What is hotel equipment?

Hotel equipment is the tools, appliances, systems, and furnishings that support a hotel’s daily operations and service delivery. 

Think about the gear that powers your property: ovens and refrigeration in the kitchen, trolleys and vacuums in housekeeping, or the in-room items that make a guest’s stay comfortable: minibars, safes, hairdryers. Each item serves a specific purpose, helping your staff work efficiently and your guests feel cared for.

A boutique B&B may prioritise high-quality coffee machines and chic furnishings, while a large resort might invest heavily in laundry systems and banquet service tools. Either way, the right equipment helps maintain smooth operations and reduce maintenance headaches.

In this blog, we’ll explore the essential equipment for each department, how to choose the right supplier, and how smart investments can improve both efficiency and guest satisfaction.

Why invest in high-quality hotel equipment

Outdated or poorly maintained equipment doesn’t just slow down operations. It increases running costs and quietly erodes the guest experience.

Take your HVAC system, for example. In many hotels, heating and cooling account for up to 50% of total energy use, often because systems are outdated or inefficient. That kind of energy drain shows up month after month in your utility bills.

There’s guest satisfaction too. Dated equipment that breaks down or needs constant repair impacts satisfaction scores. According to a 2022 report, guest satisfaction dropped by eight points year over year, with deferred maintenance cited as a contributing factor.

The cost savings from high-quality, efficient equipment aren’t just theoretical. Some hotels have cut energy costs by up to 30% through smarter equipment upgrades and maintenance programs.

In short, investing in the right equipment means:

• Lower energy and maintenance costs
  
• Fewer disruptions for staff
  
• A smoother, more enjoyable stay for guests

Over time, that translates to stronger reviews, better operational control, and a healthier bottom line.

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How to choose the right equipment for your hotel

Finding reliable hotel equipment suppliers isn’t just a box to tick. A good supplier becomes a long-term partner, not just a one-off vendor.

Before buying, make sure your hotel has covered all the basics, from everyday hotel products to specialised items from hotel equipment manufacturers. It helps to keep a clear hotel equipment list for each department, so nothing slips through the cracks during procurement.

When narrowing down your options, here are a few things to consider:

• Budget: Think total cost of ownership, not just purchase price. Will this item cost more to run, repair, or replace?
  
• Space and layout: Is there room for this equipment to function properly and safely? Oversized gear in a tight kitchen or cramped housekeeping area causes more problems than it solves.
  
• Energy and water efficiency: Look for ratings and certifications that point to long-term savings on utilities.
  
• Safety compliance: Equipment should meet all local codes and health regulations to protect guests, staff, and your business.
  
• Usability: Choose equipment your team can use efficiently. Complicated tech with a steep learning curve could slow things down.
  
• Service and warranty support: A strong warranty and accessible service team can save time and frustration when things go wrong.

You should also learn what to look for in a supplier and where to find them. Industry trade shows, hospitality associations, and peer recommendations can help you discover vetted suppliers with experience in your segment of the market.

List of equipment needed for a hotel

Equipping your hotel with the right tools is essential for delivering exceptional service and ensuring efficient operations. Each department has unique requirements, and selecting appropriate equipment can significantly impact your hotel’s performance and guest satisfaction. Below, we explore the essential equipment for various areas, starting with the kitchen.

Hotel kitchen equipment

Your kitchen is one of the hardest-working parts of your hotel. The right equipment here can reduce energy use, cut costs, and help your team deliver consistently high standards.

Smart ovens with AI temperature control make it easier to avoid overcooked or undercooked meals by adjusting the heat in real time. Induction cook tops heat quickly and use far less energy than gas alternatives. And newer commercial dishwashers clean thoroughly while using up to 40% less water and power, especially if they’re ENERGY STAR certified.

At Burnham Beeches Hotel, for example, switching to more efficient kitchen systems led to a 33% reduction in energy consumption.

Hotel restaurant equipment

Service speed, sustainability, and smart systems can all improve how your restaurant operates.

AI-powered food prep stations now support everything from slicing to plating. This frees up staff to focus on quality and presentation while reducing waste. More hotels are also switching to eco-friendly tableware made from bamboo or recycled materials. Guests are starting to expect this kind of sustainable thinking.

Contactless POS systems have become essential. They help staff move quickly through orders and connect to inventory and reporting tools behind the scenes. This means faster payments, fewer errors, and a smoother guest experience.

Hotel room equipment list

Your guest rooms are where impressions are made. Comfort, convenience, and a sense of modernity all depend on having the right tools in place.

Smart thermostats and automated lighting give guests better control over their room while helping you reduce power use. Mobile key systems and digital concierge tablets make it easy for guests to check in, unlock their door, or order room service without waiting at reception. Investing in high-quality mattresses, pillows, and ergonomic furniture sends a clear message that you care about their stay from start to finish.

Hotel service equipment

The departments that operate behind the scenes keep everything running smoothly. Their equipment should make the job easier, not harder.

Automated laundry systems can dramatically reduce water, energy, and labour costs. The Apple Farm Inn, for example, saved nearly 40% in annual laundry-related costs after switching to an ozone-based setup.

Cleaning robots can cover high-traffic areas like lobbies and elevators, maintaining hygiene standards while easing the load on staff. And with smart inventory tracking for housekeeping supplies, you’ll spend less time chasing stock and more time focusing on the guest experience.

Travel packages bundle together multiple elements of a trip into one simple offer. Instead of guests booking accommodation, activities and extras separately, a travel package wraps them into a single, appealing price.

For hotels, this usually means combining your rooms with value-adding experiences, like airport transfers, dining, spa treatments, tours or tickets to local attractions. Done right, travel packages can turn your property from just a place to sleep in, into the actual centrepiece of a guest’s trip.

For example, a city hotel might offer a “weekend culture package” that includes a two-night stay, breakfast and museum passes. A coastal resort could sell “romance retreats” with a suite, sunset cruise and late checkout. These are far more than discounts. They create experiences guests want to buy into.

In this blog, we will explore why travel packages work, share inspiring examples and show you how to create offers that guests can’t resist.

Why travel packages work

By bundling accommodation with extras like tours, meals or wellness activities, you create offers that feel complete. Guests do not need to worry about organising the details since the travel package covers the entire itinerary, incentivising them to book these offers instead of standard room accommodation. 

Packages also help fill rooms during slower periods. When demand dips, a compelling offer can be the push travellers need. For example, adding spa treatments or local experiences to a midweek stay can encourage bookings outside of peak times.

Direct bookings are another big win. Guests who book directly through your website often spend more than those who use online travel agents. In fact, in 2024, the average booking value through hotel websites was $519, compared to $320 through Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Travel packages give guests a reason to choose your site, helping you build stronger customer relationships and avoid commission fees.

Finally, packages allow you to target specific traveller types. A family offer with discounted kids’ meals and tickets to local attractions speaks directly to parents. A business package with meeting space and breakfast appeals to corporate guests. The more tailored your packages, the more likely they are to convert.

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Travel package examples in different countries

Looking for ideas? Travel packages are shaped by the experiences guests already want, and what better way to understand what they want than by the most significant choice they’ve already made: the country they’re visiting. Here are examples from popular destinations to help you think about how your hotel could create offers that make booking simple and appealing.

Japan travel packages

The Golden Route is one of Japan’s most popular travel paths, but organising each stop can be overwhelming for visitors. A package covering 3 days in Tokyo for food, shopping and museums, 2 days in Kyoto’s temples and gardens, a day in Nara visiting shrines and deer parks, and time in Osaka for its markets and nightlife makes the whole journey much easier. Partnering with tour operators helps hotels offer this as a ready-to-book itinerary for guests who want the highlights without the hassle.

Iceland travel packages

In Iceland, many travellers come for natural wonders. A 5-day winter package can offer hotel stays along with guided northern lights tours, spa visits and day trips to waterfalls and glaciers. These types of offers are especially helpful during quieter seasons when visitors want everything arranged ahead of time.

Italy travel packages

In Italy, food and wine often take centre stage. A Tuscan package might pair four nights at a countryside hotel with vineyard visits, cooking lessons and transfers to nearby villages. Guests looking for slower, more immersive experiences appreciate having everything organised so they can focus on enjoying their trip.

Greece travel packages

Island hopping is popular in Greece, but it often takes a lot of planning. A Cyclades package can take care of the details. Guests stay across Santorini, Paros and Mykonos with ferry tickets, hotel bookings and guided tours all arranged ahead of time. This saves them the trouble of managing separate reservations and lets them focus on enjoying each island.

Hawaii travel packages

Hawaii offers the chance to combine adventure and relaxation. A Maui getaway might feature five nights at a resort, car hire, surf lessons, a sunset luau and discounted spa treatments. These packages help guests make the most of their time by wrapping local experiences into one easy option.

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Palladium Hotel Group

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How to set up hotel travel packages

Once you understand the value of travel packages, the next step is creating offers that fit your property and guests. It doesn’t need to be complicated. With the right approach, you can turn your rooms and services into packages that drive more bookings and revenue.

1. Identify hotel features and services

Start with what you already have. Look at your rooms, facilities and services. Do you offer breakfast, spa treatments or airport transfers? These can all be part of a package. Think about which amenities go well together and what adds value for your guests.

2. Partner with local attractions

You don’t have to do it all alone. Work with nearby businesses or tour operators to offer experiences outside your hotel. Museum tickets, guided tours, local restaurants or outdoor activities can help make your packages more appealing. These partnerships often benefit both sides, giving you new ways to reach guests and giving local businesses more visitors.

3. Pre-planned itinerary

Guests like convenience. Pre-planned itineraries remove the need for them to figure everything out themselves. Whether it’s a weekend of dining and sightseeing or a week of cultural activities, think about how to structure your package to cover key needs, like meals, transport and activities.

4. Set pricing 

Your packages should offer good value, but they don’t need to be heavily discounted. Focus on convenience and experience. Use your booking and revenue management tools to price packages based on demand. This helps you stay competitive while protecting your margins.

5. Promote your travel package

Creating a package is only part of the job. Make sure it’s visible where guests are searching. Promote packages on your website, through email marketing and on your social media channels. Consider listing them on OTAs if you want to reach a wider audience.

Tools to manage travel flight and hotel packages

Once your travel packages are ready, the next step is managing them across different channels and properties. This is where the right technology makes all the difference. Without it, updating prices, availability and inclusions for each offer can quickly become complicated and time-consuming.

With SiteMinder, this process becomes much simpler.

The booking engine lets you display travel packages directly on your hotel’s website, so guests can book easily without needing to call or email. You can showcase different offers for various guest types, seasons or events, and make them available 24/7.

If you want to sell packages across multiple platforms, our channel manager has you covered. This tool connects your packages to online travel agents and other booking channels, keeping pricing and availability up to date everywhere in real time. No more manual updates or worrying about double bookings.

If you’re running more than one property, everything can be managed in one place. SiteMinder’s centralised platform gives you full control over your packages across all locations. You can roll out offers to selected properties, adjust them based on local demand and ensure consistency in how they’re presented.

By using the right tools, you’ll spend less time handling admin and more time creating offers that attract bookings. From your own website to global booking sites, SiteMinder helps make sure your packages reach customers who are ready to buy.

Revenue management software is a digital tool designed for the hospitality industry to optimise room rates based on predicted demand. It uses data analytics to forecast hotel room demand, allowing hoteliers to adjust prices accordingly to maximise revenue. This dynamic pricing strategy takes into account various factors, such as seasonal demand, local events, competitor prices, and historical data, to set the optimal room rate at any given time.

The primary goal of revenue management software is to sell the right room to the right customer at the right time for the right price. By doing so, it helps hotels increase their Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) and overall profitability. In an industry where room rates can fluctuate frequently based on external and internal factors, having a software that can quickly and accurately adjust prices can be a game-changer.

Choosing the right revenue management software, like SiteMinder, can be a transformative decision for a hotel’s bottom line. This page will guide you through the essential considerations when evaluating potential technology partners, ensuring you make a choice that aligns with your hotel’s needs and goals.

Why do you need revenue management software for your hotel?

Revenue management software is an indispensable tool for modern hotels, streamlining various crucial aspects of hotel operations. By analysing factors like market demand, competitor prices, and local events, the software optimises room pricing, ensuring neither underpricing nor overpricing. It offers real-time updates to adapt to the dynamic nature of the hotel industry and integrates seamlessly with other hotel systems, creating a unified operational platform.

Furthermore, it aids in forecasting future room demand, efficiently managing inventory across distribution channels, and providing in-depth performance analytics. This not only enhances the guest experience by anticipating busy periods but also significantly boosts profitability.

In a competitive landscape, such software not only automates manual tasks, reducing errors, but also ensures hotels stay ahead of their competitors by quickly responding to market changes.

If you’ve decided to purchase hotel revenue management software, you’ve really only started your journey. Understanding what the software is and the benefits it provides is the easy part. Now you’ve covered that, there is plenty to do in regards to making a final purchase decision.

Choosing the best provider for your individual property and business case means a lot of research is required to sift through the many options on the market.

We could tell you the obvious course of action is to move forward with an established industry leader like SiteMinder but no one should make a blind choice when investing in such critical software that’s going to impact the success of a business.

Example of a revenue management software solution

There is no shortage of hotel revenue management software that could suit your needs. Some will present very similar offerings, while others will work in more specialised or niche territory.

For example, some will be based largely around rate setting and some may focus specifically on revenue strategies related to food and beverage services. It’s a broad sector of hotel technology, meaning you have to be especially clear about what you want and what results you expect from a provider.

An easy example to give is SiteMinder’s hotel business intelligence software, which enables you to understand the local market and your competitors, and set rates to deliver the maximum amount of revenue to your property. This is regarded as a rate shopping and market intelligence tool.

SiteMinder has decades of industry experience and more than 47,000 hotel customers, pioneering some of the most powerful hotel technology solutions that exist today.

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Types of hotel revenue management software 

Revenue management software solutions consist of a broad range of products. They can serve many different purposes and be suited to a whole spectrum of properties, including:

• Tools targeted towards smaller, independent, hotels
• Tools targeted towards larger, enterprise, groups
• Specialised services for accounting and financial management
• Tools that specialise in food and beverage management
• Tools that focus on room pricing etc

That’s why it’s very important to clearly understand what you want for your property. You don’t want to make the mistake of using the wrong tool or buying one that doesn’t include all functions you need.

Generally speaking, hotel revenue management software can be placed into two groups:

• Standalone: All-in-one revenue management solutions offer features like forecasting, pricing and reporting, and are built to handle large inventories and dynamic pricing complexities. This type of RMS can be particularly useful for large chains and resorts, or properties that offer (relatively complex) package deals.
• Integrated: An integrated revenue management software solution connects seamlessly to existing hotel software, allowing it to provide additional features and functionalities. This type is most commonly used by smaller properties who don’t need the analytical power of a standalone RMS, and can benefit from the extra efficiency and flexibility that an integrated solution can offer.

Some of the most useful RMS tools are focused on rate shopping. If you can set your prices accurately to maximise revenue and profit, it gives you a lot more freedom to manage revenue across the rest of your business.

Reports generated by revenue management software

RMS solutions are capable of generating a wealth of different reports, with each providing insight into the fiscal state of play within your hotel. Examples include:

• Revenue performance reports: Track revenue against your forecasts, budgets and historic data, breaking data down by time, segment, channel or product.
• Demand and booking reports: Identify current and future trends around bookings, cancellations, and no-shows to better anticipate fluctuations in demand.
• Pricing and rate reports: Compare your current prices with competitor rates to identify opportunities and craft strategic pricing that gives you an edge.
• Occupancy and availability reports: Understand your current and projected occupancy levels, room availability over specific periods, and potential oversell risks.
• Segment and channel reports: Analyse revenue by customer segment (e.g. business vs leisure) or distribution channel (e.g. Direct vs OTA vs GDS).
• Forecasting reports: Predict future demand, revenue, and occupancy based on historic data and current booking trends.
• Performance KPIs: Track key metrics like RevPAR, ADR, TRevPAR and GOPPAR to ensure they’re moving in the right direction over time.

Benefits of having a revenue management software in your hotel

The best revenue management software is capable of delivering a wealth of (very literal) value to your hotel. Here are just some of the most compelling perks that come with the implementation of pricing and revenue management software.

Increased revenue

By predicting demand and optimising pricing, the best hotel revenue management software helps you to maximise both occupancy and room rates, which in turn maximises revenue.

Dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing ensures that your room rates always reflect demand, increasing when demand is high to maximise revenue during peak periods, and decreasing when demand is low to maximise occupancy during lulls.

Better decision-making

Revenue growth management software drives data-driven decision making. There’s no need to rely on instincts or gut-feel–more often than not ,your answer can be found by analysing the data.

Integration support

The best revenue management software companies will ensure your RMS connects seamlessly to your current hotel tech stack, which will allow you to generate deeper insights and set up all manner of time-saving automations. 

Better guest experience

By implementing revenue management software, hotels can ultimately enhance their guest experience by offering loyal guests consistently fair and transparent pricing.

Revenue management software pricing

Price will obviously vary based on the type of tool you’re looking at. In the case of tools based around market intelligence and rate shopping, price will be very reasonable.

Look for providers who offer a flexible pricing model. This means no lock-in contract or commissions. The preferred way of paying is by set monthly fee.

You can always move to a contract later if you want a discounted price and are happy with the service.

Commonly, the amount you pay each month will depend on the size of your property. The more rooms you have, the higher your fee will be. However the price will remain pretty static for hotels with less than 70 rooms. See a pricing example for your property.

Comparing free hotel revenue management software companies 

Before deciding on the right RMS for your property, it’s important to weigh your options against relevant criteria. You can use review sites such as Hotel Tech Report to perform your competitive analysis. On Hotel Tech Report you’ll be able to see scores and user ratings for factors such as:

• Ease of use
• Range of functions
• ROI
• Customer support
• Implementation process
• Integration
• Price

Additionally, you can view full customer reviews and recommendations from hoteliers just like you to gain real-life user insight. 

Social media pages such as Facebook provide another medium to check whether an RMS provider could be a good fit for your business. Do they interact with their audience? How many followers do they have? Are there positive reactions to their content? All of this can serve to help inform your decision.

How to find the best hotel revenue management software 

Your RMS provider shouldn’t just unlock and analyse large amounts of market data for your hotel, it should also make the information digestible, and therefore actionable.
Before you make your investment, ensure your tool has these features:

All-day visibility of local supply and demand

Your chosen RMS should be able to continuously monitor shifts in demand and competitor availability throughout the day, then respond with timely pricing advice or decisions. You should have the option of allowing the RMS to change rates automatically while receiving pricing notifications.

Compare room rates with competitors in one view

You should be able to view your pricing alongside multiple competitors in a single dashboard. This provides perfect transparency in terms of where you sit in the market at any given moment, and powers fast benchmarking and better strategic alignment.

Know local market pricing up to one year in advance

Find an RMS solution that allows you to access forward-looking data on market rates and trends to support long-term pricing and inventory planning.

Unlimited rate shopping

There shouldn’t be any limit on how much market research you can do, so avoid subscription revenue management software that impose rate shopping limits. Let your team conduct checks of competitor pricing across dates, room types and channels without any restrictions.

Exportable reports

Pick an RMS that allows you to download detailed performance, pricing and forecast reports in whatever format you choose, so that insights are easily shared with and analysed by your entire team.

Rate strategy rule creation

Look for RMS tools that allow you to build custom rules when automating pricing responses. These rules can be based on predefined triggers like levels of occupancy and demand, or changes in competitor pricing.

Constant access to the latest market information 

The best RMS tools will serve up real-time market insights in a visual and accessible form, to ensure you’re always offering the most competitive rate for your rooms.

Analysis of how your property is performing online

Another important RMS feature allows you to see your rates as your guests see them. By analysing relevant listings across leading global OTAs, you get a clear picture of where your hotel offering sits against your competitors.

Alerts and preset rules

Automation is a key feature of leading revenue management tools. You should be able to set up notifications that inform you of key market developments, and you should be able to set rules that trigger automatic actions, e.g. if a set of competitors increases their rates by 20% for certain dates, your prices rise too.

Direct booking functionality

The purpose of a revenue management solution is to make your hotel more money, so the best will offer a direct booking engine that allows you to avoid the sky-high commission fees – usually 15-25% – that you’re forced to pay to OTAs and third-party booking sites.

How to improve your cash flow using hotel revenue management software 

Amidst the constant work of managing a hotel day-to-day, being bogged down by data might seem like the last thing you want to do. But with the right tools and know-how, it can be out of the most beneficial updates you can make in your daily operations. 

By analysing the facts and figures across your hotel operations, you’ll be able to find plenty of opportunities to grow your revenue stream and further the success of your business. Often it can only take a small tweak to have a big impact on your annual revenue.

To help raise your bottom line, practice these data strategies at your hotel to maximize your revenue potential:

1. Re-evaluate your revenue channels

When it comes to your hotel distribution channels, it may seem like your “golden goose” is the channel that drives the most demand and highest number of bookings.

However, to truly understand which channels are your most valuable, you need to look at them from a net revenue perspective. This means you need to ask how much profit you’re actually generating from each channel after deducting the associated overhead costs of running them. 

If you find that your most profitable channel is actually the one you place less focus on, you get an opportunity to grow the demand for it. This allows you to lower your cost per booking ratio to ultimately improve your overall profitability day-to-day.

2. Balance the pros and cons of channels over time

It’s important to constantly track the performance of marketing and distribution channels. While one strategy may have worked perfectly two years ago, you need to investigate if it’s still giving you the same benefit today. Perhaps the spend has gone up, while the revenue has gone down.

On the other hand, some channels may have added benefits like brand awareness that counteract a lack of revenue creation, and are still very useful. An example is holiday deal sites that you might advertise on. The rate is going to be low and the commission is likely to be high, but the exposure will also be significant. In this instance you would have to weigh  whether it’s worth it for your brand to be on such websites, and for how long.

3. Use your hotel guest data to optimise your offering

The insights you can gain from each guest that stays at your hotel are invaluable. If you can detect trends in your customer base e.g., what their preferences are, how long they typically stay, their purpose of travel etc. you can start to meaningfully shape a successful marketing and distribution strategy.

