However, when it comes to finding a suitable online booking engine, it is easier said than done. There are so many factors that need to be considered before deciding on a hotel booking engine, as different vendors have different features to offer. Even so, it is necessary for you to identify your top requirements and then determine the system that will be able to fulfill those needs with efficiency.

That’s why we’ve come up with a complete buyer’s guide which will help you choose the best hotel booking engine according to your needs.

Why do you need a hotel booking engine?

With technological advancements, hotel booking engine has gained immense importance, as not only it helps you reach a wider audience, but also lets you provide the best possible booking experience to your guests.

Think about it yourself. Why do you need to opt for a hotel booking engine? You may be already getting bookings from third-party online distribution channels, or walk-ins or from some other sources.

But then, ever wondered how much it’s worth? Maintaining rate parity, real-time inventory, handling overbookings and under-bookings, and whatnot! So maybe, this is where are losing your profits and adding a burden of managing your hotel operations.

Let’s face it. You want to give your guests an exceptional experience during their stay, right? So why not start with the moment they book with you?

A great booking experience is the beginning of the guest’s lasting relationship with your brand. Along with the hospitality industry, online booking engines have also evolved over time and have made the booking process simpler and faster. Simply put, a hotel booking engine will let you take bookings from your guests directly from your hotel website. Such an organized approach helps you focus on guest experience, thus increasing your repeat guests.

What should you look for in a hotel booking engine: Buyer’s checklist

• Responsive Booking engine: The booking engine should have a responsive design, applicable, and comfortable to use on any device. So, whether your guests are using computer, tablets, or their smartphones to book with you; the system should offer a flawless booking experience.
• Personalization: It should be adaptable to your hotel’s profile and standards. It should give you complete freedom to set the look and feel of the booking flow as per your hotel website’s theme.
• Appealing Widgets: Bright, simple, and easy-to-use buttons are a necessary addition to your booking engine. Eye catchy widgets with actionable words work best for turning your visitors into bookers (like Book Now, Make a Booking). The booking engine should be able to set up several new widgets on your website and increase your bookings.
• Access Anytime: Use of the reservation system should be at complete ease, giving you the convenience to access it from anywhere at any time. With a hotel reservation system, all you need is a computer/mobile handset and a stable Internet connection, making it easy for you and your staff to supervise direct bookings on the go.
• Apt for Chain Properties: If you have multiple properties, it becomes a difficult task to keep an eye on bookings of every property. Whether you have a stand-alone hotel or a chain of hotels across multiple locations, the hotel booking engine should let your bookings from a single place.
• Guest Engagement: Along with handling bookings, the booking engine should be able to send engaging emails on pre-arrival, during stay and post-departure of the guests along with timely promotional emails to increase repeat guests.
• Payment Processing: Payment processing is an integral part of your hotel’s booking procedure. The hotel booking engine should be capable of handling payments, but should also allow you to choose how to offer deals based on payment methods.
• Upsell Other services: With the booking engine, you should be able to upsell your extra services along with accommodation, thus giving you a chance to increase your revenue.
• Secure: While talking about payments, you must ensure your guests’ data remains safe from security breaches. Thus, the booking engine should be secure, preferably with PCI DSS certification.
• Multi-currency and language support: Most of you want to appeal to a global audience, so it is important to have a booking engine that can be displayed in other languages and also accommodates different currencies. After all, you will most likely be catering to travelers, and you want to make it easy for them to learn more about your offerings and lock in a booking.
• Reports and Stats: Look for a hotel booking engine that offers you a diverse set of reports from bookings, occupancy, revenue, month-on-month bookings, year-over-year stats and more so that you can strategize your business decisions and improve operational efficiency.
• Google’s Free Hotel Booking Links: Google has recently rolled out its free hotel booking links program to allow hotels around the world to appear in google hotel search for free. Also, hotels can display real-time direct booking rates and availability on Google Hotel Search and Google Maps. So, make sure your booking engine provider is an authorized partner for this program.

In a nutshell, a hotel booking engine will let you be available 24X7 for reservations, unlike walk-ins or manual management of bookings.

The post A Complete Buyer’s Guide to Choose The Best Hotel Booking Engine appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Hotels often experience something similar to this when their prospect guests visit their website but do not make any bookings. This aspect of hospitality businesses is measured as the “look-to-book ratio”.

Let’s understand this in more detail.

In today’s digital world, users always scrutinize every service and product they are likely to purchase. That is what travelers do while booking their accommodations. They surf through the internet, various hotel websites, and OTA platforms to find a perfect stay at an affordable price.

I bet you don’t want your hotel to be just a part of their surfing process. Rather you’d like the guests to stop by your website and find it a perfect fit to book.

However, earning an instant booking from your website visitors is not easy. You have to set up proper strategies to hold your guests’ attention and to even out your hotel’s look-to-book ratio effectively.

But worry not. In this blog, I am going to discuss it all step-by-step.

What Is the Look-To-Book Ratio?

As the name suggests, the look-to-book ratio (also known as the L2B ratio) is a comparison between the number of people who visited your website vs the number of people who made a booking.

This ratio is one of the key performance indicators for your hotel and its website. It gives a reality check of your website’s quality and tells you if it is effective enough to make good sales.

What is an ideal look-to-book ratio?

After understanding the look-to-book ratio, as a hotelier, you might want to achieve the best value of it. So, let’s address the real question now – “what is the value of an ideal look-to-book ratio for hotels”?

You might think it is 1:1 but it can happen only in hypothetical situations. It is clearly an unrealistic case where every person that visits your website ends up booking a stay.

To be honest there is not any particular value that hotels should run after. Instead, through constant efforts, they must try to improve their ratio day by day.

So, let's say your look-to-book ratio is 30:1. Meaning, out of 30 people visiting your website, only 1 is booking. Now your next goal can be 25:1 or 20:1. You can even aim to achieve 10:1 in the long term (though it is not a cakewalk).

Yes, it seems easy to write and read these values, but achieving them is a whole different game altogether. However, it is not impossible. And this is why I am here to guide you through perfect strategies to help you reach your goals.

How to Improve Your Hotel’s Look-To-Book Ratio?

To improve your hotel’s look-to-book ratio, the sole strategy is to make your online presence more appealing.

