It is now beyond doubt that the Internet has become a new marketplace. It serves hotels as a parallel marketplace for the sale of rooms and opens many new and different channels of distribution. At the top of the list among these channels should be the hotel owned website, where inventory may be sold a controlled price and without commission being paid. What follows is an on-line reservations tutorial for hotels. It identifies and examines all issues pertinent to on-line reservations and can be read in whole or in selected parts as needed. It is an overriding aim of this tutorial to be unbiased about different systems and not to simply pitch the Resmac system. We hope that this is evident.
The tutorial is designed for hotels to take marketing and reservation staff step-by-step through every decision and question we can think of from evaluating the need for a reservations system to picking out the correct one and then implementing and operating it. It assumes at all stages only a basic level of understanding and allows topics to be easily skipped if you deem them not relevant. The tutorial is structured in 5 parts:-
- Evaluating the need for an On-line Reservations system
- Choosing the right system for your hotels' needs and future plans
- Implementing and using the system
- The Hotel Website
- Web Strategy for the future
The issues to be examined in answering this question are
- Hotel Size (Number of rooms)
The larger the number of rooms at any hotel the more work and energy is required on the sales and marketing front to fill them. Therefore opening as many useful channels of distribution as possible is desirable. Your website is just that - a channel of distribution, the usefulness of which is almost solely determined by the amount of traffic you attract to it.
There is not much point in offering a state of the art on-line reservations system on a website with no traffic. Techniques for increasing traffic volume to your website are many and varied and are discussed in more detail here.
- Grade of Hotel
Contrary to popular belief the grade or star rating of your hotel is in no way relevant to the need for an on-line reservations system. On-line reservations are sought by customers with varying budgets.
- Occupancy Rates
Your on-line reservations system like any other channel of distribution takes some time to maintain. Although with a good On-line reservations system this time is considerably less you must nonetheless apply the LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS to all such channels. For Example if my hotel has 100 rooms and a year round average occupancy rate of >95% then on average I have 5 rooms unoccupied per night. Maintaining these rooms on all channels could prove difficult with an obvious risk of double bookings. Some would argue that such a hotel do not need to open another channel with an On-line Reservations system but in truth the greater the number of overall bookings taken on commission free channels the better.
It must also be taken into account that in the example above the hotel could take quite an amount of bookings away from commission channels by offering customers the option of booking online. The end result might be the same in terms if occupancy levels, but without as much commission the profits are clearly greater.
In conclusion it is our belief that irrespective of occupancy history an online reservation system can still make a very significant difference.
Having determined that an on-line reservation system is required it is necessary to choose the right type of system for your business. Firstly you must ask!
How are on-line reservations systems different?
The major differences between On-line Reservation systems can be categorised as follows:-
- Approach taken (Reservations Model)
- Level Of Functionality
- E-commerce features
- Price Structure
- Implementation
There are 3 different approaches to On-line Reservations.
- GDS Based
- Front Office (Property Management System) Based
- Purpose Built
Which one suits you best?
Well they all work - so that's a start. The fundamental difference between the first two and the purpose built type is this. The internet is new technology and it is best to work to optimize its potential by using the latest programming techniques. This makes the user experience better and typically provides the hotel with a more user friendly and faster system. The purpose built system does this. GDS and Front Office Systems are older technology which have been linked to the web and while it is not true to say that they are all slow and cumbersome, this seems to be the response we have been given by hotels using such systems.
There are occasions however, depending on your hotels circumstances when GDS and/or Front Office based systems could suit you better. For example if you run a very small property and have only one member of staff dealing with reception and reservations then it might make more sense to reduce any additional tasks for this staff member, if existing GDS or Front Office systems can 'automatically' manage the inventory on your website.
The key principle here is to maximize the level of functionality offered while minimizing the training needs and the human resources needed for maintenance.
What should you look for?
Ask yourself when evaluating any system if each piece of the functionality is absolutely necessary for an On-line Reservations system. Thereafter make sure that essential or desirable functions are catered for. Examples of different essential/desirable functionality include:-
- Special Offers created and sold On-line
- Automatic email notification of new reservations
- Reservation Report Features
- Facility for customers to provide you with additional information when booking
Hotels are much more exposed to phony reservations On-line than they are offline. The e-commerce element of any good Online Reservations system should carry out a level of checking on the customers' credit card at the time of booking before accepting the reservation. Because the issue of actually taking payment online is at very least a questionable one it is difficult to make these necessary checks. Make sure that the reservations system you opt for has catered for this need.