From here, you’ll be able to identify any superfluous strategies and replace them with a more targeted approach, using tactics like emails or social media campaigns, to boost your conversion rates and improve your bottomline.

4. Use technology to your hotel’s advantage

A lot of the data you need to make informed decisions can be gleaned from the technology your hotel uses such as your channel manager or booking engine and website. Run reports and generate insights that you can act on almost immediately.

Of course, a revenue management system is one of the best solutions to keeping on top of your income, profits, and data. The right tool can ensure the revenue management at your hotel is down to a science and offers real-time automation.

One such tool is Pace, and CEO Jens Munch makes a pertinent statement about the state of hotel industry today:

“Many industries, including travel, still suffer today from low quality data hidden away in proprietary systems. However, there’s a trend emerging with modern cloud providers to alleviate those problems by enabling connectivity layers for their customer’s data. This lets solutions like us democratise our services and give hoteliers better access to state-of-the-art revenue management.”

Pace, and other machine learning services, generate significant optimisations and competitive advantages for their customers, and should be a serious consideration for any hotel wanting to boost their revenue.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is both a strategy and a set of tools that helps you manage and improve guest relationships. 

Some hoteliers think of a CRM as a marketing add-on. In reality, it’s a core part of running a modern operation. A CRM helps bring together all guest interactions, no matter where they happen. Whether someone books through an OTA, contacts you directly, or shows up unannounced, a CRM gives your team the context they need to deliver a smooth experience.

A CRM works by collecting the data your guests leave behind and helping your team use it in smarter ways. Booking history, pre-arrival requests, in-stay preferences, and post-stay feedback can all feed into a single profile. This allows you to tailor communications, surprise guests with personalised touches, and stay connected long after check-out.

In the hotel world, CRMs are less about sales pipelines and more about creating memorable stays, improving efficiency, and building loyalty over time.

In this blog, we’ll show you why a CRM matters, how you can effectively implement one in your hotel business, and a few great options that have helped hotel managers and owners like you succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Why customer relationship management in a hotel is important

Guest expectations are higher than ever, but the tools many hotels rely on haven’t kept up. When booking information lives in one system, guest preferences in another, and follow-up notes in someone’s inbox, the result is a disjointed experience – for both your guests and your team.

Your team misses an upsell. A returning guest gets the wrong room. Another request falls through the cracks. These are signs of a system that isn’t working hard enough for your business.

A CRM helps connect the dots. By centralising guest information and automating key touchpoints, it gives your team the confidence to personalise each stay, follow up consistently, and make smarter use of the data you’re already collecting. 

And it delivers real results. Hotels using targeted CRM strategies have seen an average 23% increase in repeat bookings. That kind of loyalty means long-term revenue growth. Yet CRM adoption across the industry is still low. Only 21% of hotels, covering about a third of all rooms globally, currently use a CRM. 

That gap creates a clear opportunity for forward-thinking hotels to stand out.

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Benefits of having a customer relationship management system

Each interaction gives you a choice: make it meaningful or let it pass unnoticed. From the moment they book to the day they check out, guests are sharing valuable information about their preferences, habits, and expectations. Without a system to capture and act on that data, opportunities slip away.

A good CRM gives your team the clarity and time to focus on the experience. Instead of bouncing between inboxes and spreadsheets, staff can access up-to-date guest profiles, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver more consistent service. Research shows that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by as much as 95%. 

For hotels competing on loyalty and repeat bookings, that shift has real impact.

Enhanced communications

Instead of writing the same emails over and over, your team can use templates and triggers to automate confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups. Messages go out on time and in the right tone, without the need to chase every booking manually.

Personalised experience

With each guest profile automatically storing past stays, preferences, and notes, it becomes easier to tailor the experience. That could mean offering their favourite room, remembering dietary needs, or simply greeting them by name when they walk through the door.

Streamlining operations

Routine tasks like sending feedback requests or pre-arrival information can be automated through your CRM. That cuts down on admin time and keeps your staff focused on delivering service, not processing paperwork.

Data-driven decisions

Your CRM stores information, but it also turns it into actionable insights. See which campaigns are driving return bookings, identify your most profitable guest segments, and adjust your strategy based on real patterns rather than guesswork.

Essential features of a customer relationship management solution

Not every CRM suits the way hotels work. Some are built for managing sales pipelines, others for handling support tickets. You need a system that helps your team respond quickly, personalise the guest journey, and reduce manual work without creating more complexity.

Here are the features that matter most in a hotel setting:

Guest management features

It starts with a single, detailed guest profile. Booking history, preferences, contact details, and feedback are all stored together, giving your team a full picture of every guest, even across multiple stays or properties.

Operational efficiency

Hotel-focused CRMs do more than store information. They take repetitive tasks off your team’s plate by automating confirmation emails, pre-arrival messages, and post-stay feedback requests. That means more time for in-person service and fewer details slipping through the cracks.

Marketing automation

Running targeted campaigns shouldn’t require a full marketing team. A strong CRM lets you group guests by past behaviour or stay history and schedule relevant offers—like a birthday discount, a seasonal package, or a follow-up for lapsed guests.

Analytics and intelligence

Instead of guessing what’s working, your CRM should show you. Reporting tools help you see which campaigns are performing, which guests are booking again, and where your highest-value guests are coming from.

Upsell opportunities

It’s easier to offer a well-timed upgrade when you know who’s most likely to take it. A CRM can help flag loyal or high-spending guests, so your team can offer extras like room upgrades or late check-out at the right moment. 

Top 5 examples of customer relationship management software

There’s no shortage of CRM tools out there. Below are five popular platforms, each offering a different approach depending on the size, style, and needs of your property. Smaller hotels may benefit more from a dedicated, tailored tool, such as Little Hotelier. 

Salesforce

Salesforce is a powerhouse when it comes to customisation and scalability. It’s typically used by large hotel groups that need to manage complex operations across multiple departments, including sales, loyalty, and marketing. 

HubSpot

HubSpot is known for being user-friendly and easy to set up. Smaller hotels and independent properties often use it to manage guest contacts and run basic email campaigns without needing dedicated marketing staff.

Userpilot

Userpilot focuses on user engagement and onboarding. It’s more common in hybrid hospitality setups, such as serviced apartments or tech-enabled short-stay brands, where app-based check-ins and guest journeys are part of the experience.

Zendesk

Zendesk began as a support tool, and that’s still where it shines. Hotels with high guest messaging volumes often use it to keep track of service requests, ensuring nothing gets missed across email, chat, and other channels.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign blends CRM functionality with sophisticated marketing automation. It’s often used by hotel groups that want to nurture guest relationships with targeted offers, especially when running loyalty or re-engagement campaigns.

Customer relationship management: Best CRM in the hotel industry

You don’t need another system that adds more work. What you need is something that brings everything together (bookings, guest notes, preferences) so your team can do their job without constantly swapping across five different tabs.

The best CRM for hotels works quietly in the background. It picks up booking details from your Property Management System (PMS), logs guest interactions automatically, and helps you follow up with the right message at the right time. It’s not about having more data. It’s about having the right data, in the right place, when you need it.

A Central Reservation System is a type of reservation software that is used to update and maintain hotel inventory and rate information so that hotels are able to manage guest reservations in real-time. Its definition can be simplified to its purposes of centralising data from every connected distribution channel and system, including the hotel’s property management system and booking engine.

By consolidating so much data, it can also be a very useful tool for hotel managers when thinking about revenue management strategies. Here’s everything you need to know about Central Reservation Systems.

Why is a hotel Central Reservation System important?

A hotel Central Reservation System is important for keeping track of reservation data and having the appropriate information to optimise distribution for the hotel. Because the CRS transfers reservation data from the PMS/s to the distribution channels in real-time, hotels are able to reach guests across as many channels as needed.

In this aspect, a Central Reservation System acts in much the same way as a channel manager. A CRS generally has more features than a standalone distribution solution, but doesn’t offer the same power and performance as an integrated hotel commerce platform.

4 advantages of a Central Reservation System

Here’s four reasons hotels will choose to use a central reservation system to improve their business.

1. It can improve customer experiences

The CRS can help hotels track patterns in guest purchasing behaviour and also record reservation data to enable the creation of guest profiles.

2. It keeps everything in one place

Trying to consolidate data from OTAs, the GDS, brick-and-mortar travel agencies, phone reservations, and more can be very tricky when done manually. The Central Reservation System ensures all this information is stored and accessible in one place, and always up-to-date.

3. It increases efficiency

Admin errors, lost data, and slow processes all cost money in the long run so it’s crucial for hoteliers to find ways that make backend operations easier and quicker. By preventing data fragmentation, the CRS saves hoteliers a lot of time, money, and effort.

4. It enables better decision making

By giving greater visibility on bookings, a Central Reservation System lets a hotel make more informed sales and pricing decisions and make more accurate performance forecasts.

Maximise the power of your property with SiteMinder

SiteMinder’s unified platform will give your hotel all the functions of a CRS and more, helping you to boost bookings and revenue.

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How does a CRS work at a hotel?

A CRS works by collating vast amounts of data from a number of different sources into one accessible location. The CRS is able to connect the hotel’s property management system to every distribution and sales channel the hotel might be using. This ensures that all reservation data is safely recorded and stored in the hotel’s own system, meaning inventory will always be accurate and up-to-date everywhere it needs to be.

The synchronisation works the other way too – the CRS can also push updated rates and availability to the distribution channels where guests are booking. For example, if you need to update a packaged rate for your hotel, you can do this within the CRS and the new rate will be reflected on your connected OTAs, your own direct booking engine, and in your PMS.

Types of central reservation systems

A Central Reservation System is just one type of reservation software. There are a number of systems on the hotel market that can help improve reservation management. Other types of reservation systems include:

• Property Management Systems (PMS)
• Channel Managers
• Booking Engines

There are also many different providers of these systems, including Central Reservation Systems, and it’s up to you to decide what is the best fit for your property.

Central reservation system examples

Some common Central Reservation System examples you might come across, which can be integrated via SiteMinder’s platform, include:

• Choice
• GuestCentric
• Pegasus
• ROIBACK
• SHR

SiteMinder’s platform integrates your CRS with the leading online travel agencies (OTA) to increase your reach and lower your cost of distribution. With SiteMinder, inventory and rate updates to and from your CRS are automatic and real-time eliminating manual work and lowering your cost of acquisition.

Hotel employee engagement is the connection staff feel to their work, their team, and the guest experience. It shows up in how motivated they are, how they solve problems, and how they interact with guests.

Engaged staff do more than the bare minimum; they look for ways to add value, whether they’re an operations manager or a brand new junior hire. That might mean noticing when a guest needs help before they ask, or stepping in to support a teammate during a busy check-in.

In a high-turnover industry, this kind of staff engagement is a practical advantage. It helps reduce churn, improves service consistency, and creates a better experience for everyone who walks through your doors.

The importance of employee engagement in the hospitality industry

In hospitality, your staff are the experience. You can have beautiful rooms and a strong brand, but if the people running the show are unmotivated or burned out, it shows.

Engaged employees are more likely to deliver consistent, high-quality service. They solve problems faster, communicate better across teams, and contribute to a more positive atmosphere, from the front desk to housekeeping. 

The payoff for engagement is real. Marriott found that businesses with higher employee engagement saw a 21% boost in productivity and 22% higher profitability. But conversely, any hotel owner or manager can tell you that good staff can be hard to keep. Staff only stick around when they feel valued and are given the right opportunities.

In this article, we’ll show you what you need to know about effective staff engagement, including the benefits, the challenges, and the practical measures you can take starting today to keep your staff engaged – and working with your hotel; not your competitors’.

Challenges of employee engagement practices in the hotel industry

Engaging hotel staff isn’t as simple as handing out rewards or scheduling the occasional team lunch. The challenges are deeper and more structural.

Inconsistent staffing disrupts team dynamics

When people come and go frequently, it’s hard to build momentum. Teams don’t get the chance to gel, and service quality can become unpredictable, especially during busy periods. This means that colleagues stay as acquaintances and don’t develop into true teammates.

Frontline roles are under pressure

From dealing with demanding guests to covering last-minute shift changes, hotel staff are under constant strain. Without clear communication and support, burnout can set in quickly, especially in understaffed teams.

There’s often limited time for development

In a fast-paced environment, training and growth often fall to the bottom of the list. But when staff don’t see a future with your hotel, they’re less likely to stay engaged or loyal. Everyone is looking for the next opportunity. You just have to make sure you’re the one providing it, not your competitors.

Poor management is a dealbreaker

Many employees say their perception of work is shaped by their direct manager. A lack of recognition or support can push even good staff to leave. In fact, 45% of employees have left a job because of poor management.

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How to improve employee engagement in the hotel industry

Improving engagement doesn’t require sweeping changes or big budgets. It’s about making consistent, meaningful improvements in how your team works, communicates, and grows.

Open communication

When staff feel like they’re the last to know, or worse, never asked, it creates a disconnect. Clear, two-way communication builds trust and makes staff feel like they’re part of the bigger picture.

Start small: hold five-minute daily huddles, run short anonymous surveys after busy periods, and make space in weekly meetings to hear from frontline staff. This helps uncover pain points early, avoid miscommunication, and shows your team that their ideas count.

A hotel manager who explains the why behind new policies will always get more buy-in than one who simply posts a notice on the break room door.

Provide growth opportunities

Many staff leave because they can’t see what’s next. Development doesn’t always mean promotions. It could be letting someone from housekeeping shadow the front desk, offering short courses on guest conflict resolution, or giving your top performers more responsibility.

Build it into your culture. Mention progression in onboarding. Celebrate internal promotions, loudly. And give people feedback that includes not just what to improve, but where they could go next. 60% of employees said they would stay longer at a job if there were clear opportunities for career advancement.

Team building activities

When people feel connected to their coworkers, they’re more likely to show up with a positive attitude, even during the toughest shifts.

Think beyond ‘trust falls’. Organise birthday shout-outs, friendly competitions (e.g. most positive guest mentions this week), or even invite staff to contribute ideas for shared social events. 

The goal is to create moments where your team can interact without the pressure of their daily tasks. Even a short shared meal (ideally covered by the business!) after a long weekend shift can go a long way in helping teams bond.

Work-life balance

Hospitality roles are physically and emotionally demanding. Without balance, even the best team members will burn out.

Offer predictable schedules when possible and avoid excessive last-minute changes. Allow staff to block out key dates in advance, and if you have tech tools for scheduling, use them to give people more visibility and control over their time.

Celebrate achievements

Recognition doesn’t have to be grand but it has to be real. A sincere “thank you” in front of the team or a small monthly reward for standout service can boost morale more than you’d expect. 68% of employees said they are more likely to stay with a company if they feel recognised for their hard work.

Use your PMS or guest feedback tools to spot standouts. If a guest names a staff member in a review, share it with the team. Recognition helps reinforce the behaviours you want more of.

Implement technology

Technology can reduce friction and give your team more time for delivering great service and building relationships.

A system like SiteMinder can help automate bookings, simplify rate management, and improve communication across departments. That means fewer phone calls chasing availability, fewer double bookings to fix, and more clarity about who’s doing what.

Hotel employee engagement examples

Putting engagement strategies into practice can feel abstract until you see how they play out on the floor. These practical examples show how small shifts in approach can lead to stronger morale, better service, and improved staff retention.

Front desk autonomy builds confidence and loyalty

At a mid-sized urban hotel, the general manager noticed front desk staff felt micromanaged. They were required to escalate nearly every guest complaint to managers, even when they had the skills to resolve the issue themselves. The hotel introduced a policy allowing team members to offer small, predefined gestures like late checkouts or complimentary drinks without needing sign-off.

Within weeks, guest satisfaction scores improved. Staff began reporting higher confidence and job satisfaction in post-shift surveys. Feeling trusted made a clear difference, and turnover slowed.

A simple recognition program lifted housekeeping morale

Turnover in the housekeeping team was high, and morale was low. To address it, management launched a peer-nominated “Star of the Week” award. Winners received a small (but meaningful) bonus and a shout-out during the weekly staff briefing.

Team members started recognising each other’s efforts more often, creating a noticeable shift in atmosphere. After three months, exit interviews showed a stronger sense of connection and pride in the job.

Technology helped reduce stress during peak season

One regional hotel group introduced a platform to automate bookings, room assignments, and rate changes. Previously, staff spent hours each day chasing information across systems and managing tasks manually.

The new tech reduced errors, freed up time, and allowed staff to focus more on guest service. During the busy summer period, team leads reported smoother shifts and less stress. Staff said the changes made their work more manageable and rewarding.

A hotel revenue management system (RMS) is a technology platform that helps hotels make smarter pricing and inventory decisions. It collects and analyses data, like occupancy rates, booking patterns, local demand, and competitor pricing, to automatically adjust room rates in real time.

Think of it as a behind-the-scenes strategist. While you focus on running your property, the RMS is working in the background to make sure you’re charging the right rate, to the right guest, at the right time.

For hoteliers who are still using spreadsheets or ‘gut instinct to set prices’, switching to a revenue management system means gaining a data-driven, automated way to maximise revenue without increasing workload.

And it’s not just for large chains anymore. Many modern RMS platforms are now accessible to medium-sized hotels and growing groups, especially those juggling multiple locations and seasonal fluctuations.

In this article, we’ll show you why hotels that adopt revenue management software report an average increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) of between 7% and 20%, and how your hotel can effectively adopt the best possible tool for your specific needs.

Why is a revenue management system for hotels important?

Running a hotel is already complex. Between staff management, guest experience, and day-to-day operations, pricing strategy can quickly fall to the bottom of the list, despite being one of the biggest levers you have for success. For hotel owners managing multiple properties, the challenge grows. Coordinating rates across locations without a centralised system is time-consuming and risky. 

A revenue management system removes the guesswork. It uses live data to automatically adjust your prices based on demand, seasonality, competitor behaviour, and booking trends. An RMS gives you a single source of truth so you can manage pricing and performance from one dashboard rather than toggling between spreadsheets or systems. 

Instead of reacting after the fact, you’re staying ahead of the curve. More importantly, it frees up your time. Time you can reinvest into your team, your guests, and your business strategy.

Hotels that implement revenue management systems report measurable improvements in both operational efficiency and financial performance. In fact, the global hotel RMS market is expected to grow from USD 16.4 billion in 2023 to over USD 29.4 billion by 2031, driven largely by increased adoption among mid-sized hotels.

Smarter revenue management with SiteMinder

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How do hotel revenue management systems work?

In short, an RMS is a data connector. It pulls in data from various sources, including your hotel’s booking history, current occupancy, competitor rates, market demand trends, and even local events. It analyses all this information in real time and recommends optimal pricing for each room type.

Many RMS platforms also update your rates automatically across your direct booking site and connected OTAs, so you don’t have to log in to multiple platforms. You can set rules and thresholds, such as minimum and maximum prices or lead-time strategies, so the system aligns with your business goals.

Some tools go a step further by offering demand forecasts and performance dashboards. These insights help you plan staffing, promotions, and even room availability across different distribution channels.

Instead of spending hours adjusting rates manually, you can focus on strategy while the system keeps your pricing competitive and your inventory selling efficiently.

Use of revenue management system examples

• A 60-room coastal hotel sees spikes in demand during long weekends. With a revenue management system, it detects booking surges early and raises rates automatically, adding thousands in incremental revenue each season. 
• A multi-property hotel group uses an RMS to align pricing strategies across three locations. With a centralised dashboard, the revenue manager saves hours each week and responds faster to market changes.

Key benefits of revenue management systems (RMS)

A revenue management system isn’t just a pricing tool. It’s a business growth tool. For hotel owners managing multiple properties, or just looking to make smarter decisions, the right RMS can:

Improve profitability

By analysing live demand and competitor pricing, an RMS helps you charge the optimal rate for every room. This means capturing high-value bookings when demand is strong and staying competitive when demand softens.

Increased efficiency

Instead of updating rates manually across multiple channels, an RMS can automate this process. That means fewer mistakes, better rate parity, and more time for you and your team to focus on guests, not spreadsheets.

Better decision-making

Dashboards and forecasting tools provide a clear view of your performance and market trends. You can see what’s working, spot opportunities, and make proactive decisions that support your revenue goals.

Enhanced customer experience

With smarter pricing, you avoid underpricing during peak periods or overpricing in slow seasons. Both hurt guest satisfaction and bookings. The right RMS helps ensure your rates match what guests are willing to pay, improving conversion and perceived value.

“At first I thought it was just a myth that using SiteMinder could boost revenue. But it turned out to be true. Revenue did increase, we are also more efficient in terms of time; we can get more work done.”

Shadi Wijaya,

Corporate Director of Revenue

The Phala Group

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How to find the best hotel revenue management systems

Choosing the right RMS comes down to finding a system that matches your property’s needs today and can scale with you tomorrow. Here are some essential features to look out for:

• Rate comparison: See how your pricing stacks up against competitors in real time, so you can stay competitive without constant manual research. 
• Forecasting: Predict future demand using historical data and booking trends, helping you prepare for high and low seasons with confidence. 
• Dashboard with reporting: Get a clear, centralised view of performance across one or more properties. Ideal for tracking KPIs like occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR. 
• Integrates with existing systems: The best RMS will plug into your PMS, channel manager, and booking engine, syncing data and reducing double-handling.

Not every system offers the same depth or flexibility, so it’s worth trialling options that let you see the tools in action.

The top 5 hotel revenue management systems

If you’re ready to invest in a revenue management system, these platforms are worth exploring. Each offers different strengths. Some are built for simplicity, others for advanced strategy, but all aim to help hoteliers grow revenue and work smarter.

1. Duetto

Duetto gives hotels more control over pricing than many other systems. Its open pricing model means you can set rates by room type, channel, and customer segment without sticking to rigid pricing structures. It also offers smart automation with custom rules, so you can decide when the system should take over and when you want to stay hands-on.

2. Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds’ RMS uses data from across its platform to automate pricing and inventory decisions. Its user-friendly interface is great for independent hotels and small groups that want to get started quickly with smart pricing.

3. BEONx

BEONx focuses on holistic revenue strategy. It’s particularly strong for hoteliers who want to blend revenue management with guest experience metrics, offering features that help align pricing with guest value.

