So, as a hotel manager, how do you choose the right integrations and technologies for your hotel? Those that simplify your teams’ daily operations while optimizing your hotel’s management should be prioritized.
Define your needs and goals
The first step should be to ask yourself the right questions: What are you looking for? Why do you need such integrations? What would they bring you? What are their necessary functionalities?
Once you have your answers, make a list of the primary criteria that these solutions should meet as well as a list of secondary and optional criteria.Keep in mind that these integrations must be able to connect to your Property Management Software in order to help you optimize your employees’ daily operations and automate as many repetitive tasks as possible, while also making your customer journey smoother and offering an unparalleled experience to your guests. Before selecting your new supplier, make sure that the Hotel PMS you are using does not already have some or all of the features you desire. Indeed, many hotel software packages offer many features and could therefore have a more advantageous price point.
Get informed, compare and assess the solutions
After defining your needs and goals you should learn about existing solutions by consulting various websites, online referral sites, user reviews and comments. Make sure that these integrations are compatible with both your Property Management Software and the features currently used by your hotel. You should also make sure that the software you wish to use has a good agreement and is open to potential developments in case the information being exchanged is not sufficient for your needs.
Moreover, it is important to compare the different solutions using a comparison table. This will help you to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each. An example of a feature you could consider: a simple solution, easy to use on a daily basis, which allows you to save time and efficiency, at a good quality-price ratio. The customer service provided by your new software is also important, especially in case of technical problems: it must be available, responsive and skilled.
Choosing the right integrations for your hotel is not an easy task and largely depends on your hotel’s needs and goals. Nevertheless, an excellent management of your hotel requires a good technological ecosystem. Among other things, a powerful Hotel PMS and interfacing integrations allow you to automate your employees’ tasks while offering your guests a memorable experience.
Why should you reconcile technology and your staff
Putting people at the heart of the experience
Although some generations, such as Millennials, are technology-savvy, only your staff can provide a warm and friendly welcome. In the hotel industry, customer relations are based on customer satisfaction, so it is crucial to exceed their expectations in order to build this relationship. Your guests visit your hotel to have a memorable experience, which is why each of their requests must be listened to carefully and responded to appropriately. Whether it’s by decorating the room with balloons for a birthday party, or accommodating a late arrival due to last minute unforeseen circumstances, your employees should be equipped with the emotional intelligence to respond to requests and ensure the satisfaction of your visitors. In addition, human reflexes are essential in the hotel industry, as the unexpected can happen at any time and force you to react quickly. Although technologies often have automatic processes that can be triggered, each situation is unique and your employees will know how to adapt their response appropriately, which is very difficult for technology to do.
Hotel technologies, an advantageous solution
Technology is an excellent tool to improve your staff’s efficiency as well as to compensate for certain shortcomings. For your staff, technology can significantly simplify their daily tasks, freeing up some of their workload. The automation of repetitive tasks will allow your employees to dedicate more time on satisfying your guests and offering a unique stay. For example, the confirmation of arrival information is a repetitive task with no added value. This can be done very well by kiosks and thus offer a faster and easier check-in for all.
Also, technologies can be of considerable help during a labor shortage, without compromising your guests’ experience and satisfaction.
The importance of a balance between technology and people
Despite the advantages of each, it is only together that technology and your staff will benefit you. Your property can benefit from this duo at many stages of the guest journey and across many departments.
For example, technology can display the activities a guest has booked, but only your staff can properly analyze this data and develop personalization strategies accordingly. As a result, using technology alone would not be useful, and your staff would have a hard time collecting the information manually without a PMS, for example. Your housekeeping staff can also benefit from this winning combination; using a housekeeping app makes it easier to assign rooms, allowing your staff to dedicate more time and attention to each room. However, the human aspect is essential, as some tasks are unique to each room and stay.
In conclusion, technology should not replace your employees, but rather help them deliver a unique and memorable guest experience. Technology therefore acts as a productivity and efficiency lever for your hotel. There are many ways to improve the experience of your customers, whether it is by using your PMS, by adding a personalized touch, or by having check-in kiosks: all these solutions will benefit you.
