You love how OTA’s brings your hotel in with more exposure, but you wish you don’t have to pay them a very high commission. Here are a few tips to implement that will help you increase direct bookings in your website without needing to share your revenue with others.

A property management system or in short term, PMS, is a system used by hoteliers to manage day-to-day operations like check-in and check-out the guests, manage all the bookings list coming from several channels in one dashboard, save customer data, track room status, manage availability, reporting and many more. 

Imagine a hotel without PMS, all the day-to-day tasks are being done manually. This will cause overbookings, time wasted, and inefficient operations that lead to an unpleasant customers experience. If you are now without a Hotel PMS and thinking to get one, do check on the Most Important Features of PMS. This will be helpful for you before you decide on which PMS you want to go for.

If you haven't read our article about Hotel PMS, I highly recommend you do so. From there, I believe you will be able to understand what PMS is all about and what are the essential features that Hotel PMS should have. 

A Hotel checklist shows the required items, things to be done, points to be considered, and also can be used as a reminder for different hotel management departments.

Good use of Checklist can help hotels in standardization workflow and help hotel worker use their time more efficiently. In most hotels, the use of checklists in hotels not limited to only housekeeping but also use in the cafeteria, front desk, guest management, and marketing.

Following the recent announcement by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, domestic tourism travel between states placed under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) is now allowed starting from 10th March 2021 with conditions. 

As of 15th March, there are 5.5M individuals in Malaysia who have registered for the Covid-19 vaccine through the MySejahtera app. As we all know, Malaysia launched the very first batch of Covid-19 vaccine on 24th February 2021, and at that time, The Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin was among the Malaysian that received the first shot. By 29th March 2021, Malaysia will complete the vaccine delivery for the first quarter of this year.

The hospitality industry is one of the biggest sectors that was hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic. The government is forced to impose lockdown and travel restrictions, putting the hotel industry in the toughest situation. 

Nevertheless, many hotel businesses are now trying to fight and find solutions so that they can operate the business as usual with the new safety measures and adapt to the new normal so that the guests feel comfortable and safe during their stay.

The limitations to human contact and social distancing are now changing the way hotels check in their guests. Many hotels started to stop the traditional check-in and implement a contactless check-in service instead. 

The outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic have affected the tourism and hotel industry badly. In the mid of February 2021, we conducted a survey of hoteliers with the objective of gaining some insights into how the pandemic is affecting their hotel businesses.

Below is the summary of the survey result on how hoteliers deal with the pandemic. 

Hotel self-service kiosk comes in four varieties - standing kiosk, wall-mounted kiosk, vending kiosk / hybrid kiosk, andtable-top kiosk. Each offers a different space utilization and a different touchpoint at your hotel lobby. It also comes at different price points.

Before going into the price range, if you haven't, read the articles we've compiled covering points that you will need to consider while sourcing your hotel kiosk hardware and hotel kiosk hardware and hotel kiosk software. These articles will serve as a reference point for the pricing table below.

In general, a complete set of hotel self-service kiosk prices ranges from RM 15,000 to RM 70,000 (USD 3,700 to USD 17,000). Do factor in the retaining fees (e.g. software, maintenance) if you are sourcing for a hotel kiosk.

I've blogged about why hotels should consider using a hotel kiosk in my previous blog. In this article, I'm going to talk about hotel kiosk software. Assuming you're able to source for the kiosk hardware on Alibaba, the next item you will need after getting the hardware is the software that runs on it.

What you will need to consider while choosing your hotel kiosk software? First, the compatibility with your kiosk; second, the integration with your hotel PMS. It's hard to find a hotel kiosk software that is fully compatible with both your kiosk hardware and your hotel PMS, that is why most of the kiosk solutions sell in a bundle (both kiosk hardware and kiosk software and very often along with hotel PMS). In this article, we will find out what you will need to know before choosing your kiosk app and also discover what additional features you may want to consider.