When your guests reach your website they should feel connected. If the website visitors can relate to your website, its content, and your property then you are halfway through.

In this section, I am discussing all the strategies you must note and follow to improve your L2B Ratio.

1. Make your website visible

If you want people to book your hotel, the primary step is to reach them. For that, your website should stand out from the pile of the internet ecosystem.

To do so, you must work on the content of your website. Research on the current customer behavior, how they search on the internet and other platforms, and what they are actually looking for.

In technical terms, note down the SEO keywords (search engine optimization) and include them in your website content.

By using effective SEO for hotels you will get acknowledgment in the search engine to become visible to the world. With time, you will start driving more customer visits to your website.

2. Track your target audience

Let’s just face the truth, you can’t please every visitor. What you can do is attract a particular niche. According to your hotel and its facilities, you must figure out what is an ideal guest persona for your hotel.

Once you track down your audience, you can use effective techniques to pull them in. You should know how to impress them on their first visit to your website.

As we know, hitchhikers and solo travelers will look out for a fun and carefree experience. Whereas families will look out for a whole package and comfortable stays.

So, to hold the attention of your ideal guest, your website should give them the particular vibe they desire. If they do not get excited about their stay just by looking at your website, then they will barely book you.

3. Keep your audience engaged

People do not always visit the hotel’s website to make a booking. Sometimes they just make future plans and casually lookout for travel and vacation spots. (To get that adrenaline boost:D)

In these cases, it is important to make an ever-lasting impression on your audience. They should have a strong image of your hotel so that whenever they plan to book, they will remember you.

To establish such an impact, you must connect with your audience personally besides the basic advertisements. For this, it is important to have your presence on social media sites. 
Recently, hotels are also using WhatsApp business tools to connect well with their guests.

Due to WhatsApp’s popularity among all segments of society, it helps in better reach. With its catalog tool, hotels are able to share their offerings with a single click. It helps build a strong pre-booking connection with guests, eventually resulting in an increased number of bookings.

Explore more benefits of WhatsApp Business 

4. Build an authentic and appealing website

One thing that users lookout in your hotel website is accurate information. While creating it, ensure you are not keeping the details vague and hidden. Always give out the full and right information to your visitors.

This unveils transparency and adds authenticity to your hotel’s image.

However, it does not come solely through the content, the design and color scheme of your website are also inclusive. These can seem to be the less important factors but the visuals do impact a lot on the conscious as well as the subconscious minds of your guests.

So, for bringing a genuine aura to your website, along with its content, you must build it with eye-pleasing and exciting visuals. 

An effective website builder software can help you do so. You can check out eZee Panorama, which helped many properties build their dream websites and improve their L2B ratio.

5. Keep the booking process smooth

Once you build an appealing website, ensure that it also functions smoothly. If there are a lot of hurdles while booking and getting its confirmation, then your website will instantly lose its charm.

The first thing you must look out for is an effective booking engine. It should be highly receptive and instant in terms of functioning. So that, your guest gets a wide range of platforms to connect with your hotel easily. Moreover, it should notify you immediately to track your bookings and assist your potential guests.

You can check out eZee’s Booking Engine which handles all these affairs ideally.

Besides this, the process of booking should be kept short and simple. Do not make your booking box a registration form for some entrance exam. Your guests may feel it is too extensive and may leave without booking.

6. Put up amazing offers

One of the prominent ways to improve your hotel’s look-to-book ratio is by offering great deals.

Your guests surf the internet just to find the best deals. So, if your website has reasonable prices and great offers for them then they will definitely book you.

This is why putting up different offers in festivals and seasons become important. Giving special offers on repeat bookings, discounts on group bookings, and great deals on packages – are some excellent ways to persuade your audience for booking.

7. Provide instant assistance

“Never keep your guests waiting!” This goes for pre-booking as well. The moment you put your guests on hold, you lose them, especially in the pre-booking phase.

Nowadays, people are reckless in terms of doing activities or taking decisions. Gone are the days when they used to have patience.

So, if they have any queries, you better guide them instantly, or else they will move on to your competitors in no time. It is important to be available for your guests whenever they contact you otherwise you lose a booking. This will eventually reflect on your L2B ratio.

8. Shield well from negative reviews

Reviews have become an important source for website visitors to check your hotel’s authenticity. Hence, it is necessary to manage them wisely.

If your prospective guest checks your website and reads a bad review then they become skeptical. It reduces your chances of earning a booking.

Therefore, keeping your website clean and sober in terms of reviews is a must. But it can get a little challenging too.

For making it easy, your hotel can use a reputation management system to deal with the reviews on your website. eZee also provides you with Free Review Response Templates so that you can respond to positive or negative reviews in an ideal and safe way.

9. Handle cancellations like a pro

One thing that can’t be overlooked here is when your guests confirm a booking with you and then cancel it.

Cancellations are the silliest way to lose your bookings. They snatch away your hopes for a better L2B ratio. However, it can be handled well.

If your booking terms are feasible and flexible to suit your guest’s requirements then there are fewer chances of cancellations.

Still, if it happens, you can earn it back by keeping the rescheduling window open for your guests. Or by asking about their genuine issues and trying to amend them.

The post Master the Aspect of the Look-To-Book Ratio for Your Hotel appeared first on eZee Absolute.

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In our industry, booking confirmation emails are also known as hotel reservation vouchers. Just as the name suggests, these emails or vouchers are the receipts given to the guests as an acknowledgment for the services they paid for.

Do not mix up this voucher as other vouchers. Other vouchers have coupon codes or the details of the offers. They aren’t the acknowledgement receipts.

Most of you must be familiar with the term – hotel reservation voucher or booking confirmation email.

In case, you aren’t let me tell you,

What is a hotel booking confirmation email?

Hotel booking confirmation (reservation) voucher is an acknowledgment given by the hotel to the guest for the reservation they have made. It comprises of all the details of the reservation. 

As a general practice, almost all the hotels send the reservation voucher to the guests. However, some hotels don’t consider it important to do so, and this aspect of a good guest experience goes neglected big time.

While those who send such booking confirmation emails don’t include all the required parameters in it, which can affect the guest experience. (You know what they say, when you do it, DO IT RIGHT!)