Integrated within your hotel software (Property Management Software), your reservation management software ensures your different online reservation platforms are connected. It also ensures that your rates, your availability in terms of accommodation, your packages and even your property’s information are synchronized, regardless of the OTAs (Online Tourism Agencies) used to make the reservation.
Accurate and simplified management
By connecting a channel manager to your PMS, your front desk staff will not have to deal with overbooking and the resulting guest dissatisfaction. Moreover, they will not have to make any changes in case of unavailability since the system will have automatically updated the capacity and availability of your hotel. With your reservation management software, you make sure your customers are satisfied and their pre-stay experience is enjoyable. To avoid any errors related to the management of your property’s availability, it is preferable to use new and efficient technologies. You should set up the initial quantities available for each offer and service and let the system update these figures in real time. By automating the administrative tasks related to reservation management, you allow your staff to be readily available for your guests. This ensures your customers have a successful and enjoyable stay experience.
Immediate synchronization of information between your softwares
In addition to the immediate synchronization of your property’s availability, several other relevant information are transferred to your hotel PMS to ease your operations. For example, booking and customer information will be directly forwarded from the OTA to your PMS hotel. Since data is essential, you can be sure that no matter which reservation platform you use, your PMS will collect your customers’ data. Moreover, this data can be used to personalize your property’s guest experience by offering them special in-room options on special occasions. It can also be used to adjust your marketing communications by offering special promotions to guests who have stayed in your hotel more than three times, for example.
A diverse source of revenue
The channel management software is the solution you need to be present on OTAs for your customers without adding complexity to your operations. The channel manager allows you to increase your revenue from various sources by being present on several external reservation platforms such as Expedia, Hotel.com, Booking.com, Airbnb. You gain visibility with travelers and potentially increase your number of online reservations.
By integrating a channel manager to your PMS, you increase your property’s visibility while allowing it to be compared to its competitors. It is therefore essential to showcase your best rooms, facilities and services on all your online booking platforms. You may also use authentic content created by your guests to promote your establishment.
Your Property Management Software is much more than just a simple software
Improve your staff’s performance
The advanced features of your PMS allow you to centralize your operations and automate your repetitive tasks. For example, you will be able to automate a wide range of tasks such as booking related tasks, emails regarding guests’ stays, room allocation, guests’ arrivals and invoicing.
Thus, by automating your staff’s recurring tasks, you optimize their available work time and improve their productivity on a daily basis. Moreover, your staff will have more time to accommodate your guests’ requests and will be more attentive to their satisfaction.
Analyse your activities to make better decisions
As a manager, possessing a PMS helps you to have a global vision on the activities of each of your hotel’s departments. Numerous tools such as reports, analyses and performance indicators will allow you to regularly and accurately monitor your performance (annual, monthly and weekly), whether it is regarding your occupancy rate, your sales, your number of reservations, your turnover or other metrics you are interested in. Also, these analyses will be beneficial to design your future strategies and will facilitate your decision making. Indeed these data can be compared to those of previous years in order to see your performance’s evolution.
Strengthen your relationship with your clientele
Undoubtedly, your PMS is an powerful advantage if you want to improve your relationship with your guests. It collects all your customers’ data, including their personal information and information about their previous stays such as their consumption habits and preferences. This can help you to have a better knowledge of your clientele. As a result, you will be able to anticipate their needs and expectations and personalize their experience while they stay with you. This one-of-a-kind personalization will improve your their satisfaction as they will feel more valued and unique.
Gathering information about your guests is also beneficient for your communication strategies. Indeed, it allows you to better target and personalize all communications with your customers, whether it be before, during or after their stay. The relevance and effectiveness of these communications are paramount because they help you keep in touch with your customers, promote your offers and services regularly, and above all, build a long-term customer loyalty.
Your Property Management System is a key asset when improving the performance of your teams, analysing your activities in order to facilitate your decision making and also strengthening your relationship with your guests. Now that you know the potential of your property management software, why not take full advantage of it?
Once the client confirms their commitment with Hotello, our Client Success experts will take over and make contact with the hotel manager. The implementation process can then start by exchanging information between the hotel manager and our experts: the hotel manager knows their hotel better than anyone and our experts master Hotello software. This discussion allows the Client Success department to build the client’s database in only 5 to 7 days, depending on the complexity of the hotel.
