Hotel Booking Engine: Expectations vs. Reality

In this generation, the competition in the hotel industry has made software providers roll out booking engines even when they are not yet ready. Some software providers don’t care about their clients after they have started using their booking engine. Because of this, it is very important to do your research before you decide to invest in any booking engine. Herein, we discuss the expectation vs. reality of hotel booking engines. 

Read also: Hotel Booking Software

User-Friendly and Seamless Design

Expectation:

When a guest visits your website, their expectation is usually to use a user-friendly booking engine with a seamless design. When your booking engine is user-friendly your guest will enjoy the booking process. 

Reality:

In the reality, guests stumble upon hotel booking engines that are very difficult to use. The designs look horrible and different from the hotel website. This discourages guests from using your booking engine. Some guests will leave a hotel website immediately when they discover that the booking engine is not user-friendly and with poor looking design. 

Read also: Mobile Friendly Hotel Website

Multi-Language and Multi-Currency

Expectation:

When guests visit your website, they expect your booking engine to recognize their location and offer them to book with their preferred language and also make payment with their local currency. If you do have these features available for your booking engine, then you can attract more international guests.

Reality:

However, some international guests are usually disappointed when they visit a hotel website and they can’t use the booking engine as they can't understand the language. Also, there is a big disappointment when guests can’t pay for their booking using their local currency.  

Read also: Why Online Payment Solution for Hotel is Important

Security

Expectation:

Security is a very big issue in the hotel business. When guests start using your booking engine, they expect their information and payment details to be stored securely. Hackers are always looking for guests' details to steal. So, privacy is a very important matter for hoteliers to take into consideration. 

Reality:

Indeed, guests found out that their payment details are not stored insecurely. Hackers can easily access and steal their details. Even some hotel websites don't have any form of security. 

Mobile Responsive Version

Expectation:

When guests want to book their room on their mobile device, they expect the booking engine to be responsive. It should be able to adjust to the screen of the mobile device. This is because mobile technology is taking over the hotel industry and the majority of the hotel guests now use mobile devices to book their stays.

Reality:

However, in the reality, guests get disappointed when they discover that the booking engine is not responsive. It does not adjust to the screen of the mobile device the guests are using. This discourages direct booking from guests.

To Conclude:

Most times guests are usually disappointed when using a hotel booking engine. They are faced with reality when the hotel booking engines didn’t meet their expectations. Thus, the hotelier needs to make sure they do their homework before investing in any booking engine. There is one tip that you can consider before deciding to invest in a particular booking engine for your hotel is to read reviews. Reviews give you some clue on how the booking engine performs in reality.

Read also: Questions To Ask Before Deciding On A Malaysian Hotel Reservation Software