What is a hotel reservation system?

As a property or hotel manager, how do you ensure that your guests always get rooms to lodge whenever they come in? How do you ensure your staff do their duties as at when due while making sure other administrative duties do not suffer? You will agree that's a lot of work to do manually for a person. Won’t you prefer a system that makes your life easier? A system that does the hard repetitive task while you focus on other important tasks is what you need. Oh! The blessings of a hotel reservation system.

Simply, a hotel reservation system will help you reduce this workload while making you an effective manager. It works by processing the secure online reservation made through your hotel website. The data is then passed onto a backend system where you can access it to manage the bookings.

Thanks to the continuous advancement in technology, hotel managers and owners are beginning to realize that embracing technology is the key to growing their business and increasing their bookings over time.

Therefore, it is only wise to get a reliable hotel reservation system to sell rooms to capacity and appeal to a larger audience. Anyway, what does the hotel reservation system mean and how does it work? Let's find out.

What is a hotel reservation system?

A hotel reservation system is a software application that can be implemented to create secure online reservations for guests. The robustness of the application can be determined by a few factors such as the competence of the developer, the package you signed up for and a few other things. 

However, you can expect a simple hotel reservation system to help you sort online reservations for guests. That is, your hotel guests can book their room way before they enter the premises.

Aside from that, a hotel reservation may also allow you to do other things like distribution of your products and showcase live availability simultaneously to your entire network of online agents wherever they may be.

Why do you need a hotel reservation system?

Regardless of the size of your organization, a hotel reservation system is a must today. Travelers, on an increasing number, are relying on online reservations to book their accommodations everywhere they go. Without a reliable hotel reservation system that does it, you will miss out greatly.

There are several other reasons why you should consider a reservation system. Some of these benefits are discussed

1. Advantage over your competitors

One great benefit of a hotel reservation system is the competitive advantage it gives you. With the reservation system in place, not only will you have access to customers you initially do not have access to, but will also be able to comfortably beat your competitor that does not have the same in place.

2. Eradicate the risk of overbooking rooms

When you don’t have a hotel reservation system in place, you run the risk of overbooking your rooms and leaving your guests upset by your incompetence. In that situation, someone will probably have to manually update the reservations from the different distribution channels. With the complex distribution network common in most hotels, you will have an extremely difficult task at hand.

With a hotel reservation system in place, however, this problem is completely eradicated without hassle.

3. Improves your business’s efficiency

The last thing you want is to have a displeased customer because you can't meet their demand or answer their questions on time. Thankfully, a hotel reservation system will help you update availability immediately upon receiving a reservation. It also helps you save time on administrative tasks. Ultimately, you appear as an efficient business.

4. Allows you to collect data about your guests

The hotel industry has a great need for data. Guests are constantly demanding a more personalized experience and how do you achieve that if you don’t have data about them? And how do you get data if you don’t have a system in place that helps you do just that?

Without a hotel reservation system, it is difficult to know where your guests are coming from, what their interests are, how old they are, if they are traveling solo or with children, and why they are visiting.

The right hotel reservation system will help you collect this data and more to better serve your guests. For instance, if they are traveling with kids, you might want to provide additional beds in their booked rooms before they arrive. You can then use the data in your marketing campaigns to attract the right guest for your hotel brand.

5. Improves the guest experience at your property

When your guests book their preferred room type online, that forms their first impression of your hotel. And right there, you have the chance to wow them before visiting the premises by making the reservation and booking a seamless experience.

So, a hotel reservation system will do more than manage bookings, it will improve the experience of your guests right from the first touch and ultimately have a lasting impact on their perception of your hotel brand.

6. Centralizes hotel management

A hotel reservation system encourages a centralized approach to keep everyone informed about new developments. For instance, housekeeping can update rooms ready for checking in and the front desk can quickly check rooms that have been checked out – all of which make task assignments easy and quick.

How long does it take to implement a new hotel reservation system?

Implementing a hotel reservation system shouldn't take much time once you finalize your expectations with the developer. Some factors that can affect the implementation can include how robust the system will be. If it will also allow you to manage other administrative duties with the basic reservation feature, it might take a little more time than expected.

However, if you reach out to the right developer like BookingNinjas, your hotel reservation system should be done in a day or two. The benefit here is that you will also get the needed support from the team.

Conclusion

The importance of a hotel reservation system cannot be overemphasized. It simplifies a lot of tasks for you. But more predominantly, it helps you better serve the most important stakeholder – your customers.

A hotel reservation system will help you stay ahead of the crowd by taking clients from far and near who are planning to visit your property. The risk of overbooking your hotel rooms is also eradicated when you implement a hotel reservation. This is because the system automatically updates the rooms reservations.

When you have decided to get a reliable hotel reservation system, look no further than BookingNinjas. We have the best system to meet your hotel needs and with full backing from Salesforce. When you sign up, you will be met with a singular, easy-to-use cloud-based hotel reservation system your business can trust