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EnglishThe best booking engine for small hotels
As a small hotel owner, selecting the best booking engine is critical for your business’s success. A booking engine streamlines your operations by automating reservations and increasing direct bookings, resulting in more revenue and better customer relationships.
Key features of a top booking engine
The key functions of a top booking engine you need for your hotel:
Enables direct sales through your own website.
The best hotel booking engines will allow you to take bookings and payments directly from your customers, rather than relying on middlemen like OTAs, which charge up to 25% per booking.
Captures direct booking traffic via metasearch.
The reach of metasearch sites like Google, TripAdvisor and Trivago make them some of the most powerful tools for attracting new guests to your hotel. The best accommodation booking engines will capitalise on the metasearch opportunity by helping you to manage and optimise your presence.
Integrates seamlessly with top channel managers.
The best hotel booking engines are those that connect and communicate seamlessly with your preferred channel manager. This ensures that all bookings, whether direct or via OTAs, are instantly and automatically registered, and that availability across all booking channels is updated straight away, allowing you to say goodbye to double bookings.
Connects easily with a secure payment processing tool
Whether a customer is making a payment online, or your hotel is taking a payment online, you should be confident that the process is safe and secure. The best hotel booking engines will offer this peace of mind by integrating with only the most trusted and secure payment processing tools.
Why do you need an online booking engine?
Your booking engine will allow your hotel to increase direct reservations and profit by:
- Providing a simple booking process that allows guests to choose and pay for their rooms quickly and easily
- Seamless website integration that means the guest enjoys a consistent brand experience
- Secure online payments that give you your money fast and keeps guest data safe
- Channel manager integration to eliminate manual data entry and to track performance
Why do you need an online booking engine?
Your booking engine will allow your hotel to increase direct reservations and profit by:
- Providing a simple booking process that allows guests to choose and pay for their rooms quickly and easily
- Seamless website integration that means the guest enjoys a consistent brand experience
- Secure online payments that give you your money fast and keeps guest data safe
- Channel manager integration to eliminate manual data entry and to track performance
How to choose the best hotel booking engine
To ensure you choose the right solution for your hotel, consider the following questions when considering for booking engines:
Will it integrate with your existing website?
Your website is the vehicle through which your accommodation booking engine will be presented to potential guests, so you need to choose one that will integrate seamlessly with your website. Don’t yet have a hotel website? Choose a booking engine provider like Little Hotelier that also offers a simple and intuitive website builder!
Does it integrate with your channel manager and property management system to provide an all-in-one solution?
The best hotel booking engines are those that integrate not just with your website, but with all of your tools. By choosing one that connects to your channel manager and PMS, you’ll open the door to a world of automation that has seen Little Hotelier users save as much as 35 minutes per booking.
Is it multi-lingual and multi-currency enabled?
Why limit the amount of guests you are able to attract? Grant yourself access to a larger slice of the travel market pie by choosing a direct booking engine that allows a guest to speak their language and pay in their currency while reserving a room.
Will it allow you to take bookings via Google?
More guests, zero effort – if you choose your direct accommodation booking engine wisely, finding one that allows you to manage, monitor and optimise your ads on metasearch sites like Google, Trivago & TripAdvisor, you can reach a far larger audience, many of whom will be ready to book direct with you.
Does it allow you to sell extras, upgrades, and packages?
The best hotel booking engines capitalise on the incredible upselling and cross-selling opportunities granted by direct bookings. Simply list upgrades and extra services as a step in the booking process, and allow guests to add them in a click! More profit, zero extra effort.
Does it provide analytics and reporting to help track booking and revenue?
THow do you know whether you’re charging the right rate for direct bookings? The best hotel booking engines will tell you. With Little Hotelier’s Insights feature, you gain a complete view of your competitors’ rates, allowing you to tweak your own to make them as alluring as possible.
Why choose Little Hotelier as your front desk software?
Trusted by more small properties than any other global provider.
Connected to 400+ booking channels.
Backed by SiteMinder’s powerful technology – processing over 100 million reservations each year.
Designed with small properties in mind, prioritising ease of use and putting you back in control.
Frequently asked questions about the best hotel booking engines
A booking engine is a software feature that enables hoteliers to take bookings online directly on their own website, from metasearch sites, and even via their Facebook page.
Hoteliers can simply integrate an online booking engine with their existing website and Facebook page, as well as other systems they may use.
Using a booking engine means you don’t have to rely as heavily on third party channels and you can increase the profit you make per booking.
At Little Hotelier we believe a monthly subscription is better for budgeting purposes, and it will allow you to reinvest most of your revenue back into the property as you grow…
Smooth integration between your website and booking engine is vital for providing a smooth and fast experience for guests… Little Hotelier booking engine can integrate with most existing websites through a plugin or custom build.