Hotel owners can now no longer ignore the need for an integrated online booking engine. With such a large proportion of business and leisure travel researched and booked online, if your property does not have an online presence then you cannot be found.
Here are some reasons why you should definitely have an integrated online booking system for your hotel’s website.
They are working for you 24/7
An online booking system works all the time. This gives freedom to potential visitors to book a room anytime they want. It also maximises your sales because you are not limited to your working hours. In fact, studies show that a 24/7 online reservation system greatly increases the number of hotel bookings.
This will, in turn, give your staff more time to get other tasks done. With the booking system, a hotel with minimal staff can effectively manage several tasks simultaneously. They can manage group check-ins, check out of other guests, confirm reservations, and so on, all at the same time.
Drive direct bookings faster
The first step to success for hotels is a high-performing online booking engine. STAAH’s ConvertDirect Booking Engine allows you to manage your own customer relationships, getting rid of any commission-hungry in-betweeners. It comes directly to you and it is a seamless experience for your users. It is as simple as 3 steps for your guests to book through this system, as well as giving you the option for add-ons services or upgrades to entice them to stay longer!
The product Channel Manager manages all of your inventory in one place. When a customer books a room from one website, it is automatically updated on all the other OTA websites you’re connected to. If you need to make any changes to availability, content, and rates, you can do this in the STAAH Channel Manager, which also updates instantly. It is a seamless dashboard with endless possibilities to help you grow your bookings all in one place.
Drive direct bookings faster
Property Management System (PMS) Integration
With the right kind of online booking system, you can have your own PMS be integrated. Your PMS application provides so much support for your business, including your room availability, direct bookings with the front desk, sales, reporting and much more. As well as your PMS, STAAH’s online booking system integrates with over 250+ partners worldwide so you can reach your potential guests further.
Learn more about your customer’s preferences
Hotel reservation system makes it easy for the hotel owner to see customer selection and booking trends in the dashboard with all the valuable information such as most popular rooms, most selected add-ons, search trends, check on peak booking hours, etc. in one single screen which will help business to know what the customers want which will save time and money to the business.
Keep track of your competitors
Sometimes you just need to stay ahead of the game. And this can mean keeping track of your competitors. There are a number of ways to do this from visiting the actual property to following them on all social media platforms. There is also the option of using STAAH’s clever product called RateSTalk, which is an add on in the Instant or Max Channel Manager booking system. This allows you to pick your top five competitors and it will show you their rates for any seven-day period in real-time. It’s presented as a simple and easy to follow interactive graph.
Use Google analytics and pixels for your booking engine
Getting the most amount out of your data from your website and integrated applications, the better. Many properties embed an analytics code onto their Booking Engine page to track hits and conversions.
Your web designer or marketing specialist can help you generate the analytics code. This code may be inserted into STAAH Traffic Scripts. There is also the added benefit that you can now add your Sojern pixel for your booking engine.
With a tracking pixel, advertisers can acquire data for online marketing, web analysis or email marketing. A tracking pixel is an HTML code snippet that is loaded when a user visits a website or opens an email. This information is vital for your business and definitely an opportunity not to be missed!
If you would like more information about either Google analytics or Sojern pixels, get in touch with the team.
Boost your Room Rate
Having an online reservation system gives hotels a complete one-stop solution. If your property is connected to any of STAAH’s Booking Engine, you can use WatchMyRate widget which displays live rates from five different channels, which can be seen by all visitors, driving direct bookings and revenue for your property.
Boost your Room Rate
Highlight packages and promotions
Create and display promotional packages, showcase freebies like free breakfast, free Wi-Fi. Offer secret deals for frequent guests, corporate discounts and accept multiple bookings and much more. You can add Gift Vouchers on your website to offer promotional discounts or allow guests to buy special vouchers on hotel services such as discounted buffet meals, spa treatments, honeymoon couple dinner, etc. STAAH Gift Voucher Engine is an ‘off-the-shelf’ e-commerce platform that easily bolts into your existing website and helps improve your brand awareness. Whether you’re a large hotel, an independent property or a food & beverage establishment, it is suitable for all.
Measure your Guest Experience
Having an online booking system can also give you an add-on to track your guest reviews from one place. STAAH ReviewMinder helps measure your guest experience & improve your online reputation. ReviewMinder is a Review Management System that alerts you of new online reviews across multiple sites in one easy dashboard and responds directly to customers. It comes in a Mobile -App meaning you can manage from anywhere and monitor reviews across multiple sites, including Google, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Ctrip. You’ll be alerted of new reviews on your highly visual & efficient dashboard so you never miss another review.
Measure your Guest Experience
Smartly target markets during low occupancy
Online reservation system not only gives you a channel manager and a booking engine but give you other opportunities and ways to smartly drive direct bookings from your own hotel website. If your property is connected to ConvertDirect Booking Engine, you can enjoy the Smart Pricing feature for free and drive more bookings during low occupancy. Smart pricing allows you to target specific regions based on mobile, region, multi-nights or advance purchase. To know more about Smart Pricing click here.
When technology is there to aid hotel owners, there is absolutely no reason to go to the old school. So, take a step back and see if you would want to spend your day managing operational overheads or improve efficiency and take care of your guests better. To know more about STAAH sign up today for a Free Demo and manage your property online.