4. IDeaS Elevate

A well-established RMS with a deep feature set, IDeaS is known for its forecasting accuracy and strong analytics. It’s popular with larger hotels and chains that need robust data modelling.

5. Diamo

Diamo is a more recent entrant focused on making revenue management accessible to mid-sized hotels. Its interface is clean, and it provides helpful decision-support tools for teams that aren’t ready for a full enterprise solution.

These platforms vary in cost, complexity, and integration options, so the best choice depends on your size, tech stack, and growth plans.

Hotel ownership describes the legal and financial responsibility of owning a hotel business, including the land, the property, and all its fixtures and equipment.

A hotel owner is responsible for overseeing the overall performance and profitability of the property. Their duties can include managing finances, setting strategic goals, maintaining the building and facilities, ensuring compliance with regulations, and deciding on staffing or management structures.

While some hotel owners are hands-on, others hire management companies to run hotel departments and daily operations, focusing instead on investment decisions, brand partnerships and long-term growth. Ultimately, the owner’s role is to ensure the hotel remains well-maintained and profitable.

In this blog, we will drill down on hotel ownership to understand different ownership structures, how to choose the right one for your situation, and the tools that will help your hotel venture succeed.

Why choosing the right hotel ownership model matters

Choosing the right hotel ownership model is crucial because it directly affects the financial returns, operational responsibilities, level of control and long-term success of your hotel business.

The model you choose determines how much risk you take on, how involved you need to be in daily operations, and how much support you receive from external partners.

An independent hotel grants you full control over the business but requires significant investment and experience. A leased ownership model, meanwhile, sees you act as nothing more than a hotel landlord, where you enjoy a steady income with zero operational involvement and minimal risk. The downside is you won’t enjoy any extra reward. 

Aligning your ownership structure with your goals, resources and risk appetite is key to building a sustainable and profitable hotel business.

Types of hotel ownership

There are a number of different types of hotel ownership models, and each comes with its own pros and cons.

Independent hotel ownership

Independently owned hotels aren’t affiliated with a major brand or chain. As the owner (or as part of the hotel ownership group), you have complete control over decision-making, from branding to operations, which gives you the ability to offer a truly unique guest experience. On the flipside, an independent owner takes on all financial and operational risk.

Franchised hotel ownership

Franchised hotels are operated under a recognised brand name and use the franchisor’s systems, standards and marketing. As the hotel owner, you pay fees and royalties in exchange for the benefits of brand recognition and support. You retain day-to-day control of the property, but don’t have the creative and decision-making freedom of an independent owner.

Leased hotel ownership

Leased hotel ownership sees you lease your property to an operator or brand, who runs the hotel for you and assumes all operational responsibility. As the owner, you earn a fixed rental income, while the operator manages the business, earns the profits and takes on the business risk. The owner simply acts as a landlord and is completely hands-off.

Managed hotel ownership

Managed hotel ownership is when you, the property owner, hire a professional hotel management company to operate the hotel on your behalf. The management provider handles staffing, operations and guest services, while you are more hands-off. You still ultimately take on the risk, but you receive a share of the profits as a reward.

Fractional hotel ownership

Fractional hotel ownership allows multiple individuals to co-own a share of a hotel or resort property. A famous case is ‘timeshare’, where each owner is entitled to use the property for a set period each year and shares in any rental income or appreciation: a sort of hybrid of real estate investment and lifestyle purchase. But there are also non-timeshare hotel ownership groups made up of large numbers of fractional investors – a situation that can be more comparable to buying shares in a publicly traded company.

Your situation may limit which of these ownership options are available to you, and channel you toward a specific form of ownership.

Choosing the right hotel ownership and management structure

How do you choose the right hotel ownership and management structure for your situation? By factoring in some key considerations, you can start to identify which of the ownership models listed above is right for you.

Long-term vision

Your long-term goals will have an outsized influence on the best hotel ownership model for you. If you envision building a unique brand and enjoying complete creative freedom, independent ownership is best, as it grants you full control over branding and operations.

But if your goal is to scale or build a property portfolio quickly, franchising or management agreements may get you where you want to go sooner. An investor wanting to grow nationally might choose a franchised model for its brand power and systems, even if it means they must adhere to strict brand standards.

Available capital

The amount of capital you can invest upfront will play a key role in your ownership decision. 

Independent hotels typically require more capital for branding, systems and marketing, while franchised or managed hotels can offset some of these costs through access to established infrastructure and customer bases. Fractional owners, meanwhile, can often invest as much or as little as they choose.

An investor with limited funds might prefer a franchise for the support it provides, but they’ll need to factor in ongoing fees.

Operational capacity

Owning a hotel and managing a hotel are two very different things. You need to decide how hands-on you’re prepared to be in terms of operations.

If you have hospitality experience and a strong management team, you may be able to handle the day-to-day operational rigours of independent or franchised ownership.

But if you lack the time, expertise or desire to be that hands-on, a fractional, managed or leased hotel ownership model could be more suitable. A busy entrepreneur, for example, might prefer to hire a management company that allows them to trade daily involvement for a more passive role.

Risk tolerance

Different ownership structures come with varying degrees of financial and operational risk. 

Independent owners face the highest risk, but also have the potential for the highest reward, and enjoy unmatched levels of creative and decision-making freedom. 

Those with lower risk tolerance might prefer hiring a hotel management company or leasing a hotel to an operator and receiving predictable rental income regardless of performance. 

Similarly, franchises provide support systems that can reduce operational risk, though they come with binding contracts and ongoing obligations.

Level of control

Consider how much control you want over the hotel’s design, policies and branding. 

If you’d like full decision-making authority, independent ownership is ideal. If you’re comfortable giving up some control in exchange for support, franchising allows you to retain ownership while following brand standards. 

For those willing to step back completely, management agreements or leasing will pass control to another party, which will limit your influence over the hotel.

“At first I thought it was just a myth that using SiteMinder could boost revenue. But it turned out to be true. Revenue did increase, we are also more efficient in terms of time; we can get more work done.”

Shadi Wijaya,

Corporate Director of Revenue

The Phala Group

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Hotel ownership: Tools for growth

If you plan to take a more hands-on approach to hotel ownership – particularly as an independent owner – you’ll need tools to help you efficiently and effectively manage your hotel business.

A complete hotel software solution will have all the tools you need to grow your business. A few of the most important include:

• Channel manager: A tool that synchronises room availability and rates across multiple OTA listings in real time.
• Global distribution system: A tool that connects you to the booking systems used by travel agents and corporate travellers, like Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport.
• Guest engagement: A set of features designed to enhance communication and personalise the guest experience before, during and after a stay.
• Hotel booking engine: An online tool integrated into the hotel’s website that allows guests to check availability and make direct bookings.

One solution that offers all of the above, and a whole lot more, is SiteMinder.

As the world’s largest open hotel commerce platform, SiteMinder empowers hotel owners to gain control over the success of their properties, at whatever level they require, from granular day-to-day operations to long-term and strategic decision-making.

In the hotel industry, POS is short for ‘point of sale’, which refers to a hotel system that processes payments and tracks sales.

POS systems are primarily used by hoteliers to handle transactions and manage finances, but by choosing the best, you can also streamline operations, control inventory and enhance guest experiences.

This blog will tell you all you need to know about hotel POS software, including how the right system can help you optimise operations and scale your business.

Why having a hotel POS system is important

A hotel POS system is an essential tool for a modern hotel.

It centralises transactions across all aspects of your hotel business, from the front desk to any restaurants, bars, spas and other services you might offer. It ensures seamless billing and accurate reporting, improving internal efficiency through more streamlined operations.

Modern POS systems support multiple payment methods, allowing guests to pay how they want to pay, including from digital wallets. They offer data analysis and reporting tools, giving you insight into sales trends, room rates and popular service offerings.

POS systems are designed to improve efficiency by helping you track stock levels and reduce waste. They automate a wealth of admin by integrating seamlessly with your other software. And they ultimately improve the guest experience, both directly, through smooth payment systems and indirectly, by freeing your team from admin and letting them focus on customers.

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How does a hotel POS system work with other software?

Your POS system will need to interact with a variety of tools in your hotel tech stack. Here’s how such a system works with each of these solutions.

• • Hotel PMS: The POS sends transaction data, and the PMS (and channel manager) sends booking data.
  • Hotel CRM: The POS sends data on guest purchases and feedback, and the CRM sends member discounts and personalised deals.
  • Inventory management system: The POS sends details on stock sold, and the inventory management system sends info on stock levels.

• • Payment platforms: The POS sends transaction data like credit card/cardholder info, and the payment platform sends back the result of a transaction.

• • Accounting software: The POS system sends sales and employee data to be logged in the accounting software.

Features in a hotel POS system to scale up your hotel business

As we’ve already seen, a modern hotel POS system can do far more than just process transactions: it can streamline operations, generate valuable insights and help to enhance guest experiences.

But that’s only true when you choose a capable POS system for your hotel – one with the following key features:

Inventory management

A hotel POS system with inventory management helps you to track stock levels in real-time, ensuring your restaurants, bars, spas and service desks never run out of essential items.

Centralising control of stock means your hotel can streamline procurement and supplier management, even across multiple sites. You may also be able to set automated stock level alerts to prevent shortages and overstocking.

Guest data management

By generating and sharing data on guest preferences and purchase history, a POS system can help you offer a more personalised level of service, which can increase guest satisfaction and drive loyalty.

You can use POS data to be more targeted with your marketing, tailoring promotions to specific groups or even individuals. You can also use this data to customise the service you offer each guest while they stay, like tweaking the recommendations you offer through a digital concierge.

Payment processing

The best POS systems support multiple payment methods to make transactions fast, smooth and convenient. Look for tools with automated billing and room charge capabilities, to make checkout quick and hassle-free.

Data protection

Secure payment gateways and data storage are critical features in any POS system, serving to minimise risk and enhance guest confidence.

A secure POS system will comply with all relevant data protection regulations, safeguarding payment details and confidential guest information. Encryption, role-based access and regular system updates also help to protect against fraud and cyber threats.

Robust reporting

Advanced reporting tools provide real-time insights into sales trends and operational performance. They give you the insights you need to make data-driven decisions. 

Look for a POS solution with customisable dashboards that allow you to track key metrics like best-selling services, popular payment methods and peak sales periods.

Seamless integration

Choose a POS system that can connect with and talk to the key tools in your hotel tech stack: your PMS, accounting software, direct booking engine and more.

Integration breeds automation, allowing the tools to synchronise transactions, inventory, availability and more, without you or your team needing to lift a finger. Minimising manual data entry means fewer human errors too.

“SiteMinder has also improved their solutions by providing business analytic tools. It works effectively and efficiently, and when market demand fluctuates we are able to change our pricing strategy in a timely manner, to optimise the business opportunity.”

Annie Hong,

Revenue and Reservations Manager

The RuMa Hotel and Residences

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Best hotel POS system

What do the best hotel and restaurant POS systems look like? Let’s break down five of the finest on the market.

1. SiteMinder Pay: best overall

SiteMinder Pay represents the future of hotel POS systems. A hotel-specific and entirely digital solution, it removes the need for hardware-like payment terminals. The guests can pay online, how they want and when they want, backed by security that represents the industry standard. SiteMinder Pay is designed to streamline your payment processes, give you control over your cash flow, and enable fast and accurate reconciliation.

2. Square: best for price

With a free software tier and low-cost, long-term payment options for hardware, Square is one of the most accessible and affordable POS solutions on the market. While this popular, general purpose POS system isn’t built specifically for hotels, it does offer all the functionality that an accommodation provider needs. 

3. Clover: best hardware

If hardware is important to you, Clover offers some of the very best. Its handheld POS terminals are simple and intuitive, so staff will require minimal training. It’s also one of the few solutions that lets you accept payments through a customer display.

4. Lightspeed: best for help & support

If you want all the help you can get with your new solution, look no further than Lightspeed. As one of the few POS systems that comes with a built-in training mode, your staff can get perfectly comfortable with this system before they use it to serve their first guest. It should be noted, however, that the best solutions should be so intuitive that you don’t need much support at all.

5. Toast: best for usability

Toast is a POS solution that prides itself on being perfectly intuitive and easy to use. Combining capable hardware with smooth software, the barrier to entry is particularly low for this solution, even for your most tech-phobic team members. You’ll also enjoy simple but surprisingly rare features like the ability to change screen colours and text size.

But if you’re looking for best-in-class functionality that also future proofs your hotel, there’s no POS quite like SiteMinder Pay.

The power of ancillary revenue: unlocking new profit streams

Ancillary revenue is the key to increasing profitability without raising room rates, a concept often overlooked in the hospitality industry. Hotels, restaurants, bars, and spas all have untapped opportunities that can significantly boost their bottom line. Whether it’s upgrading guest experiences or optimizing F&B operations, there’s no limit to what can be achieved.

With SiteMinder’s powerful tools, hoteliers can tap into dynamic pricing, personalized offers, and seamless integrations that make it easier to track and boost ancillary revenue. Using data to personalize guest experiences creates more opportunities to offer value-added services that increase spend per guest—without affecting the room rate.

Mastering Ancillary Revenue by Pablo Torres

Pablo’s newly released book, Mastering Ancillary Revenue, serves as a comprehensive guide for hospitality professionals aiming to boost their revenue. With over 200 pages packed with practical insights, real-world examples, and proven strategies, it covers everything from identifying new revenue streams to leveraging technology and guest-centric marketing.    

The book draws on Pablo’s extensive experience consulting for hotels across 30 countries, including real-life scenarios from over 400 projects. It’s designed not just for large hotel chains but also smaller properties and boutique businesses looking to make the most of their existing assets.

Key learnings from Pablo’s book: actionable strategies for hoteliers

Thinking beyond room rates
The book teaches hoteliers to uncover hidden revenue opportunities by monetizing existing assets, like converting lobbies into co-working spaces or offering wellness experiences. With SiteMinder’s flexible platform, you can easily diversify your revenue streams.

Technology: your secret weapon for profitability
Technology, like AI and real-time booking tools, plays a crucial role in ancillary revenue. SiteMinder helps hoteliers optimize offerings with data-driven insights, enabling personalized guest experiences and boosting revenue.

Empowering staff for success
Pablo emphasizes staff training to identify upselling opportunities. SiteMinder’s tools help your team effortlessly suggest upgrades and upsell services, creating memorable guest interactions that drive repeat business.

The guest-centric approach to ancillary revenue
Pablo’s book shows how personalized, emotional experiences drive guest spending. SiteMinder’s technology allows you to tailor offerings to individual preferences, ensuring guests are more likely to indulge in value-added services.

Why SiteMinder is the perfect partner for your ancillary revenue strategy

As an Expert Partner with SiteMinder, Pablo Torres is not just a consultant; he’s a strategic ally who helps hoteliers leverage SiteMinder’s full suite of features to achieve long-term profitability. Whether it’s integrating dynamic pricing for room upgrades or creating personalized guest experiences, SiteMinder’s platform supports hoteliers in implementing the strategies outlined in Pablo’s book.

With SiteMinder’s easy-to-use platform, you can integrate and manage all your revenue-generating services in one place, making it simpler to track performance and optimize your efforts. SiteMinder’s cloud-based solutions offer real-time updates, enabling you to make quick, data-driven decisions that positively impact your bottom line.

A future-ready approach to ancillary revenue

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, the focus on ancillary revenue is only going to grow. Hotels that succeed in maximizing these streams will set themselves apart from the competition. Pablo’s book and his partnership with SiteMinder offer the roadmap for success, helping hotels future-proof their revenue strategies.

We’re proud to work with Pablo Torres, an Expert Partner at SiteMinder, and together, we aim to help hotels navigate the ever-changing landscape of hospitality and unlock their full revenue potential.

Ready to take your hospitality revenue strategy to the next level? Discover actionable insights and expert strategies in Mastering Ancillary Revenue by Pablo Torres. Don’t miss out on unlocking your property’s full potential—purchase the book today and start transforming your revenue approach!

Buy the book here

Here’s everything you should know about how these powerful platforms work together.

Boost revenue and enhance guest experience with seamless integration

BeSafe, founded in 2017, specialises in developing cutting-edge insurance solutions tailored to the hospitality sector. Their flagship product, BeSafe Rate, is an integrated insurance platform designed to streamline the booking process. BeSafe Rate allows hoteliers to offer insurance during the booking process, providing flexibility and protection for guests while helping hotels capture more prepaid bookings.

The integration with SiteMinder’s platform creates a seamless connection between hoteliers and the insurance service, allowing hotels to offer BeSafe’s product directly through their booking engines. With SiteMinder’s reach and ease of use, this integration becomes an attractive option for hotels looking to maximise revenue and enhance guest satisfaction. By offering personalised insurance rates to travellers, hotels are able to cater to a wider range of guest needs, creating a more flexible and guest-friendly booking experience.

“As hoteliers increasingly look for ways to drive direct bookings, our partnership with SiteMinder helps maximize revenue while ensuring a seamless and enjoyable guest experience,” says Edoardo Montagnoli, Partnership Manager at BeSafe. “We’re excited to offer this integration to hotels worldwide, making insurance as simple as booking a room.”

With the ability to provide tailored coverage for different guest types and seasons, BeSafe Rate offers unique benefits. For example, properties can adjust coverage to meet local market needs or special events, further improving revenue potential.

Simplify operations and eliminate manual tasks

In an industry where operational efficiency is paramount, managing cancellations and refunds can often become a cumbersome, manual process. The partnership between BeSafe and SiteMinder is a game-changer for hoteliers, as it automates these traditionally labor-intensive tasks. By integrating insurance options directly into the booking engine, hotels can now reduce the time spent handling cancellations and refund requests, allowing staff to focus on other essential areas of guest service.

BeSafe’s platform is designed to be intuitive and easy to implement. Hoteliers benefit from a quick, automated process that requires no ongoing manual management. Once integrated, BeSafe handles the bulk of insurance and cancellation processes, from booking insurance to processing refunds.

“The simplicity of our platform allows hotels to save time and reduce administrative costs,” says Montagnoli. “We’re not just providing an insurance product, but an entire system that reduces the workload for hotel staff and helps improve their bottom line.”

By eliminating the manual effort required in handling cancellations, hotels can increase operational efficiency. Additionally, BeSafe’s transparent, automated refunds are processed within seven days, ensuring a faster, more positive experience for guests and helping hoteliers build stronger relationships with their customers.

Better management, less work

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Real success: How BeSafe boosts hotel performance

BeSafe’s positive impact is not just theoretical. The partnership’s real-world success is clearly evident in the results experienced by properties like VOIhotels, a prestigious hotel chain with properties across Italy and other regions. After implementing BeSafe Rate across 16 of their properties, VOIhotels saw a remarkable 97% of prepaid reservations come directly from their website, which significantly boosted their revenue from direct bookings.

“By offering BeSafe’s insured rates, we were able to expand our reach and grow our direct bookings,” says Angelo La Riccia, Chief Commercial Officer at VOIhotels. 

“This partnership has provided us with a flexible and customizable insurance product that enhances both our revenue and guest satisfaction.”

For VOIhotels’ VRetreats brand, the results were even more striking: a 190% year-over-year growth in bookings. With BeSafe Rate incorporated, guests had the assurance of insurance coverage, which in turn increased their willingness to make prepaid bookings, further strengthening VOIhotels’ position in the luxury hospitality market.

“BeSafe Rate has been transformative for us,” La Riccia continues. “It has simplified the booking process, made our guests feel more confident about their bookings, and ultimately contributed to our revenue growth.”

This success story illustrates how BeSafe’s solution helps hoteliers achieve both short-term operational efficiency and long-term revenue growth. The ability to provide insurance options directly in the booking flow, paired with the platform’s user-friendly integration, helps ensure that hoteliers can see immediate results.

The future of hospitality insurance: Growth and innovation

As the partnership between BeSafe and SiteMinder continues to evolve, the focus is on expanding into new global markets while continuing to enhance product offerings. BeSafe is integrating advanced AI features into its platform, particularly in the area of refund processes. These AI-driven solutions are aimed at further automating customer service tasks and making the refund process even faster and more transparent.

“Looking ahead, we are excited to continue improving our platform with more personalised offerings, like parametric insurance coverage,” says Montagnoli. “We’re also working on expanding into new regions, including the UAE, Mexico, and the French Antilles, ensuring our solutions meet the unique needs of hoteliers across the globe.”

In addition to expanding its global reach, BeSafe is focused on developing insurance products tailored to specific challenges faced by the hospitality industry, such as weather-related disruptions or flight cancellations. By creating customisable, on-demand coverage, BeSafe is helping hoteliers offer the flexibility that today’s travelers expect.

“Our mission is to provide solutions that not only enhance operational efficiency but also meet the evolving needs of both hoteliers and their guests,” says Montagnoli. 

“We’re committed to continuing to innovate and stay ahead of industry trends.”

Why this partnership matters: A game-changer for hoteliers

For hoteliers seeking to simplify operations, boost direct bookings, and increase revenue, the BeSafe and SiteMinder partnership is a game-changer. By offering seamless integration of insurance options during the booking process, hoteliers are able to provide guests with peace of mind while also securing prepaid bookings that reduce revenue loss due to cancellations.

The ability to access BeSafe’s platform through SiteMinder’s booking engine means that hoteliers can enjoy a smooth, automated process with minimal intervention required. With no upfront costs and a commission-based model, BeSafe’s offering is an attractive and scalable solution for hotels of all sizes, whether they’re independent properties or large chains.

By integrating advanced insurance solutions into their booking engine, hoteliers are able to stand out in a competitive market, build stronger relationships with guests, and protect their revenue stream from booking cancellations.

But OpenAI’s Operator, launched earlier this year, revived concerns about the lifespan of long-standing industry players in the wake of new technologies.

The AI agent not only reads data, but can also interact with a browser.

This means in addition to generating travel recommendations and plans, Operator can make bookings, only asking users to take over for tasks that require login and payment details, or to solve CAPTCHAs.

Adding to the momentum, Perplexity recently partnered with fintech platform Selfbook and Tripadvisor to bring hotel bookings directly into its AI-powered ‘answer engine’ – another clear sign that agentic AI is on the rise.

