The world of tourism and the hospitality industry are rapidly evolving along with the latest technological advancements.
Famous hotel chains, as well as small, independent resorts, are now more available to guests than ever. By searching for the desired location, your potential guests can find pages of information on different offers.
To your guests, it’s not important through which online portal they book a room – as long they find the best and cheapest price. On the other hand, business owners that collaborate with online travel agencies (OTAs) know that most of them charge too much for their services.
Chances are that you thought about finding an alternative to OTAs that will enable you to gain full control over your online booking channels and thus increase your income. The answer may lie in cloud-based hotel property management software.
Sync with Online Markets
The knowledge about this software is spreading online – this tool is rapidly gaining in popularity and there’s a good reason for that. It will allow you to go over OTAs and access the online market.
Instead of using an agency, you can connect directly to highly visited websites such are TripAdvisor and Booking.com. So, without the involvement of a third party, you’ll be able to regulate your bookings using online channels that have a worldwide reach.
Provide Direct Booking Options
With a hotel Web Booking engine, you can even open an additional booking portal on your website. This software offers simple and complete integration so that your website visitors can check the availability of your rooms and eventually book them without any disturbances.
Real-Time Notifications
Establishing communication with other online booking channels without the involvement of OTAs was always a possibility. However, without this tool, you would have to put an entire team in charge of refreshing pages, checking inboxes, and communicating with interested guests.
By adding a cloud-based hotel PMS to your website, as well as booking websites, this software will become a database of valuable information. Instead of having to visit each of the booking portals individually to communicate with your guests, you can use a PMS to do so.
With this tool, you’ll never overlook a piece of information again – it will provide you with a neat dashboard that supplies you with real-time notifications.
Manage Social Media Platforms
Social media has a wide use; chances are that a significant number of your guests first heard about your business on these platforms. They probably got in touch with you using your official account to learn more about your offer and even book accommodation.
Social media management is an important part of any contemporary business. However, reaching a satisfying response rate might be challenging, especially if you’re juggling several accounts.
This is where a hotel channel manager comes to the rescue. This software can be integrated with social media platforms as well. Similar to how it works with your booking channels, this software will showcase notification you’d normally receive on your social profiles. It can be Facebook, or another social media app, working as a booking engine. Guest can book the room directly from their social media accounts.
This can not only help you increase your bookings, but it will also give you control over your online reputation. You will be notified every time your guest leaves a piece of feedback so you can promptly respond and conduct damage control if necessary.
Social Media and Event Management
In addition, you can use your social media pages for event organization. You can create, publish, and advertise your events there. Furthermore, you’ll also get an insight into their popularity – you’ll be able to see the attendance numbers and thus know what to expect from your events. Pair that with your hotel PMS and you will have a powerful tool for event management.
Advantages of OTAs
A hotel channel manager is a piece of software that contains many different features. It is a much better option, compared to any OTAs, who have high fees – the list of their services includes booking, advertising, reputation management, and a high response rate. All this can be taken care of with software solutions.
So, it’s up to you to make a decision. If you prefer to take your business into your own hands, then you’re in definite need of a cloud-based hotel PMS. On the other hand, not having enough staff to use this software will lead to mistakes. Therefore, put your resources under a magnifying glass and make a choice that fits your business.
About mycloud Hospitality
mycloud (award-winning hotel software) has been developed by Prologic First, an independent, private company with over a decade and a half’s experience delivering end to end technology solutions to the hospitality industry across the UK, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Prologic First’s “WISH” brand is used across 30 plus countries by over 1,600 clients representing the “who’s who” of the industry. Some of our most popular and most adopted solutions like “WISH”, “Touché” & Web Prol’IFIC. Our technological leaders and best in class solutions in the market place, offering some of the most advanced features to hospitality professionals.
