Building a strong online presence is crucial for any company. In recent years, online commerce has grown dramatically, and with it consumers have changed. The tourism and hotel sector is one of the most absorbed by digital media. Travelers do their research in advance, make comparisons, look for the best prices, and they do all of this online. For this reason, it is no surprise that travel agencies (OTAs) attract the largest volume of visits when it comes to looking for accommodation..
Although the service offered by travel agencies is essential, since it considerably increases the visibility of the hotel, it also has negative points. Booking fees can be up to 20% per booking , or even more, and this dramatically reduces the hotel's profits. Also taking into account a certain loss of autonomy on the part of the hotel over the cost of the reservation.
The need then arises to have a reservation system that can offer travelers the same comforts as those of OTAs. A manual reservation system, which depends on employees, human contact, communication via email or messages, is simply impractical for the agility that customers are accustomed to with automation, so it could even be perceived as unprofessional..
Reservation engines were born to cover this need, as service systems (SaaS), they focus on offering a complete system ready for integration with the hotel website. Once integrated, they are responsible for processing all reservations made accurately, updating availability and processing payments on the spot.
Booking engines are not the only SaaS in the hotel industry, there are a series of systems that are part of the booking engine, among which channel management or sales channel management, and the hotel management system (PEM) stand out. The integration of these tools is the cornerstone triad to exponentially increase the accommodation conversion rate, but when starting the path of growing the hotel's online presence, the central focus must be choosing a good booking engine..
Choose a booking engine
With the growing offer of booking engine systems it is easy to feel indecision when choosing which one to use. Recommendations from other companies and notoriety are the most easily identifiable positive characteristics, as is the case with SiteMinder's booking engine, which is supported by thousands of customers. But beyond the recommendation , what factors should be taken into account when choosing a booking engine?
- Security: Security comes first, since whether or not the system meets all expectations, the first thing you have to make sure is that it is not a scam. Fortunately, it is easy to check, since the platform in question must have information available on its page about the regulations that govern it, including the PCI DSS (data security standard for the payment card industry) and the GDPR. (general data protection regulation).
- Integration: it has to be easy to integrate into your website, allowing intuitive use and configuration. In addition, it must offer integration with your social networks, such as Facebook, with a “book now” button.
- Device compatibility: it must provide the user with a comfortable interface for use from any device, such as cell phones or tablets.
- Payment gateway: You must have a payment gateway capable of handling payments in multiple currencies.
- Functionalities: Despite having a clear function, booking engines usually include functionalities that maximize results, such as the provision of multimedia content (images, videos) on the reservation site, personalization of the site to maintain the hotel's branding, and even many more such as search engine optimization using filters.