Then, our specialists present the database to the hoteliers who will have leadership roles and actively participate in change management. These include the front desk supervisor, the accountant, the hotel manager and all other actors who will motivate the employees to feel involved in this change. Our team will take this as an opportunity to outline the first steps for change and book the desired training programs. These trainings can cover topics such as database management, front desk management, administration, conference rooms management, night checks and interfaces. Thus, the manager is responsible for assigning the right employees to the right training(s). Once the trainings are completed, the Client Success department will prepare the employees for change and go over the whole process to ensure everything and everyone is ready for the launch day.
On this launch day, the front desk will check-out clients with the old management software and then, ideally at 12:00, the receptionists will end their shift. The financial information is then transferred into Hotello. Our specialists, along with the client, ensure that the accounts receivable balances and deposits are in Hotello and then disconnect the interfaces from the old system in order to isolate the old software. Only once the accounting department confirms that the new system is connected can the reception use Hotello to process the arrivals and departures of the hotel’s customers. The interfaces will also then be reconnected.
As the project manager, keep in mind that your first priority is to ensure that your guests’ stay is not disrupted by this system change. Also, make sure that your employees are comfortable with the new tools being implemented and that they can use them efficiently on a daily basis.
In general, it takes approximately 30 days for Hotello to deliver the ready-to-use software to their client. This depends on how fast the client is able to provide the required documents to create their personalized database and on the complexity of their business model. Thus, a property with very few rooms and without interfaces will be ready much quicker. Setting up the interfaces can only be done once the database is established and depends on the availability of third party suppliers.
Hotello’s implementation process continues even after the software is installed. Our Client Success department continues to support our hotel managers for as long as they use Hotello. Our specialists are devoted and available if you need information or have any questions regarding Hotello’s specific modules. Moreover, collaborating with our clients allows our experts to give advice and help hotel managers to make the best decisions by providing them expert knowledge on Hotello and presenting them the available options which would best serve their properties.
With over 20 years of experience in an evolving industry, it was time for us to rethink our brand image in order to adapt it to our customer-centric and customer success positioning.
A new brand image doesn’t only mean changing your logo! It’s a set of elements that make you discover your personality, including its voice, tone, character traits, intention and energy. From all the ideas generated, we have retained the elegance, the technology, the humanity and our passion for the hospitality industry. Why did we choose these criteria? Elegance is an important element for the hospitality industry. Therefore, we wanted to use it to pay tribute to hoteliers and help them find themselves in this new branding. This touch of elegance helps us stand out from other technological solutions. Regarding the technology, we wanted to highlight it differently. Thus, the main objective was to find the balance between elegance, avant-gardism, humans and technology.
One circle, many possibilities
Chief symbol of Hotello, it doesn’t only designate collaboration and equity, but puts the focus on the relationship between Hotello and its customers. The circle also refers to the fact that Hotello encompasses all the functionalities required for hotel management and symbolizes a window through which everything happens. It is not an ordinary form; it can be combined with several elements such as photos, materials, refined, warm or patterned textures.
Throughout our rebranding process, we kept in mind the motto “Less is more”, which suggests “The less there is, the more we see”. The result was a simple brand identity, equally elegant and humane.
An elegant and refined logo
Our logo is the main element of our new brand image. We wanted it to be refined, easily readable and recognizable though its shape and purity. Its simplicity allows it to be associated with a vibrant design without overloading it. Furthermore, simple details such as angles, curves and perpendiculars add a touch of subtlety to Hotello’s logo. Its geometric balance contributes to its refined and balanced appearance while still being simple. Using an animated logo, why not? The movement is a strong advantage of our design and it allows us to stand out.
A symbolic icon
Once again, we wanted to highlight the liveliness and vibrant side through movement. To do so, our static or animated icon symbolizes the complementarity and the crossing between two circles. There are several explanations for this crossing. The first idea is that these two circles represent the relationship between the hotelier and its guest. The third entity designates Hotello supporting this collaboration. The second idea is that these two distinct circles illustrate technology and humans and that Hotello makes it possible to combine them. Finally, the icon can also symbolize the H for Hotello.
