Hotel channel management software is a vital tool for hotels of every size. It can benefit a small bed & breakfasts as well as a large hotel chain. Do you want to maximize booked rooms but prevent overbooking? If so, you need one piece of software to handle it all.
What is Hotel Channel Management Software?
Hotel channel management software is an all-in-one program. It integrates not only with online travel agency websites but also with your own website. It allows you to offer the same room on many sites at the same time. When a guest reserves it for their stay, that room is then marked as no longer available for that specific time. This prevents other guests from booking the same room for the same time.
Why Hotel Channel Management Software?
Keeping track of room availability can be a hassle for your staff. Without extreme diligence, your hotel can easily be overbooked. When that happens, it can be embarrassing, and ruin your hotel’s reputation. Managing one site on its own can be doable for staff. But, to ensure your hotel is maximizing the amount of booked rooms, advertising on many online travel agency websites is essential. Hotel channel management software makes advertising and booking on multiple sites easy while minimizing the risk of overbooked rooms.
What Features Should I Look For?
The best hotel channel management software offer these critical features:
Direct integration with hundreds of online travel agency websites, including your own. With only one site to log into, you can update prices and availability across all your booking websites instantaneously.
Access anytime with cloud-based services, so you can make changes from anywhere with internet access. Instead of relying on a program installed on a single computer, you and your staff can make any necessary changes when and where you need to.
Commission-free integration with your own website, so you can quickly take reservations by phone, in-person, online, or even through your hotel’s Facebook page.
Send automated emails to your guests. With customizable pre- and post-stay email templates that you can set up in seconds, you can recommend local attractions, remind of arrival times, and give any other instructions. After their stay, you can ask them to review you. This not only lets you know what you’re doing right, but also what you and your staff should work towards improving. Through email, you can also create customer loyalty by offering a discount for another stay in the future.
Entice international guests by effortlessly adding other currencies and languages to your booking sites. Your guests can pay in their native currency and the integrated payment processor can automatically convert their payment into your preferred currency.
Boost revenue by adding promotions, hot deals, or even extra amenities to your listings. You can even sell the same room in a variety of ways. For example, you could offer a basic room for one price, and that room plus included internet access at a slightly higher price. Since they are connected, when one room is reserved, the other is also marked as unavailable.
Get detailed reports on how your hotel is doing. See at a glance which booking sites are your best performing. With in-depth reporting features, track how individual channels are doing, and make adjustments to improve their performance. You can even use your hotel channel management software to keep up with who has paid and who owes you what.
Support for you and your staff any day of the week is available over the phone or via email. If you ever need help, you can speak with someone right away in a language and dialect that you can understand. With access to a multitude of online resources such as tutorials and videos, you and your staff can get the most out of your hotel channel management software. Plus, whenever the software is updated with new features, more training is made available to you at no additional cost.
Hotel channel management software offers a wide assortment of features to help hotels increase productivity and planning. It frees up your staff from manually updating your booking channels to better focus on keeping your hotel running smoothly and your guests happy. If you want a fully booked hotel without the risk of overbooking, you need hotel channel management software.