What is a central reservations system?

A central reservation system (CRS) is a platform used by hotels to centrally manage and distribute room inventory, rates, and reservations. The CRS typically receives inventory from the PMS, then distributes rates and availability in real-time to direct and third-party channels, including the hotel’s own website booking engine and call center (direct channels), as well as channel managers, OTAs, GDS, and metasearch (third-party channels). Reservations from these channels are sent back to the CRS and subsequently synced into the PMS for room allocation. Hotel revenue managers and marketing/e-commerce managers use CRS or distribution systems to create various promotions and offers through rate plans for different channels and to adjust pricing quickly to be updated across all channels. Reservation agents also work in the CRS to manage reservations.

Want to learn more? Check out our deep dive article: What is a CRS?

How can a central reservations system improve profitability and efficiency?

Increases efficiency: A CRS allows hotels to distribute their rates and inventory and receive reservations through a singular system—a hotel only needs to input rates and manage inventory through one backend instead of manually updating rates in various channels. A CRS also allows for cost efficiencies in distribution; although hotels can connect their PMS for channel distribution, CRS companies typically have the ability to integrate to different channels and partners (such as GDS and call center), giving hotels a broader reach for less cost.
Grows distribution: A CRS allows hotels to connect to a broad network of travel distributors, allowing the hotel to expand its reach to different types of sellers (OTAs, travel agents, consortia, etc.) in many different worldwide markets.
Delivers insight: A CRS gives hotel revenue managers a bird’s-eye view over their pricing and inventory allocations through all distribution channels, which allows them to quickly adapt to the market as needed.

What are the most important features of a central reservations system?

Integrations and distribution: reservation software should integrate seamlessly with your existing property management system and allow your hotel to distribute rates and availability through a wide network of channels, including direct channels (website, call center) and third-party travel industry channels (OTAs, GDS (global distribution systems), metasearch). The CRS should have integrated channel management capabilities to facilitate hotel distribution with OTAs (online travel agencies like Expedia and Booking).
Pricing capabilities and flexibility: Every revenue manager needs a good toolset to develop a sound distribution strategy whether they work for an independent hotel or one of the major hotel chains. Your CRS partner should offer dynamic pricing tools that will give your hotel enormous flexibility when it comes to executing complex revenue strategies and selling multiple hotel room types across multiple channels. Also consider whether integrations between your revenue management, merchandising, and CRM platforms with the CRS would help to increase operational efficiency (e.g. being able to automate pricing from an RMS, being able to enter rates only once within a backend, etc.)
Booking engine / e-commerce platform: A huge deciding factor for many hospitality industry businesses is the quality of the CRS’s booking engine, which should offer conversion optimization features to encourage direct bookings and enable high volumes of online bookings. Key features include the ability to showcase strikethrough pricing, social proof, scarcity messaging, and incremental pricing, dynamic room rates, among others. The CRS should integrate with the most user-friendly and mobile optimized booking engines on the market. Learn more in our article: What is a booking engine?
Support and account management: A good CRS partner should not only provide round-the-clock customer support, but should also have active account management focused on customer success. Client services should include performance reviews with detailed analytics and reporting, as well as advice on revenue and pricing strategies. Ultimately a CRS provider provides more than just a way to take hotel reservations and should be considered a true strategic partner in hotel management.
Innovation: Your CRS partner should always be seeking to enhance features, support the latest technology trends, and evolve the platform to fit the needs of today’s hotel.

What makes great a central reservations system?

Drives high volume of bookings: A good CRS should help a hotel to gain visibility and expand global reach across all distribution channels via dedicated channel manager, which should raise overall revenue via increased bookings and occupancy. It's also important that a hotel reservation system prevent overbooking.
Helps shift share from OTAs: A good CRS will help to shift more bookings from high-cost channels (third-party) to low-cost channels (direct ) . Hotel s with poor - performing / low-converting booking engines will often see a shift ranging from 7 to 25+% when switching to a good CRS. It’s not a panacea, however — a smart direct booking strategy also takes into account a high-converting website, well-managed digital marketing strategy, and other direct booking tools to accomplish its goals.
Direct impact on NOI (net operating income): If hotels are seeing their overall revenue increase through increased overall bookings, while simultaneously shifting more of those bookings from third-party channels to direct channels, overall profitability should increase as hotels pay out less commissions.

What is the typical pricing for a central reservations system?

A CRS is typically priced on a variable basis and varies by channel. For example, direct bookings via booking engine can cost 1-5% of bookings or a flat fee per booking. Call center reservations are generally priced on talk time or commissions and GDS is usually priced on a flat fee per booking plus membership fees. Pricing varies dramatically in this category so make sure to compare quotes on Hotel Tech Report to find the best fit for your business.

How long does it usually take for a hotel to implement new a central reservations system?

A designated implementation team will reach out to begin the implementation process, which includes completing required forms, building out the system, and proactively reaching out to third-party vendors where integrations are needed. Generally, implementation can be completed within 2-4 weeks, including staff training, provided that hotels provide all the required information in a timely manner and attend the training sessions.

For a full breakdown on how CRS pricing works and download the 2020 Hoteliers Guide to Central Reservations Systems.

Sorry, this functionality is only available for verified hoteliers

Find the Best Apps that Integrate with Hoskit Sàrl

Get personalized product recommendations

Let´s lookup your hotel information