The secret to a successful hospitality business is providing your services to as many customers as possible. To convince the users to book your hotel, you must first provide them with excellent service. For easier access, exceptional services offer smooth user interaction and an aesthetic user experience layout on your website.

As a hotelier, it’s your responsibility to simplify booking technology for your customers. That’s where a strong hotel room booking system can help you. 

So, how can you choose the best online hotel booking engine? To figure out, you’ll need to know what a booking engine is and how it can help your hotel flourish. Keep reading to know everything about a booking engine system. 

What Is Online Booking System?

An online hotel booking engine is used by hotels, vacation rentals, and other hospitality businesses to take bookings via their website, social media, and other marketing channels.

The primary purpose of utilising a booking engine for hotels is that it allows you to gain new bookings without paying commissions to third-party distribution channels. Users can book online at any time and from any location.

Reasons Why Hoteliers Use a Booking Engine Software

• Direct Bookings

Increasing hotel profit margins and reducing guest acquisition costs by selling rooms directly and cutting charges from distribution channels. A booking engine system simplifies the procedure and transforms a hotel’s website into a self-service online shop open 24 hours, all week. It will offer you total control over the booking system and the experience your tourists will have. 

• Additional Revenue

Tourists are always searching for ways to make their stay at your hotel and place more enjoyable. All hospitality businesses rely on in-house services like breakfast, spa treatments, and third-party services like tours and local activities to generate revenue. These additional services can be offered on your website to enhance the booking experience and make your guests’ life simpler.

• Customisation

Your website supports you in delivering quality customised service to your visitors. You can customise your hotel’s target market by changing room types, combining premium features, or making special deals.

You can personalise your messages to your ideal visitor, inspire them, and provide solutions to frequently asked questions. Since health and wellbeing are such a big concern right now, you may use your website to highlight how your hotel and location are dealing with these issues. 

• Bookings via Mobile Search

Customers may compare prices from countless online travel companies, markets, and even hotel websites using travel metasearch engines. Hotels must rely on a hotel reservation management system with real-time pricing and availability changes to stay in the game at the mobile search.  

• Bookings on Your Policies

Your website is your store where visitors can explore, get influenced, and finally make their reservations without dealing with a third-party agent or your sales employees. Your terms and conditions apply in terms of cancellations, charges, and other in-house policies. You’ll be able to connect with visitors directly and without the need for an agent.

• Guest Loyalty

For a guest loyalty plan to work, hotel reservation software is necessary. Using your own direct bookings system is the most effective and profitable way to handle bookings while ensuring a flawless guest experience, whether you’re launching an advertising campaign to attract existing visitors or acquiring new ones through recommendations. 

• Create Brand Awareness

Creating a unique brand is vital for successful travel companies. In a B2C setting, such as the hospitality sector, your branding enhances trust and loyalty in addition to highlighting your property’s distinct value proposition.

Your website is the ideal place to begin utilising your brand qualities once you’ve identified them. Look for a booking system that you can customise to fit your brand.

The Most Important Characteristics of a Hotel Room Booking System

Once you start looking for must-have features, you’ll need to figure out how you’ll charge your booking engine software partner. The first and most important tasks are creating a budget and determining how much you can invest for a decent return on investment for the hotel reservation management system.

1. 24/7 Accessibility

Your hotel booking system is an online store that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that visitors from all over the globe may access it and make a reservation. You’ll lose business if you can not accept bookings seamlessly at all times. Increasing the effectiveness of your direct booking system also requires availability.

2. Smooth Booking Process

Like every online shopping site, your website users expect the booking experience to be simple, easy, and speedy. The importance of a simple and clear booking process cannot be underestimated. The key steps of the booking process should be quick and easy: choose dates, choose a room, and finalise payment. 

3. Connectivity With Other Hotel Management Systems

Your online hotel booking system must be efficient regarding room availability, rate options, and price. That’s why it’s essential to have real-time connectivity with your channel manager and property management system.

You won’t have to worry about overbookings, price mistakes, or manually transferring data from one system to another. Google Analytics for networking site bookings is also an additional integration.

4. Handling of Payments

A digital payment method facilitates the booking procedure for both the hotel and the tourist. Tourists currently prefer to make credit card payments online and receive fast confirmation of their reservations. This method also eliminates manually charging reservations or verifying credit card validity.

5. Mobile Friendly 

Search for a hotel website booking engine that is quick to load and mobile friendly. Consumer habits have changed as a result of smartphones. Regardless of the device we’re using, users nowadays expect a self-service booking experience.

According to Google statistics, mobile travel enquiries have risen every year. You don’t want to lose direct bookings because your website isn’t functioning right.

6. Additional Services and Special Offers

Your website is the most excellent spot for your visitors to book special prices, use promo coupons, and purchase additional services such as local tours, events, and more. It’s much easier to handle promotional pricing for partners like travel companies, conference centres, and international travellers with a hotel booking engine software developed with marketing features in mind.

7. Multi-currency with Different languages

Allow customers to book rooms in their desired language and pay in their currency of choice, helping your business attract a global market.

Use Booking Engine to Grow Your Hotel Business

So there you have it! If you want to grow your business in hospitality industry, you must get a top-notch hotel room booking system. Get a personal and customised booking engine system by collaborating with AxisRooms to increase your brand awareness and customer base through your own hotel’s website!