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Jordan Hollander
CEO @ HotelTechReport
Jordan is the co-founder of Hotel Tech Report, the hotel industry's app store where millions of professionals discover tech tools to transform their businesses. He was previously on the Global Partnerships team at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Prior to his work with SPG, Jordan was Director of Business Development at MWT Hospitality and an equity analyst at Wells Capital Management. Jordan received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management where he was a Zell Global Entrepreneurship Scholar and a Pritzker Group Venture Fellow.
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A hotel booking engine is basically the shopping cart and checkout flow for your hotel's website. The guest learns about you on your website and when they click 'book now' that's where your booking engine comes in trying to convert as quickly as possible and upsell guests to spend more while they're booking. It's where transactions happen and having the right system in place could literally make or break your hotel's profitability so it's important to choose wirely.
That's why we surveyed 4918 hoteliers across 128 countries to create this in-depth guide and help you find the best fit booking engine for your hotel. Inside you’ll find everything you need to know including product rankings, feature comparisons, price benchmarking, integration interoperability and more.
Here are 10 of top Hotel Booking Engines that are covered in this in-depth guide:
Choosing the right Booking Engine for your hotel depends on several variables some of which come down to personal preference but most of which come down to the characteristics of your property. Is your hotel a small property with limited budget? Or is your property a luxury resort with lots of outlets and high ADR? Below are HTR’s defined key personas based on common property characteristics that typically indicate similar product choices.
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A booking engine improves profitability by driving direct bookings, reducing OTA commissions, and enabling upselling during reservations. It enhances efficiency through automation, such as real-time inventory updates, secure payment processing, and seamless PMS integration. These features save staff time, reduce manual errors, and provide actionable insights through analytics, supporting long-term growth.
Let’s take a deeper look at all the benefits a booking engine offers.
Reduces commission costs: The hotel's own booking engine reduces commission costs as bookings are made directly on hotel websites or apps, which would be different with third parties such as online travel agencies (OTAs). Most booking engines are commission-free, so the hotel keeps the full amount of the reservation. Examples include Cloudbeds and Hotelogix, where hotels can keep most of their revenue.
Reduces reliance on OTAs: Hotels can completely stop being dependent on OTAs because the booking engine enables a direct connection with potential guests knowing their preferences and behavior while providing them with a personalized experience. Best of all, hotels can manage their finances independently
Flexibility to offer promotions and upsells: The hotel reservation engine allows hotels to offer additional benefits or special content with promotions, discounts and packages aimed at specific segments of customers during a certain period. By offering extra benefits, the facility increases the average value of the reservation and thus the profit.
An online booking engine is a software tool that allows customers to search for, select, and book hotel rooms directly through a hotel’s website or mobile app. Here’s how it works:
Search and Availability Check:
Guests enter their desired travel dates, room preferences, and other details.
The booking engine connects with the hotel’s property management system (PMS) to display real-time room availability and pricing.
Room Selection and Customization:
The booking engine presents available room options with descriptions, photos, and prices.
Guests can select their preferred room type and add enhancements, such as upgrades or additional services (e.g., breakfast, spa packages).
Pricing and Discounts:
Dynamic pricing rules, such as promotions or seasonal rates, are applied automatically.
The system may show discounted rates for members, loyalty program participants, or long-stay bookings.
Booking Confirmation and Payment:
Guests enter their personal information and payment details in a secure environment.
The system processes payments using integrated payment gateways, ensuring security and compliance with regulations.
Reservation Management:
The confirmed booking details are sent to the PMS, updating the hotel’s inventory in real-time.
Guests receive an email confirmation with booking details and instructions.
Integration with Other Systems:
The booking engine may integrate with the hotel’s channel manager, ensuring that inventory updates are reflected across all distribution platforms.
It may also connect to CRM tools to store guest data and support personalized marketing efforts.
Payment processing: When it comes to paying, every customer wants it to be safe and reliable. Another essential feature of the reservation engine, payment processing, affects the overall guest experience and hotel revenue management. In addition to efficient transaction handling, guests can pay for their reservation using a wide range of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and even alternative options such as PayPal or cryptocurrencies.
Integrating with payment processors: Payment processors act as intermediaries between the guest and the hotel, ensuring successful and reliable transactions and protection of all payment data. In this case, they apply codes to protect sensitive guest information to prevent fraud and data breaches. A special convenience is the possibility of transactions in different currencies. Also, real-time payment enables immediate confirmation of reservations, which achieves maximum efficiency of the reservation system and prevents overbooking.
Most booking engines and hotel reservation software today are commission-free and run on a subscription (SaaS) model. After all, you shouldn't have to pay a commission on bookings through your direct channel; however, some smaller properties like guesthouses and vacation rentals opt for this model to offset expenses slow months.
Booking engine implementation timelines depend on the provider you decide to work with. A Cloud based online booking system can be set up very quickly, so the implementation time is often determined by how much resources the hotel can allocate to the project. Other tasks that often need to be completed during the set up phase:
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