Hotel Booking Engine: What benefits and features should you look for?

Online booking is not a convenient feature for travelers today — it’s an expected necessity when they visit your hotel website.

Many guests are looking to book directly on hotel websites because it is often simpler and easier for them. They can reserve their rooms and process their payments in one convenient and secure location. Many times, they expect to complete these tasks from their smartphone or tablet device.

As a hotel operator, it’s critical that you invest in the right hotel booking engine for your property.

What is a hotel booking engine?

A hotel booking engine is a software tool that enables your hotel to accept direct bookings from your guests on your website. In addition, the booking engine integrates with your property management system in order to automatically update your guest records.

Beyond that, you can connect your online booking engine to your channel manager in order to distribute your rooms effectively. Ultimately, a good hotel booking engine will, not only drive online bookings, but it will integrate seamlessly with your existing hotel technology allowing you to properly manage reservations across all of your distribution networks.

Features and benefits to look for in hotel booking software

There are many hotel booking software options available for hoteliers across the globe, but they can’t all be described as an easy-to-manage hotel booking engine.

You need to evaluate the features and benefits available in each system before you decide to implement a hotel booking engine at your property.

Here are the top features and benefits you need to consider when searching for the right online booking engine:

• Quick and simple reservation process
  Your booking engine should offer a short form for your guests to fill out when they are ready to book a room. They should not be forced to be redirected to a different site to complete their reservation or process their payment. In addition, you will want to select an online booking engine that comes complete with a “Book Now” button that attracts the attention of your target audience.
• Mobile friendly
  Your hotel booking software needs to allow you to accept mobile bookings. The number of mobile bookings throughout the industry continues to increase with each passing year.
• Multi-currency and multi-language features
  In order to attract a global audience, you need to have a booking engine that welcomes people from across the world. Your booking engine should adapt to different currencies and languages as necessary making it easy for guest to book online.
• Ability to connect with social networking sites
  You need a hotel booking engine that can connect with Facebook and other popular social networking sites. This allows your guests to book with you in a way that is convenient for them.

How to get started with a hotel booking engine for free

Finding the right booking engine for your hotel doesn’t have to be challenging or frustrating.

SiteMinder offers an easy to manage hotel booking engine that seamlessly integrates with your current property management system, website and channel manager.

To find out more information about this innovative booking tool, begin your 14-day free trial of TheBookingButton today.