Typographies accentuating the contrast
Regarding Hotello’s typefaces, we chose Capo and Hanken Grotesk to highlight the typographical contrast which is one of our brand identity’s strengths. We wanted to enhance some perceptible details in our titles and keep a touch of originality in our typography in order to remain simple but remarkable.
Se réinventer pour laisser place à une image de marque élégante et humaine
Living colors echoing the hospitality industry
Inspired by real elements echoing the hospitality industry, Hotello’s Sepia and mauve color range represent life and elegance. The warm colors highlight the humane side and the cold colors represent the technological aspect.
Thus, the colors chosen bring a lively and vibrant side to our brand image and they share a strong emotion.
Paying tribute to the hospitality industry
The relationship we have with our customers is precious and we wanted to pay tribute to them. By using representative images of our customers and their properties, we showcase their energy, diverse personalities and their passion for the hospitality industry.Textures are also an important part of our branding, they symbolize the humane, real and alive side of Hotello. Also, it helps combine technology and reality.
The most important thing for us was to echo hotel design and be able to adapt to our different targets.
Because your priority is hospitality
At Hotello, our team of hospitality specialists are dedicated, available and attentive to our customers. We support them on a daily basis so that they can offer the best experience to their guests. Also, we aim to become an influencer of tomorrow’s hospitality industry and we want to equip hoteliers so that they can create a memorable guest experience that goes beyond expectations.
Our product is our pride and the result of a strong collaboration with our specialists as well as our partners. Hotello is a cloud-based PMS and its customer service represents a strong value. The elegance in its design and the performance it offers creates an adequate technology hub so that different types of establishments can offer their customers an exceptional experience.
Our solutions are developed with reliability and adaptability according to hoteliers’ needs. It is based on observations and collaboration in order to respond to the latest hospitality industry trends. Humans are at the heart of the development of our solutions in order to make their work simple, efficient and enjoyable while reducing manual tasks. This allows them to have more time for what matters: be present for their guests.
We will also explain why the best property management software must not only be on the Cloud, but easy to use and easy to learn. Furthermore, it must be able to automate repetitive tasks, provide advanced statistics, offer outstanding customer service, evolve with time, have advanced connectivities and must be easily configurable.
The best property management software
On the cloud
To start with, it seems obvious that a property management software (PMS) must be located in the Cloud. This means that there is no longer any IT structure to manage within the property. The PMS provider is responsible for it and gives you the advantage to connect easily from any device connected to the Internet.
Moreover, the Cloud offers many other advantages such as updating the system without any action from the property or even upgrading quickly all the security standards that the software must include.
The Cloud allows to secure your property’s data as the PMS provider offers higher security measures than what you would have put in place in your property. Regular backups give additional security for a hotelier, since he knows that its data would remain available in the event of a technical issue.
Ease of use and learning
Properties’ softwares must be easy to use because hotel staff has a high turnover rate and new employees’ training time must be optimized so they can be quickly operational.
Furthermore, a property software should be simple, because employees spend a lot of time using it to perform different tasks. Thus, simplicity helps since the user won’t have to spend a lot of time watching training videos or other training tools to master its use.
Beyond simplicity, a property software must be intuitive since multiple departments, such as the front desk, sales and revenue, housekeeping, marketing and accounting use it on a daily basis.
Automation of repetitive tasks
In the hospitality industry, a PMS becomes a real advantage when it allows to automate repetitive tasks. These tasks are usually a waste of time for employees, but once they are automated, it gives them more time to take care of their guests. Indeed, assigning rooms, sending emails, night audits, automatic data entry, generating daily reports are tasks that the best PMS must complete automatically.
Advanced statistics
Beyond the hospitality industry’s metrics or traditional occupancy and day-close reports, the best property management software also provides advanced statistics that allow the manager to make efficient decisions. Rather it’s about pricing or actions to be taken to achieve goals, these statistics must be easily and quickly available in easy-to-read reports. Also, it has to be simple to analyze and to compare with previous reports. Statistics must be exportable in standard formats, so that everyone can easily access them. Thus, the export of data must be possible for a specific guest list, using filters and also to retrieve the complete list of guests that can then be used for marketing purposes.
