Gone are the days of taking reservations over the phone and recording them physically with pen and paper—or at least, they should be gone. If your small hotel still relies on manual reservation management, it’s time for an upgrade.
When you’ve been using the same hotel reservation system for years and years, it can be hard to make a change—especially if you’re trading your tried-and-true manual system for a cloud-based software platform that might feel just a bit too modern for your hotel. In reality, in 2024, if your reservation management isn’t handled digitally, you’re losing out on bookings and revenue. So your manual reservation system may work for you, but it definitely isn’t working for your bottom line.
Cloud-based hotel reservation system software connects your front desk activities and room availability with your website and other booking channels. It allows your website and booking channels to essentially act as a remote front desk manager by showing available rooms, dates, prices, and steps for guests to complete during the booking process. That means no more taking reservations by hand, no more spreadsheets, and no more tedious manual channel management (a surefire recipe for double bookings).
If you aren’t quite sure it’s time to upgrade, keep reading to discover 5 convincing reasons your small hotel should implement hotel reservation system software, including:
- You’ll save a ton of time
- You can make more money
- No more overbookings or booking errors
- You can offer a better, personalized guest experience
- You’ll get better performance data
Let’s jump in.
1. You’ll save a ton of time
A hotel reservation system automates and streamlines every aspect of the booking and check-in process—and that means major time savings for you and your front desk staff. With cloud-based hotel reservation system software, you can:
- Receive and instantly confirm bookings from any channel, including your website and any OTAs
- Change or update reservations in just a few clicks
- Visualize all bookings with an easy-to-read tape chart
- Manage reservations from any device and any location
- Make sure everyone on your team has access to the same up-to-date reservation data
By eliminating the need for manual entry or confirmations, your front desk team won’t have to process reservations or send out confirmation emails—everything will be handled automatically, giving your staff more time to focus on providing an unforgettable experience (or finally get to all those other tasks that always seem to slip through the cracks).
2. You can make more money
Hotel reservation system software can do more than just save you money—it can also help you make more money starting right when guests book their stay. It does this by enabling you to:
- Create custom room rates and classes that maximize your RevPAR
- Quickly adjust room rates based on demand, occupancy levels, and any other factor, so you can jump on booking surges and take advantage of increased demand
- Offer revenue-generating add-ons and other perks during booking, such as spa visits, meal vouchers, early check-in, parking, and more. innRoad customers typically add 10% more revenue by offering on-brand touches during booking!
Plus, if your hotel reservation system is integrated into an all-in-one property management system, you’ll also get access to powerful revenue management tools you can use to grow your revenue even more.
3. No more overbookings or booking errors
When hotel reservation system software is included as part of an all-in-one property management system, it will also integrate seamlessly with your direct booking engine and channel management tools. Whenever anyone makes a booking on any channel, your availability will automatically update on every other channel. Say goodbye to double bookings!
Plus, when guests input their own information during the online booking process and the rest of the reservation and confirmation process is fully automated, there’s less chance of making frustrating mistakes that can complicate the check-in process when your guests arrive. When there are no exasperating errors to fix, guests can get to their rooms—and start relaxing—even faster.
4. You can offer a better, personalized guest experience
Small hotel owners are uniquely positioned to provide a more personal guest experience compared to larger chains—but without the right tools in your toolkit, it can be hard to find the time and energy to provide your guests with the personalization they are asking for in 2024.
Hotel reservation system software can benefit the guest experience in a number of ways:
- Guests can view information about your hotel, choose their preferred rooms select dates, make secure payments, and book their stay on their favorite booking channel and from any device
- With their information already in your system, you can streamline check-in and get your guests to their rooms faster. Contactless online self check-in can speed up the process even more.
- You can create detailed guest profiles to help you track preferences, manage special requests, and personalize their stay
- Less time spent on admin means your staff can spend more time with guests
- No more overbookings or booking errors
Get more ideas for delighting your guests:
5. You’ll get better performance data
When you’re busy managing your small hotel, finding the time to dig into (and actually understand) your performance and analytics data can be difficult—or even downright impossible. If you’re still managing reservations manually, you may not even have any data to dig into. That’s a major missed opportunity for growth and revenue.
A hotel reservation system will collect important data and compile it into easy-to-read reports you can actually understand and use to make decisions to grow your business. You can quickly access important data and get insights into booking patterns, front desk activity, occupancy, revenue, and more, which means you can make informed decisions, identify trends, and develop new strategies based on actual performance data, such as:
- Adjusting room rates and classes
- Creating new promotions or packages
- Adding new booking channels
If your hotel reservation system software is part of an all-in-one PMS, you’ll also have access to other useful reports, including financial reports, performance digests, and front desk activity reports.
Checking Out
A hotel reservation system can help you streamline almost every aspect of your front desk operations, including taking and confirming bookings, changing reservation information, creating guest profiles, and more. When you don’t have to spend time manually entering reservations and updating availability across all of your booking channels, you can focus on ensuring that your guests have an unforgettable experience during their stay.
As part of innRoad’s all-in-one PMS, our reservation management system software can help you manage more than just your bookings. You can also:
- Encourage more direct bookings with our hotel booking engine
- Earn more money with powerful revenue management features
- Manage key housekeeping, maintenance, and front desk tasks with built-in task management tools
- Get useful insights into your performance with detailed but easy-to-read reports