For them, let me explain you,

Why is sending a hotel reservation voucher important?

The reasons are simple and straightforward.

Because your guests expect it!
You see my friend; when you order something online, you look for confirmation from the service provider as well. Right? Similarly, your guests do.

For reassurance
It is the most basic reason. You give them the assurance that the booking or reservation is made successfully.

It enhances your guest experience
It creates an impression that you care for your guests. Besides, it is the first platform to interact with your guests.

It secretly promotes your extra services
A booking confirmation email is never left unopened. Basically, with this email you get a golden opportunity to promote your hotel’s other services.

So, you shouldn’t think of these confirmation emails as a teeny-weeny element of your hotel management. They are every bit important as everything else you do to enhance your hotel guest experience.

AND, if you’re not sending these, then start doing it from today!

NOW, you’ll say, ‘Alright, but…

What to include in your hotel booking confirmation email?

Well, it’s not rocket science, to be honest! There are a few things that you have to consider while developing your reservation voucher. 

First things first, begin with gratitude. Thank them for selecting your hotel. Secondly, address them with their name.

Now let’s head towards the important sections!

Remember, the core purpose is an assurance of the details. So make sure you add all required details in your hotel reservation confirmation email.

1. Mandatory information:

Make sure that nothing gets left out. Following are the details that you SHOULD include in every booking voucher:

• Reservation number
• Booking date
• Guest’s name
• PAX details
• Number of rooms
• Room type
• Confirmation email text
• Check-in and check-out date
• Number of nights
• A well-explained bill: Clearly specify the deposit amount and the remaining amount. (Do not forget to add the details of taxes and other extra charges.)
• Cancellation policy
• Terms and conditions
• Hotel’s contact details
• Mention their special preferences (if there are any!)
• Directions to reach your hotel
• Images of your property
• Your hotel’s social media handles

Adding all these important information will help your guests to find all their required information in one place. 

But before we go ahead with anything else, let me tell you how adding more details will leave an excellent impression on your guests. (Above all, assist you to drive additional revenue from upselling extra services.)

Well, I travel a lot. And when I book my stays, I receive such booking confirmation emails from different hotels. So you see, I can easily guide you on which information is more preferable to add in these emails.

Please note that, the details that I’m mentioning now onward are not mandatory but I’d highly recommend to add them. I’m suggesting you to add these details from my experience and the little knowledge I have of the industry. However, you can include them as per your convenience.

2. Inform them about ongoing deals, offers and promotions

You might be running different promotions every now and then at your property. So, you can include the promo codes of these promotions in your reservation vouchers.

You can highlight them in the header (banner).

Here are some examples of offers that you can give:

1. 50% off on the spa services. (Valid till 30 September) Use code: SPA50
2. Summer offer: 35% off on pickup and drop-off facility (Valid till 1st November) Use code: PD35

If you have any discount offer on any extra services and amenities, then mention them as well.  

3. Mention your extra services

You must be offering many extra services like banquet, meeting spaces, spa, and gym. Then add them in your confirmation email and let your guests know about what else you’re offering apart from accommodation.

If you are providing any additional services like pickup and drop-off facilities or car rental services, then add those too.

Consider the following scenario,
Let’s say you’ve received a group booking from a family of 5. Now as you know, figuring out the transportation is one of the major hassles of traveling. 

In this case, if they get your booking voucher with the mention of pickup and drop-off facilities, imagine how convenient it would be to them! They would immediately opt for your pickup facilities.

This way, you can upsell and deliver a better guest experience.  

4. Give a link of the guest self-service portal

These days, many hotels have a guest self-service portal. It is a temporary portal that is provided to the guests. With this portal, guests can,  

• Build their profile and set up their preferences
• Perform self-check-in
• Modify their reservation. (Of course, up to a certain time limit)
• Request for any extra services
• Check their estimated bill anytime on their mobile

Basically, with this portal, you are giving them complete control over managing their stay.   

This was all about guests. Now, how does it benefit you? 

• You can upsell your other recreational services such as spas or pickup and dropoff in the self-service portal.
• You can keep track of all requests made by guests and respond to them directly from the hotel software.

NOTE: If you don’t have such a portal, you can explore our online hotel software – eZee Absolute that comes along with a guest self-service portal. 

5. Mention about your in-house restaurant/cafe/bar

If you have your in-house restaurant, cafe, bar or resto-bar, then add their details in the confirmation email or voucher. 

I have an awesome idea to drive revenue for F&B business through the reservation voucher. 

Nothing grabs the attention of humans than the word ‘FREE’. Ask them to follow your hotel’s social media account, tag your hotel, mention three friends, and give something for free in return.

It can go something like this:

Get our famous hazelnut coffee with traditional red-velvet cookie FREE by showing us some love.

• Follow us at (your social media platform link)
• Tag us in your story

That’s it.
In this way, they will definitely visit your bar, cafe, or restaurant. And there are chances they might visit again!

6. Ask for any special preferences

As I have said previously, personalization is the key. Every individual has their own preferences. Obviously, a hotel cannot fulfill all of them. But, you can consider asking their preferences and at least TRY to fulfill them as much as you can.

For example, 

• Any special aroma
• Preferences in food and drinks
• Any special toiletries
• Newspaper
• International calling facilities for the business traveler

By asking the special preferences, you can provide each guest with an unforgettable and personalized guest experience. It will bring them back again and again.

You may like to read: 11 best ways to enhance hotel guest experience

To cut it short, asking for guest preferences will make them feel like you care, and have them prefer your brand for their next stay and even recommend you to their friends and relatives.

7. Ask for a local guide 

Out of different types of guests you get, most are tourists. If you have a local guide, you can add about it in the email.

Or, you can also provide them with destination guides for the city tour. Many hotels write about the city tour or the local places to visit in their blogs. If you have such content, provide a link of that in the email.

8. Inform them about upcoming events

If there are any upcoming events like the musical concert, some festival or any flea near your hotel, then you can inform them about it as well in your hotel booking confirmation voucher.

You can even tie up with the events as a “Stay Partner” and offer stay at some discounts to the attendees. This is one effective hotel promotion technique.

These are the few things from my end that you can consider to add in your hotel reservation voucher.

Now, let’s have a look at an ideal hotel reservation email sample and design:

Now, let’s see whether this hotel booking confirmation sample email includes everything we discussed or not?