Currently, Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are still the biggest drivers of hotel booking revenue, having withstood and adjusted to decades of technological advances – including mobile, a revolution that many thought would leave OTAs behind and instead has seen them use to further their competitive advantage.

Yet new tools like Operator and Perplexity raise questions.

Does the advent of AI agents signal the beginning of the end for third-party bookings, or are we simply entering a new phase in the evolution of online hotel distribution? And, how can other key industry players, particularly hotels, learn from the action OTAs have already taken?

Glimpse into the AI-led future

As with any industry where multi-layered intelligence is key to achieving the ultimate goal of personalisation, data is king in travel.

For this reason, revenue managers and OTAs analyse a range of past, present and future factors to sell the right rooms at the right times, at the right prices, to the right guests.

So when looking for their next stay, today’s guests are offered broadly personalised options largely based on the type of traveller profile they fall into, according to their demographic’s general preferences.

AI tools like Operator could take things a step further and tailor accommodation offers to suit each individual guest, thanks to the large pool of data at AI’s disposal and the technology’s ability to analyse and act on all of that information quickly.

Even with this potential, Simone Puorto, founder of consulting firm Travel Singularity and AI-powered start-up Rebyū, does not believe AI tools will make OTAs obsolete.

But he can imagine a world where OTAs transform to become data hubs from which AI agents would draw information, leading the hotel industry into a new era of “hyper-personalisation”, led by both OTAs and revenue managers.

“With more information, what you could do is create a rate for [Guest A], then create a rate for [Guest B],” Puorto says. “This will become more than revenue management. I think it will become traveller management – you will really optimise for that specific person rather than just try to create boxes [to sort them into].”

In addition to guest profiles splintering from demographics into individuals, Puorto expects an upcoming explosion of AI-powered tools will further fragment the travel industry’s tech stack offerings in the short-term.

This would compound pre-existing industry issues, with hotels already facing the challenge of trying to connect data across a throng of sometimes-incompatible OTA and other third-party systems.

But this won’t be the case forever.

Puorto predicts the natural accumulation of closures and mergers of AI tools will eventually result in a more centralised travel tech ecosystem.

Founder and CEO of Catala Consulting, Thibault Catala, expects the technologies could even morph into a single form of AI.

“I do believe the opportunity in the next few years will not be about fragmentation, but centralisation, of data,” Catala says. “And AI will allow this because that would be the only [thing able] to handle that amount of data and to be able to identify those different systems, which humanly is currently not possible.”

Slow on the tech uptake

Puorto points out we already live in a hyper-personalised world.

Think of Netflix or Amazon; no two homepages are exactly alike, as the companies target customers with suggestions for products that will interest them most as individuals rather than as members of demographic groups.

But apart from OTAs, which have proven to remain at the forefront of new tech adoption and increased personalisation, the rest of the travel industry lags behind.

Catala estimates the vast majority of hotels, particularly those on the smaller scale of the market, are unaware of the tools and technologies already at their disposal.

“I’m blown away every day by the state of the technology in the hospitality industry,” he says. “Even people reading [this] blog are quite advanced, because they are aware of revenue management.

“To talk about a system, to talk about connection, AI and so on, that seems super-duper advanced compared to the real state of the market. So for me, the biggest opportunity in the next few years, it’s education; increasing awareness of tools, best practices and so on.”

Optimising for AI

As travel hurtles towards an AI-centric environment, OTAs are working fast to accommodate the technology and have a significant head start.

So, how can they improve even further, and how can hotels catch up? First, consider all options with an open mind.

Digital transformation consultant Howard Phung says: “Many hotels, especially traditional operators, are risk-averse and reluctant to cede control to AI, particularly in areas like pricing and guest interactions.”

Compounding the reluctance to move on with new technology is the practical difficulty of adopting that technology, with Phung, like Puorto, emphasising the fragmented state of the industry.

“Many hotels still operate on legacy systems that don’t easily integrate with modern AI solutions,” he says. “Unlike industries with standardised tech stacks, hospitality tech is fragmented, requiring custom APIs and middleware for AI adoption.”

“However, AI doesn’t need a perfect ecosystem to be impactful. It will adapt to the fragmentation by working within existing tools, leveraging cloud-based integrations, and offering modular AI capabilities that don’t require a complete tech overhaul,” Phung adds.

To smooth the road for AI, an Agent Experience (AX) website audit is in order, according to Puorto. He says with the tech moving from search engines to “do engines” as AI agents are now capable of acting on a guest’s behalf, there needs to be greater understanding of how these agents work in order to optimise websites as necessary. Beyond OTAs, this is especially relevant for hotel websites, which remain a significant source of direct booking revenue for properties.

It follows, then, that AX Optimisation (AXO) may eventually surpass SEO in importance.

Catala says it was enough to be among the first 10 results of a Google search page in the past. Looking ahead, an AI agent may only present guests with a single recommendation, customised according to its in-depth knowledge of the guest.

Luckily, AXO and SEO share many common values: just as broken links are not good for SEO, neither are they for AXO, Puorto explains. Likewise, meta titles and descriptions are equally important for human user and AI agent experiences.

But some adjustments still need to be made for both hotel and OTA websites.

For example, Puorto says the use of CAPTCHA may need to be reviewed, as AI agents cannot solve the tasks. Agents also dislike pre-contracted static rates, instead preferring real-time inventory.

And although minimalistic website design is trending right now, AI agents “love to read”, Puorto says.

“It could be a good idea to start getting a little more text on your website,” he says. “I was completely against that before. Nobody’s reading blog pages on hotel websites… but [AI] agents, yeah, why not?

Puorto adds, “Probably we will see a return to a little more ‘90s design, just because [AI] agents, they don’t freaking care if it’s beautifully designed. They want the information.”

Travellers still prefer a human touch

Hotels do not adopt shiny new technology just based on trends, Phung says; they adopt it when it has proven to solve a problem.

In terms of AI, he says hotels are seeking tools that enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the guest experience.

“The industry sentiment is cautiously optimistic – hotels are open to AI but want to ensure it is secure, scalable, and easy to integrate without disrupting operations,” Phung says.

Whether or not hotels adopt up-and-coming tools, the strength of AI’s future grip on online hotel distribution will be determined by the extent to which guests are willing to abandon older technology and platforms to embrace the new.

And this is where OTAs have the advantage.

In 2024, SiteMinder research found OTAs were still the biggest drivers of total revenue for hotels. SiteMinder also found travellers are hesitant to adopt a fully AI-centric hotel model, with only 1 in 10 agreeing the technology should do it all.

OTAs have proven to be resilient and adaptable to decades of technological advances.

“Booking a hotel in 2002 and booking a hotel now, it’s not that different if you want to do it online,” Puorto says.

“Nothing big really changed.”

Much of the enduring popularity of OTAs can be attributed to the simplicity of browsing and booking on their websites. And instead of a favourite hotel or brand, Catala says many travellers are instead loyal to a particular OTA.

But that does not mean accommodation providers can rely solely on OTAs to gain them new and repeat guests.

“That’s very important to think about the way people find [out] about us, but at the end of the day, the relationship, the experience, the connection … that’s human-to-human,” Catala says.

“That’s what will differentiate [you from] someone who is relying only on OTAs and doesn’t care about the guest.

“But that’s up to you to make sure you go to the check in, you go to the reception and you connect with your loyal guests. You talk to them, you have your own communication program, marketing activities to reach out to those guys.”

Evolve now to avoid to avoid future extinction

While AI agents like Operator could theoretically bypass OTAs by offering hyper-personalised booking experiences, Phung, like Puorto, does not see OTAs disappearing anytime soon.

Instead, he says, AI will likely strengthen OTAs in several ways.

“Rather than being a death knell for OTAs, AI is more likely to encourage them to become more innovative, faster, and more automated distribution channels,” Phung says.

“The future isn’t about OTAs disappearing – it’s about AI-powered travel experiences that blur the lines between direct and third-party bookings.”

But in order to be strengthened, not eaten, by AI, Catala says the technology needs to be embraced correctly by OTAs and revenue managers.

He warns those who only focus on the old status quo may disappear, while those who evolve and build more diverse expertise by experimenting with new technologies will stay competitive.

Several major OTAs are fully onboard and already years into investing in an AI-led future. Companies like Booking.com and Priceline have partnered with Operator. They, alongside other OTAs like Kayak, Expedia and Ixigo, have developed onsite AI programs which further personalise services for customers – something most hotels cannot afford to do at the same level.

Meanwhile, revenue managers could be in a more precarious position than OTAs; Catala says some people in the industry expect the role of revenue manager could disappear in the next five years, either being replaced by AI or integrated into other positions.

How revenue managers adapt to new technology will mean everything for their future.

Just like OTAs, Puorto says it could serve revenue managers well to start working hand-in-hand with AI agents. He predicts revenue managers who have a good understanding of the market could become sought-after as consultants and trainers for AI agents.

But even in the age of AI, it is important to remember human connection goes a long way.

“Those kinds of tasks [like reporting on pricing] can be automated by AI with more accuracy,” Catala says.

“But the strategic elements, the experimentation elements, the influence, the communication, that’s something which AI cannot do.

“We are still operating not in [business-to-business], but in [human-to-human].”

Hotel entertainment refers to the activities, systems, and services that enhance a guest’s stay by offering enjoyment, relaxation, or engagement, either in-room or on the property.

It’s a broad category that covers everything from in-room entertainment systems, such as smart TVs, streaming services, and interactive displays, to live shows, recreational activities, and themed events hosted on-site. The aim is to make the stay more enjoyable, encouraging guests to spend more time and money at the hotel and leave with positive memories.

This blog will explore all the options available to your hotel and how you can make sure guests are entertained at your property.

Why hotel entertainment is important for hotel guests

When done well, entertainment transforms a visit from ordinary to extraordinary. Whether it’s streaming a favourite show, joining a rooftop event, or attending a live performance, these moments create lasting impressions. Guests remember how a hotel made them feel, and entertainment often sets that tone.

It also drives results. A study on floating hotels in Luxor found that entertainment programs significantly increased guest satisfaction and repeat visits. Another report shows 45% of travellers now expect on-demand entertainment during their stay.

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How hotel room entertainment enhances guest experience

Gone are the days when a few basic TV channels would cut it. Now, travellers expect smart TVs, streaming options, and the ability to cast from their own devices. In fact, research shows that free-to-guest TV and high-speed internet are two of the most valued in-room features for both business and leisure travellers.

These little touches also help you stand out. In markets where everyone’s offering similar rooms and rates, the hotels that nail the guest experience, right down to how people relax in their rooms, are the ones that get noticed. That’s where in-room entertainment becomes more than just a perk. It’s a reason to leave a great review, come back again, and recommend your place to friends.

Best hotel entertainment ideas to elevate guest experience

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to entertaining guests but the right mix of tech and experiences can turn a stay into something special. Here are some ideas to help you stand out and give guests something to talk about.

Hotel in-room entertainment systems

Guests have high expectations when it comes to tech, especially in the room where they’re winding down. The right in-room setup doesn’t just entertain, it makes the stay feel easy and tailored to their preferences.

Smart TVs

Smart TVs are now the baseline, but it’s the content access that really matters. Giving guests the ability to log in to Netflix, Hulu, or watch on-demand movies means they can pick up where they left off at home. Whether it’s binge-watching a favourite series or watching something new, the experience feels personal and familiar.

Voice-activated control

Some hotels are taking it a step further with voice-activated room controls. Guests can adjust lighting, play music, or even set the room temperature—all hands-free. It’s a small detail, but it makes the experience feel intuitive and modern, especially for tech-savvy travellers.

VR headset

For those looking to offer something truly unique, VR headsets are gaining traction. These can give guests access to immersive games, virtual workouts, or even 360° tours of local attractions. Imagine arriving in a new city and exploring its landmarks virtually before stepping out. It’s a mix of convenience and novelty that guests won’t forget.

Hotel entertainment packages

For wellness-focused travellers, spa and entertainment add-ons like guided meditation sessions, sound baths, or in-room yoga streaming can turn a stay into a full recharge. These extras appeal to guests looking for relaxation beyond the spa, and help position your hotel as a place to unwind in both body and mind.

For those in premium rooms or suites, all-inclusive streaming and gaming bundles are another way to elevate the experience. Think unlimited access to movies, shows, and even gaming services. Families, in particular, appreciate the option to keep kids entertained with minimal fuss, especially on rainy days or quiet evenings.

Then there’s the option to customise entertainment packages around specific moments. A romantic movie night setup with a projector and snacks for two, or a kid-friendly bundle with games, movies, and activity kits, can help make a stay feel special. It’s these little touches that stick in a guest’s mind and often lead to glowing reviews.

Hotel entertainment tickets

Travellers often look for things to do beyond the hotel and that’s where ticketed entertainment can add serious value. Offering bundled ticket options for local concerts, theatre performances, or popular attractions helps guests get more from their stay without the hassle of planning. It also positions your hotel as a helpful, local expert and not just a place to sleep.

VIP tickets

Some properties take it a step further with VIP access to hotel-exclusive performances. This could be priority seating at an on-site music night or meet-and-greet opportunities with performers. It creates a sense of exclusivity and gives guests something they can’t get elsewhere.

Local partnerships

There’s also huge potential in partnerships with nearby theme parks, museums, and cultural events. By securing special rates or fast-track entry for your guests, you add tangible value to their booking. It’s particularly appealing to families and tourists trying to make the most of a short visit, and it encourages guests to book directly rather than through third-party sites.

Hotel entertainment shows

Live shows on-site can transform a quiet evening into a highlight of a guest’s trip. Even better, they give people a reason to stay on the property, enjoy the atmosphere, and engage with your hotel beyond the room.

Live music

Many hotels run weekly live music events, from laid-back jazz nights in the bar to upbeat performances by local bands. Some host stand-up comedy nights, offering a relaxed, social vibe that appeals to both solo travellers and groups. These regular events create a sense of energy and community, something guests often remember fondly.

Dinner theatres

For something more immersive, interactive dinner theatre adds another layer. Think themed mystery nights, live storytelling, or performances where guests become part of the show. It’s a different kind of entertainment. One that blends food, fun, and memory-making all in one.

Local dance performances

And if your hotel is in a culturally rich area, folk performances, traditional dance, or local storytelling offer guests a deeper connection to the place they’re visiting. These shows not only entertain but help guests feel like they’re experiencing something authentic and unique.

Tech-powered hotel entertainment systems

AI is already changing how guests engage with in-room systems. AI-driven content recommendations suggest movies, music, or games based on guest preferences, much like streaming services at home. Paired with a virtual concierge, guests can easily request room service, book activities, or get local tips without picking up the phone.

Some properties are taking things further with augmented reality (AR). Guests can use their phones or in-room tablets to explore hotel amenities, unlock hidden AR features around the property, or even take virtual tours of nearby attractions. It adds a sense of discovery, especially for families or travellers looking for something different.

Visual entertainment is evolving too. Digital walls in lobbies or rooms can display rotating art, local history, or even guest-generated content like photos or reviews. It creates a dynamic, ever-changing environment that feels alive and connected to both the hotel and the surrounding community.

“SiteMinder has also improved their solutions by providing business analytic tools. It works effectively and efficiently, and when market demand fluctuates we are able to change our pricing strategy in a timely manner, to optimise the business opportunity.”

Annie Hong,

Revenue and Reservations Manager

The RuMa Hotel and Residences

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How to choose the right hotel entertainment options for guests

Not every guest is looking for the same experience and that’s why the best entertainment options are the ones tailored to who’s walking through your doors. Understanding the types of hotel guests you serve is the first step in offering entertainment that truly adds value.

Business travellers

Business travellers often want to unwind without straying far from productivity. Think business lounges with live music in the evenings or coworking spaces where they can catch up on work while enjoying a relaxed atmosphere. In-room streaming that feels seamless also helps them decompress after meetings or travel.

Leisure travellers

Leisure travellers tend to look for something more social or immersive. Wine tastings, rooftop events, or VIP access to local attractions can add that extra spark to their stay. Offering ticket bundles or curated entertainment packages shows you’re thinking about their overall experience and not just their room.

Families

Families often need options that engage everyone. Activity zones, game rooms, or interactive shows give kids something to look forward to and give parents a break. In-room gaming bundles or access to family-friendly movies also go a long way.

The key is to match your entertainment offerings with your guests’ needs and adjust as your guest mix changes across seasons or events. When done well, entertainment doesn’t just keep guests happy. It encourages them to stay longer, spend more, and come back.

With SiteMinder, you can manage bookings, personalise guest services, and offer tailored packages that suit every kind of traveller. Whether you’re streamlining operations or elevating the guest experience, it’s all about giving you more control and giving guests more reasons to return.

A hotel gym is a dedicated space within a hotel where guests can maintain their fitness routine while travelling. It typically includes a mix of cardio machines like treadmills and stationary bikes, free weights or resistance training equipment, and sometimes more specialised offerings like yoga mats or rowing machines. Some hotel gyms are compact and serve basic fitness needs, while others rival full-service fitness centres with personal trainers, spa services, and group classes. 

The goal is simple—help guests stay active and feel at home, even while travelling.

For hotel owners, the value of a gym isn’t just in the equipment. It’s in the perception of care and convenience you offer guests. Whether someone’s squeezing in a quick workout before a meeting or unwinding after a long travel day, your gym can make the difference between a good stay and a great one.

In this blog, we’ll show you how you can turn your hotel gym into a win for your guests, your staff, and your business.

Why hotel gyms matter for guests

Today’s guests aren’t just looking for a bed—they’re looking for experiences that match their lifestyle. Fitness is a big part of that for many travellers, whether they’re on a business trip or a weekend getaway. A well-equipped gym gives guests the chance to stick to their routine, and that kind of consistency matters to many. It’s about helping them feel comfortable and taken care of, even when they’re far from home.

The rise of wellness-focused travel has also raised the bar. Guests now expect more than just a treadmill in a small room. They’re looking for thoughtful amenities that support their health goals—think clean spaces, modern equipment, and perhaps even extras like wellness snacks.

For hotels, this presents an opportunity. A gym isn’t just another amenity—it’s a way to boost guest satisfaction and set your property apart. It can drive repeat bookings, attract health-conscious travellers, and generate revenue through memberships or partnerships. Investing in your gym means investing in the kind of experience that today’s guests actively seek out.

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How do hotel gyms work

Hotel gyms are typically reserved solely for hotel guests, but how they operate can vary widely between properties. Some are open 24/7 with keycard access, while others operate during set hours with staff oversight, and many are publicly accessible – with a paid membership.

Operating hours

Most hotel gyms are accessible early in the morning until late at night, as these are times that align with when guests are likely to fit in a workout. Properties catering to business travellers may opt for round-the-clock access, especially if guests are arriving from different time zones. A workout is a common solution to overcoming jet lag, after all. In those cases, secure keycard entry and surveillance systems help maintain safety without needing a full-time attendant.

Rules and policies

From a management perspective, gym rules are essential for safety and liability. Common policies include age limits, proper attire, equipment usage, and hygiene standards like wiping down machines after use. 

The key here is to make it as easy as possible to know and follow the rules. Posting clear signage and offering basic supplies like disinfectant wipes and towels makes it easier for guests to comply, and helps keep the space clean and inviting. 

Amenities

Beyond equipment, small touches can make a hotel gym stand out. Water stations, fresh towels, and mirrors are expected. Some properties go a step further with wellness extras like yoga mats, foam rollers, or even virtual fitness classes. It’s these details that show you’re thinking about the guest experience. These seemingly small, unique extras can be the difference between a returning guest and a one-off stay.

How to design a hotel gym

Designing a hotel gym is about making the most of your space, budget, and guest needs. Every hotel, and thus every hotel gym, is unique, but there are some core guidelines to follow for an initial foundation:

Hotel gym equipment

Start with versatile, durable equipment that suits a variety of fitness levels. Cardio machines like treadmills and stationary bikes are staples. Add free weights, resistance bands, and functional training tools like medicine balls or TRX systems to cater for nearly every need.

Individual hotel guests may only visit a few times, perhaps only once, during their stay, so you don’t have to invest in elaborate, extremely specific equipment. It pays to purchase high quality, commonly used, familiar equipment.

Hotel gym membership

Having a hotel gym open to the public can create a steady revenue stream; great for those slower seasons, with the bonus of making sure your investment continues to generate cash flow all year round. Consider flexible membership packages that appeal to nearby residents or business travellers who visit regularly. Bundling gym access with spa or wellness services adds more value. If you don’t have your own services here, consider partnering with a nearby business that does.

Hotel gym reviews

Online reviews offer insight into what guests value—and what they don’t. Cleanliness, equipment maintenance, and service are recurring themes. Addressing these areas can turn an average rating into a glowing one. Encourage satisfied guests to leave reviews through simple reminders or incentives.

“We used to have to block a few rooms in the busy season to make sure that there were no double bookings. Thanks to SiteMinder, I can sell every last room without worrying about this because it automatically rejects new bookings once the rooms are sold out.”

Tini Diekmann,

Sales and Revenue Manager

Hotel Oderberger Berlin

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Hotel chains with the best gyms

Some hotel brands are leading the way when it comes to fitness offerings. These examples can offer inspiration for your own setup, whether you’re working with a small space or aiming to develop a full wellness centre.

Westin Hotels & Resorts

Westin Hotels & Resorts has made fitness a core part of their guest experience. Many properties feature spacious workout areas, Peloton bikes, and in-room fitness gear. They also offer a gear lending program so guests can borrow workout clothes and shoes.

Equinox Hotels

Equinox Hotels, located in New York City, takes fitness to another level. Guests have access to a massive, high-end gym, group classes, personal training, and wellness services like cryotherapy. It’s a great example of how premium fitness amenities can become a brand hallmark.

IHG

Even Hotels, by IHG, cater specifically to health-conscious travellers. Each room includes fitness zones with equipment and guided workout videos. Their on-site gyms are modern and open 24/7, with a focus on functional training.

Hyatt’s

Hyatt’s StayFit gyms aim to make wellness accessible, with 24-hour fitness centres, modern equipment, and health-focused dining options. Many properties also feature partnerships with local fitness studios.

