As a hotel or motel owner, there are certain things that you focus on on a daily basis. One of the most important aspects every day is making sure you maintain a high occupancy rate, the more rooms you fill, the higher your profits.
Ideally, you should be running at a 100 percent occupancy rate every day, although you know that this is next to impossible, except perhaps during peak season. You have a website, you are a member of all the hotel booking sites and you spend hours working on your online advertising, what else can you do?
A central reservation system can help you increase your occupancy rate by converting your website visitors into customers. This system gives you the ability to book directly from your own website without any hassle, it can greatly increase your occupancy rate as most customers these days use the internet when looking for accommodation.
These systems are often flexible, allowing you to tailor them to meet your exact requirements. Accepted worldwide in hotels, motels, travel agencies and more. It integrates directly with your website, allowing you to book immediately. In many cases, hotels are losing reservations because the customer has to pick up the phone to reserve a room, with the central reservation system, you can make a quick decision and make your reservation without delays, phone calls or inconvenience. This means that your clients can book their accommodation at any time of the day or night.
These are highly efficient systems. As you can imagine, one of the biggest mistakes any hotel can make is overbooking. Even with available technology, many hotels make this mistake from time to time, often due to overwork or rushed staff answering calls without realizing that all rooms have already been booked. The central reservation system ensures that the information provided on your website is up-to-date in terms of the number of rooms available and the rates for each room, eliminating errors and overbooking.
This also means that you are adding a beneficial experience to your customer before they even arrive. Many guests these days book accommodations for the night while sitting with their laptop in front of the computer. Some even book while they’re away, looking for last-minute deals they can take advantage of once they arrive in a city or area they like. There’s no reason you can’t take advantage of these guests and significantly increase your occupancy rate.
The central reservation systems available in the market are very user friendly and easy for management and staff to administer. If you already have a hotel reservation system, you can find a package that integrates, completely eliminating any employee error in terms of reservations being taken.
It is also a cost effective solution. Once you start noticing bookings coming in from your own website, you’ll soon start to see a return on your investment. These are not expensive software programs, however they can bring your hotel increased revenue, soon paying for themselves over and over again.
Overall, central reservation systems can make a huge difference in functionality, productivity, and the service you provide to your customers on a daily basis. Customers are more likely to book online than over the phone and there are no fees to pay to external booking sites, because bookings are made directly from your own website.