Through the launch of its SNAP program last year, Travel Leaders Network (TLN) is trying to cut through the chaos and remove the burdens associated with booking air for its travel advisor members, encouraging them to become full-service travel agencies.
Just under a year ago, TLN’s parent company, Internova, launched a consumer-grade air, hotel and car booking tool in partnership with Sabre. The white-labeled version of Sabre Red Launchpad was given the name Internova SNAP and it supported NDC offers, low-cost carrier XML content and traditional ATPCO/EDIFACT options, as well as Internova’s Select Hotels & Resorts, Worldwide Hotels & Resorts and Curated Hotels & Resorts programs.
Travel Leaders Network COO Lindsay Pearlman this week said the program has been a huge success, with over 13,000 advisors already registered. In fact, the instructor-led virtual session on SNAP was TLN’s most-attended in 2024. It was also the most-viewed recorded training in the TLN Training Library in 2024.
The success comes from its ease of use. “We wanted to make this almost have a consumer feel to it,” Pearlman said. “Now, it's much more detailed because of what an advisor needs to source, but if you think about it in terms of other technology that's out there, it’s literally just a point-and-click.” He adds: “Think about a B2C end experience with a B2B tool.”
Travel Agent can report that it really is quite intuitive. Just after its launch last year, we were given a preview of the platform and felt we could easily book our own trip—having no previous GDS experience.
SNAP is built into Agent Universe, meaning it requires a single sign-on to access. Advisors can then compare air, hotel and car options side-by-side. Commissions are displayed to the advisor at the time of booking.
While the interface has been a big reason for the platform’s success, so has the lack of risk on the advisor’s part in using it. By using SNAP, no debit memos are incurred from airlines or financial guarantee required. “SNAP was designed as a low-, low-risk product for [advisors],” said Travel Leaders Network president John Lovell. Instead, the network takes on those risks.
Beyond looking to create new revenue streams and drive efficiencies for its members, Pearlman said the need for a program like SNAP came from “the whole NDC chaos” that’s been part of the industry over the last couple years. “There was a lot of onuses that appeared to be falling on the shoulders of the advisor on how to figure out NDC bookings versus GDS content,” he explained. “And that burden was freaking people out—rightfully so.”
Airlines, Pearlman said, have done a “very good job” over the years in scaring advisors away from selling their product. In this new ecosystem of air travel, “it's great for the aggregators out there, the consolidators because … they've removed that pain, they've removed that risk,” added Pearlman. “So, we're doing the same thing.”
The goal was, then, to take that burden off the advisor and place it on technology.
While the program was originally designed specifically for air, Internova thought, according to Pearlman, “Why don't we just roll car and hotel into it, as well, and have a single source?”
By giving its members a platform to comfortably make air bookings, Internova and TLN have also given agencies the chance to become full-service retailers. “Why in God's name would we want a member to say, ‘I booked the cruise or the tour, but then I let them do air and I let them go to Expedia.’?” said Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing officer, Travel Leaders Group. “Imagine that: Letting your customer go to a competitor of yours, Mr. And Mrs. Retailer. But, now, we have a solution where you don't have to do that anymore, to allow them to escape and not do full-service.”
Added Lovell: “We’re just trying to get these people to really provide the end-to-end booking experience for their clients.”
Why is this so important? “If you provide a full-service experience to your customer, the cancellation rate drops by 39 percent,” said Pearlman.
To help members utilize the tool, TLN has hired six field agents to help advisors grow their piece of business within the platforms This essentially doubles the network’s field presence. As no tool, program or platform is mandated by TLN, these field agents work specifically with each member to help them make the most of SNAP based on their unique business model.
Not only was the immediate adaptation of the program a bit shocking, but Pearlman also noted that the types of agencies who began using it were not quite as they expected. Expecting it to be more of a focus among leisure agencies, TLN found that just about every business model was interested in SNAP. Corporate agencies—because they are GDS-native—were not a target audience, but many of these members have leisure departments that don’t use the GDS; these advisors found success with SNAP. Host agencies, too, have been utilizing SNAP to make it available to their ICs.
Next up for SNAP will be the introduction of profiles, air exchanges, hotel and car “Hold” communications, agency booking reports and access to some new airlines.
For agencies not part of Travel Leaders Network, Sabre Red Launchpad is now available to advisors worldwide following its exclusive pilot phase with Internova.
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