So far you’ve learnt how to design a reservation voucher that will get you more revenue. 

Well, the best is yet to come. 

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’d know that I’m always giving tips and tricks on good design. This time, I’ve worked with the marketing and design experts at eZee to come up with best booking confirmation email for your hotel.

All you have to do is download them, configure your details and you’re good to go!

These templates have various hotel booking confirmation email samples. You can begin by selecting the template that you like. Use it for a certain period of time. Then try another template for some time.

Analyze which template is performing well and stick with it. Do tell me in the comments about how they worked for you.

There might be many other things that you can consider. You can combine the parameters of a few hotel booking voucher templates or add a new one too. Also, can apply your thought process and come up with many ideas. 

I’d be looking for your ideas and feedback in the comment section. 

The post How to Effectively Design Hotel Booking Confirmation Email? [FREE Templates Inside] appeared first on eZee Absolute.

And if he has a hotel website; chances are, he’s already taking steps to acquire bookings from there.

However, most of the hotels strive to rank above the OTAs in the search engines. Such that, visitors hardly reach the hotel website; let alone make a booking from there.

So, in this blog; I’m going to talk about some great ways to increase direct hotel bookings on your website; including steps to make your website visible OVER the OTAs in search results.

Let’s start from the scratch.

What are direct bookings in hotel industry?

The bookings made at your property without involvement of any third-party website or person, are termed as direct bookings. 

Since these are commission-free (and of course more profitable) bookings, naturally any hotelier would wish to acquire more of them. 

And if we look at the facts,

Nearly two-thirds of guests prefer to book direct with hotels.

Triptease

Having said that, if you’ve not started focusing on this aspect of hotel management, you should START doing this right away.

In this blog, I am giving you 14 assured strategies to increase direct hotel bookings:

There are two mediums through which you can increase direct bookings:

1. Your website
2. Other platforms

Let’s first see, 

How to increase direct hotel bookings from your website?

Your website is the face of your hotel brand, therefore it has to be excellently developed. Here’s how you can drive maximum bookings from your website:

1. Have a mobile-friendly hotel website

First things first, have a mobile-friendly hotel website or turn it into one. Besides, it should be accessible on all devices; be it a laptop or PC, or even tablets. The more accessible or reachable you are, the higher opportunity there is to acquire direct hotel bookings.

Moreover, keep in mind that whenever any visitor comes to your website, the very first page he visits is your homepage. For a better conversion, give as much information as you can on your website homepage.

You can also highlight your unique selling services, or your scenic surroundings (if there are any) to attract the visitors to book with you.

2. Integrate a booking engine to your website

You made your website responsive. Great! People are visiting your website, browsing it, and now want to book with you.

But, there’s a DEAD END there!

Why? Because you don’t have a booking engine integrated with your website!

Here, having a hotel’s brand website is just not enough. You need to integrate the best (READ: attractive and effective) booking engine, which will let your visitors book directly with you from the website itself.

A booking engine that just fetches the direct bookings is not enough. It SHOULD impel your website’s visitors and convert them to bookers. 

3. Optimize website to rank on Google

Your visitor lands on your website. What next? Lead him to your booking engine to book with you.

Nowadays, your guests would always explore your hotel and more options on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to book their stay. 

And you SHOULD be there; where your guests are looking for you.

And to be there, you need to perform search engine optimization (SEO) of your hotel website. 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process used to rank your hotel website on these search engines for more quality and quantity traffic. 

SEO service includes; building links from relevant sites, optimizing page content with keywords, and more. (Read all about hotel SEO – here)

Apart from this, maintain your website’s loading speed. Nobody likes a website that keeps loading for even 10 seconds.

According to Tnooz, 

32% of bookings on mobile devices are abandoned due to slow loading time.

Phocuswire

A slight delay can let bookers leave and switch to your competitor’s site, which will ultimately break your conversion rates.

Having said that, improvise your hotel website’s loading speed to give a flawless user-experience to your visitors while booking with you. 

4. Keep attractive CTAs on your website

Your visitor lands on your website. What next? Lead him to your booking engine to book with you.

You see, your visitor has landed on your website, he has explored your services, rooms, gallery and other pages, but he hasn’t booked with you yet.

What do you think you missed?

Well, let me tell you – it is the attractive call-to-action (CTA).

In simple words, I’m talking about the BOOK NOW button or booking box.

Your CTAs play an important role to get you more bookings, that’s why do not forget to keep appealing CTAs (Call To Actions) on your website. The CTAs should be that attractive that your visitor can’t help and click on it.

5. Highlight social proofs for your website visitors

These days, none of your guests will book their stay without checking your hotel ratings and rankings, client testimonials, social media followers and case studies. 

So, consider highlighting your reviews on your website or any of the above said parameters. 

These factors work as a proof for your visitors. By displaying these, you are giving them an assurance that your hotel is well known and trusted.

Believe me, this would definitely encourage your visitors to book their stay with you.

6. Use widgets on your website

Engaging with your visitors at every stage increases the possibilities to convert them into a booker.

But you may ask, how can you engage with each and every visitor? 

To start with, offer “direct booking discounts” to the visitors for booking directly through the website. 

Around 45% of travelers consider offers and perks important while booking.

Skift

Additionally, get a booking engine which has ready plug and play widgets; such as exit pop ups, quick notifications, welcome box, and many more. This will engage with your visitors effectively and direct them to book with you.

When your guests come across such notifications and highlights, they get more curious and they might book with you instantly. 

7. Let your visitors compare rates

Before booking a hotel room, your guests tend to go through several websites and other multiple OTAs to compare the prices. 

Now, what if you can provide them the comparison on your website itself? 

Try giving your website visitors the best possible comparison, so they can make the decision there and then. 

By doing this, your chance of getting direct bookings increases and on the other hand, it minimizes your dependence on OTAs.

Note: eZee Reservation has this price widget, through which you can give the comparison of the hotel rates with the OTA’s rates on the website itself.

8. Implement a live chatbot to attend guest inquiries

When visitors land on the hotel website and browse through your website, they may have several queries. And you have to answer them instantly, because if they don’t get any reply within a few minutes, they may leave. 

