Today, the most advanced booking systems can radically alter how a hotel operates. With a wealth of front-end and back-end features, they have the power to drive direct bookings, grow revenue, increase efficiency and create a much more user-friendly experience for hotel staff and their guests.
The following post offers a guide to how the latest tools can bring dramatic transformation to your own hotel’s booking platform.
Delivering complete flexibility on the back-end system
On the back-end of your system, do you have complete control over your inventory? Skilled revenue managers need the right tools so they can maximize merchandising opportunities. Here are five features worth investing in.
Dynamic pricing rules
As opposed to an inflexible one-size-fits-all model, dynamic pricing lets you set your rates in a much more granular way. A range of parameters can be applied to how rates are set, such as reservation dates, length of stay, lead time, and geographical location.
This flexibility means a hotel can be highly adaptive to the fluidity of the market, constantly fine-tuning prices to remain competitive, maximize revenue, and create timely and appealing packages that are most likely to increase conversions.
Auto-generated landing pages for rate plans
To instantly catch the eye of potential guests, auto-generated landing pages can be swiftly deployed to promote special offers and group rate plans right on the hotel website. These kind of landing pages are easy to publish and can prove effective in a variety of scenarios.
For example, a wedding party with a room block can have its own booking page solely for its special group rate. Or a during a sudden drop in weekend demand, a revenue manager can quickly create a landing page with a weekend promotion such as “20% off room rates and a free breakfast.” By having a separate URL just for the rate plan, revenue managers can easily run promotions and measure the effectiveness of their offer and campaign.
