By Stuart Telling
As the travel industry continues to evolve, many companies are reaching a critical turning point: their reservation systems are no longer fit for purpose. Whether due to scalability issues, integration challenges or simply the rising cost of maintaining outdated platforms, the need to migrate to a new reservation system has never been more crucial.
At intuitive, we’ve spent over two decades supporting tour operators, OTAs and wholesalers through this very process. Drawing from our experience in more than 60 successful system migrations, we’ve outlined the core stages and advice for a reservation system migration to help you confidently begin your journey.
Why travel companies are making the switch
A lot of people we speak to are still operating on platforms that were built more than 10 years ago. These systems often:
- Lack the flexibility to adapt to modern booking behaviours
- Make integration with third-party suppliers and payment tools a challenge
- Are expensive to maintain and upgrade
- Prevent innovation and scale
As customers demand faster, more dynamic and more complex booking experiences, your system needs to keep up – or risk falling behind your competitors.
Asking the right questions
Before diving into the migration process, it’s crucial to step back and ask:
- Is our current system holding us back?
- What growth opportunities are we missing?
- What do we need from a new system to support our future plans?
These questions form the foundation of your migration strategy and help ensure that any new technology aligns with your long-term business goals.
The 3 core phases of a successful migration
- Planning:
Start with a clear picture of your business today and your aspirations for tomorrow. Map out strategic goals, identify internal pain points and document your current tech stack. Assign a dedicated project team and sponsor, define a realistic budget, and set milestones. - Evaluation:
Use industry events, recommendations and competitor analysis to identify potential system providers. We recommend aiming for between 3-5 suppliers at this stage. Before going to the market, it is a good idea to create a concise RFP (50–100 key requirements) and label them as must-have, new functionality, or nice-to-have. Then conduct demos, deep-dive workshops and gap analyses to assess fit. - Selection:
Narrow down your list to 1–2 suppliers. Meet the delivery teams, walk through commercial and legal agreements and ensure alignment across methodology, timelines, innovation roadmaps and ongoing support.
5 essentials for a smooth rollout
Once you’ve selected your system, implementation begins – and getting it right is critical. Here are five essentials:
- People: Get the right team in place early, including dedicated project sponsors and owners.
- Data: Identify what needs to be migrated and how to manage in-progress bookings.
- Implementation: Schedule thorough training and avoid go-live during peak season.
- Testing: Simulate real booking scenarios to uncover issues early.
- Communication: Keep all stakeholders informed through regular updates and checkpoints.
Tools to help you get started
To support travel companies starting out on this journey, we’ve developed two free resources:
- A Buyer’s Guide with practical insights into the process
- A Master RFP Template (50–100 key requirements) included in the guide to help you gather and communicate your business requirements effectively to the suppliers
- A recording of our 45-min Webinar – “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦”
These resources are built to support your journey, no matter which system or supplier you decide to go with.
How we can help
At intuitive, our solution iVector, is a fully integrated reservation platform designed for scale, flexibility and connectivity. But we’re more than a technology provider – we bring deep industry expertise, a proven migration methodology and a long-term partnership to the table.
Want to talk more?
If you’re starting to evaluate your options or need help building a business case, we’d be happy to speak. Download our free guides or get in touch to schedule a chat with one of our experts at sales@intuitivesystems.com.
Let’s make your migration journey a success!