And you know what, this may lead to a bad hotel brand reputation. 

In such a case, if you’ve got a chatbot, it becomes easy for you to provide instant replies to your website visitors. 

If your guests have any questions, they would instantly ask the chatbot. And within a few seconds the chatbot will answer their queries. 

When they will get their answer in a fraction of seconds, they will be able to make a decision instantly. 

So these were some ways to generate direct hotel bookings from your website. Now you may think, what could be other mediums to get bookings from?

Let us explore them in detail:

How to increase direct hotel bookings apart from your website?

Well, there are lots of other ways to get more direct bookings. This is why many hoteliers still skip the thought of not owning a brand website. As, it’s not just your website that counts; but your reviews, your social media presence, and a plethora of other factors that affect your hotel’s direct sales.

Here’s how you can make the most of them.

9. Make the most of metasearch engines

According to Trivago,

Roundabout 50% of all online bookers make use of metasearch to discover their perfect hotel.

It is a search engine that collects different hotel rates and availability from other websites and shows the combined results, all in one place.

Listing your hotel on metasearch engines makes you more visible in the online market. It not only helps you get more online bookings but also increases your brand value globally.

Further, you can also run ad campaigns on the metasearch engines like TripAdvisor, Trivago, and Google to drive bookings. 

Not to mention, search giant Google has rolled a program called Free Hotel Booking Links for hotels worldwide to showcase their real-time direct booking rates for free. 

#PointToNote: Hotels can enroll for this program only through Google’s authorized integration partners. You can read more about it here. 

So make sure you are listed on all the possible metasearch engines.

10. Manage your online reviews

Reviews pose as a key factor in your guests’ purchase decision. 

Almost 80% of bookers consider reviews to be essential before making the final reservation. Good reviews can affect a traveler’s booking choice to a great extent. Therefore, it is important to strategically promote positive guest reviews on your website.

You can also share your positive reviews on your social platforms to build a strong brand reputation. 

And make sure that just collecting reviews is not enough, you have to respond to them timely. 

And to do that, you can use our ready-made review response templates to quickly respond to the website reviews.

11. Let guests book directly from social media

With the rapid and unstoppable march of social media, hotel marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. Hence, marketing through social media-based channels is an excellent tool for dominating search results and to drive social media traffic to your hotel website.

Moreover, set up your profile on social media, post amazing content and lure your followers to visit your hotel once. 

Even best; you can integrate your booking engine with your Facebook page and let your fans book with you from the Facebook page itself. 

Now, amid the hustle and bustle of hotel operations, you may not  be able to post the content regularly on your social media handles. 

To help you with that here, our social media posts templates. Simply download the templates, choose your favourite one and start posting. 

12. Implement targeted marketing

When you have an advanced hotel software, it can give you detailed guest data from your hotel PMS. From that, you can know your customer segments, build targeted reports, and marketing elements that you can further personalize to each guest. 

Also, you can work upon enhancing your guest experience by sending them pre-arrival, post-stay, or some precisely targeted emails, thereby increasing the number of repeat guests. 

Besides, when happy customers leave your hotel, don’t consider that as the end of the service. Keep in touch by sending special offers to happy customers on important occasions like festivals, long weekends, their birthdays and anniversaries.

Offer them special discounts to book online. Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter and send them compelling newsletters from time to time, and make them think about returning to your hotel.

13. Run ads to make visitors book directly

Your marketing strategy should be different for every sort of audience. For example, it should be different to attract new bookers, to visitors who landed on your website once, or bookers that frequently visit OTAs to book a hotel room.

And do you know which marketing strategy lets you cater to all these audiences distinctly?

Online ADS.  

You can run different online ads on Google, Facebook or any other platforms

You can design target-specific ads campaigns or strategies for increasing hotel room sales and website direct bookings.

For better ad conversions; you can also make use of our Google ad templates as well as Facebook ad templates.

14. Run loyalty programs

Your repeat guests always want to feel more special, and loyalty programs have always been a great way to do so.

By giving exclusive deals and discounts to repeat customers, you can create a powerful way to boost repeat visits that are booked directly through your website.

Loyalty programs is one of the best strategies to attract your guests to choose you over your competitors.

The post 14 Great Ways to Increase Direct Bookings on Your Hotel Website appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Seldom you might have come across this question, “Do you accept a card?” Well, it is mostly asked when your guest wants to make a cashless payment at your hotel.

And if your answer to this question is NO; then let me tell you, my friend, you are surely behind the curve in this digital world.

But, if you reply with a pleasing YES; your hotel has a sureshot green tick on your guest’s mind.

Having global acceptance, online transactions are the easiest and fastest growing mode of payment.

They are payments made with a real-time gross settlement; driving people to carry more plastic money (cards) in their wallets than having physical cash.

While, cashless payments in hotels are being preferred significantly, however some still strive to adopt them at their properties. 

On that note, in this blog, I have gathered all information on how you can adopt cashless payments in your hotel and the various ways through which you can accept them.

Let’s begin with,

What are cashless payments?

Remember those days when we recorded our expenses and incomes in files? And, we had huge drawers and lockers to keep the cash secure? 

However, this situation has changed completely now. Bills and cash are rapidly becoming a distant memory, as the world moves into the cashless era.

Right from purchasing a carton of milk to a new car – everything is being paid digitally; with its information stored on your smartphones. 

To be precise, cashless payments have swept everything into a new world of digital transactions. 

So what are they?

Basically, cashless payments are made by transferring electronic money typically through a bank transfer or a card; without the need for physical cash.

They are the simplest, fastest, and safest way to carry money on your fingertips anywhere in and around the world.

Let’s find out,

Why are cashless payments a must in the new normal?

With the COVID19 pandemic attacking the globe; going cashless is no longer an option, but rather a necessity for all types of businesses.

In the hospitality industry, it has enforced the revolution of contactless services and digital payments; further boosting the pay@hotel option gradually. 

Mainly because of the simplified transaction procedure and refund policy that it provides to your guests. 

Let me highlight you a few,

Key benefits of cashless payments in hotels: 

Convenient to guests: Naturally, guests don’t need to carry physical money while traveling to make payments. Either they pay while booking through any medium (OTA, booking engine, etc) or they pay directly at your property. This is convenient for them and even enables quicker transactions. 

