Selecting the right online hotel booking software is a tough decision. Many choices cater to various business scenarios and for making this process easier for the hoteliers, there must be present some must-have features that every online booking platform must possess:
- Calendar – The online booking form must enable the guests to check the availability of rooms and directly book a room(s) for the desired period. And so, there should be a visual and nice calendar.
- Front Office images and styling – The booking form’s designs should be customizable so that they look similar to a hotel’s website. There should be photos of the hotel rooms and products that will provide customers a clear image of what the hotelier has been proposing. When hoteliers opt for superior quality images then they would turn descriptions more alluring.
- Real-time booking – When hoteliers have a safer online booking form, they can make customers feel secure. After customers pay the deposit amount they must lock in their place with the hotel and then only they become confident in booking their flights.
- Several options of payment – Every person has his preference when the matter comes to paying money for products on the internet. Though some people love to use PayPal, some opt to pay through a bank transfer or credit card. So, when hoteliers broaden their customers’ options they can augment the numbers of online bookings.
- Various currencies and languages – A hotel’s booking system must enable a hotelier to work with various languages. This way, the guests would be able to book right in their preferred currency and language. This should trigger every automated customer communication for functioning in this language.
Some advantages of online hotel reservation systems
It is the goal of every hotel to sell more and more rooms for making a profit but without an effective online hotel reservation system, a hotelier will have to depend on walk-ins and phone calls for making reservations. The online booking platform has become a necessity. Some benefits that an excellent hotel booking system must provide are:
- Online booking platforms work round-the-clock – The online hotel reservation system does its work all the time. And so, probable visitors can book hotel rooms anytime according to their wants. With this system, hoteliers can escalate their sales as they do not remain confined to the working hours only.
- Botheration-free mgmt. of bookings – A hotel reservation system will make the staff of hotels more efficient and they do not remain tied to phones waiting for the calls of guests. Additionally, they would be able to receive bookings 24×7.
- Get improved insights into a business – Commonly, hotel reservation systems are found with different analytics tools as they keep a trail of every reservation besides every related detail. So, the hoteliers get every information they need for understanding their guests better.
- Augment revenues due to upselling – Another important advantage of an online hotel booking system is it can be created, promoted, published easily online. Hoteliers can combine or allow customers to select the package they wish for. It will further augment the revenue that people generate while customers would get what they wish, like booking hotels in Palembang.
