Taking and managing guest reservations is arguably one of the most important tasks that come with running a hotel.
However, as important as it is, reservation management can easily get overwhelming, especially if you’re handling it manually.
Luckily, there is a simple solution to this problem: implementing an automated reservation system.
This kind of software can help you optimize and automate your reservation management workflows, as well as help your hotel thrive financially.
And if you want to know how and why, join us as we explore the top 5 benefits of introducing an automated reservation system at your hotel.
Increases Guest Satisfaction
First and foremost, investing in an automated reservation system for your hotel is bound to increase guest satisfaction.
Why?
It’s simple: people love being able to book accommodation quickly, easily, and—according to research—online.
Namely, the results of h2c’s 2023 Digital Hotel Operations Study show that 63% of total hotel chain revenue is now booked online.
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Data: h2c
So, if you want to keep a competitive edge and reach prospective guests, there is no denying that you need to enable a seamless online booking experience.
To achieve that, having an automated reservation system is indispensable.
Let’s explore why.
Whether they’re traveling for business or leisure, travelers looking for accommodation will have certain expectations that go beyond the option of simply booking a room online:
Source: WebBookingPro
For starters, they’ll want to browse your website and have easy access to information about room types, rates, and amenities using their preferred device.
Next, they’ll want access to information about real-time room availability in order to confirm that their desired room type is open for booking.
And once they’re ready to book with you, they’ll want the process to be quick, intuitive, and secure.
Lastly, they’ll want to be sure that their booking was successfully processed, so they’ll expect an instant email confirmation.
A robust automated reservation system will help you provide them with all of that—and more.
It will also encourage travelers to choose your hotel over others that don’t meet their booking process expectations.
Why would they spend half an hour waiting on the phone to book a room, only to be told that their preferred room type is not available?
Or go through the hassle of trying to make a reservation on a website that is not optimized for mobile devices?
As it turns out—they wouldn’t.
Take a look at this Tripadvisor review where a user had to give up on booking a room at the desired hotel because making a reservation was pretty much impossible.
Source: Tripadvisor
Missing out on reservations and potential repeat guests because you didn’t automate the room reservation process simply isn’t worth it.
So remember: the easier you make it for travelers to book a room at your hotel, the easier it will be for you to gain bookings and keep your guests happy.
Enhances Efficiency
Your guests aren’t the only ones who can benefit from an automated reservation system at your hotel, though.
Streamlining the room booking process with the help of an automated reservation system can be immensely beneficial for your staff and their efficiency levels, too.
No matter how big or small your hotel might be, the fact of the matter is that manually accepting and managing bookings from various distribution channels is a time-intensive, error-prone task.
Let’s say that your hotel takes reservations over the phone, on the hotel website, and through two OTAs.
Now, imagine that it’s the middle of peak season for your hotel, the phone at the front desk is ringing incessantly, and reservation requests that need to be consolidated manually are rolling in from all sides.
At some point, your front desk clerk is bound to mix up the reservations, double-book some rooms, or miss out on phone reservations from guests who got tired of waiting on hold.
Situations like this are not only inconvenient for your guests and staff alike, but they also rob your staff of the time they could spend on value-added tasks.
However, automating the reservation process with the help of booking software can fix that, claims Stewart Moss, Managing Director at High-Level Software.
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Quote: The Hotel Magazine
Once an automated reservation system takes over those important, but repetitive and error-prone administrative tasks, your staff will have more time to deal with tasks that require human touch, such as guest service.
As guests arrive at the front desk for check-in, the staff will be able to focus on providing them with a seamless and uninterrupted check-in experience, since the system will have already prepared the necessary guest information.
And instead of spending time crafting and sending confirmation, reminder, and follow-up emails, they can focus on creating unique and personalized experiences for your guests.
In short, implementing an automated reservation system at your hotel is going to allow your staff to be more efficient in their day-to-day operations, enhance the guest experience, and help you minimize costly booking discrepancies.
Reduces Operational Costs
Aside from saving your staff time that would have otherwise been spent on manual and repetitive administrative tasks, an automated reservation system can also save your hotel money.
Namely, automating such tasks can help you optimize the way you allocate your resources, thereby lowering your operational costs.
Let’s go back to the example we used earlier: your front desk in the middle of peak season.
While having reservations flowing in from all distribution channels is good for business, managing them manually can be quite challenging.
So, the best solution would be to hire additional staff that could focus solely on handling reservations, right?
As it turns out, not necessarily.
The cost of hotel staff is a big concern for a large number of European hoteliers, according to the European Accommodation Barometer report from 2022.
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Data: Statista
Plus, when talking about the cost of staff, salary and benefits are only the tip of the iceberg.
You also have to account for:
- the costs of recruitment,
- training costs,
- uniforms and other equipment, and
- administrative costs.
So, if you’re trying to reduce your operational costs, it’s safe to assume that further growing your team probably isn’t the best option.
But that doesn’t mean you have to come to terms with poor reservation management.
Instead of putting additional funds into hiring more staff members dedicated solely to reservation management, consider investing in an automated reservation system.
This strategic move will allow you to lower your operational costs and handle room reservations with ease, all at the same time.