A hotel reservations manager oversees the entire booking process at a hotel. This includes handling inquiries, managing bookings, confirming reservations, and resolving issues or discrepancies. Their job is to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and a smooth experience for guests—all while complying with hotel policies and procedures.

For hotel owners, the value of this role goes beyond daily operations. A skilled reservations manager can directly influence your revenue by ensuring your rooms are always accurately represented across booking channels, minimising missed opportunities due to errors or delays. For example, during peak travel periods, an efficient reservations manager using a modern property management system (PMS) can swiftly allocate room blocks for group bookings or special events, maximising occupancy without overbooking.

Additionally, they play a key role in ensuring that your hotel responds quickly to potential guests, which is a crucial factor in securing bookings in a competitive market. With the support of tools like SiteMinder, reservations managers can manage high volumes of inquiries efficiently, allowing your hotel to capture more revenue while delivering a seamless booking experience.

What does a hotel reservations manager do?

While the general manager oversees all hotel operations, a reservations manager focuses specifically on the booking process. They manage reservations, ensure room availability is up to date, and support front desk operations, playing a critical role in guest satisfaction and hotel profitability.

What is the reservation department in a hotel?

The reservation department is responsible for managing all incoming bookings. It acts as the bridge between guests and the hotel’s operations, helping to optimise occupancy rates and minimise errors. The reservations manager leads this department, ensuring smooth coordination with other teams like front office and housekeeping.

In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the role of a hotel reservations manager, including the most crucial duties and skills required.

Why are hotel reservation manager jobs important?

Mistakes in reservations, such as double bookings, incorrect room allocations, or missed confirmations, can lead to unhappy guests, reputational damage, and lost revenue. For hotel owners, these issues are not just operational headaches – they impact your bottom line.

A skilled reservations manager plays a crucial role in preventing such costly errors. By maintaining an organised, efficient system and managing high volumes of inquiries effectively, they ensure a seamless booking experience for guests and staff alike. This is especially critical during peak seasons when the stakes are high and demand is unpredictable.

Technology is key to supporting this role. Tools like SiteMinder’s channel manager allow your reservations manager to update room availability and rates across all booking platforms instantly, eliminating the risk of overbookings and ensuring every room is sold at the right price. With automated systems in place, your team spends less time on manual data entry and more time on strategic tasks – such as analysing booking trends or upselling premium rooms.

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How to be a hotel reservations manager

To succeed in this role, a reservations manager must combine technical skills with a guest-first mindset. Here are the essential skills every successful reservations manager needs:

Essential reservation manager skills

• Attention to detail: Accuracy in bookings prevents errors and overbookings. Even small mistakes can lead to room shortages or guest dissatisfaction, so a keen eye for detail is critical. Tools like SiteMinder’s channel manager help by updating availability across all booking sites automatically, reducing manual errors.
• Strong communication: Clear, prompt responses to guests and staff are crucial. Whether managing booking inquiries or coordinating with housekeeping, effective communication ensures smooth operations. Using a centralised PMS enables quick access to booking details and guest preferences, improving internal coordination and guest interactions.
• Tech-savviness: Comfort with reservation software and booking platforms boosts efficiency. A tech-savvy manager can leverage automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks. SiteMinder’s booking engine simplifies the process of capturing direct bookings and allows for easy integration with your website and PMS, reducing time spent on manual entries.
• Problem-solving: Quick thinking helps resolve booking issues and guest concerns. Whether managing last-minute changes or addressing overbooking scenarios, having access to real-time data from tools like Dynamic Revenue Plus empowers managers to make informed, rapid decisions that maintain guest satisfaction.

Key hotel reservations manager responsibilities

A reservations manager’s tasks go beyond simply confirming bookings. They play a vital role in driving hotel success through the following responsibilities:

Management of bookings

They handle all bookings across direct and third-party channels, ensuring room availability is up to date and overbookings are avoided. Efficiently managing OTAs and direct bookings is key to maintaining high occupancy rates. 

With SiteMinder, your reservations manager can automate these updates in real time, drastically reducing manual workload and eliminating costly booking errors. This allows them to handle large volumes of bookings – especially during peak seasons – without compromising accuracy or speed.

Rate management

Working with revenue managers, they help implement dynamic pricing strategies that ensure your room rates are competitive and aligned with current market demand. Accurate and timely rate updates across all booking channels are essential for maximising revenue and avoiding price discrepancies that could hurt your reputation or lead to lost bookings.

SiteMinder’s Dynamic Revenue Plus takes rate management to the next level by automating pricing decisions based on real-time data like occupancy trends, booking pace, and local events. For instance, if there’s a sudden surge in demand due to a local festival or convention, you’ll be able to instantly adjust your rates to capitalise on this opportunity without requiring manual input from your team. This kind of automation not only saves time but ensures your hotel remains competitive and profitable, no matter the market conditions.

Customer service

Reservation managers often serve as the first point of contact for your guests, setting the tone for the entire stay experience. Their ability to provide prompt, friendly, and accurate service builds trust and drives positive first impressions. This responsiveness isn’t just about customer satisfaction – it plays a direct role in securing bookings and encouraging repeat stays.

In a competitive hospitality market, speed and accuracy in responding to booking inquiries can make the difference between winning or losing a guest. The right booking engine empowers your reservations manager to respond instantly by automating confirmations and streamlining the booking process. For example, when a guest books through your website, they receive immediate confirmation and secure payment processing without delays or manual steps. This experience reflects professionalism and reliability, helping to increase conversion rates and guest loyalty.

Coordinate with departments

They liaise with front office, housekeeping, and revenue teams to ensure room readiness, special requests, and accurate reporting. This coordination is essential for delivering a smooth guest experience and optimising internal workflows.

For instance, when a guest modifies their booking or requests an early check-in, your reservations manager needs to quickly communicate these updates to housekeeping and front desk teams. With SiteMinder’s integration capabilities, changes made in the PMS or booking engine are automatically shared across departments, eliminating the need for manual updates or follow-up calls.

This real-time visibility ensures that everyone is on the same page, which not only reduces operational friction but also allows your team to deliver a seamless experience for every guest. In a busy hotel environment, this kind of efficiency can lead to faster room turnovers, higher guest satisfaction, and better use of staff resources.

Reporting

Generating reports on booking trends, occupancy rates, and guest preferences helps inform marketing and operational decisions. For hotel owners, these reports are not just data—they’re a window into your hotel’s performance and potential areas for growth.

A reservations manager equipped with the right reporting tools can provide valuable insights that guide rate strategies, promotional offers, and staff planning. For example, if the data shows a consistent dip in occupancy during mid-week periods, you can work with your marketing team to run targeted promotions or adjust rates accordingly.

SiteMinder’s integrated reporting features allow your reservations manager to track performance across all booking channels in one place. Real-time data on booking sources, guest demographics, and rate performance enables quicker, smarter decisions that support revenue growth. Instead of spending hours compiling data manually, your team can focus on strategy by using insights to stay ahead of market trends and optimise occupancy year-round.

“With SiteMinder’s platform, we can reach more points of sale and boost our presence in key markets. We are more efficient and we can now reach more locations while taking the same steps.”

Javier Aranda,

E-commerce Senior Manager

Palladium Hotel Group

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Tools to empower a hotel reservation manager duties

With the right tools, the right reservations manager can work more efficiently and effectively:

• Property management system (PMS): acts as a digital front desk, centralising operations and simplifying day-to-day tasks like check-ins, check-outs, and housekeeping coordination.
• Channel manager: automates inventory and rate updates across all your booking platforms in real time, helping avoid overbookings and ensuring pricing consistency.
• Booking engine: encourages direct bookings through your website, improving guest relationships and reducing reliance on third-party channels.
• Revenue management system: provides data-driven insights to guide pricing strategies and forecast demand, boosting profitability.
• Payment processing: ensures seamless, secure transactions for guests and reduces administrative workload for your staff.
• Channels Plus: expands your reach effortlessly with optimised channel performance, helping you access new markets and increase visibility.
• Dynamic Revenue Plus: combines real-time automation with deep revenue insights, enabling smarter decisions that maximise room revenue.

Managing reservations doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right tools and team, you can turn this role into a powerful driver of revenue and guest satisfaction.

Hotel keyless entry systems let guests unlock their rooms without using a traditional key card. Instead, access is granted through technology like mobile apps, Bluetooth, QR codes, or biometric recognition. The goal? To make check-in smoother, enhance security, and offer a more modern, convenient stay.

There are a few common types of keyless entry in hotels. Some use a mobile app that sends a digital key directly to a guest’s smartphone. Others provide a code guests can enter on a keypad. Some systems go a step further, allowing guests to unlock their room with a fingerprint or voice command. All of these systems connect to the hotel’s property management system (PMS), keeping access secure and easy to manage.

This shift away from plastic key cards isn’t just about looking high-tech. It’s about removing friction from the guest journey. When guests can skip the front desk and head straight to their room, everyone wins – especially when time is tight or arrival is late at night.

In this blog, we’ll break down what you need to know about keyless entry, the benefits it brings, and the best ways to implement it at your hotel.

Why hotel keyless entry is necessary for hotels

Keyless entry solves the real problems that hotels deal with daily including long check-in lines, lost key cards, and overworked staff.

At busy times, the front desk can become a bottleneck. Guests queue, staff scramble, and frustrations build on both sides. Keyless entry lets guests skip the wait and go straight to their rooms, improving the arrival experience from the moment they step in.

That matters because guest satisfaction is closely tied to wait times. One study found satisfaction scores can drop by 50% if check-in takes just five minutes longer than expected. 

Physical key cards also carry ongoing risks and costs. They’re easy to lose or copy, and replacements add up. A keyless system gives each guest secure, personalised access linked to their reservation, which updates automatically if plans change.

Guests are also looking for this kind of convenience. Nearly 80% say they’re open to staying at hotels with fully automated check-in options, including mobile keys. That’s a clear signal that expectations have shifted.

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Digital key for hotels: How does it work? 

There’s more than one way to offer keyless entry, and the best systems give hotels flexibility to choose what fits their operations—and what guests are most comfortable with. Here’s a look at some of the most common types of digital keys being used today:

Smartphone or mobile keys

Guests download the hotel’s app and receive a digital key when their room is ready. Using Bluetooth, the app communicates with the door lock, allowing access with a tap or swipe. This is one of the most popular options, especially for travellers who prefer managing everything from their phones.

Keypad access

Instead of an app, guests receive a unique PIN code to enter on a keypad. It’s a simple, reliable option that doesn’t require smartphone access or internet connectivity, which can be useful for properties in areas with limited mobile coverage.

Biometric keyless entry

Some high-end hotels are experimenting with fingerprint or facial recognition systems for room access. These add an extra layer of security and convenience, though they require more advanced hardware and may raise privacy concerns for some guests.

QR code-based entry

Guests receive a QR code by email or text, which they scan at the door to unlock it. This option works well for contactless check-in and can be especially useful for short stays or self-service properties.

Voice-activated entry

Still emerging, voice control allows guests to unlock doors via a smart speaker or mobile assistant. While not widespread yet, it hints at the future of hands-free access in hospitality.

Each method connects back to the hotel’s property management system (PMS), ensuring real-time control over access and better visibility for staff. From a guest’s perspective, it’s all about choice and convenience—having different ways to access their room, depending on their preference and situation.

What are the benefits of hotel keyless entry for guests?

Today’s travellers expect more from their hotel experience, including how they access their room. Keyless entry meets these expectations by offering the kind of convenience, security, and flexibility that guests have come to rely on in other parts of their digital lives.

No physical key risk

Plastic key cards are easy to lose, especially when guests are juggling luggage or heading out for the day. With digital keys, access stays secure on the guest’s phone. If the phone is lost, access can be quickly revoked and reassigned, removing the stress (and cost) of key replacements.

Remote monitoring

If a guest switches rooms or extends their stay, staff can adjust access remotely in seconds. There’s no need to visit the front desk or wait for a new key. Digital keys also track access, so staff know exactly when and where doors are unlocked—adding a layer of security and transparency.

Reassurance for the guest

Knowing that access is personal and controlled builds trust. Unlike key cards, which can be copied or used after checkout if not returned, digital keys expire automatically. Guests feel safer, especially solo travellers or those in unfamiliar cities, knowing their room is secure.

Less travel stress

Guests often arrive tired, late, or in a rush. Having to wait in line just to collect a key adds unnecessary friction. Keyless entry lets them walk in, unlock the door with their phone, and relax—no delays, no paperwork, just a smoother start to their stay.

Better digital experience

Many guests book online, check-in digitally, and manage their stay through a hotel app. Digital keys complete that experience. In fact, 46% of travellers now consider mobile key solutions an important part of their on-property experience. Offering this feature shows your hotel keeps pace with modern expectations.

Staff saving time

Less time spent reissuing keys or fielding front desk queues means staff can focus on service that guests truly value—like handling special requests or providing local recommendations. It improves efficiency and morale behind the scenes, while guests enjoy smoother interactions.

Extra revenue

With digital access managed through a hotel’s app, there’s a chance to promote spa appointments, room upgrades, or late check-out offers during the stay. These well-timed nudges can increase spend per guest without being pushy or intrusive.

“SiteMinder’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimizing my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. My association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform.”

Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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Key features to look for in hotel keyless entry systems

Not all keyless entry systems are created equal. The right solution needs to fit your hotel’s operations, integrate with your existing tech, and make life easier for both guests and staff. Here are a few essential features to look for when evaluating your options.

Useful integration

A keyless entry system should connect seamlessly with your property management system (PMS), booking engine, and guest messaging tools. This ensures real-time updates, accurate room assignments, and smooth communication – all without manual input or delays. For example, when a guest checks in online, their digital key should activate automatically without staff intervention.

Good onboarding system

Your guests shouldn’t need a manual to access their room. Look for a provider that offers intuitive guest onboarding—whether that’s through a simple app download, an email with access instructions, or both. The process should be quick, clear, and supported by customer service if needed. For staff, the system should come with easy training and responsive support to get everything running smoothly from day one.

A hotel games room is a dedicated space where guests can relax, unwind, and enjoy a variety of entertainment options—without ever leaving the property. Depending on the size and style of the hotel, these spaces might include arcade machines, pool tables, board games, video game consoles, or even immersive virtual reality (VR) setups.

But a games room isn’t just about having fun – it’s about engagement. The more time guests spend enjoying your hotel’s amenities, the more memorable their stay becomes. And that positive experience can translate into stronger reviews, more repeat visits, and greater word-of-mouth referrals.

In this blog, we’ll break down the benefits of a hotel games room and how your hotel can effectively design, build, and market a games room as part of your everyday experience package.

Why hotels should consider a games room

Modern travellers are seeking experiences as much as they are seeking a place to stay. Whether it’s families wanting more ways to spend time together, solo guests looking for ways to unwind, or business travellers craving downtime, expectations have shifted. A hotel games room taps directly into these needs, delivering memorable experiences that guests will talk about long after check-out.

A well-designed games room can:

• Increase guest satisfaction by offering unexpected value.
• Encourage longer stays as guests find more reasons to linger.
• Drive repeat bookings and positive reviews from guests who had a standout experience.
• Differentiate your property from competitors, especially in crowded markets.

There’s also the practical benefit of keeping guests on-site. Instead of seeking entertainment elsewhere, they’re spending time, and potentially money, within your property. From food and beverage sales to paid access or packages, a games room can open new revenue streams as well as boost loyalty.

In fact, hospitality research highlights that unique and personalised amenities are a key driver of guest satisfaction and retention—helping properties stand out in a competitive market.

Make your games room a bookings driver through SiteMinder

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How a hotel with games room can drive more bookings

Guests today are looking for value in their stay, and when they see entertainment options on-site, it often tips the scale in your favour.​

Positive experiences in shared spaces like games rooms often lead to glowing reviews, which are key drivers for future bookings. The J.D. Power 2023 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study found that staff service garners the highest level of satisfaction among all guest experience factors measured, highlighting the importance of excellent guest experiences to drive bookings. ​

Family travellers, digital nomads, and business guests love game rooms. For families, it’s a lifesaver—keeping kids entertained without needing to leave the property. Digital nomads and business travellers often seek out spaces to relax after work hours. A games room provides that perfect middle ground: casual, social, and relaxing. It becomes a shared space for connection, helping you appeal to a wide range of guests.​

Hotels are leveraging games rooms in marketing and loyalty programs. Properties that highlight their games rooms in booking platforms, social media, and guest communications often see increased engagement. Some even run events—like game nights or tournaments—that create buzz and drive repeat visits.​

Ultimately, a games room helps your hotel stand out. It’s a point of difference in a competitive market and a feature that adds tangible value to the guest experience, encouraging more bookings from both new and returning guests.

How to design a profitable hotel games room

Adding a games room to your hotel is one thing—designing it to drive profit and guest satisfaction is another. The most successful games rooms strike a balance between smart design, the right game mix, and opportunities to monetise. Here’s how to make yours work for your space and your guests.

Key elements of a successful hotel games room

Choosing the right games

Your game selection should reflect your guests. Families may enjoy arcade games and board games. Solo travellers and couples might gravitate towards pool tables, console gaming, or VR experiences. Variety is key, but quality matters too—invest in durable, easy-to-maintain equipment.

Emerging technologies like VR and AR are also becoming more common in hospitality, offering immersive experiences that wow guests and create social media-worthy moments. Integrating modern technology can increase guest engagement and satisfaction.

Optimising space & design

Not every hotel has room for a sprawling arcade. But even small properties can create inviting spaces with thoughtful design. Consider lighting, acoustics, and flow—make sure games don’t disrupt nearby rooms or public areas, and create a space that feels separate and special.

Tech-driven experiences

Use smart reservation systems to manage games room access, contactless payment options for added convenience, and loyalty program integrations to reward frequent users. This not only improves the guest experience but can also provide valuable usage data.

Hotels that personalise experiences using guest data report higher satisfaction and increased loyalty. Hospitality software allows you to track guest preferences and deliver tailored offerings, whether it’s recommended games or targeted promotions.

Best ways to monetise a hotel games room

While a games room enhances guest experience, it can also contribute directly to your hotel’s bottom line. The key is to strike the right balance between offering value and creating revenue opportunities.

Paid access vs. Free guest perks

Some hotels offer unlimited access to their games room as part of the room rate, creating a sense of added value. Others charge for entry or individual games—think arcade token systems or day passes. The right approach depends on your brand positioning and target guests.

Including access as a free guest perk can boost satisfaction and encourage longer stays, especially for families. Paid access, on the other hand, can open a new revenue stream. You might also explore tiered options—free access for basic games, with premium experiences like VR or tournaments available at an extra cost.

Event & package promotions

Hosting game nights, esports tournaments, or private bookings can generate both buzz and bookings. These events not only attract guests but can also draw in local visitors, giving you another source of revenue.

Sponsorships & partnerships

Teaming up with local businesses or gaming brands can enhance your games room offerings at little to no cost. Consider sponsorships for tournaments, co-branded events, or even equipment partnerships that provide you with games in exchange for brand visibility.

This approach not only reduces your overhead but also offers marketing benefits, helping you tap into new audiences.

Hotel games room success stories (Examples & case studies)

Some hotels have gone all-in on the games room experience. For instance, The Magic Games Hotel in Spain features retro gaming consoles in themed rooms and a dedicated entertainment zone for guests of all ages, becoming a destination in its own right.

“We now save up to 100 hours of work per month, and our bookings increased by 60% in the first 12 months of using SiteMinder. As a result, we have been able to increase both our ADR and occupancy rates.”

Sun Tseng,

Reservation Assistant Manager

Fuli Hot Spring Resort

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Hotel games room trends: What’s next for guest entertainment?

Games rooms are no longer just about arcade cabinets and pool tables. Forward-thinking hotels are tapping into emerging technologies and trends to offer standout experiences that drive bookings and loyalty.

The rise of VR and AR gaming

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are reshaping how guests engage with hotel spaces. Immersive VR stations or AR-enhanced games create memorable, high-impact experiences that are ideal for social media sharing—helping hotels reach wider audiences organically.

A report by Hospitality Technology magazine notes that properties incorporating VR and AR gaming have seen increased guest engagement and higher overall satisfaction scores, particularly among younger demographics and tech-savvy travellers.

Eco-friendly gaming

As sustainability becomes a priority for many travellers, hotels are exploring eco-conscious gaming options. From energy-efficient machines to sustainably sourced board games and digital gaming solutions that reduce physical waste, these choices show a commitment to responsible hospitality.

Not only do these practices align with your guests’ values, but they can also lower operational costs and contribute to your hotel’s environmental goals.

The future: AI-powered gaming, the metaverse, and gamified loyalty

Looking ahead, we’re likely to see AI-powered gaming assistants that tailor experiences to individual guest preferences, metaverse hotel lounges where guests can socialise virtually, and gamified loyalty programs that reward guests for participating in hotel activities.

By staying ahead of these trends, hotels can future-proof their offerings and appeal to experience-driven travellers who prioritise innovation and engagement.

Visito is a conversational AI platform designed specifically for the hospitality industry. It helps properties engage with guests across popular messaging channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, and SMS. With Visito, properties can automate over 90% of incoming guest questions, improving guest satisfaction while reducing staff workload.

Hotels in over 15 countries already use Visito, supporting guests from more than 140 countries worldwide. By simplifying communication and enhancing the guest experience, Visito allows hotels and rental properties to focus more on hospitality while cutting down on operational overhead.

This blog will break down what Visito does, how it works, and why it’s becoming the go-to AI solution for modern hospitality brands.

What does Visito do?

Visito transforms guest communication for hotels by automating bookings, support, and marketing through messaging apps. It acts as a virtual concierge, answering common questions, sharing booking links, promoting special offers, and even upselling services – without staff intervention.

Unlike traditional booking platforms, Visito doesn’t replace the hotel’s website or booking system. Instead, it enhances the guest journey by making hotel interactions faster, easier, and more personalised.

Visito is built as an AI-first platform and conversational AI is a core part of the product. Unlike old-school chatbots that rely on rigid scripts, Visito’s conversational AI adapts naturally to guest questions and is a lot more intuitive for guests to use.