Reduces human errors: Electronic payment transactions are easier to record and track, yet safe from thefts. On top of that, managers no longer need to register this influx diligently against the receipts; thereby leaving no space for manual errors.

Enables paperless and contact free payments: The new normal to go contactless is one of the most favored reasons to adopt cashless payments. Besides, it helps hoteliers serve more customers in less time thereby enhancing the hotel’s revenue.

Allows proper collection of customer data: Cashless payments record every transaction that is made, providing you essential data on who buys what and when. This gives you an opportunity to understand your customers better and offer them services based on their preferences. 

Eliminates the risks of keeping cash: Handling cash has a lot of risks involved. It can get stolen, damaged during disasters, accidentally hand over extra change, and suchlike. With a cashless system, managing your money becomes quite simple.

Loyal customers and bookings: Receiving prepaid reservations ensures you that the booking is valid and has lower chances of no show or cancellation. This helps you maintain optimum occupancy at your property and thereby boost your business revenue.

To sum up, going cashless can surely be a boon to your hospitality business owing to negligible risks involved, ease of use, and higher guest satisfaction.

Since you are well versed with the benefits, let me shower some insights on, 

Why are cash payments not recommended now?

Technology is changing every single day. If we look back, cash payments were the most and quite frankly, the only source of money people relied upon.

To state the truth, online payments did take some time to claw their way inside the ecosystem. But now that they’re in, they’re going to stay here for good. 

Those who never made online transactions are now keen on making cashless payments (even my Dad, who used to be skeptical with such methods now prefers Paytm and Google Pay over cash exchange). 

To mention, cash payments are not preferred because: 

• Transactions are often lengthy
• Deliver slower services 
• Possibility of fake notes or dirty money
• Constant need to maintain change

Not to mention, currently, the hand-to-hand exchange of cash is considered risky. So, hotels need to prioritize their guests’ needs now and adopt a no-cash policy.

To start with this, let me guide you on the various ways to accept cashless payments at your hotel.

How can you offer cashless payments at your hotel? 

There are numerous ways to go cashless. In fact, with every new guest entering your premises; you’ll find a unique payment method they prefer. 

Though, here I am covering some of the best and most preferred payment methods to help your hotel business pilot it’s way into a cash-free world.

1. Debit and Credit Cards

Banking cards offer your guests more security, convenience, and control than any other payment method.

I’m sure the amount of debit and credit card holders across the world is almost equal or even more to our overall population. 

In the Q1 of 2020, there were around 1141 million VISA credit cards issued across the world. 

Source 

Whereas, in Q4 of 2020, there were around 2.33 billion VISA debit cards issued globally. 

Source

These cards allow your guests to transact money directly from their bank account and pay for your services within a fraction of seconds; saving equal time and effort behind collecting such payments for you and your guests.

Some examples of card payment systems are: RuPay, Visa, and MasterCard.

Note: You might need a credit card server integration or a POS system to swipe cards for payments. 

2. Net banking

Net (internet) banking is an alternative to a debit or credit card. Here your guests need to login to their net banking account to approve a payment. 

Net banking gives your guests the flexibility of transacting even if they have misplaced their debit card or credit card, or for those who don’t prefer to carry cards everywhere. 

Through internet banking, they can make utility payments, purchase goods and services online, or send and receive money.

It is an electronic payment system that enables your customers to conduct a range of financial transactions.

These are services that enable real-time transactions for your guests to make any cashless payments at your property.

Some examples of internet banking are: IMPS, NEFT, and RTGS.

3. UPI 

UPI stands for Unified Payment Interface. It is an immediate and 24×7 functioning payment system that helps you transfer funds between any two bank accounts through a mobile platform.

The only thing that you require is, to have an account with a bank that provides a UPI App for Android, Windows, and iOS mobile platform(s).

Once done, make sure to register your mobile number with the respective bank and link it to the UPI account. 

With this, you can receive cashless payments at your property on-the-go in just a matter of a click.

Working in real-time, this mobile payment method has recently been most prevalent in India to facilitate inter-bank transactions without having to deal with any transaction fee. 

Some examples of UPI are: BHIM, PhonePe, and Google Pay.

4. e-Wallets 

An e-Wallet is a digital wallet that users can carry anywhere. It poses as an online service or a program that allows users to process electronic transactions while paying for goods and services through digital currency. 

These platforms usually have a QR based option that allows users to simply scan, pay, and avail any of your services. 

So instead of asking them to make payment with a credit or debit card, you can simply place a QR code scanner at your hotel premises to accept digital payments.

For this, all you and your guests need to do is link your bank account to the available digital wallet app. 

In like manner, banks have now introduced these features in their mobile banking app itself; making it even easier for you to accept payments. 

Some examples of mobile wallets are: Mobikwik, Apple Pay, and Citrus Pay. 

5. Payment gateway

A payment gateway is the simplest way for hoteliers (and businesses alike) to collect digital or online payments from their website.

It acts as an interface between you and your guest’s bank to transfer money securely and perform any online payments.

In other words, a payment gateway is a software that authorizes you to conduct an online transaction through different payment modes.

These can be net banking, credit card, debit card, UPI, or any online wallets that are available these days. 

Basically, it is a master of all the above mentioned cashless payment methods and an essential integration that your hotel software must have.

Some examples of payment gateways are: RazorPay, Paytm, Amazon Pay, and PayPal. 

In a nutshell, the past few years have been a rollercoaster of innovation for hoteliers. Starting from paperless, contactless, and now cashless; we are surely on a new ride to success.

And I believe if the industry adopts these practices then customer experience and stay can definitely reach a new high.

But before that, let me give you a quick glance on

What should hoteliers keep in mind while moving to cashless payments?

Turning your hotel into a cashless property cannot be done overnight. It does involve a lot of thinking, planning, and implementation.

Here are a few mandatory factors you should keep in mind for that:

1. First and foremost, identify the areas and points where cash-exchange happens on your premises (spa, restaurants, gift shops, etc). 
2. Analyze and decide which mode of cashless payment would suit the best. For example, if it is a play zone area, then mobile wallets can be the most convenient way to enforce. 
3. Do not restrict yourself to any one payment method. Always have an alternative payment method for those guests who aren’t active or don’t prefer your chosen approach. 
4. Adopting the right payment system and ensuring the ultimate security of your guests’ data is the most crucial element that you need to take care of.

