Room booking systems are designed to streamline and manage reservations for hotels and other lodging facilities. Traditionally done with a room calendar or guestbook, these software programs such as CAFM simplify the process and add complex reporting capabilities that allow the hotel to quickly evaluate various metrics and forecast for future occupancy.

Hotel managers can utilize the reporting functions to evaluate occupancy trends that are readily apparent with long-term data but would be significantly more difficult to recognize and calculate by hand. It also provides easy access to past data without the need to sift through old ledgers and documents. This also makes it easier to compare and contrast occupancy records for specific time periods.

In addition to maintaining data about room occupancy, many of these software programs also incorporate functionality to manage housekeeping, maintenance and other staff members when it comes to the daily tasks of room upkeep. Others still allow hotel managers to track their employees hours and manage payroll, which saves time when dealing with administrative duties.

From the customers perspective, room booking systems make it more convenient and less time consuming to make a reservation and compare rates through the hotels website. In an age when text messages are more prevalent than phone calls, online bookings are much more attractive to customers than those that require a phone call. It is in a hotels best interest to offer this service, as a customer browsing hotels online may move on to a different hotel if one does not offer online bookings.