Visito also integrates seamlessly with property management systems (PMS), channel managers, and booking engines, including SiteMinder’s award-winning distribution and revenue platform.

The integration between Visito and SiteMinder, as well as Little Hotelier (an all-in-one solution for smaller hotels backed by SiteMinder’s technology), allows hotels to drive more revenue and unlock real-time insights, ensuring accurate availability and pricing at all times.

By integrating these two advanced capabilities into their tech stack, hotels can drive higher booking conversions, maximise occupancy, and unleash greater revenue potential effortlessly.

How does Visito support guest messaging across platforms?

Visito makes it easy for hotels to connect with guests across multiple messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, Messenger, and more. Instead of juggling different apps, hotel staff can manage all conversations from a single dashboard.

With AI-powered automation, Visito instantly responds to common questions about bookings, amenities, and hotel policies. It can also share booking links, promote special offers, and upsell services – all within the same conversation. This ensures fast, consistent communication that enhances the guest experience while reducing the workload for hotel staff.

Visito’s platform supports conversations in 50+ languages, making it easier for hotels to assist international travelers. By unifying guest messaging in one place, Visito helps hotels stay responsive, organised, and efficient.

How does Visito help properties increase direct bookings?

Visito helps hotels increase direct bookings by making the reservation process fast, simple, and convenient. When guests ask about availability, the AI immediately shares real-time rates and booking links, guiding them to book directly without ever leaving the conversation.

Beyond answering questions, Visito actively promotes direct bookings by highlighting exclusive offers and upselling premium services. It can also send gentle reminders if a guest shows interest but hasn’t completed their booking.

With the latest AI Bookings product, Visito can now handle the entire booking process – from search to payment – all within one conversation. Guests can check availability, choose a room, and confirm their stay without navigating away from the chat.

By keeping the booking journey within familiar messaging platforms, Visito provides a smooth, user-friendly experience that encourages guests to book directly rather than through OTAs.

What is Visito Voice, and how does it enhance guest engagement?

Visito Voice is an AI-powered phone system that allows hotels to handle guest calls automatically, providing instant, 24/7 support without staff intervention. When a guest calls the hotel, Visito Voice answers in a natural, human-like tone, managing common questions about bookings, amenities, check-in times, and more.

This intelligent phone assistant ensures guests get accurate information without being placed on hold or waiting for a callback. If a call requires human attention, such as a complex booking request, Visito Voice seamlessly transfers the guest to the right team member.

Visito Voice also supports conversations in 50+ languages, making it easy for hotels to communicate with international guests in their preferred language. By automating phone calls, Visito Voice ensures faster responses, improved guest satisfaction, and a lighter workload for hotel staff.

How does Visito transform guest communication for hotels?

Visito transforms guest communication by centralising and automating messaging across popular platforms, all managed in a single Visito inbox. It handles guest inquiries, bookings, and service requests in real time, ensuring fast, consistent responses without adding to staff workload.

One standout feature is Visito’s WhatsApp CRM, which allows hotels to send automated messages throughout the guest journey. The most popular touch-points include after a reservation is made, a couple of days before check-in, and right after check-out to capture guest feedback in real-time.

For hotel staff, Visito simplifies operations by consolidating all guest conversations into one platform. Its AI handles most messages while flagging complex inquiries for human follow-up. The result? Smoother communication, higher guest satisfaction, and more efficient hotel operations.

A hotel director oversees the daily operations of a hotel, ensuring everything runs efficiently while delivering a high standard of guest service. They’re responsible for key areas such as staff management, guest satisfaction, and financial performance, all while aligning the hotel’s activities with broader business goals.

The title can vary—some properties use terms like hotel manager, lodging manager, or director of hospitality—but the core responsibilities remain the same. The hotel director sets expectations for service, supports team performance, and ensures the property is meeting its revenue and occupancy targets.

Success as a hotel director hinges on a blend of strategic vision, operational expertise, and interpersonal skills. It’s about how effectively you lead, adapt, and drive results. The best directors align daily operations with long-term goals, keeping guests and staff at the centre of every decision.

What is the highest position in a hotel?

The highest position in a hotel typically depends on the size and structure of the property. In most cases, the general manager or hotel director holds the top operational role, overseeing all departments and ensuring the hotel meets its financial and service goals.

In larger hotel groups or chains, there may be regional directors or corporate executives above the hotel level, responsible for multiple properties. These roles focus more on strategic oversight across locations rather than day-to-day operations.

For independent hotels or smaller chains, the hotel director may report directly to the owner or be the owner themselves, especially in owner-operated models.

Ultimately, the top position is the one with the greatest responsibility for the hotel’s overall performance—both in guest satisfaction and profitability.

Is hotel director the same as hotel owner?

Not necessarily. A hotel director is usually an employee responsible for managing the hotel’s operations, while a hotel owner is the individual or entity that holds legal ownership of the property.

In some cases, especially with smaller or independent hotels, the owner may take on the director’s role and be involved in daily operations. However, in medium to large hotels—or those part of a chain—the owner often delegates operational control to a hotel director or general manager. This allows the owner to focus on investment returns while the director ensures the hotel runs efficiently.

The key difference lies in their responsibilities:

• The owner focuses on long-term value and profitability.
• The director focuses on day-to-day performance and guest experience.

In this blog we’ll cover everything you need to know about the role of a hotel director, including the most crucial duties and skills required.

Why is hotel director such a crucial role?

A hotel’s success hinges on effective leadership. A capable hotel director ensures smooth operations, consistent guest experiences, and steady revenue growth. Without strong leadership, service standards can slip, staff morale may drop, and profitability can suffer. But with the right person in place, the hotel is better positioned to deliver consistent, high-quality experiences and maintain a competitive edge.

Strong leadership in hospitality directly influences both guest satisfaction and financial performance. Studies show that engaged employees—often the result of supportive management—provide better service, leading to improved guest loyalty and profitability.

Leadership also plays a vital role in staff retention and operational efficiency. Directors who foster a positive workplace culture and encourage innovation not only retain talent but also improve service delivery and adapt more easily to guest needs.

Ultimately, hotel directors are key decision-makers. Their actions shape every part of the guest journey—and the bottom line—by aligning team efforts with strategic goals and responding quickly to challenges on the ground.

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How to be a successful hotel director

To excel as a hotel director, a strong foundation of experience and education in the hospitality space is essential. Over time, you should look to cultivate a robust skillset encompassing leadership and communication skills, as well as  sharp mind for revenue management and general business operations. Above all, you need to understand how important guest satisfaction is and how to achieve it.

It can also be helpful to develop a strategic mindset by constantly analysing global industry trends, technological advancements, and evolving guest preferences.

Director of hospitality: Key responsibilities

Here are key qualities and strategies for success:

Develop a strategic vision

Craft and implement business plans that drive revenue growth and improve guest satisfaction. A clear strategy ensures your hotel stays competitive and appealing to your target market.

Lead and mentor your team

Strong leadership creates a positive workplace culture. Support your department managers, encourage teamwork, and invest in professional development to maintain high service standards.

Ensure financial acumen

Oversee budgeting, forecasting, and financial performance. Understanding your numbers helps you make informed decisions and maintain profitability.

Prioritise guest satisfaction

Delivering exceptional service is essential. Set clear service standards and procedures to ensure every guest leaves satisfied—and ready to return.

Embrace operational oversight

Stay on top of daily operations, from compliance with regulations to maintaining brand standards. A well-run hotel builds trust with both guests and staff.

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Assitant Manager

Hotel Gran Bilbao

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Adopting tools to be a successful hotel director

The right technology helps hotel directors work smarter, streamlining tasks, improving guest experiences, and boosting your bottom line.

At the core of efficient operations is a property management system (PMS), which centralises everything from bookings to housekeeping schedules. This simplifies daily workflows and frees up your team to focus on delivering great service.

To maximise bookings and stay in control of your inventory, channel management tools ensure your room availability and rates are always up to date across every sales channel—avoiding double bookings and missed revenue.

Revenue management software takes the guesswork out of pricing by automatically adjusting your rates based on demand, seasons, and competitor activity. This helps you maximise occupancy while driving higher revenue per room.

Guest engagement platforms improve the experience for every guest, offering personalised communication before, during, and after their stay. These tools help you respond faster to feedback and build lasting relationships.

Finally, data analytics tools give you real-time insights into your hotel’s performance, helping you make informed decisions quickly. Whether it’s tracking occupancy rates or understanding booking trends, you’ll have the information you need at your fingertips.

A hotel operations manager is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day functions of a hotel, ensuring seamless coordination between departments, maintaining high service standards, and optimising overall efficiency. Their role is central to delivering an excellent guest experience while balancing cost control, staffing, and operational workflows.

With the global hotel and resort industry valued at $1.5 trillion in 2023, the demand for skilled operations managers has never been higher. Hotels of all sizes—particularly medium-sized chains—need professionals who can navigate the complexities of modern hospitality, from enhancing guest experiences to managing rising costs. In fact, the employment of lodging managers is projected to grow by 10% from 2023 to 2033, highlighting the increasing need for expertise in hotel operations.

Hotel operations definition

Hotel operations encompass all activities and processes that contribute to the daily running of a hotel. This includes guest services, housekeeping, food and beverage management, maintenance, financial administration, and staff supervision. Effective hotel operations ensure that all these departments work together efficiently to provide a seamless guest experience while optimising costs and revenue.

A well-managed hotel not only improves guest satisfaction but also directly impacts profitability. With occupancy rates projected to increase by 2.5% in 2024 and the average daily rate (ADR) expected to grow by 4.9%, operations managers play a crucial role in adapting to fluctuating demand, controlling expenses, and leveraging the latest technology to stay ahead of competitors.

What does a hotel operations manager do?

The responsibilities of a hotel operations manager extend across multiple areas, ensuring that every aspect of the hotel runs smoothly:

• Guest experience: From check-in to check-out, the operations manager ensures guests receive exceptional service. In a highly competitive industry, even small improvements in service quality can lead to higher occupancy rates and repeat bookings.
• Staff supervision: The operations manager oversees key departments—including the front desk, housekeeping, and maintenance—ensuring that employees are trained, motivated, and working efficiently.
• Budget management: With operating costs rising, managing budgets effectively is crucial. Operations managers must balance cost control with maintaining high-quality services, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to profitability.
• Technology integration: Digital transformation is reshaping hotel operations. Managers who leverage automated booking systems, AI-driven customer service, and data analytics tools can improve operational efficiency and guest satisfaction.
• Compliance & safety: Ensuring the hotel meets industry regulations, health and safety standards, and environmental guidelines is a core responsibility. This is particularly important as hotels focus on sustainability and energy efficiency to meet modern consumer expectations.

In medium-sized hotel chains, the operations manager must also adapt to industry trends, leverage data-driven insights, and continuously optimise internal processes to remain competitive.

In this blog we’ll cover everything you need to know about the role of a hotel operations manager, including the most crucial duties and skills required.

Why the role of hotel operations manager is important

A hotel’s success is directly tied to the efficiency of its operations. Whether it’s ensuring rooms are spotless, guests are satisfied, or expenses are under control, the hotel operations manager plays a pivotal role in maximising profitability and maintaining a seamless guest experience.

As the hospitality industry becomes more competitive, operational inefficiencies—whether in staff scheduling, service quality, or cost control—can lead to lost revenue and reduced guest satisfaction. Hotels that operate efficiently are in a stronger position to capitalise on industry growth, adapt to shifting market conditions, and meet evolving guest expectations.

Beyond financial performance, operations managers also influence staff retention and morale. Given that labor shortages continue to challenge the hospitality sector, a well-managed team can be a hotel’s biggest asset.

Hotel operations manager vs general manager

While both hotel operations managers and general managers (GMs) are responsible for overseeing the hotel, their roles differ significantly in scope and focus.

A hotel operations manager ensures the smooth execution of daily functions, coordinating between departments to deliver a consistent guest experience. In contrast, the general manager takes a broader leadership role, overseeing long-term business strategy, revenue growth, and high-level financial decisions.

For medium-sized hotel chains, operations managers are often the ones implementing the GM’s vision on a practical level. By optimising workflows, handling staffing challenges, and managing costs, they ensure the hotel runs efficiently while keeping guest satisfaction high.

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Hotel operations manager skills required

To successfully manage a hotel’s daily operations, an operations manager must possess a diverse skill set that balances leadership, financial oversight, problem-solving, and technology adoption. Unlike other hospitality roles that focus on a single department, hotel operations managers coordinate multiple teams, ensuring all aspects of the guest experience run smoothly while keeping costs under control.

The key skills required for a hotel operations manager include:

• Leadership & team management: Overseeing staff across various departments, maintaining morale, and ensuring efficiency in daily operations. Strong leadership fosters a positive work culture, which translates into better guest service and lower employee turnover.
• Financial acumen: Managing budgets, controlling costs, and monitoring revenue streams to maintain profitability. With rising operational costs, an operations manager must make data-driven decisions to optimise expenses.
• Guest experience & service excellence: Ensuring a seamless guest journey, from check-in to check-out. Operations managers play a direct role in maintaining high service standards, handling complaints, and responding to guest feedback.
• Problem-solving & crisis management: From overbookings to last-minute staffing shortages, operations managers need to think on their feet and implement solutions that prevent disruptions.
• Technology & data proficiency: The ability to leverage hotel management software, analytics tools, and automation is now essential. Hotels that implement smart technology solutions can streamline processes, improve reporting, and enhance the guest experience.
• Regulatory & compliance knowledge: Understanding health and safety laws, labor regulations, and environmental guidelines is crucial to keeping the hotel compliant and avoiding legal risks.

Common hotel operations manager interview questions

For hotel owners hiring an operations manager, or for candidates preparing for the role, it’s helpful to know the most common interview questions that assess the necessary skills and experience.

Here are some key questions typically asked in hotel operations manager interviews:

1. Can you describe a time when you had to handle a difficult guest complaint? How did you resolve it?
2. What strategies do you use to improve staff productivity and morale?
3. How do you balance cost control while maintaining high service standards?
4. What hotel management software and tools have you used?
5. Tell us about a time when you had to handle an operational crisis. What steps did you take?
6. How do you stay up to date with industry trends and best practices?

Key hotel operations manager responsibilities

With RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) declining by 7.7% year-over-year and ADR falling by 4.4% in September 2024, hotels face increasing pressure to streamline operations and optimise costs. Effective hotel operations managers play a crucial role in maintaining profitability by ensuring all departments function smoothly while keeping expenses in check.

Manage daily operations

At the heart of a hotel’s performance is how well its daily operations are managed. This includes front desk coordination, housekeeping, maintenance, and food & beverage services. A hotel operations manager ensures each department functions efficiently, with minimal disruptions.

Staff management

With labor shortages often affecting the hospitality industry, hiring, retaining, and upskilling the right staff is one of the biggest challenges for hotel operations managers. Staff turnover can increase operational costs and disrupt service quality, making employee satisfaction and retention a key priority.

Cost management

With operational costs rising, budgeting and expense control are key responsibilities of a hotel operations manager. Poor financial management can quickly erode profitability, especially in a competitive market.

Inventory management

A hotel operations manager plays a crucial role in overseeing inventory control, ensuring that all departments—from housekeeping to food and beverage—have the necessary supplies while keeping costs in check. Effective inventory management directly impacts both guest experience and profitability, preventing shortages that could disrupt service or excess stock that ties up capital unnecessarily.

Servicing guests

Guest satisfaction is the cornerstone of a successful hotel, and a large part of an operations manager’s role involves ensuring exceptional service quality. Guests expect higher service levels to justify premium pricing.

Safety & compliance

Regulatory compliance is non-negotiable in the hospitality industry. Failure to meet safety, health, and legal standards can lead to fines, lawsuits, or reputational damage.

Reporting

Data is a powerful tool for hotel operations managers. Monitoring performance metrics helps identify areas of improvement, track progress, and adjust strategies as needed.

“SiteMinder’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimizing my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. My association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform.”

Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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Using technology to assist in hotel operations manager duties

Technology has become an essential tool for hotel operations managers, enabling them to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and enhance the guest experience. With increasing pressure to optimise costs and maintain service quality, leveraging hotel management software and automation tools has become a competitive necessity rather than a luxury.

A well-equipped operations manager doesn’t just oversee daily tasks—they also implement and manage technology solutions that make those tasks more efficient. From automating reservations and room assignments to tracking staff performance and inventory levels, technology reduces manual workload and provides real-time data for better decision-making.

Some of the most impactful technology solutions for hotel operations managers include:

• Property management systems (PMS) – Centralises booking, check-ins, housekeeping schedules, and billing, improving operational visibility.
• Channel management software – Ensures room availability and pricing are synced across all booking platforms, reducing overbookings.
• AI-Driven customer service tools – Chatbots and automated messaging systems streamline guest communication and reduce front desk workload.
• Smart inventory management systems – Tracks stock levels in real time, preventing shortages and minimising waste.
• Data analytics & reporting dashboards – Provides insights into revenue trends, guest satisfaction, and staff productivity, allowing managers to make informed decisions.

With hotels that integrate smart technology seeing a significant increase in operational efficiency, operations managers who embrace digital transformation can significantly improve performance. By adopting the right tools, they not only reduce costs and administrative burdens but also free up time to focus on strategic improvements and guest satisfaction.

A hotel feasibility study is a financial report that assesses the potential success of a hotel business or development project. The aim is to understand whether the hotel will be a sound investment from a profitability perspective.

A feasibility study looks at factors such as the market, location, cost, and potential revenue of the proposed hotel and is typically undertaken by a third-party company or consultant.

In this blog we’ll cover everything you need to know about hotel feasibility studies, including how to create one.

Why is a feasibility study so useful for a hotel?

A feasibility study can be crucial for deciding whether or not you should move forward with your project or not. Without the analysis that a feasibility study brings, you won’t have the level of detail required to accurately assess the financial viability of the hotel.

Neglecting the study could mean that you invest in a business which leaves you in debt or that you miss out on a life-changing chunk of profit.

Essentially, the feasibility study will give you a roadmap of how your proposed hotel will, or could, look once established. Sometimes, you may need to adjust your business plan based on the findings or even look for another opportunity elsewhere if the results are not positive.

It will give you key details such as risks, development costs, potential revenue, preferred target markets, competitor analysis and more.

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How to get a hotel feasibility study report

When it comes to preparing a feasibility study for a hotel can be difficult to do on your own, since you need a special set of skills and access to key data for analysis.

Typically you’ll need to engage professional companies or consultants to prepare the study and report on your behalf. This is a time consuming process and can often take weeks or months to complete.

Are there templates and samples for hotel feasibility studies?

While you can certainly find templates and sample documents at websites like projectmanager.com, it’s important to remember that hotel feasibility studies are complex reports that require a high degree of specialisation to complete. In this respect, it’s a better option to engage a company dedicated to the hotel industry and experienced in preparing feasibility studies.

Hotel feasibility study companies and costs

Carefully researching companies and costs will help you get the best feasibility study for your hotel. However, you should approach the exercise knowing that it’s an investment. 

Exactly how much one will cost depends on the proposed scale of your hotel project, the size of the local market, the amount of data and analysis required, and how highly regarded and experienced your consultant is. However, you can expect to pay anywhere from a few thousand dollars up to as much as $50,000.

So which companies can provide the service for you? Here are some examples of known consultants that you can reach out to:

• HVS (Hospitality Valuation Services): A well respected global firm that specialises in feasibility studies, valuations, and market research.
• PKF Hospitality Group: An international firm with broad experience covering the hotel, tourism, and leisure sectors.
• CBRE Hotels: Offers comprehensive hotel consulting services with access to a vast network of data resources.
• JLL Hotels & Hospitality: Similar to CBRE, JLL offers a wide range of real estate services, including hotel consulting.
• Hotel & Leisure Advisors (H&LA): A specialised hospitality consulting firm known for detailed analysis and expertise.
• Xotels: Provides hotel management and consulting services, including feasibility studies.

While these are some of the most well known companies globally that can facilitate a feasibility study, it’s highly likely that you’ll be able to find a local provider in your region – with intimate knowledge of your specific market already.

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Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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Hotel feasibility study example

As an example, let’s say you think you’ve found the ideal location to build a hotel, or discovered an existing building that you believe could make an amazing hotel. 

Instead of diving in headfirst after your customary market research, you decide it’s prudent to conduct a feasibility study to determine if a hotel business can truly be a successful investment.

After you contact and agree to hire a consultant, they’ll spend time compiling the following:

• Defining the project: Before any further analysis, the type and style of hotel will need to be confirmed, including its proposed size and target market.
• Site review: It will need to be known how the property will be accessed, what amenities are nearby, and what the general neighbourhood is like.
• Competitor analysis: It’s essential to understand how many competitors the new hotel will have, and what their unique selling points are. What are their strengths and weaknesses and how are they currently performing?
• Demand analysis: A hotel needs guests so the study will need to uncover how popular the destination is and how seasonal the travel demand is.
• Segmentation: What types of guests are most likely to book a hotel at the site? Is the town/city commonly focused on business travellers or leisure tourists? And how does this relate to who you, as the owner of the project, want to attract?
• Costs: You’ll gain an understanding of how much the hotel will cost to develop, as well as the ongoing costs to run the property, market the hotel, maintain the structure, pay staff, and more.
• Projections: An estimate will be given in terms of how much revenue the hotel can generate – this might include metrics such as average daily rate or occupancy.
• Risks: What challenges and risks are present that could derail the project in the short or long term? This might include risks such as being in a floodzone, for example.

At the end of all this, the feasibility study will assess the overall ROI of the hotel and reach an ultimate conclusion about whether the project is recommended or not.

1. Shifting global travel patterns, with international arrivals expected to grow by up to 70 million in 2025, representing a 5% increase over the previous year
2. The rising influence of events, with 65% of travellers more likely to travel for an event this year compared to last
3. Intensifying competition, with 113,000 rooms under construction in Europe and 142,000 in the US, alone
4. Ongoing operational inefficiencies, including a continued reliance on spreadsheets, manual adjustments and fragmented solutions
5. A critical talent gap, especially in the area of revenue management. 

