Nowadays, there are a lot of hotel owners who sign up for online booking platforms to optimize their profit. However, it could be very difficult to manage all online booking platforms and update their room inventory in real-time. This is when the channel manager plays an important role to hoteliers.

Are you looking to upgrade your existing hotel channel manager or subscribe to a channel manager for a new property? There are numerous channel managers on the market, and no single provider is ideal for all properties, so it is critical that you conduct your research before making a decision and ensure that you have invested in the right solution that aligns with your objective. In this blog, I will highlight the top 5 Channel Manager providers renowned by the industry and available globally as well as the criteria that you need to consider when choosing a hotel channel manager.

When it comes to choosing the right Hotel PMS system for your hotel it can be overwhelming because there are so many options available in the market. If you are running a 4-star hotel or below, choosing the right Hotel PMS system that meets your hotel requirement and budget is important. 

Traditionally, hotel front desk officers used to manage hotel operations using pen and paper or Microsoft excel files until the emergence of the hotel property management system (PMS). A Hotel PMS is defined as software that hotels use to manage front-office tasks. For example, to create a reservation, handle guests' check-in and check-out, assign a room to the reservation, and arrange for room housekeeping tasks. Hotel PMS, hence, is a replacement for those time-consuming processes which require a lot of manual tasks from hotel front desk officers.

Today, hotel PMS solutions have evolved significantly to provide many benefits to the hotel which are beyond the front-office tasks. It has become a critical software that is important not only to 5-star hotels but also to the 4-star or below.

There are three ways to keep your Airbnb calendar in sync with the Booking.com calendar. In this article, we will talk about the pros and cons of each. The vacation rental industry has become more popular, and it's now even more competitive. If you are the property owner or operator that wanted to grow your Airbnb business, you need to consider getting your property listed on more than one platform other than the Airbnb app. By advertising the property through multiple channels, there is a high possibility to reach more audiences around the world. It gives more opportunities to generate more bookings.

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.

Self-service kiosks were invented in the year 1977 by Murray Lappe, a pre-med student at the University of Illinois. Students and campus visitors used the kiosk to find movies, maps, directories, and bus schedules. Over the years, new innovations like touch screens, the internet, and embedded computing have helped bring kiosks to the mass market. It's now being used in shopping malls as an interactive directory, government offices as a 24/7 counter service, etc. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has fostered the adoption of kiosks in the hospitality business. 

A self-service kiosk system is a digital touch screen application where guests are able to complete the check-in process themselves without relying on hotel front desk staff. With this, the hotel also provides additional options to your guests to check in or out at any time without interacting with hotel staff and it gives more time for your staff to handle other hotel operations tasks. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the adoption of hotel kiosks in the hospitality business. In this article, we listed six hotel kiosk suppliers in Malaysia.

Malaysian are familiar with hotel kiosks thanks to Resort World Genting. Resort World Genting installed the first kiosk in the year 2015. Some hotels in Malaysia have started to make use of kiosk systems. The kiosk helps reduce guest queuing time, and operational costs and now it has another reason - to lower the spread of COVID-19. 

In case you haven't read this article, we have compiled a list of items that you will need to consider before buying a hotel kiosk. We've also covered what you will need to know before you get a hotel kiosk app or software and what other features you should consider getting in the kiosk software here. If you're planning to buy a kiosk, do check out the hotel kiosk price range article.