Best Hotel Reservations Software

What is Hotel Reservations Software?

Hospitality businesses use hotel reservations software, also known as central reservation systems, or CRS, to manage online bookings and reservations and ensure a smooth transaction process for guests. While most hotel management solutions offer multichannel reservation functionality, not all hospitality businesses have these tools in place. Some might opt to manage other daily hospitality operations with separate tools and use a dedicated reservation system to handle both online and offline bookings. Conversely, most reservation platforms integrate with hotel management or property management software. No matter the size, all hospitality businesses that manage reservations and bookings rely on these tools to keep an updated room inventory and increase guest occupancy. The booking engine ensures guests receive the most updated information about availability and rates, regardless of which sales channel they use to make a reservation.

Key Benefits of Hotel Reservations Software

• Centralize multichannel booking and reservation data within one interface
• Enable online booking and maximize sales
• Maintain real-time room inventory to avoid overbooking and related errors
• Streamline guest registration and cancellation process

Why Use Hotel Reservations Software?

As consumers continue to expect convenience with their purchasing decisions, hospitality businesses need the correct solutions in place to provide a smooth guest experience from reservation to checkout. A dedicated booking engine enables guests to book rooms online, streamlines the checkout process, and reduces the administrative burden on hotel staff when managing reservations. Central reservation systems assist with managing special travel requests, such as group reservations or corporate travel, by processing group rates, assigning group IDs, and handling any on-site venue reservations. These tools allow guests to book at their convenience, whether it’s from the hotel website, a social media site, or a similar third party interface that transmits customer data into the system.

Most hotel management and property management systems offer some level of functionality to handle reservations and bookings, but a dedicated reservation tool is optimized to aggregate booking information from all relevant channels, such as hotel websites, social media, reservation call centers, and travel agencies. They do this either with their own integrated features or with integrated channel management software. By having their own system in place, businesses drive more traffic to their website and avoid paying listing fees to online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Expedia or TripAdvisor, to boost sales. Furthermore, it is imperative in today’s economy to offer an online interface to customers—hotel reservations tools do just that.

Key Business Problems Solved with Hotel Reservations Software

• Allow guests to reserve rooms online at their convenience
• Reduce staff time spent manually tracking room inventory
• Enhance customer service experience from room booking to room checkout
• Manage room rates across a variety of online listings
• Unlock booking trend data to improve marketing and sales strategy

Who Uses Hotel Reservations Software?

Whether they are chains or independently owned, hospitality businesses of all sizes can benefit from hotel reservations software, including: hotels, bed-and-breakfast establishments, inns, lodges, and resorts. Smaller businesses without a robust hotel management solution have much to gain from a dedicated reservation solution, because they can establish an online booking engine to draw a wider customer base. For large scale businesses, a central reservation system becomes essential to manage bookings from a global audience.

The hospitality industry is oversaturated with options, and hoteliers can use these tools to gain a competitive edge over other businesses that may still use outdated paper management systems. These solutions enable businesses with minimal staff to handle large workload volumes that would be overwhelming without software automation. An established booking and reservation system centralizes daily hotel management operations, improving transparency and staff communication.

Front desk staff — Front desk staff rely on hotel reservations software to monitor real-time room availability, and assist guests with checking in and out of rooms. Customer information and related booking data can be accessed from one console, regardless of where the reservation was originally made. These tools also assist with determining the task priority for room maintenance services, such as cleaning newly vacated rooms before the next guests occupy the room.

Marketing teams — Hotel reservations tools unlock data trends that help marketing teams position a business to maximize its occupancy year round. Additionally, businesses can assess which booking channels are underperforming and choose to direct more resources towards securing sales. For smaller businesses that cannot or choose not to pay OTA’s to list on their site, hotel reservations platforms offer website building features that marketers can use to boost direct bookings.

Travel agents — Some tools offer specialized interfaces to help travel agents and related arrangement agencies boost sales. Agents can search for accommodations that meet travelers’ preferences and easily access promotional rates that a hotel may offer.

Hotel Reservations Software Features

Reservation management — The primary function of hotel reservations software is to record reservations and maintain a real-time grid for available and occupied rooms. Typically, this includes a color-coded management system to track occupancy. However, when a guest makes their reservation, the system centralizes this data into one interface for hoteliers to avoid overbooking and related errors. Both guests and staff can make adjustments to these reservations as needed. Some solutions allow businesses to track the original channel source of each reservation.