“Navigating hotel revenue management today is no small feat. With shifting travel patterns, the growing influence of events and increasing competition, the complexity can quickly become overwhelming for hoteliers. This often results in outdated practices becoming entrenched within accommodation businesses, further compounded by a shortage of dedicated revenue management professionals industry-wide,” says Rankin.

Rankin’s revelations coincide with SiteMinder’s expansion of Dynamic Revenue Plus into select Northern Hemisphere markets, as unveiled today at ITB Berlin. Since its initial launch last year, Dynamic Revenue Plus has remained the only solution for hotels to both access live market intelligence and take immediate action on their bookable inventory, pricing and distribution strategy. Designed to make sophisticated revenue management accessible to every hotel—unlike revenue management systems that have traditionally been accessible to a limited few—the dual capability within Dynamic Revenue Plus means any hotel can, for the first time, use one, mobile-first system to optimise their revenue based on market demand. From today, the product will incorporate dynamic pricing recommendations from IDeaS, a SAS company and the world’s leading provider of revenue management software and services, so they are no longer limited to hotels with dedicated revenue management resources.

Says Rankin: “When developing this product, our goal was to make revenue management not only accessible, but intuitive—helping hoteliers of all kinds make confident, data-driven decisions, even when the world around them feels unpredictable. Our solutions are designed to address current challenges while anticipating future needs, and the expansion of Dynamic Revenue Plus underscores our commitment to helping businesses maintain control in a world where change is the only constant.”

As highlighted in the recently released SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report, hotels are increasingly adapting to changing market conditions with more dynamic revenue management practices. The report indicated that, globally, room rates in 2024 were on average 16%—or US$31—higher on Friday nights compared to Sunday nights. In Germany, rooms in June—coinciding with the start of summer and the UEFA European Championship—were €48 more expensive than in January, when hotel demand was lowest. The report also highlighted the emergence of 17 new top revenue-generating booking sources, demonstrating the way hotels are responding to the evolving demands of today’s travellers.

“Pleasingly, many accommodation businesses are already moving towards a more adaptable and dynamic approach, but it’s often the speed—or lack thereof—that can harm their ability to capitalise on opportunities,” says Rankin. “The reality is that the vast majority of accommodation businesses still don’t have dedicated revenue management teams, or any time allocated to revenue management. That’s where Dynamic Revenue Plus comes in—democratising the practice and giving every property, regardless of size, the tools they need to compete on a level playing field.”

Dynamic Revenue Plus is now available in Germany, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US, following its successful launch in Australia and New Zealand last September. A global release is slated for later in 2025.

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About SiteMinder
SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the name behind SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel distribution and revenue platform, and Little Hotelier, an all-in-one hotel management software that makes the lives of small accommodation providers easier. The global company is headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London, Manila and Mexico City. Through its technology and the largest partner ecosystem in the global hotel industry, SiteMinder generates more than 125 million reservations worth over US$50 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year.

Eco-friendly tourism is a form of travel that minimises environmental impact of the tourism industry, protecting natural resources and supporting local communities.

It can be tricky to define the term ‘eco tourism’ for hotels, because it can mean so many different things. One eco tourism definition focuses on reducing waste, another seeks to maintain local ecosystems, and another again might be focused on the cultural heritage of an area.

But this does mean that hotels have plenty of opportunities in terms of sustainable travel and tourism. And with environmentally friendly tourism becoming a focus for an ever more aware cohort of travellers, ecotourism hotels are setting themselves up for future success.

Why is eco tourism important?

Eco tourism is important for the future of your business, the local community you work within, and without overstating it too much, the planet as a whole. 

On a business level it ensures you cater to the growing (and often big spending) group of eco-conscious travellers, and forces you to consider long-term investments in sustainable technologies that can save you big money in the long run.

Planning your eco tourism hotel around the needs and strengths of your local environment and community can help the area grow as a whole, and the broader environmental benefits of this effort, in terms of lower emissions and reduced waste, mean that you’re playing your part in creating a more sustainable, habitable planet.

What is an example of ecotourism?

An example of ecotourism is found at Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where hotels have gone to great lengths to integrate seamlessly into the stunning local landscape, and provide tourists with low-impact ways to experience it.

A common question from both hoteliers and guests is whether ecotourism is good or bad for the environment. Despite the name, ecotourism can be harmful if done badly. It’s important to bring a careful, considered approach to these efforts.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at ecotourism and sustainable tourism for hotels, from how a hotel can be environmentally friendly, to how it can capitalise on opportunities like luxury ecotourism.

Why “eco” hotels are more expensive to operate

Hotels are a business – they exist to provide a service and to make money. But sustainability initiatives rarely represent the cheapest ways to run your hotel. And that makes eco tourism management tricky, as hotel leaders can be forced to balance capital and operational cost considerations with attracting eco-conscious guests and doing the right thing by the environment.

Some of the challenges include:

• Significant upfront investment: Energy-efficient hotel construction, including the energy, water and HVAC systems within, can represent large capital expenditure (although they will pay themselves back over time).
• Sustainable sourcing challenges: You’ll pay more for organic food and fair-trade products, and some hotels might struggle to source these products at all.
• Operational shifts: Certain eco-conscious systems and processes, such as waste reduction, recycling and water conservation efforts, can require more time and effort to run than standard systems.

The good news: sustainable tourism hotels tend to have lower running costs in the long run, particularly renewable energy systems and water conservation systems that minimise waste. Even fair trade, sustainably sourced products can ultimately increase revenue, as they can command a higher markup and generate more profit for your business.

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Is it worth targeting the eco-friendly hotel market?

The short answer? Yes. Guests are becoming increasingly aware of the impact that their travel can have on the environment, and many are willing to pay a little more to stay at a hotel that does its part to minimise these effects, thereby offering a guilt-free stay.

But it has to be done the right way.

Eco tourism with sustainable practices for hotels

You can’t just tag yourself as ‘eco-friendly’ without backing that statement up. Capitalising on the eco tourism market is about proving your sustainability credentials by doing, not saying, so you need to implement initiatives before you can talk about them. Speaking of which…

Common greenwashing mistakes hotels make

Greenwashing – overstating or outright lying about your eco tourism credentials – may often be unintentional, but it is quite common across a number of industries. And consumers are becoming wise to it. Be sure to avoid the following:

• Vague claims: “Eco-friendly” should always be paired with specifics on sustainability practices.
• No certifications: A trusted third-party should back up your claims.
• Minimal impact initiatives: Avoid doing things like promoting towel reuse programs while still using single-use plastics.
• Offsetting instead of reducing: Carbon offsets are fast losing credibility. You should instead aim to cut your emissions.

How hotels can prove real sustainability

Mistakes avoided, how do you effectively target the eco-tourism market?

• Obtain recognised eco-certifications: Secure sustainability accreditations from the likes of LEED, Green Key and EarthCheck.
• Publish sustainability impact reports: Aim for total transparency in terms of your water and energy use, and your waste reductions.
• Aim for holistic sustainability: Incorporate eco-friendly processes across all operations. from supply chains to guest experiences.
• Communicate your efforts: Market yourself honestly and openly as an eco-friendly option, and train staff to communicate your green initiatives effectively.

How hotels can attract eco-conscious travellers

Let’s shift our framing. In reality, sustainability shouldn’t be viewed as a cost or an obligation, but rather an opportunity to add value to your guest experience and increase the revenue of your hotel business.

How do you effectively attract sustainability-minded travellers, and make more money in the process? The following strategies are a great place to start.

Create eco-experiences

A secluded retreat in the middle of nature. Permaculture and sustainability workshops. Tours of national parks and local ecosystems. These eco-experiences can be a great way to highlight your knowledge and good work, share your local area, and earn more money while you do it.

Offer optional eco-packages

Eco-conscious travellers may be willing to spend more than your average guest (which is good news if you need to invest in sustainable on-site systems). But rather than just increasing the base rates, and potentially alienating a large portion of other guests, you might consider offering premium eco-packages to those who are willing to pay a little more for an environmentally friendly experience.

Promote sustainable guest behaviours 

Introduce green loyalty programs, where you partner with environmental organisations to offer points that contribute to environmental initiatives. Incentivise sustainable guest behaviours by offering discounts or free amenities to guests who opt to reuse towels, decline daily housekeeping or choose energy-efficient room settings. You can also gamify sustainability efforts through apps or in-room challenges around water and energy conservation.

“At first I thought it was just a myth that using SiteMinder could boost revenue. But it turned out to be true. Revenue did increase, we are also more efficient in terms of time; we can get more work done.”

Shadi Wijaya,

Corporate Director of Revenue

The Phala Group

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The future of sustainable hotels

What does the future of your eco tourism – and more specifically of your eco hotel – look like? Examples of eco tourism can offer inspiration for your own efforts.

First to some stats. Globally, 73% of tourists prefer hotels with sustainable practices, and 81% plan to choose sustainable options in the near future. It’s an already huge market, and it’s not going backwards.

In terms of your hotel, you’re safe to base your strategic sustainability decisions on the fact that eco-conscious travellers are willing to pay more for a genuinely sustainable experience. This means that ecoluxury stays have significant potential. You could build a standalone room or villa where sustainability is front and centre, and quickly recoup the investment through premium rates.

There’s also tech-driven sustainability: AI-powered smart HVAC, renewable on-site energy generation and water recycling systems that might cost a bit to set up, but that more than pay themselves back over time.

But not all sustainability initiatives require heavy investment – there are budget-friendly green solutions too, like switching to bulk toiletries and minimising single-use plastics.

Another less obvious piece of the hotel sustainability puzzle is maximising your internal resources. When you use automation to lift repetitive, low value tasks from the shoulders of your staff, they have more time to focus on sustainability and the eco-conscious guest experience.

That’s where SiteMinder comes in.

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the US government that works to ensure economic competition between businesses and protect consumers from unjust practices. Also known as the FTC, the agency is headquartered in Washington, DC and is led by five commissioners, who generally serve seven year terms, decided upon by the president and confirmed by the senate.

The Federal Trade Commission’s history dates back to 1914 when it was initially established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

What does the Federal Trade Commission do?

The Federal Trade Commission monitors and enforces antitrust laws and consumer protection laws. This covers issues such as false advertising, scams, fraud, identity theft, debt collection, privacy protection, and more.

When violations are found, the FTC has the power to file lawsuits, hand down cease and desist orders, and hand out fines. 

For example, the FTC might make sure that hotels are not creating any false messaging or promising in their marketing  – regarding amenities, services, or pricing.

What is the Federal Trade Commission Act?

The Federal Trade Commission Act is the formal law which helped establish the Federal Trade Commission. It outlines the powers and responsibilities of the FTC. Primarily its purpose was to prevent unfair or deceptive acts and practices when it comes to competing as a business or providing services to consumers.

This blog will give you a full overview of how the Federal Trade Commission plays a role in how hoteliers in the USA manage their business. 

Why is it important that the Federal Trade Commission serves its purpose?

The Federal Trade Commission’s purpose is an important one in the grand scheme of consumer legislation and protection. Not only does it work to prevent negative practices by businesses, but it also helps consumers detect, stop, and avoid these negative practices.

With the FTC doing its job and making businesses accountable for their actions, consumers can approach various markets with more trust and safety, ultimately benefitting the genuine businesses who are doing the right thing.

Here’s an overview of why the FTC is so vital:

• Fraud and scam prevention to protect people financially and avoid emotional distress.
• Ensuring truthful advertising to give consumers an accurate account of what a business is and what it does.
• Maintaining privacy such as protecting personal information and data.
• Preventing anti-competitive practices such as manipulating prices or creating unfair monopolies to create a level playing field.
• Building consumer trust to encourage economic stimulation.
• Encouraging innovation by incentivising companies to develop new and better products and services. 
• Protecting vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children, and low-income individuals, who may be more susceptible to deceptive practices.

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Federal Trade Commission facts

If rules and regulations seem like dry topics to discuss, it gets more interesting when we look at some of the facts about this key government agency.

Here are five Federal Trade Commission facts that make it stand out:

• It’s the only federal agency that oversees both consumer protection and business competition jurisdiction.

• The FTC also manages the National Do Not Call Registry in America.

• The agency now has more than 100 years of history protecting consumers.

• The FTC employs economists to analyse market trends, to inform it of the impact of regulations.
• It deals in both large and small scale cases, also helping on the consumer level to give people the tools to detect and prevent scams and fraud.

However, the most interesting thing about the FTC is how it might impact your hotel. Let’s discuss that in the next section.

FTC and hotel junk fees

Perhaps the biggest example of how the Federal Trade Commission impacts hotels is the recent news that the FTC has banned hidden junk fees from hotels and event tickets.

Junk fees, or hidden fees, are fees that are mandatory but not necessarily advertised upfront. For example, this can apply when consumers are purchasing tickets for a live event – or when booking a hotel. 

The advertised price will be one amount, but the amount the guest is required to pay changes later when a hidden charge, such as a cleaning fee or booking fee, is applied to the account.

Under the ruling by the FTC, businesses will be required to accurately, clearly and conspicuously display all mandatory fees associated with the product or service being offered.

There are four specific prohibitions under the ruling, and businesses will be punished for:

• Failing to disclose “clearly and conspicuously” the “true total price inclusive of all mandatory fees” charged whenever a business “offer(s), display(s), or advertise(s) any price.”
• Failing to display the total price “more prominently” than “most other pricing information.” 
• Misstating the cost or fees for any live-event tickets or short-term lodging.
• Misstating the identity of any good or service offered.

It should be noted that the ruling is purely a stipulation that businesses must disclose their fees and how they are displayed – it does not control which fees are charged or the amount of the fees that the guest or customer is required to pay.

Ultimately, it is about ensuring consumers have everything they need to make an informed decision to purchase – or not purchase.

List of hidden hotel fees

While not all may be applicable to the FTC’s recent ruling, there are a number of hidden fees that hotels sometimes use – which guests don’t take kindly to.

Here are some to keep in mind when listing your prices and terms and conditions:

• Resort fees: Resorts will often charge fees for all their various amenities and services – but guests have sometimes found that these charges are applied even for amenities they didn’t use during their stay.
• Check-in fees: Guests will often be charged extra for early check-in or late check-out, but it’s important to let them know this will be the case when they make their reservation or when they request the service.
• Additional occupancy charge: Guests who bring additional adults to stay in their room will be charged an additional person fee by many hotels.
• Wi-Fi: This is one of the biggest annoyances for guests. They simply do not want to be charged for Wi-Fi and don’t expect to be, however some hotels will still do so.
• Mini-bar and snack bar: Most guests know that these items will incur a charge, but some guests have been outraged to find they were charged a fee even without consuming anything. This is because some fridges contain sensors that detect movement and assume an item has been consumed if it is picked up.
• Parking fees: Again, most guests would expect to pay for parking but it’s important to let them know up front that this will happen and how much it will cost.
• Gym fees: This probably falls into the category of resort fees. If a guest does not use the gym equipment, it doesn’t seem fair to them to be charged for its upkeep and maintenance.
• Housekeeping: Sometimes there will be a housekeeping fee that guests are unaware of, meaning if they leave their housekeeper a tip they will be effectively paying twice.
• Mail fees: Guests staying for an extended time may get mail delivered to their hotel, and some properties have been known to charge guests for accepting this mail to the premises.

Other Federal Trade Commission examples for hotels

If properties fall foul of this new ruling, it won’t be the first time that the FTC has caught hotels undertaking incorrect practices.

Here are a few other examples of the FTC taking action:

Data security

The FTC has historically filed suits against both Marriott and Wyndham for failing to implement reasonable data security and failing to adequately safeguard computer networks respectively.

Fake reviews

The FTC has specific guidelines covering online reviews, and hotels must be careful. Fake reviews are an obvious bad practice but so is incentivising positive reviews without disclosing what the incentive is.

Accessibility

The FTC also considers accessibility as part of its broad mandate, though these regulations are often enforced under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“SiteMinder’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimizing my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. My association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform.”

Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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FTC enforcement and how to manage it at your hotel

FTC enforcement can result in lawsuits being brought against your hotel if they find that you have violated their rulings. This can result in large fines and loss of reputation – ultimately harming your business long term.

To ensure you’re on the right side of the legislation and providing an exceptional guest experience, make sure that you:

• Understand the focus areas of the FTC: These boil down to being truthful in your advertising, providing adequate data security for your guests, undertaking fair pricing practices, and being accessible to all.
• Be proactive: Don’t wait for the FTC to come knocking or for a guest to give you poor feedback. Try to make sure you have internal processes to ensure you are complying with the FTC’s known guidelines.
• Stay informed: Keep yourself across the FTC’s announcements and news outlets to ensure you don’t miss any new rulings that will affect you.
• Cooperate fully: If the FTC does get in contact with you, make sure you work with them in addition to seeking legal counsel and conducting your own internal investigations.

While this all might seem complicated, there are some easy ways to manage pricing, fees, and guest communications at your hotel…

Sustainable tourism is an approach designed to minimise the environmental impact of hotels and other travel service providers, while supporting local communities and promoting long-term economic viability.

While this sustainable tourism definition encompasses environmental, economic and cultural sustainability, the term is most often used to describe eco-conscious travel.

Sustainable travel and tourism has come into sharp focus in the last decade or two, as awareness surrounding issues like climate change and ecological degradation has grown.

In this guide we’ll look at how sustainable tourism represents a real opportunity for hotels that are willing to invest in it, by reducing operating costs, attracting eco-conscious travellers, and ensuring a destination remains beautiful, healthy and alluring long into the future.

Why is sustainable tourism important?

The importance of sustainable tourism for hotels is two-fold:

• As a business concern, a focus on sustainability ensures you cater to the ever-expanding group of travellers who identify as eco-conscious, and that you minimise your operational costs through energy efficiency and waste reduction strategies.
• As a broader concern, sustainable tourism encourages the industry to do the right thing in terms of the environment and local community, and helps to ensure that stunning, vibrant destinations stay that way in the long-term.

The once-niche sustainable tourism market has long since gone mainstream, so hotels that don’t go green risk being left behind as sustainability becomes a non-negotiable.

Gen Z, for example, are travelling more than other generations, and are also more concerned about the environment.

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Sustainable tourism examples

To understand what sustainability looks like in the hospitality industry, let’s check out some real-world examples of sustainable tourism destinations from around the world.

Lemon Tree Hotels

This Indian chain’s hotels are all LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certified, a globally recognised sustainable tourism standard. Variable refrigerant volume (VRV) technology makes air-conditioning 30% more efficient, with the HVAS system also powered by solar and wind. On the community side, the chain has organised a number of neighbourhood clean up efforts, and has won awards for their working conditions and approach to staff welfare.

Proximity Hotel

This US hotel, in Greensboro, North Carolina, is LEED Platinum Certified (the highest certification possible) thanks to a range of initiatives. The building itself was constructed from sustainable building materials, while inside the focus is on reducing water and power usage, recycling every material possible, using renewable energy and promoting sustainable food sourcing.

Jetwing Vil Uyana Hotel

This Sri Lankan hotel isn’t in a wildlife sanctuary – it is a wildlife sanctuary. Jetwing Vil Uyana was established in 2006, and has since transformed 28 acres of agricultural land back into a gorgeous wetlands. The hotel monitors every aspect of its environmental impact – energy, water, waste and more – and reports its progress monthly, while submitting itself to regular audits.

Sustainable tourism practices for hotels

What might sustainability look like in your hotel business? The following sustainable tourism policies and practices can serve as inspiration for any accommodation provider looking to up their game.

Electricity & water

Sustainability is about using resources wisely. By increasing efficiency and reducing waste, you make your hotel more environmentally friendly while also reducing your operating costs. In terms of power and water, consider:

• Investing in on-site renewable energy systems like solar, wind and battery storage.
• Installing devices like smart HVAC and lighting systems that use less energy while running, and automatically switch themselves off.
• Conserving water through water-saving shower heads and smart washing systems.
• Recycling water using an on-site system.

Waste reduction

Waste, particularly in terms of plastics that don’t readily break down, can harm the environment on both a local and global level. By reducing waste, you make your destination a nicer place to visit, and lower the cost of dealing with garbage.

• Replace single use items like disposable cups and cutlery with reusable alternatives.
• For any single use items you can’t replace (e.g. for sanitary reasons), choose a biodegradable alternative.
• Implement an easy-to-follow recycling system for both staff and guests.

Supporting local tourism initiatives

Join, or better yet establish, sustainable tourism initiatives within the local community. Forge partnerships with groups that work to keep the local area beautiful, the local culture vibrant and the local economy strong.

Employ locals and pay a fair living wage. Sponsor local events. Support local businesses by offering their products and services through your front desk.

“Since we started using it ourselves, we have experienced increased visibility for our hotel. We are grateful for the decision to switch to SiteMinder, as it has provided us with more valuable time to focus on guest satisfaction.”

Benjamas Kitsaengklai,

Assistant General Manager

Ping Nakara Boutique Hotel and Spa

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Benefits of sustainable tourism practices

Why bother with the projects and practices mentioned above? Simple: it’s good for business.

As the awareness of environmental issues grows, so does the global sustainable tourism market. Eco-conscious travellers are increasingly looking for sustainable tourism hotels that align with their beliefs and desires. By offering an option that these customers feel good about choosing, you can attract more guests and potentially charge a higher nightly rate.

Add in the cost savings from reduced waste and lower utility bills, and enhanced sustainability can also lead to enhanced profitability.

Other benefits of sustainability include:

• Greater guest appeal: Eco-conscious travellers prefer hotels with strong sustainability commitments, as they can enjoy a natural and entirely guilt-free stay.
• Improved brand reputation: Demonstrating environmental and social responsibility enhances your hotel’s image.
• Competitive advantage: Sustainability awards like LEED, Green Key and GSTC hotel certifications can lead environmentally aware guests (including valuable corporate clients) to choose you over a competitor.
• Regulatory compliance: Meeting sustainability standards helps hotels to stay ahead of evolving environmental regulations.
• Stronger community relationships: Taking social responsibility seriously by supporting local businesses and employing local staff can foster goodwill and loyalty within the community, and can lead to more referral business.
• A healthier environment: By reducing pollution and emissions through waste management and renewable energy initiatives, you can improve everything from aesthetics to air quality. This makes your hotel a nicer place to be for guests, and a nicer place to work for staff.
• Long-term viability: Responsible, sustainable practices help to safeguard the future of your hotel business, by enhancing profitability and ensuring the health of the local environment and community within which you work.