As the system takes over the many tasks associated with reservation management, your staff will have more time to develop new skills in other areas of hotel operations.
Think about it: if you cross-train your former reservation management staff to handle more high-value tasks within your hotel, this will increase their versatility and give your hotel more flexibility when it comes to staffing.
The bottom line is: yes, automating tasks related to reservations management is bound to reduce the need for dedicated reservations staff.
However, it will also minimize your operational costs and allow you to leverage the staff members’ skills in more value-added roles.
That way, everybody wins.
Maximizes Hotel Revenue
Next, let’s explore how implementing an automated reservation system at your hotel can maximize your revenue.
One of the features that many reservation automation solutions come with is a revenue manager that will allow you to apply the principles of dynamic pricing at your hotel.
Simply put, a revenue manager helps you adjust your room rates based on market conditions in real time, thus ensuring that your rooms stay full and your revenue high.
Take our solution, WebBookingPro, as an example.
WebBookingPro comes with an interface for online bookings that is quickly and easily integrated into your existing website.
It allows travelers to check room availability, book a room, and make a payment directly on your hotel website, thereby helping you realize all the benefits we discussed earlier in this article.
Aside from that, our solution comes with an integrated revenue manager that automatically adjusts room pricing based on your desired goals.
All you have to do is input “if-then” scenarios with which you define whether the room price should go up or down based on different parameters.
Source: WebBookingPro
For instance, if you notice that Mondays and Tuesdays are historically slow when it comes to bookings, you can use the revenue manager feature to automatically decrease prices on those days.
This can attract price-conscious travelers, keep your occupancy high, and keep money flowing in.
Conversely, if a major artist is performing at a venue in your area, you can expect an increased interest in booking accommodation at your hotel.
In this case, you would instruct the revenue management tool to increase the prices due to higher demand during that period, ultimately maximizing your revenue.
Now, imagine if your staff had to adjust pricing manually, multiple times a day, and on each distribution channel your hotel is present on.
Yes, you would still increase your revenue, but you’d be doing so at the cost of your team’s efficiency and productivity.
That is why it’s so important to automate that process, explains Cori Galindo, VP of Commercial Growth at Minor Hotels for Europe and the Americas:
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Quote: Duetto
With the help of an automated reservation system with a revenue management integration, you truly can have it all:
- seamless, automated reservation management,
- increased staff efficiency, and
- higher revenue thanks to employing dynamic pricing strategies.
And, research shows, more and more hoteliers are catching on to this.
According to Duetto’s Trends & Predictions to Advance Your Hotel Revenue Strategy in 2024 report, more than half of the surveyed hoteliers believe that automating revenue management is going to become more important in the near future.
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Data: Duetto
So, the verdict is clear: if you want to maximize your hotel’s revenue, investing in an automated reservation system with a revenue management integration is non-negotiable.
Provides Valuable Insights through Data
The final benefit of implementing an automated reservation system at your hotel is an important, yet often overlooked one.
Given all the reservation software features that you and your staff use on a daily basis, it is easy to forget about the fact that it also collects various types of useful data.
From information on booking patterns to market trends and guest preferences, your automated reservation system is a goldmine of valuable data that you can use to enhance various aspects of your operations.
And, according to research conducted by Hospitality Technology, hoteliers who understand the importance of data are reaping benefits in multiple areas of their hotel operations:
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Data: Hospitality Technology
So, the question is: how can you make the most of the guest data your automated reservation system collects?
We’ll explain using an example.
Let’s say that the guest is a business traveler who regularly stays at your hotel.
During the room reservation process, your reservation system is going to gather some basic data about them, as well as data about their preferences.
Based on that data, here are some questions that you should be able to answer:
- What room type do they prefer?
- Which amenities do they like to book when staying with you?
- What kind of special requests do they make?
Now, take a look at what your data has to say about other travelers belonging to this demographic that have stayed with you in the past.
Do you notice any patterns?
If so, you can refine your marketing strategy and send personalized emails to business travelers offering, for instance, special discounts on their favorite amenities during their next visit.
Mehmet Erdem, Professor of Hotel Operations and Technology at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, explains:
Illustration: WebBookingPro / Quote: HospitalityUpgrade
Using data to create custom-tailored experiences not only shows your guests that you care but also increases the odds of them coming back.
Similarly, by observing what data tells you about your occupancy levels on specific days of the week or periods of the year, you can adjust your staffing levels to meet the demand.
Analyzing this data will help you make sure you’re never understaffed during busy periods, and never overstaffed and spending more money than needed during low occupancy periods.
In short, the data that your automated reservation system collects can be your greatest ally in tailoring personalized experiences for guests, enhancing your marketing efforts, and smartly allocating your resources—so don’t overlook it.
Conclusion
With that, we conclude this article on some of the key benefits of implementing an automated reservation system at your hotel.
As you can see, investing in this type of software solution carries benefits for your guests, your staff, and your revenue.
By automating repetitive and mistake-prone tasks related to room reservations, you can ensure a higher level of guest satisfaction, minimize human error, allow your staff to become more efficient, and realize cost savings while maximizing your revenue.
In our book, that can only mean one thing: an automated reservation system deserves to become an essential part of your hotel’s tech stack.
