Hotel Booking Software

What is hotel booking software?

Hotel booking software is a software application where the guest is allowed to create bookings or make reservations online for themselves or on behalf of others. In this article, we summarized the main functions of hotel booking software and talk about other additional features that you should look into when you choose a booking engine for your hotel.

Hotel booking software is not specific to hotel websites only, in fact, it could be installed on other platforms too, such as Facebook and Blogspot.

The main functions of Hotel Booking Software are:

For travelers: 

  • To allow guests to make an online booking and secure the booking with payment 
  • To allow guests to check the room availability for the selected date 
  • To create a better customer experience in reserving their room
  • To notify guests of their booking status via SMS/ Email 

For hotels: -

  • To record the status of the booking and payment 
  • To manage and update the room inventory 
  • To manage and update the price rate
  • To get notified of the booking that has been made online
  • To have the record of a customer database for future reference or can be used for the customer loyalty program

 

A good hotel booking software should have the following features:

  • The easy and simple process required
  • Mobile-friendly (people spend their time with the mobile phone more compared to desktop or computer and most likely they will use the phone for online booking)
  • Flexible payment gateway options. Offer as many payment options as possible such as mobile banking, credit and debit card, e-wallet, manual transfer, etc
  • Comes with a smart promotion code system 
  • Allow guest for the self-service cancellation 
  • Allow customization to suit hotel concept and theme (e.g corporate colors, etc)
  • Offer options to up-sell hotel services (e.g. extra beds, meeting room package, airport transfer, spa, etc)
  • E-commerce tracking capability (e.g. Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and Facebook Ads Tracker). Track and measure user behavior and runs re-marketing campaign and traceable Return on Investment (ROI)

Also read: List of Hotel Booking Engines 

 

Last Minute Booking is On Trending

Last minute travel booking is on the rise and trending, thanks to the technology that makes our life easier. As a hotelier, what can you do with this kind of trend, and how it could benefit your hotel business?

If hotel can make online booking process to the simplest way, for sure you can capture this last minute booking market trend

You may consider reducing the cut-off time. However, you also need to take note of whether your hotel has enough hands to cover all the last-minute bookings without error and no overbooking case?

 

How Last Minute Booking Could Benefit your Hotel Business?

1) Promote last-minute travel offers and deals
  • Promote the offer through social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This may be attractive to locals as well, even though they are not planning any short vacation but with the promotion, they might consider to  
  • Instead of letting the room vacant, why don't use the promotion code system and offer an exclusive deal to generate more business?

2) Increase room's occupancy 

  • With hotel booking software that allows last-minute booking, with the last-minute promotion that the hotel offers, it will help to increase the room occupancy

3) Move from traditional booking to online booking 

  • Booking through a phone call is so manual. Guest name, phone number, check-in date, and other information need to be recorded manually
  • To reduce the manual work, the hotel front desk can encourage the travelers that make the booking through a phone call to try booking via an online platform with a promotional code where they can redeem it online during the checkout process

You're reading a blog compiled by Softinn. We're a hotel-technology company with the mission to make hotelier work easier. Do subscribe if you enjoy reading our blog or you may interact with us on our Facebook Page.

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