Flexible in design
The booking engine blends in with your hotel’s website design, which in turn, can increase brand awareness and reliability.
Mobile-friendly
Just as important as having a flexible design, is making sure the booking engine is also mobile-friendly. People are more likely to leave your site without a reservation if your booking engine is not responsive to different devices from desktop to smartphone.
Social media
A good booking engine can also be linked to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. and used in direct mailings.
If you want to stay up to date in the modern world you should be able to allow reservations being made via third party websites like Facebook. Social media nowadays is much more than a way to communicate with your friends – it is also a sales and marketing channel. Direct link from social media to a booking engine gives your clients yet another convenient way to make a quick booking.
Automated pre – and after-stay emails
The pre-stay letter gives you an opportunity to remind the client about the upcoming hotel reservation and sell extra amenities. Clients are more likely to add additional services for their stay as the arrival date is getting closer and this obviously means more revenue for you.
You have an opportunity to offer a special price for their next stay with an after-stay letter and ask for feedback on their stay. Feedback can be given either via Tripadvisor or Google environment or just by leaving a rating in the e-mail with comments.
With pre- and after-stay letter, you have an opportunity to offer a more personalized stay and increase revenue per guest, so make sure your website booking engine allows this option.
Online check-in
Save your time during the check-in process– it can be done through your booking engine in advance.
With the pre-stay letter, you can also give the guest the option to fill in the check-in card in advance. Be smart and use this time during the check-in process to introduce your hotel and sell other services.
Payments in advance
A good website booking engine has online payment integration to receive direct payment at the time of a booking to avoid revenue loss caused by no-shows or late cancellations.
The process of payment needs to be also PCI (payment card industry) compliant – bank card information is maintained in a secure environment.
Distributing availability to booking.com, airbnb.com, etc.
A good website booking engine allows you to control availability and prices from one platform so you’re able to sell simultaneously on your own website and others channels like booking.com and airbnb.com without the need of having a channel manager controlling it for you.
Customer data and statistics
Statistics and analytics are key to successful sales and marketing. Good website booking engine can link the website statistics with Google Analytics so you can easily measure the customer journey and website booking engine conversion.
These are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing the right online booking engine and together they contribute to increased conversion rates, easier booking process for both yourself and your guests, and a stronger image among your competitors.
Get in touch More info about ED Booking