On-line Reservations systems cost and charge in a number of different ways. Some take commission on all reservations made, even thoug they are made from the hotels website. Some systems have high monthly or yearly maintenance costs associated with them. Some systems remain static once you buy them and therefore, with the rate of technological advancement, become outdated very quickly and you have to invest again in a system. All these price related issues should be examined closely when selecting a system. It is also advisable to calculate the overall cost of the system over a given period of say 3-5 years. Sometimes what you find out about the longer term costs can be surprising.
It is important not to leave questions about implementation to the implementation stage. Ask the following questions before you select a system.
What is the implementation timeframe? Or in other words how long will it take between the you saying yes to the system going live?
Is it compatible not only with the website I have now but with whatever type/design of website I opt for in the future?
If I change my website does the reservations system continue to operate as normal?
Is there an additional cost associated with having the reservations system setup on my new site if I change?
As a rough guide implementation should take no longer than 2 working weeks from the time you make the decision to buy. During this time all staff training - if training is necessary - should be carried out so that the go live date is not delayed.
Your On-line Reservations system should be compatible with any conceivable website of the future. In this regard your system is said to be future proofed and you should demand it.
You should not have to pay extra or be inconvenienced if you decide to change your website at any stage. This is something that probably will happen during the life of your on-line reservations system and as such should be accounted for from day one.
Once you select a system you must have it implemented. By this we mean it should be integrated into your hotel website. As already mentioned this stage should take no longer than two weeks. During this time you should make sure that all staff training is carried out, any documentation or manuals you need have been delivered and you get the technical support contact information you might need in the future.
Beyond this it is just important to evaluate the end product to make sure you got everything you paid for.
The key to using the system efficiently is to learn from it over the initial months and fine-tune your approach to maintaining it. For example get into the habit of printing all reservations emails you receive form the system and saving a hard copy. Pick a day of the week to manage your inventory and thereafter monitoring is all that should be required. Have an agreement from your supplier that they will work with you during the initial stages until you have a system and an approach you are happy and comfortable with.
Why is your hotel website an issue with regard to your On-line Reservations system?
Your website, in many ways, is the key to the success of your reservations system. After all that's what your customers find and view on the internet. It is the hotels' on-line image. So what questions should you be asking about your website?
Is it receiving the traffic you would like it to receive?
Does it project a good image?
Is this image in keeping with the image of the hotel?
Is it navigable? Can users find their way around with ease?
Is it made clear that real time reservations may be made here?
Is it clear how to make such a reservation?
The process of attracting more traffic to your website is dealt with in more detail in the next section - Web Strategy. Here, answering these questions and moreover acting on the honest answers you give will serve to fuel your On-line reservations Performance.
Books have been written on it, people fired and companies closed for getting it wrong and yet it is an has always been relatively straightforward. The key in your case is to target your customers and attract them to your website. From here attract them to you hotel and from here allow them to make a booking while attracted. The only constraining factor is your budget for doing this.
Now in many cases this budget will be proportional to the projected return on the investment but in any case let us assume you have a website you are proud of and a budget to promote it
Search Engines are a good starting point. Why? Because they are free to register with and still account for over 70% of all new traffic to websites.
Carefully and thoughtfully submit your search engine registration. Be acutely aware that search engines are no longer the simple things they once were and it takes a lot more than Meta Tags and a good registration to achieve a high ranking. Our advice is to contact us or a good web development company to help you with this process. In any case be aware of the new breed of 'human edited engines' (eg. dmoz.org) that are becoming very popular among serious surfers.
Targeted Web Marketing
Go through your web marketing plans thoroughly with your development company to ensure that every penny/cent you spend targets potential customers.
Traffic Analysis
The most powerful tool you have in improving the volume of traffic to your website is your traffic analysis reports you receive from your website. These reports show you everything from traffic volume to detailed demographics of your users and show clearly the performance of you site on the most popular search engines. To learn more about traffic analysis see here