Rate management — Hotel reservations tools allow guests to apply loyalty points and take advantage of targeted promotions, as well as rates that are specific to certain times of the year. Across all channel listings, room rates can be updated to reflect current pricing.

Guest data management — Reservation systems record all pertinent customer information when bookings are made, including phone numbers, emails, payment preferences, membership status, other preferences, and prior visits. Armed with this information, hospitality businesses can market promotions to specific guests, verify identity for security purposes, contact guests if any issues arise, and ultimately improve the guest experience. This data also helps employees with reporting on monthly booking trends.

Booking engine — These tools enable businesses to accept reservations directly from their website or mobile applications, which are now considered essential functions. Front desk staff can also process in-person reservations. Room availability updates in real time and syncs with other channel listings to ensure accuracy. More robust solutions offer additional website customization features to assist with marketing and to allow discounts and promotions to be applied.

Secure payment processing — Both onsite and online, these tools enable quick credit card processing with regards to payments and refunds. Some also integrate with POS hardware. Credit cards are processed compliantly, and all sales data is securely stored to track revenue and payment histories.

Additional Features

Hourly bookings — Hotel reservation tools sometimes offer specialized reservation listings for hourly bookings, such as in-hotel spa appointments or shorter-term lodging. These function the same way as traditional listings, allowing customers to see real-time availability through the booking engine.

GDS integration — Most reservation systems have the option to integrate with an existing global distribution system (GDS), which massively boosts visibility and sales. A GDS is a network that facilitates transactions between businesses and serves as a main distribution channel. These are predominantly accessed by travel agents looking to book on clients’ behalf, as they offer the most comprehensive view of available listings and prices. Hotels connected to a GDS can manage their listing information, pricing, and inventory from a single touchpoint.

For smaller businesses, GDS access may not be feasible. Hotels typically pay an initial setup fee, as well as transaction fees for each booking on an individual basis. In some cases, agency fees may also be charged. The four major GDS systems that hotels still use nowadays are Worldspan, Amadeus, Galileo, and Sabre. Hotels need to contact a GDS for approval before connecting to the system. These systems are a vital distribution channel, and should be utilized to maximize exposure and revenue.

Trends Related to Hotel Reservations Software

Augmented and virtual reality — Both AR and VR tools can help marketers enhance the booking decision for potential guests. Three-dimensional views of a hotel room, the overall property, and its surrounding businesses and environment might be the crucial factor in driving more sales.

Mobile conversion — Desktop bookings continue to bring in the largest share of revenue for hotels, but mobile devices drive the most traffic to hotel sites. More hospitality businesses are placing greater emphasis on mobile optimization to enhance their website and booking engine so more guests reserve directly from their phones. This includes easy-to-navigate interfaces and features such as payment storage for frequent travelers to save time in making reservations.

Potential Issues with Hotel Reservations Software

Limited customer relationship management — As the hospitality industry continues to focus on enhancing the guest experience, businesses need tools that support strong customer relationships. Smaller businesses in particular must manage their loyalty programs effectively to compete with larger chains. While hotel reservations software store some key customer information, not all systems provide enough functionality to sufficiently manage customer relationships. This leaves businesses ill-equipped to personalize guest interactions, and marketing strategy suffers. Many existing products lack integration with more robust CRM tools.

Data privacy — While web-based booking services are more convenient, hotel websites are often unsecured and leave customer data vulnerable to breaches. Most commonly, confirmation emails for hotel bookings pose the greatest security threat, as hotel chains often lack encryption or secure data hosting. Additionally, consumer data is often shared with third party sites and other advertisers. Hospitality businesses are starting to catch on to cybersecurity trends and are working to become compliant with GDPR, PCI, and other data privacy laws that ensure guest data privacy. Some central reservation systems already comply with these existing laws as well, saving time and effort for businesses.

Software and Services Related to Hotel Reservations Software

Hotel management software — Hotel management solutions help manage all aspects of daily hotel operations, including reservations. These tools manage room inventory and assist with processing all bookings and cancellations. Most hotel reservations tools can integrate with hotel management platforms if the functionality isn’t already present.

Property management software — Much like hotel management tools, property management software is primarily used in the real estate industry to manage commercial properties, such as apartments or condos. These tools also keep an updated listing of available rooms for rent or purchase.

Channel management software — Many hotel reservations tools either offer channel management features or integrate directly with channel management software. These solutions monitor room listings across a variety of booking channels, ensuring that rates and availability are accurate to prevent booking conflicts. They also centralize all booking information from multiple sites into one central interface for easy monitoring.