Failing to protect your customer’s data will definitely have huge aftermath on your reputation and brand image.

Understanding this, such services are often PCI DSS certified. Thus, ensure that your property and the hotel technology you use is committed to PCI compliance.

FAQs

I am sure, a lot of questions must have popped into your head. And it’s only fair. I personally would not recommend you to go ahead with any method unless you’re clear with all its aspects. 

The post Cashless Payments in Hotels: The What, Why, and How? appeared first on eZee Absolute.

And hoteliers like you should stay tuned with the in-thing and make the most of it. We’re here to familiarize you with the perks of using technology, and that too; integrated solutions on that note in terms of technology for hoteliers. Go ahead, read on and stay informed:

The post [Infographic] Technology For Hoteliers: The Factors Surrounding It appeared first on eZee Absolute.

BUT, you can’t work on all of them simultaneously with a stand alone system. Even you know it. 

You need an ALL-IN-ONE (integrated) hotel technology for this. 

Afterall, technology has the power to make or break any business. 

Having said that, in this blog, we are going to talk about different software used by hotels, and the need of integrated hotel technology.

To start, let’s explore the different applications used by hotels these days. 

Which software are used in the hotel industry?

It’s been years since technology penetrated the hospitality industry. Since then, there have been a plethora of software applications developed and shut down. But a few have prevailed and are still in constant use. 

They are: 

Hotel Software:

The hotel management software is used to streamline reservations, front office, back office, housekeeping, guest management and even billing operations. 

Generally, there are two types of hotel software used in the hotel industry:

• On-premise hotel software
• Cloud-based hotel software

Well, both the software have their positives and negatives. However, it solely depends on an individual hotel business to choose a software that fulfills its requirements. 

Must-read: A Complete Guide to Select the Right Hotel Software 

Channel Manager:

The Channel manager helps hotels manage their inventory distribution and rates in real-time on different channels (viz. OTAs, GDS, vacation rental portals) and fetch reservations from them. 

The system updates the latest availability on all connected channels as soon as any booking is received. 

Booking Engine:

The online booking engine is responsible to showcase your availability on your website. It is integrated with your hotel’s website and social media pages and allows you to acquire direct, commission-free bookings.

Restaurant POS System:

Hotels often provide room services. And some of them may have in-house restaurants, cafes, bars or pubs. For that reason, hotels use restaurant POS systems to manage their food and beverage services. 

Similar to the hotel software, there are two types of restaurant POS systems:

1. On-premise restaurant POS system
2. Cloud-based restaurant POS system

Depending on the size and requirements of the F&B business, the most suitable POS system is selected.

Review Management Software:

Your property receives online reviews on numerous platforms. It is a monotonous task for hotels to check and respond to those reviews from each platform’s extranet / back end. 

Therefore, hotels use a review management software to collect, monitor, and respond to all the online reviews effortlessly. 

Loyalty Program Software:

As the facts stand,

Around 50% of future revenue comes from just 20% of the existing guests. 

Forbes

And, loyalty programs are indeed a surefire way of ensuring that your existing guests select YOUR hotel brand over others.  

A loyalty program software helps hotels to keep a track of all their loyal guests’ details, their earned loyalty points, rewards, and basically streamline all the nitty-gritty of loyalty program management.

Add-ons:

So far, we have learned about the primary technology solutions you need to simplify your hotel’s major operations. However, to function smoothly, you need other products, which are commonly used as third-party integrations.

For example, integration with:

1. Financial accounting software to keep proper track of sales, purchases, payables and receivables.
2. PABX to calculate the phone call charges (If you are providing facilities of local or international calling to your guests.)
3. Payment gateways to accept and process online payments.
4. SMS gateways to send several types of messages to your guests.
5. Electronic key card or any doorlock interface to ensure the security of rooms.
6. Passport scanners to verify and store the guest details.

These are just a few off the top of my head. There could be many others as well.  

Explore our collection of 500+ hardware and software integrations for the effortless hotel management. 

Depending upon the type, size, location, and requirements, hotels have to adopt a broad set of technology to ensure automation up to 90%. 

Moving on, let us understand,

Why do hotels need all-in-one hotel technology?

Here, let us take an example.

In the human body, the brain is connected with all the organs via nerves, tissues or muscles. These nerves are used to transmit messages from the brain to all the organs, who then perform the required action. 

Well, the hotel software also works pretty much in the same way. 

It is connected to all the aspects of your hotel business such as reservations, housekeeping, backoffice, payments through integrations with separate systems. The hotel software, which is at the core of your business, brings all the departments together and notifies them about any action required. 

And for better clarification, we have listed some solid reasons to have an all-in-one hotel technology:

To keep up with the latest trends

Using a standalone hotel software is an outdated concept. In an industry where innovations happen every day, you have to keep up with the latest technology and adopt the practices that most of the successful businesses are following. 

To ensure a better user experience

When you have siloed systems integrated with each other, you have to deal with different user interfaces, training programs, and functioning. Basically, you don’t have anything centralized or common. 

But all-in-one technology provides you with the same experience throughout the entire systems, thus not hindering your user experience. 

To avoid integration hassles

With disjoint technology, you constantly come across integration issues, contacting multiple vendors for support, and even complexity of handling distinct databases. 

Well, there’s an endless list of hassles you need to face and resolve to make the system compatible for your hotel.

Now, let’s talk about something practical and realistic. So, what exactly happens to your property if you don’t use an integrated technology? Let’s see.  

What happens if you don’t have an integrated hotel technology?

The sole purpose of technology is to make things easier and simpler for you, NOT to increase your complexities. 

But, if you have segregated software, you may come across more difficulties than you could imagine. 

Some of them are:

Can’t track real-time business performance

When your hotel management solutions are not synchronized, you have overlapping databases. Each system provides you with different reports. 

Since each software is limited to look after a certain set of operations only, they will provide reports accordingly. In this way, it becomes quite inconvenient for you to merge the data and then analyze your entire business performance.  

How does an integrated system help you overcome this challenge? 

An all-in-one hotel software gives you centralized control over your entire hotel operations. 