Guest service
The support provided with a property software is an important element and it starts from the software implementation. The project must be led by people who are used to make changes and who are familiar with the software you will use. Also, service goes through all stages of the process, from the installation to the usage and even when you have questions or technical issues (because even the best software can have technical issues). A service that is accessible, fast and available at all times is no luxury in the hospitality industry, since guests who need to be served do not want to wait! In order to do so, your supplier must accompany you at all times when needed. It could be whether by sending videos or documents, offering online assistance, or sharing FAQs. Indeed, the best property management software has to come with different means of documentation.
Software that evolves
The best hotel management software didn’t hit its peak overnight. As technology continues to evolve, it has to offer various new features and improvements. For example, it could introduce new interfaces with other softwares and improvements in its overall performance. Furthermore, the best property management software is constantly evolving to follow trends’ evolution and industry changes.
As the matter of fact, the evolution shows the dynamism of the software and will help you progress technologically according to trends and new features that you want to implement.
The evolution of the best PMS also requires your involvement, since each development request is taken into consideration and can be included in the development plan. Keep in mind that the collaboration between the property and the PMS supplier is important and the key to success.
Connectivities
Connectivities are all of the links between the PMS and other softwares. Whether it is for accounting, food and beverage, reservations or even a customer relations software, the best property management software must be able to offer many connectivities. These connectivities must be advanced and 2-way so that it will be more efficient and information will be able to pass from one software to another one.These connectivities need to be advanced so that they are effective, and should have a 2-way connectivity so the information passes from one software to another and vice versa.
Therefore, keep in mind that the best property management software doesn’t necessarily have the most number of connectivities. It should offer efficient connectivities that simplifies the hoteliers’ life and automates repetitive tasks.
Once again, there are several possibilities for your connectivities, but if the ones you need aren’t available yet, the best PMS should be able to take your demand into consideration and evaluate your request to see its benefits or offer you alternatives.
Easy setup
As said before, the best property management software should be easy to use and should give you some flexibility in its configuration. Using a PMS to create a new rate, new packages, new rooms or even adding an item to your accounting shouldn’t be hard. The more complex the setup is, the less your staff will use it to change or add elements. Keep in mind that it could have negative effects on the overall performance of your property.
In conclusion, the best PMS includes many complex elements, both technical and human, such as the customer service. The customer support, the evolution of guests’ requests or even developments based on observations are criterias confirm if it’s the best software.
Therefore, a free software, free trial software, cheap software or a software that doesn’t evolve or doesn’t offer outstanding customer service can not be considered as the best property management software.
Integrated payment in your PMS: a gift for your employees
Efficiency
Integrated payment into your property management software simplifies your front desk team’s daily tasks. Indeed, automating all your guests’ debit and credit card operations will help you avoid transaction and entry errors. Also, it will make it easier to close your cash registers and credit card batches. Hence, your employees will be able to work faster, to be more efficient on a day-to-day basis, and offer outstanding service to your guests.
Rapidity
De plus, l’intégration des paiements permet de faciliter les dépôts et les pré-autorisations de vos clients puisque les opérations se font dirMoreover, the integration of payments simplify the task of taking deposits and pre-authorizations, since operations are done in a few clicks directly from the software and without having to manipulate the payment terminal. The pre-authorization process or payment made upon arrival will be faster and will accelerate the check-in process, increasing your guests’ satisfaction.
Safety
When taking a payment or a pre-authorization during your customer’s stay for which the guest entered his PIN, it guarantees you a secure final payment without asking for your guest to come back to the reception. Therefore, the PIN code confirms that your guest stayed at your property and allows you to avoid any possible protest.
Virtualization
Integrated payment can also be virtualized, meaning that the payment terminal is virtual and not physical. This option allows departments that don’t have physical terminals to take payments at any time, since the payment will be taken directly from the software. This software communicates with the virtual terminal, which sends the validation when the payment is accepted.
Connectivity between your property management software and your payment terminals is a real advantage in terms of productivity and safety. Indeed, it allows your staff to gain in efficiency, since their tasks are automated. This tool allows you to gain safety, since payments are made without handling terminals nor cards by your staff, but rather by PIN validation. This connectivity will facilitate the process of compliance with PCI DSS regulations. Part of the compliance is ensured by your PMS provider and your payment provider.
