As a hotel or a restaurant owner, an online room booking system may be the most important way to improve your reservation numbers. As you know, the most important aspect of your business is location, location, location. Of course, the good location is required in order to fill those seats or rooms to capacity. Efficiency and accuracy are key to making this happen. Using an online system is one of the best ways to accomplish this.
Requirements for finding an effective online room booking system are made easier by an industry standard known as Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) standards. Managers who are selecting an appropriate system can spend time at the HTNG website becoming familiar with the various components of a top-rate software package, or they can simply choose from the recommended systems. Many hotel managers or restaurant owners will find the HTNG website one of their most important resources.
Some of the most important components of an online room booking system include the ability to capture and store all salient information including dining event menus, themes for parties, and complete billing at an event, table, or party level. A top-tier booking system will be able to handle all sorts of details not normally available for restaurants or hotels, including booking specialty spaces, custom theme planning, or pre-event accounting, including deposits and collections.
The power of an effective online room booking system will do more than simply respond to customer requests. When the future reservations of rooms or tables stand low, the system can help garner business. It will keep a detailed history of past customers, including their sales, the menu, and the food service sheet, as well as the contact information. The manager can create targeted offers to those customers, sweetening the deal with specials or custom accommodations as necessary. Marketing will love this type of historical information as well, to analyze the market they are attracting. Most importantly, the marketing department will have a description of their typical target customer, and they can see how effectively they are fulfilling their market plan. Some flexible market managers have determined that, although they may have missed their target customer, they may uncover a different market segment that they actually hit. In this way, they can take advantage of their knowledge to retool their strategies.
If you are looking to simplify your hotel or restaurant operations, be sure to research the benefits of an online room booking system from Rendezvous.
