daily Rate).
 Call volume vs. Internet booking volume.
 With Call Center Services, incoming phone calls are tracked providing valuable
information about marketing effectiveness. In addition, standardized monthly
reporting is provided.
 Revenue comparisons, avg. order revenue, avg. length of stay, top geographical markets, sales by
zip code and much more.
**(See the sample on the following page for Standardized Reporting examples)
b) Enrich and enhance Grand Junction CVB’s Customer
Database and fulfillment requests.
 Guests can opt in or out of marketing communications at the time of sale
and all guest info is provided to the Grand Junction CVB.
 Booked reservations also include visitor preferences and interests
data.
 Guests can also request Grand Junction travel planners for travel planning.

13. 5) Can help to increase tourism related revenues:
a) Software tools (and call center agents) are able to “up and
cross sell” the destinations offerings.
 This keeps the guest in the destination longer, resulting in more
lodging tax, sales tax and supplier revenues for the community.
 Call Center Services are sales driven, so the focus is on increasing
conversions and maximizing every sale.
b) By up and cross selling, CenRes is able to:
 Increase the average length of stay.
 Increase the average $$ spending per stay.
 Increase the frequency of return to the destination.

14. 6) CenRes as a tool to decrease overhead & increase
marketing spending:
a) CenRes is at a very low cost to the Grand Junction CVB
 Allowing it to maximize its budget allocations to activities that
help to generate demand and promote growth for the
destination.
b) With optional Call Center Services, CenRes will facilitate guest
requests for information and increases sales conversion.
 This minimizes administrative time, overhead, and other
expenses by lightening the Grand Junction CVB’s call volume
and requests for information.
c) CenRes facilitates all processes for seamless packaging for the
guest and the supplier – in turn, making packaging easy for the
CVB.

15. 7) CenRes provides an effective tool for suppliers to
incrementally manage yields and increase revenues.
 Incremental growth to complement existing sales efforts.
 A Supplier’s marketing dollar should be spent to drive direct and repeat sales.
CenRes supplements that with new, incremental business.
 Suppliers maintain complete control of their participation and how
their product is presented to the customer including:
Availability Rates Policies
Photos Product Minimum Stay, Advanced
Descriptions Booking and more…
 This levels the playing field for suppliers – Participating Suppliers are
represented randomly, neutrally and fairly which allows those
suppliers with smaller marketing budgets to compete with
larger, more well known options.
 We can help add to a suppliers product mix with the opportunity to
offer their own exclusive “private packages” and online booking
solutions.

16. 8) CenRes provides guests with a comprehensive
planning and booking tool.
 Visitors simply enter their preferred travel dates/preferences and they
are given real-time comparisons and availability pulled from the
inventory that suppliers have provided.
 Online, all search results are displayed in random order.
 With optional Call Center service, agents qualify guest needs and suggest
recommendations based on their specific requests.
 Our optional Call Center service is staffed with Colorado local
professionals that provide unbiased information.
 CenRes can also uniquely facilitate group bookings easily for the
supplier and group coordinator.
 Great value for wedding, family reunion and sporting event planners that
want to coordinate room and activity blocks but allow members to pay
separately. Learn more at GatewayReservations.com/Groups

17. Call or email Kory with any questions or to find out more:
Kory Samson
Sales and Marketing Coordinator
Kory@GatewayReservations.com
800.828.4228 ext. 305