This practical and efficient solution makes it possible to coordinate several departments at the same time and has functionalities that can be adapted to different properties’ needs. In fact, the main functions of a Hotel PMS are room availability, rates adjustment, customer invoicing, bookings, management of contacts and automatic sending of emails. Furthermore, you can connect a property management software to other softwares, such as your points of sale (POS), customer relationship management (CRM), distribution channel management (OTA), payment interfaces and many others. At a time when teleworking and mobility are important, you can even have your PMS installed on cloud and manage your property remotely as if you were there. To do so, always keep in mind that a good PMS needs to be easy to use, scalable, and must offer automation if you want to save time, money and increase customer satisfaction.
Although a crisis is temporary, it will strongly impact travelers’ behavior and could have long-term consequences on a property’s income. As a hotelier, it is beneficial for your property to have a high-performance property management software and use its advantages to face the crisis and prepare for the post-crisis period!
The hotel PMS, an essential tool in times of crisis and post-crisis
An efficient management in the event of staff reduction
In times of crisis and post-crisis, a hotelier might be confronted to reduce staffing. In this case, having a Hotel PMS will help you automate recurring tasks such as automatic room assignment, automatic sending of emails, printing of personalized reports, online bookings management or even the update of rooms inventory. Thus, automating these tasks will allow you to have more time to take care of your guests and focus on the quality of your customer service.
In addition, property management software will improve the efficiency of your staff through communication between your property’s different departments and will help you save time. For example, think about your housekeeping manager who has to distribute tasks differently following the health and safety measures implemented in your hotel and also in order to facilitate the arrival of your guests. The staff reduction will be offset by the automation of tasks: thanks to technology! The arrival procedures will also be facilitated with online check-in solutions or check-in kiosks that can manage guests’ arrivals, deliver room key and assist your guests with their final payments.
A precise analysis of your property’s activities
Using a property management software, also called Hotel management software, is useful because it allows you to have a multitude of activity reports such as occupancy reports and comparative reports with previous years. Some reports can be generated on a daily, weekly or monthly basis from which you can retrieve several statistics according to the targeted performance indicators.
It represents an undeniable advantage for you as these reports will help you to accurately track your sales, number of bookings and occupancy rate. In addition, this precise analysis will improve your strategy and increase your income, despite difficult times.
The optimization of your property’s income
In times of uncertainty, it remains essential to keep an eye on your property’s occupancy rate. Therefore, the analysis of your performances compared to previous years will allow you to establish a yield management strategy. The centralization of availability in your Hotel PMS enables you to adjust your pricing all in one place and then distribute it to various distribution channels, while ensuring that you remain attractive in comparison to your competitors. Of course, yield management’s main objective is to maximize your occupancy rate and your income.
A personalized customer relationship management
For guests, periods of crisis often lead to a need to feel listened and reassured. To do so, the Hotel PMS will become a real advantage for you because it allows you to collect a lot of information about your guests. Indeed, this tool is considered to be a real factor in customer satisfaction. It will help you to know the type of customer, the type of stay and more information on your guests’ consumption preferences. Thus, you will be able to better understand their purchasing habits and to better meet their needs and expectations with personalized offers and services so your guests feel more valued.
Furthermore, a Hotel software is a relevant tool if you want to maintain and consolidate the relationship with your customers and retain them in the long term. For example, you can communicate about the current situation within your property, the new cancellation policies, the hygiene and prevention measures of your property and even your special packages and promotions. Reports are therefore essential if you wish to communicate with a specific clientele who would need to receive specific information for an upcoming stay.
A highlight of contactless and secure solutions
Using a property management software also means offering contactless and secure solutions for your guests. To do so, your guests will have the opportunity to check-in online before their arrival, or directly at your property’s check-in kiosks. In times of crisis and post-crisis, connecting a PMS to these innovative solutions should be highly considered, since it makes it possible to avoid contact at the front desk and also respect a safe distance between your guests and staff. Moreover, these solutions will remain a great option even at the end of the crisis, especially for your recurring or business clientele who don’t want to waste time queuing for their check-in.
