Having the ability to book rooms online is an essential feature hoteliers should have on their websites. This allows guests to book their accommodations in real-time, decreasing the workload for staff members answering phone calls or bookings.
Hotels can offer direct booking perks like room upgrades, extra services, and meal packages that guests need help finding on third-party sites. Here are some of the benefits:
Reduce burden
Online real-time bookings like RetailMeNot are a must for any hotel wanting to survive and thrive in the modern travel world. It’s convenient for your guests, helps to increase profitability through upselling, and reduces the burden on staff that manual reservation tasks can cause.
When guests make an online reservation, they fill out all of the required information, agree to your policies, and pay the deposit, which is automated. This saves your front desk staff a lot of time taking phone or walk-in bookings and processing them manually. This allows your team to spend more time talking with your guests about what matters – like their plans for their trip, where to go for dinner, and what activities they want to do.
Guests who book directly with your hotel also allow you to retain their contact information, which means they are more likely to opt in for marketing communications from you. This can be a great way to upsell room upgrades, meals, and amenities.
In addition, allowing your guests to book directly with you means you can offer the same rates as other online travel sites and meta-search engines. This can help you to compete more effectively with OTAs and increase your market reach.
Hassle-Free
There are 168 hours a week, and it’s not practical for your staff to answer the phone and take bookings all day. An online booking system allows guests to book rooms when convenient without needing to call or visit your hotel. This reduces the workload for your staff and will enable them to focus on other aspects of your business, like upselling.
Travelers constantly search for the best time to buy a ticket or book a room. Whether that means they’re trying to find a deal by booking early or waiting for the ‘Friday specials,’ some websites claim to have always been available. However, it’s important to remember that more than just the timing of a reservation is essential.
Suppose your guests can reserve directly through your website. In that case, it’s more convenient and allows you to save on commission costs by eliminating third-party sites and enabling you to keep all of the booking revenue. You can also upsell your guests with extra services and meal packages, such as breakfast or half board, while making their reservations, which will help them stay longer and spend more at your property. This will improve your profitability. In addition, the ability to manage real-time bookings will allow you to optimize your prices based on the demand of your market.
Access to Rooms Anytime
With an online hotel reservation system, guests can book rooms at their convenience – 24 hours a day. This allows you to offer them a wide range of special offers to boost your revenue. Moreover, the booking process is automated, so you can easily handle more bookings than your staff members can handle by phone or walk-ins.
An online hotel booking system also helps you upsell more services or amenities, such as extra bedding or room service. Your guests can choose their desired option during the booking process, and you can then send them an automatic email to confirm their reservation. Upselling is particularly effective because most travelers are tired after a long flight or road trip and may be more receptive to offers like this.
Another advantage of an online hotel reservation system is that it can help you to improve financial efficiency by eliminating manual processes and reducing expenses on human resources. Moreover, the system can work across different channels to ensure that all methods share real-time availability and pricing information, which is essential in a competitive market. This saves time for your front desk and allows your staff to focus on providing better customer service. It can even allow you to offer flexible check-in and check-out times that cater to busy travelers, such as those with early flights or who are traveling across multiple time zones.
Easy Booking
Guests that make reservations online can input their dates and specifications. They can also choose room types, like king or double beds, and view preferences, and even add extra services to their stay, such as a spa treatment or breakfast. This pressures your staff to upsell customers on these services and allows them to focus their efforts elsewhere.
Using an online booking system that can connect with all your channels allows you to manage real-time room availability, and this information is shared across all channels instantly. This means your guests don’t have to call or email to determine if any rooms are left or how much they will cost. It can also save your staff time and effort since all requests are made online, and the reservation is sent directly to you.
Online booking systems mean your business is open all day and night, giving you a more comprehensive customer reach. You can expect to receive reservations from OTAs, meta-search engines, and your website. If you offer this facility, you can avoid being passed over by potential customers for your competitors who do. This can lead to a loss of revenue and reputation for your hotel. Investing in an online booking system is an intelligent move for your business.