You get consolidated reports of your reservations, online distribution, marketing, bookings, and revenue generation. So, it becomes easy for you to track your performance and strategize to expand your hotel business.  

Have to deal with multiple vendors

In absence of integrated hotel technology, dealing with multiple vendors becomes a part of your list. 

You have to handle multiple contracts, payments, support – everything separately. You have to maintain communication with each vendor, consuming a lot of time and taking a toll on your efficiency.

And the biggest challenge lies in fragmented databases in the systems. 

Since all the systems will have a unique way to manage and record your guest database, you won’t have a centralized storage. And we know, a consolidated guest database is crucial to impart a good guest experience. 

Think again, do you want to spend your day dealing with vendors or taking care of your guests?

How does an integrated system help you overcome this challenge? 

When you have a complete suite of hotel management technology from one vendor; chasing multiple providers becomes a thing of the past. 

It is a one-stop solution for hotels; you have one contract, one invoice, one support number and one point of contact. 

In addition, you have a centralized access and storage of all your data. So, it solves all your concerns about dispersed data.

Absence of live inventory distribution

Hotels like you have multiple booking sources viz. OTAs, website, walk-ins, phone and through local travel agents. 

Now, when you DON’T have a channel manager integrated with a hotel software and booking engine, then you come across the following situation:

Let’s say, you have a hotel with 10 rooms. You’re getting bookings from 4 different channels; such as OTAs (Agoda, Expedia, Booking.com), booking engine, local tour operator, and metasearch engines.

You received a booking from Booking.com. As soon as that happens, the channel manager updates the revised inventory (i.e. 9 rooms) across all your connected channels.

Now, you have the latest availability on all channels.

Later, you receive a walk-in reservation. Since your hotel software and channel manager aren’t integrated, you have to update the latest inventory MANUALLY. But, even a nanosecond delay in doing this may lead to overbookings. 

We’re sure you don’t want this to happen to you. Right?

How does an integrated system help you overcome this challenge? 

The integrated trio of the hotel software, booking engine and channel manager helps you manage inventory and rates in REAL-TIME on your connected channels. 

This means, any changes made in the inventory or rates from the PMS or any booking received; will be instantly reflected on all platforms. 

As a result, your hotel’s latest availability is maintained on all the channels; reducing your overbookings and helping you utilize 100% inventory. The up-to-date rates also decrease your rate disparity concerns. 

Have to incur cost and maintenance of integration

Certainly, when you have standalone systems, you have to put in additional efforts, money and resources to integrate them.

Above that, you NEED to keep chasing all the providers to develop the integration. It’s a tiring process in its entirety. (Believe us, you don’t want to experience that!))

Besides, individual systems turn out to be quite heavy on your pocket.

Another major problem is the maintenance of the software. Various vendors will have their own frequency and process for upgrades and downtimes. 

So, it will be challenging for you to keep your hotel operations up and running 24X7.  

DEAD END? 

How does an integrated system help you overcome this challenge? 

You can get rid of all these hassles by implementing an all-in one hotel technology suite from a single vendor. There’d be no requirements of additional integration. 

The best part is, your vendor will take care of the downtime and enhancements; ensuring that your operations are not hindered.

Besides, when you purchase all software from one vendor, you’d definitely have a nice pocket friendly deal. 

Have data leak and security breach concerns 

With the scattered software, security issues always prevail. 

Being a part of the hospitality industry, you have access to highly confidential information of your guests.

Not only that, the hotel software you use contains important information about your business. 

In case of separate systems, you’d have to face changing security measures. With no consistency of encryption techniques and processes; you’ll be prone to data leak and breach attacks.

How does an integrated system help you overcome this challenge? 

Since there’s one vendor, you don’t have to worry about security measures of individual software. Your tech provider will be ensuring consistent measures across the whole suite.  

A few tech providers offer a PCI-DSS compliant* integrated hotel management system. Such systems have the encrypted database and the providers are following all the protocols of PCI-DSS to safeguard your data from breach.  

*The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is an information security standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards from the major card schemes.\

Your day-to-day hotel operations, reservations, review management, business performance or be it anything, an all-in-one hotel technology is capable of to handle all of it. 

Now, you may think,

Where can you find the best integrated hotel solutions?

The solution is actually pretty simple.

Invest in a robust and all-in-one hotel technology solution like:

Both of them are seamlessly connected with eZee’s in-house channel manager, booking engine, review management software, hotel loyalty program, and likewise. 

These comprehensive hotel management systems are transforming the traditional practices and enabling hotels to transcend their growth. 

Now, let us guide you on,

Benefits of having a one stop-solution for entire hotel management

By far, you must be substantially clear with the fact that having a suite of connected hotel software is all you need. 

Once you adopt such technology, you don’t have to worry about the hassles of using a standalone software. 

Above all, an all-in-technology benefits you in following ways:

Improves efficiency and accuracy

An all-in-one hotel technology automates all your operations and sets you free from managing them manually.

You don’t have to jump from one system to another to track the business performance, get access to the data or for anything. 

Ergo, all it takes is a right suite of technology to enhance your efficiency and emerge as a best hotel.  

Enhances your guest experience

Your guest’s satisfaction is directly relative to your services. 

Better the services, happier the guests!

Well, personalization is the key to make your guests happy. 

So, you can put efforts in delivering the best personalized guest experience. 

You can greet them personally, you can manage their requests and can walk an extra mile to enhance their state experience. 

Lets you focus on other business aspects

Automated and simplified operations with an all-in-one hotel technology, help you concentrate on other aspects of your hotel business as well. For instance, your hotel’s:

• OTA performance
• Online review management
• Reputation management
• Revenue and marketing management

…and the list could be endless.

In a nutshell, you can focus on N different elements of hotel business.

Optimizes your resource utilization

Your key resources are your staff, money and time. And the all-in-one technology solutions ensure you the optimal utilization of your resources.

Let us explain to you how. 

First thing first, it saves your time and efforts invested after staff training. Besides, your staff has to be trained only once. They need to have the knowledge of only one system. So they can use it and carry out all the functions smoothly.

In addition to this, the complete technology suite is as it is saving your time and money.

The post 5 Reasons to Embrace All-in-one Hotel Technology appeared first on eZee Absolute.