During a crisis or post-crisis period, having a property management software will make your employees’ work easier but also allow you to offer an outstanding customer experience. Thus, keep in mind that it’s important to remain attentive to your guests and staff needs. Prioritize health, safety and well-being over all.
Moreover, you can take advantage of these quieter periods to train your employees, clean your property, review your strategies and improve your digital tools.
In a hotel that has multiple types of rooms, overbooking can happen on two levels: room type overbooking and overall hotel overbooking.
Room type overbooking occurs when a single room category is no longer available, but other types of rooms remain available. In such a case, you should review your pricing strategy to optimize income from other room types. If you consult your yield management module carefully, you may discover that the date in question is popular because of an event being held near your hotel. You may have estimated your occupation rate in a specific way, but it turns out that the event also generates more interest in your hotel. Before your remaining rooms are all sold, it’s a good time to review your rates.
A fully overbooked hotel is more difficult to manage since no rooms are available at all and you must relocate surplus guests.
How does a hotel get overbooked?
A hotel may face overbooking for many reasons. Sometimes, overbooking happens because a guest books the last room via an online booking agency, while another guest books the same room directly on your hotel’s booking site. In such a scenario, if you don’t have a hotel PMS connected to the booking engine, your hotel’s available room inventory won’t have had time to be updated on the various online sales platforms. Thanks to hotel PMS and online booking engine connectivity, your room inventory and rates are updated in real time. If your hotel PMS doesn’t have this feature, you must deal with two guests who have booked your last available room. You will need to relocate one of these two guests.
Your hotel may also face an overbooking situation if you decide to risk leaving rooms available in anticipation of eventual cancellations. In this way, even if you have two guests booked in the same room within a given room category, when a guest cancels a reservation for that same category, you will end up with a free room to which you can allocate the extra guest before their arrival.
Depending on your pricing policy and overbooking strategy, you could choose to keep a very popular room type available online, even if it’s not, and provide a few loyal guests with an upgrade upon arrival. You could also upsell to your guests; they’ll enjoy a superior room, and you’ll increase this guest’s average basket.
Tips on dealing with overbooking
Overbooking often creates a crisis situation at a hotel. And yet, some hotels live with this reality on a daily basis. For instance, a downtown hotel with a very flexible cancellation policy may accept multiple overbookings and deal with them the same day. Indeed, it’s essential for these hotels to have excess reservations, because their no-show rate is often high. Overbooking is an innate part of doing business for these hotels if they’re looking to optimize their income and reach maximum occupancy.
If your hotel is overbooked, you’ll need to upgrade some guests in some cases and relocate others when no rooms are left to allocate. It’s essential to offer guests an alternative hotel of the same or of a better quality that has similar services. Gifts or discounts on a future stay can also help make the situation easier for guests and ensure they consider staying with you the next time they’re planning to stay in the area.
To avoid guest dissatisfaction, call and prepay a taxi to take them to the alternate hotel. In this way, you manage your guests effectively and show you care about their satisfaction.
In cases where overbooking can be avoided, a hotel PMS is a huge asset. If you have a room available and a guest books a long stay, room allocation performed manually in advance may not be optimal. A hotel PMS that assigns rooms automatically will optimize room allocation and let a guest book a room for multiple days without having to change rooms during their stay.
Which guests should you relocate when overbooked?
Once you have determined that you need to relocate one guest or more, you need to ask yourself which guest would be most likely to accept this inconvenience without too much trouble. In general, business travellers don’t object too much to an unforeseen change of hotel, as long as the hotel to which you move them isn’t too far from where their conference or event is taking place, and their room includes amenities such as Wi-Fi and services equivalent to yours. Of course, groups are out of reach and guests who are staying for multiple days would prefer not to have to reschedule their entire trip.
Guests staying for only one night can often be relocated more easily, without disturbing their plans too much. However, here again, make sure to pick a similar hotel that offers an experience close enough to the one the guest was looking for at your hotel.
Relocation is a delicate task. Be sure to analyze all the options to make the best decision possible. Thanks to the wealth of information your hotel PMS provides, you can orchestrate these changes in the most efficient way. Overbooking won’t be a headache anymore since you can manage it with confidence.
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