We’ve been in the activities business in Hawaii for years, dedicated to finding the best deals for our customers. We used to be called Best Deal Bookings, and you’ve probably seen our button:
The problem was that you weren’t actually booking from what was really available – what’s called “live inventory” – when you booked through an agency or online.
A “best deal” isn’t a deal at all, when it isn’t what you wanted…
How Most Reservation Systems Work
When you book online or through an agency, most of them appear to make you a reservation, they take your money and send you some sort of confirmation.
Your “reservation” then goes via email to an employee who calls the activity booking desk and makes your actual reservation.
Hopefully.
Much of the time this works. But during peak season the popular luaus, snorkeling trips, zip lines, helicopter tours and other attractions are often already booked for days or weeks into the future.
So the agency you booked through determines availability, then calls you and asks you to change your booking date and/or time. If that doesn’t mesh with your travel plans they try to get you to book on the same type of activity with a different venue or vendor.
Because most of them are great sales people, they convince you to accept the changes and make you feel happy that you’ll get to go to any luau, snorkeling trip, zip line or helicopter tour at all during your vacation.
It’s a great business model – for the selling agency. Not so much for the consumer. The agency or website can promise you anything, take your money, and then do their best to find a way to convince you to let them keep the money and accept what they give you in return.
That Bothers Us
To us, when you make a reservation it should be a real reservation, with the activity or attraction YOU want to see, at the time and date that YOU want to do it.
As computerization and the Internet becomes more mature, that can now be done.
What We Do
We’re developing software to interact with the actual, live, available inventory of hundreds of activities, and are plugging in to more of them every day.
So when you see the Live Inventory Bookings (TM) icon on a website you can book with the confidence that you’re seeing what is actually available – the Live Inventory – and our software will only book you for activities that are actually available at the time, date and place that you want.
That’s why we’ve morphed into Live Inventory Bookings. When you see this button on a website you can book with confidence, knowing that they’re making an actual reservation for you – out of live inventory – at the activity you want.
Know, now, that when you book with our agents and affiliates you can book with confidence and your tickets, your seats, your place will be waiting for you from the moment you book.
This is the “Book Now” button you can trust:
This is the Live Inventory Bookings customer service commitment.