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a significant profitable revenue for hoteliers, and booking engines enable hotels to offer the best rates and ensure their competitive- ness with the OTAs. By guaranteeing rates that match or beat those available on OTAs, the booking engine gives guests the confidence to book direct with the hotel. This capability certainly helped Durrants
AI ADVANCEMENTS
The opportunities are likely to explode with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to Brookman, who says AI’s ability to analyse vast amounts of data about guest preferences, behaviours and past interactions will create highly personalised experiences. As technology continues to advance, AI holds the potential to revolutionise various aspects of hospitality operations and guest experiences. Integrated booking systems are also incred-
ibly important to the hotel industry, according to Robin Mittal, product marketing manager at Cendyn, who says: “Operating in the hospitality industry without a booking engine poses signif- icant challenges. Manual reservation handling is prone to errors and double bookings, risking guest satisfaction. The limited booking chan- nels restrict a hotel’s reach, while inconsis- tent pricing can lead to revenue discrepancies. Without real-time availability, hotels may miss last-minute bookings, and upselling opportu- nities are limited, highlighting the critical role of booking engines in streamlining operations and maximising revenue.” Additionally, he says paying high commis- sions to online travel agents (OTAs) cuts down
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hotel in London which, as part of the Elegant Hotel Collection, has been able to leverage the HotelREZ solution. This has helped it increase direct booking revenue by 22.7% in 2023 and optimise each channel to sell the right rooms at the right prices, for example targeting direct booking for its single rooms. This has led to an increase in revenue from single rooms of over 62%. The solution has also helped the hotel nurture repeat bookings. The Hotel Folk group of luxury hotels and restaurants located across Suffolk was also looking for such upsides when it sought out a booking solution that would seamlessly work across the whole group – especially online. The objective was for the online booking plat- form to promote the availability and rates in real time of all the group’s six hotels. With the implementation of the Guestline
suite – which includes the Direct Booking Manager solution – sales revenue from rooms and packages increased by 30% in the first six months of its adoption and accommodation sales increased by around 4.5% year-on-year. David Scott, chief executive of the Hotel
Folk Group says: “We decided to upgrade our systems and we have realised a marked improvement as a result, especially with our online bookings and room revenue. There is no doubt we have achieved a return on our investment and are so happy to have made the change. Anything that helps us free up resources to allow our staff to spend time with
guests is a winner in my opinion – the more of that we can do, the better – and Guestline enables us to do that by being more efficient and automated.” Managing bookings down the various chan-
nels was also proving a challenge for Destiny Scotland Apartments, which promotes itself as offering guests accommodation in contem- porary yet traditional surroundings. It also had a desire to drive more direct bookings when it adopted STAAH MAX for its channel man- agement, which was integrated with its prop- erty management system from provider Elina. The solution enabled rates and inventory updates to be undertaken for all apartments through one central cloud-based source with dynamic pricing features and insights. Among other benefits it has driven a 200% increase in commission-free direct bookings. This is not to say there is no value in a diver-
sified approach to sourcing customers and their bookings – whether that is for restau- rants or hotels – according to Winning, who says: “It’s important to get as many custom- ers through the door as possible and we know most people prefer to do their research and book online. With that in mind, the venues’ first port of call should be to ensure that poten- tial diners can find them and book online, not just on their websites but also through third- party platforms such as Reserve with Google and social media platforms like Instagram. Booking system providers should enable busi- nesses to amplify their presence online and attract customers with the right offerings.” Whatever approach is taken there is no
doubt that booking tools provide many ben- efits to hospitality companies. But what is required for maximising the upsides of such solutions is for them to be fully integrated with the rest of the technology infrastructure.
Technology Prospectus 2024 | 9
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