In order to fully capitalise on the potential benefits of sustainable tourism, you need help from a tool that can guide you on the right rates to charge, that can help you implement sustainability processes, and that can get the word out about your sustainability efforts.

You need a tool like SiteMinder…

A Hotel General Manager is the most senior member of staff at a hotel. They are tasked with overseeing the operations of the property and ensuring the success of the business. Usually they will report to higher levels of management such as owners, directors, and corporate headquarters.

This is different to an Operations Manager, who focuses primarily on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of everyday tasks.

What does a Hotel General Manager do?

A Hotel General Manager leads the day-to-day operations of a hotel. This will include (but is not limited to) managing all the various departments within the hotel, analysing performance, creating strategies and delegating tasks, managing staff and reporting to stakeholders. This means they will also be a jack of all trades, participating in a lot of different activities on any given day.

What is a Hotel General Manager’s salary?

It’s important to note that a general manager’s salary will vary depending on the specific hotel, the country or region, and the experience of the general manager.

However, it’s been reported that those with a master’s degree make USD$22,649 more annually than those who hold a high-school diploma. 

In the US, the national average salary for a GM sits at about $62,500. At the higher end of the scale, general managers can earn as much as $165,000.

In this blog we’ll cover everything you need to know about the role of a Hotel General Manager, including the most crucial duties and skills required.

Why a Hotel GM is crucial to the success of the business

A Hotel GM can be the difference between a thriving business and an underperforming one. Not only do they need to be a good strategist with a sharp eye for detail, they also need to be a good leader who is accomplished at delegating tasks appropriately and motivating other staff members to do their best.

General managers touch every aspect of the hotel from staff management, to guest experience, to revenue management, performance reporting, and more. 

If they aren’t setting the tone for others to follow, capitalising on opportunities, and being aware of what’s happening on a daily basis, standards will slip and progress will falter.

Both those below and above the GM in the hierarchy will look to them for guidance, support, and leadership in keeping the hotel running smoothly and achieving targeted goals.

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Full list of Hotel General Manager responsibilities

So, we’ve scratched the surface of what a Hotel General Manager does but let’s delve a bit deeper. Here are 10 of the most important hotel general manager duties:

1. Provide leadership and vision: A general manager needs to be able to execute the vision of the owner or stakeholders, which includes being a good people manager and strategist.
2. Oversee daily operations: The GM has to be across the happenings at the hotel on a daily basis, so that they can make the right decisions if and when they need to be made.
3. Problem solving: Following on from above, a general manager needs to be able to think on their feet and respond to various situations effectively. For example, if an event occurs that has the potential to cause a shift in demand, the general manager (along with the revenue manager) needs to quickly execute a plan to capitalise.
4. Quality control: The general manager is responsible for upholding brand values and standards across the hotel.
5. Customer service: Ultimately, the buck stops at the top so a GM has to be vigilant when it comes to ensuring the needs of guests, including safety and security, are being met at a consistently high level.
6. Finances: Revenue is what keeps a business running, so a general manager needs to work closely with a revenue manager (or do it all themselves at smaller properties) to optimise pricing, control costs, and generate profit.
7. Staff management: Whether it’s hiring and training staff, keeping staff motivated, handling disputes, organising schedules, and more, the GM has to be involved in maintaining a happy and skilled team of staff.
8. Marketing: How does the hotel get found and booked by guests? What is the reputation of the brand? How does the property increase followers and engagement on social media? These are all aspects that the general manager should be working on, in conjunction with other staff members.
9. Community engagement: The general manager will be crucial when it comes to forming partnerships with other businesses in the local community and finding ways to integrate the hotel into the local scene.
10. Technology: Does the hotel need technology to operate more efficiently? Can technology help generate more revenue? Will technology save time and enhance guest experience? It’s the general manager’s job to explore all avenues to find better ways to run the hotel – of which hotel software plays a huge part.

How to be a Hotel General Manager

While all those responsibilities we discussed go some way to explaining how to be a general manager and what it entails, there are some other steps to take to get there.

Hotel General Manager qualifications

While not strictly necessary, it’s a good idea to have a Bachelor’s Degree in hospitality management or a similar course if you want to be a general manager. Almost 60% of those in the position have their degree, since it requires good knowledge of business and financial management.

Other certifications in hospitality can be gained to enhance your profile too. 

And of course, you can also start at the bottom and work your way up during your career through experience alone.

Hotel General Manager skills

While we may have touched on some of the required skills already, it’s important that Hotel General Managers have a good grasp of:

• Leadership: Confidence, emotional intelligence, and the ability to motivate are all important characteristics. 
• Communication: You need to be clear, concise, and direct when communicating but compassionate and patient when listening.
• Adaptability: Hospitality is a fast-paced industry that’s constantly in flux so you need to be able to shift priorities at a moment’s notice.
• Business acumen: You need to understand the fundamentals of what makes businesses successful and how to manage finances responsibly.
• Customer service: A background or learned experience in interacting with customers will help you put practices in place that ensure guest satisfaction.

Hotel General Manager work experience

It’s hard to step straight into a general manager role at a hotel without prior industry experience.

Ideally, a general manager will have spent a number of years in hotel or hospitality management or business administration roles displaying evidence of the required skills.

A possible pathway would be to work in the areas of night manager, front desk manager, sales and marketing manager etc before moving onto the bigger promotion of general manager.

“SiteMinder’s channel manager has streamlined our bookings and inventory management. It’s especially improved efficiency, since it allows us to manage four properties at once by eliminating manual updates.”

Alexandra Rolton,

Strategic Sales & Key Account Manager

Brady Hotels & Apartments

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Using technology to aid in Hotel General Manager duties

A Hotel General Manager’s job can be made much easier, and can even be enhanced, with the help of hotel technology.

There are a number of software solutions that are able to automate everyday tasks, speed up processes, enhance guest experience, and provide data and insights that makes revenue management more powerful.

A general manager should rely on tools where they think a positive impact can be made to increase the efficiency, revenue, or reputation of the business.

Examples of tools that will make a general manager’s duties simpler include:

• Property Management System: This becomes a digital front desk and the heart of the property.
• Channel Manager: Increases reach and visibility with no extra effort on the hotel’s part via automated, real-time, inventory management.
• Booking Engine: Enables direct reservations to encourage additional profit and improved guest relationships.
• Revenue Management System: Can provide key data, insights, and reports to influence pricing and revenue strategies.
• Payment Processing: Integrates with booking systems to provide secure, seamless, experiences for guests and simple admin management for hotels.

All this and more are outstanding options for a hotel general manager looking to grow their business even further. However, it’s particularly useful if all of these solutions can be operated via a single platform…

Galileo is a travel distribution platform that utilises a global distribution system (GDS) to allow travel agents to book hotels, flights and other travel services.

Galileo GDS is owned and operated by Travelport, one of the three major players in the GDS space (along with Amadeus and Sabre). Travelport also runs the Apollo and Wordspan GDS platforms. When a hotel uses a connectivity partner like SiteMinder GDS, travel agents and corporate travel management companies can book inventory through Galileo and other major GDS providers.

While Galileo is mainly used for airline bookings, it’s also used by travel agents to book hotels, car hire and other travel services for their clients.

In this guide we’ll look at Galileo through the lens of a hotel looking to learn more about the GDS, from how it works to how it might capitalise on the distribution opportunity.

Why do hotels need Galileo GDS integration?

Galileo (along with Apollo and Wordspan) is owned by Travelport, which is one of the world’s ‘Big 3’ GDS vendors.

This means that when a hotel’s inventory is listed on Galileo, it’s also listed on those other Travelport platforms, which allows it to reach a vast network of 68,000 travel agencies across the globe, equating to over 250,000 individual agents.

Galileo is particularly popular with travel agents in Asia and the Middle East, so being bookable through this GDS platform can significantly increase the number of bookings you generate from these parts of the world.

What is the role of GDS in hospitality?

The GDS offers a way for travel professionals to book travel services – flights, hotel rooms, car rentals, tours – for their clients.

The GDS was originally created as a way for airlines to simplify and speed up their booking processes. As more airlines joined, the system slowly grew, eventually becoming a marketplace for all types of travel service providers.

To be listed on a GDS, a hotel can work through a connectivity partner, like SiteMinder GDS.

Gain access to every major GDS with SiteMinder

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How does Galileo GDS differ from other GDS systems?

In many respects Galileo is very similar to other GDS operators like Apollo (which formed the base from which it was originally developed), Worldspan, Sabre and Amadeus. But a couple of key differentiators include:

• Popularity in Asia, and particularly the Middle East, where it’s the GDS platform of choice for 55% of travel agents.
• Travelport integration: any hotels that are bookable through Galileo will also be found on Apollo and Worldspan.

What are the key benefits of Galileo GDS for hotels?

Galileo is best known as an airline GDS. So what can it offer hotels? Well, first and foremost, travel agents generally need to book accommodation alongside flights, so hotels are wise to have a presence wherever flights are being booked.

But Galileo also offers a number of other unique opportunities to hotels.

Greater global reach   

Galileo, and the GDS channel in general, forms the perfect complement to your other sales channels – OTAs, metasearch and direct bookings – because it helps you attract bookings from sources (namely travel agents and corporate travel management companies) that those other channels cannot.

Group bookings

Galileo enables travel agents to efficiently book blocks of rooms for travel groups, so when you have a presence on Galileo, you can more efficiently earn large bookings.

Corporate travel management

Galileo helps make your hotel visible to corporate travel agents and management companies, where you can win high-value bookings from business travellers. Corporate clients are a particularly valuable source of bookings because they can be less price-sensitive and tend to fill mid-week lulls.

Efficient upselling opportunities

A GDS grants your hotel the opportunity to upsell without needing to put much effort in at all. You can offer travel agents (and their clients) value-added options like premium rooms, spa packages or in-house dining, to both personalise the experiences you deliver and boost your revenue.

API flexibility for unique hotel systems

SiteMinder GDS offers API integrations to help you seamlessly connect to your existing tech and tools, such as your booking and property management systems. This allows you to update your availability, inventory, pricing and info automatically and in real-time across Galileo and all other major GDS vendors.

“The channel manager has been invaluable as we expanded from three to 11 channels. It made the process seamless.”

Ahmad Zainal Arifin,

Revenue & Front Office Manager

Grün Resorts

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What are the technical requirements for implementing Galileo GDS?

It’s important to note that as a hotel, you do not connect directly to Galileo. Galileo is what travel agents and professionals use to book your rooms.

On the service provider (hotel) side, while you can be listed on Galileo, you’ll never directly interact with Galileo. You’ll instead need to control your GDS presence through a connectivity partner, like SiteMinder GDS. Here’s how that works:

1. Choose your GDS connectivity partner

Choose a partner that offers seamless integration with your property management system (PMS), and that works not just with Galileo, but with all major GDS vendors. The connectivity partner is tasked with facilitating the connections between your hotel and the GDS vendors, which involves translating your room inventory, rates and availability into a format that GDS systems can understand and access.

2. Configure your property details

Provide your GDS connectivity partner with all the information it needs to pass on to the GDS vendors: room types, rates, amenities, imagery, policies, availability and more. This data is then synced with Galileo and the other GDS vendors.

3. Maintain and update your listings

Once your data is synced, you can update listings and information in real time through your connectivity partner. You can manage pricing, promotions, availability and more. Regular updates ensure your hotel remains competitive and visible to travel agents booking through Galileo and other GDS vendors.

Apollo is a global distribution system (GDS) vendor which allows travel agents to access and book inventory from hotels, airlines, car hires, and more.

Apollo is owned and operated by Travelport, one of the three major players in the GDS space – Travelport also runs Galileo and Wordspan. When a hotel connects to the GDS via a partner like SiteMinder, it becomes bookable on Apollo by travel agents around the world.

While airline bookings are the primary focus of Apollo, it also allows travel agents to book hotels, car hire and other travel services.

Apollo GDS history

Like other major GDS brands, such as Sabre and Amadeus, Apollo was established by United Airlines in 1971 as an early computerised airline booking system. It slowly evolved into a more general travel booking service, and by 1986 had been given a new name – Covia – and was being marketed as an independent affiliate of United Airlines.

It was eventually absorbed into Galileo international, which in turn was absorbed into Travelport. The name was changed back to Apollo during this period of M&A action, and Apollo now sits alongside Galileo and Worldspan in the Travelport stable.

In this guide we’ll break down Apollo from the perspective of hotels that want to capitalise on a GDS as a key hotel distribution channel.

Why engage a GDS partner like SiteMinder to access Apollo?

Why should a hotel work with a connectivity partner, such as SiteMinder GDS, to gain bookings through Apollo? There are a few compelling reasons, including:

Global reach

Through Travelport, Apollo connects hotels to a quarter of a million individual travel agents from around the world, providing exposure to group, corporate and international travellers that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. And when you choose to partner with SiteMinder, you actually gain access to 600,000 travel agencies, through additional GDS connections. It allows your hotel to tap into markets that can be impossible to reach through traditional hotel marketing efforts.

Increased bookings

Gain access to travel agents who book on behalf of corporate, group and leisure travellers. The corporate travel market can be a particularly valuable one to tap into, as it can be less price sensitive and can significantly boost mid-week and low season occupancy rates.

Streamlined operations

When you connect to Apollo through SiteMinder GDS, you enjoy real-time availability and pricing updates, ensuring accurate information is shared with travel agents. The simple SiteMinder GDS user experience reduces the risk of overbooking and simplifies reservation management for hotels.

Gain access to every major GDS with SiteMinder

With the help of SiteMinder, you can connect your hotel to all major vendors on the GDS, including Apollo, Sabre and Amadeus, to generate more visibility, bookings and revenue than ever before.

Learn more

Apollo GDS Frequently Asked Questions

Don’t know much about Apollo? Let’s answer some quick-fire questions to give you a sense of what this platform is all about.

Who owns Apollo GDS?

Apollo is currently owned by Travelport, the world’s third-largest global distribution system vendor (after Amadeus and Sabre).

Is Apollo GDS part of Travelport?

Yes, Apollo is a distinct brand that operates under the Travelport umbrella, alongside Galileo and Worldspan. When a hotel (or any other travel service provider) is listed on one of these vendors, it is automatically listed on all of them. 

Is Apollo GDS going away?

Apollo has evolved a lot over the years, from United Airlines’ reservation system, to a standalone GDS, to a subsidiary of Galileo then Travelport. But it is still going strong, with a large and loyal travel agent user base, so there are no plans to retire this GDS.

What does Apollo do for hotels?

Apollo is best known as an airline GDS. So what can it offer hotels? Well, first and foremost, travel agents almost always need to book accommodation alongside flights, so hotels are wise to have a presence wherever flights are being booked.

But on top of that, Apollo offers a number of opportunities to hotels.

Robust business travel integrations

Apollo makes your hotel accessible to corporate travel agents and companies, helping you to win valuable bookings from business travellers. It offers a simple way to target high-value corporate clients through established travel management networks.

Enhanced multi-channel distribution

A GDS like Apollo can sit alongside other sales channels, such as OTAs, metasearch and direct bookings, to help you expand and diversify your reach to travel agents, tour operators and online booking platforms. These can all be managed in one place on a platform like SiteMinder.

Streamlined group booking support

Apollo enables travel agents to secure blocks of rooms quickly and easily. As a consequence your hotel can earn and efficiently manage more large bookings, helping you to more effectively cater to events, conferences and group travel.

Efficient upselling opportunities

The GDS grants your hotel the opportunity to upsell. Through your channel manager you can offer travel agents and their clients premium rooms, spa packages or dining options, personalising the experiences you offer while boosting your bottom line.

API flexibility for unique hotel systems

SiteMinder GDS offers API integrations to help you seamlessly connect to your existing tech and tools, such as your booking and property management systems. This allows you to update your availability, inventory, pricing and info automatically in real-time.

The advantage of connecting with Apollo GDS

When you partner with SiteMinder GDS, you seamlessly connect all three GDSs – not just Apollo/Travelport, but Sabre and Amadeus too.

SiteMinder GDS also allows information to flow freely between all your channels and tech solutions, opening up opportunities for automation to save you time and money.

Worldspan is a travel distribution company that utilises its global distribution system (GDS) to allow travel agents and other travel professionals to search, book and manage reservations on behalf of their clients.

Worldspan commands a significant market share amongst GDS vendors, so can be a significant source of bookings and revenue for travel service providers like hotels.

Does Worldspan GDS still exist?

Worldspan most certainly still exists, though it has evolved from an airline-centric platform to a more general travel booking system that handles bookings for hotels, car hire and other travel services too.

It is also now owned by Travelport, one of the three leading global GDS vendors (along with Sabre and Amadeus).

In this article we’ll take a closer look at Worldspan through the lens of a hotel looking to attract more bookings from a channel like the GDS. We’ll also answer a few key questions along the way: ‘how does Worldspan GDS work?’, ‘what are the Worldspan GDS advantages for hotels?’ and more.

Why engage a GDS partner like SiteMinder to access Wordspan?

As a key GDS vendor, Worldspan represents an incredible opportunity for a hotel to get in front of new customers, through a connectivity partner like SiteMinder.

Worldspan is used by over 16,000 travel agents, tour operators and corporate travel consultants, all of whom are looking to book accommodation for their clients. In the case of corporate travel, the resulting bookings can often fill mid-week lulls for your hotel, and can be large, long, low effort and high value.

By gaining access to Worldspan via a connectivity partner like SiteMinder GDS, you gain access to this valuable source of potential bookings.

What are the benefits of Worldspan for hotels?

Why offer hotel inventory through Worldspan? This GDS vendor offers a few unique benefits, including:

• Travelport integration: Worldspan is owned by Travelport, which is one of the three biggest GDS vendors. Any hotel listed on Worldspan is also automatically listed on the two other platforms that Travelport owns: Galileo and Apollo.
• Huge reach: Worldspan is used by tens of thousands of travel agents in 180 different countries.
• Higher value bookings: The corporate travel booked through Worldspan can be less price-sensitive than leisure travel, and mid-week bookings are more likely.

Gain access to every major GDS vendor with SiteMinder

Why limit yourself to Worldspan? With the help of SiteMinder GDS, you can connect your hotel to all of the major vendors – Travelport, Sabre and Amadeus – to generate more visibility, bookings and revenue than ever before.

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The evolution of Worldspan GDS software

Worldspan was created in 1990 as a joint venture between Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and TWA. The idea was to build on the success of TWA PARS, which became the first travel agency-accessible GDS way back in 1976. Worldspan GDS was designed to grant even easier airline ticket access to travel agents from around the world than its predecessor did.

It proved an instant success, and was eventually sold by its owner airlines in 2003, and again in 2007, ultimately landing in Travelport’s hands.
Since 2007 Worldspan has expanded to offer more than just airline tickets. Travel agents can now book hotel rooms, and any hotel listed on Worldspan is also listed on Travelport’s other platforms, such as Apollo and Galileo (which has historically been more hotel-oriented).

Worldspan GDS: How does it work?

As a hotel, you don’t connect or deal directly with Worldspan. You must work with a connectivity partner, such as SiteMinder GDS, to gain access and list your hotel on the various vendors that offer inventory to travel professionals that use the GDS.

With that in mind, here are some basics on how Worldspan works from the point of view of a hotel.

Real-time hotel inventory

Working through a solution such as SiteMinder’s channel manager, you can update the inventory, rates and availability you offer through Worldspan in real time. To take full advantage, you should choose a connectivity partner that fully integrates with your PMS and other key systems to automate the process of updating your offerings.

Seamless booking and confirmation processes

On the travel agent end of Worldspan, the booking process is seamless. Once a room is selected, the system automatically generates a booking confirmation that includes details like check-in/check-out dates, room type, rates and cancellation policies. On the hotel side, you need to ensure that your policies and rate plans (refundable, non-refundable, packages) are clear and correctly configured.

Corporate travel management tools

Worldspan allows hotels to cater to corporate travellers, which can form a particularly lucrative segment for your business. Using SiteMinder GDS you can offer better corporate rates and offer business-friendly perks like flexible cancellation terms, late check-out options, and workspace-friendly rooms, then restrict these deals to authorised travel agencies or corporate clients.

Maximising visibility through global reach

As a Travelport vendor, Worldspan boasts incredible reach. The network is used by tens of thousands of travel agents spanning nearly every country on earth. And when you connect to Worldspan/Travelport through SiteMinder GDS, you also secure connections with the world’s largest GDS vendors: Amadeus and Sabre.

“With SiteMinder’s platform, we can reach more points of sale and boost our presence in key markets. We are more efficient and we can now reach more locations while taking the same steps.”

Javier Aranda,

E-commerce Senior Manager

Palladium Hotel Group

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How Worldspan GDS works with hotel systems

By connecting to Worldspan through a connectivity partner like SiteMinder, you’ll also have access to a whole ecosystems of solutions including PMS integration.This will allow much of the inventory management and admin to be automated: you can update your pricing and availability across all your distribution channels in real time, rather than one by one, and any bookings made are automatically updated in the relevant systems.

SiteMinder GDS also gives you connectivity to all major GDS vendors – not just Travelport/Worldspan, but Sabre and Amadeus too.

Travelport GDS is a global distribution system vendor that connects travel service providers (hotels, airlines, car hire companies) with travel agents who book these services on behalf of their clients.

Travelport is one of the industry’s most renowned GDS companies, along with other examples such as Sabre and Amadeus.

What does Travelport GDS do?

It’s perhaps most accurate to say that it’s a company that owns and runs three separate GDS platforms – Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan – which it acquired at various points throughout its history. These platforms still exist as separate entities but are overseen by Travelport.

In this guide we’ll look at Travelport through the lens of a hotel looking to learn more about GDSs, how they work, and how hotels can capitalise on the distribution opportunity via connections such as SiteMinder.

Why hotels should be aware of Travelport GDS

Travelport offers a couple of unique differentiators that can make it valuable for hotels looking to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a GDS.

Latest initiatives and financial milestones

Travelport has made significant investments in innovation and technical infrastructure. This demonstrates the company’s commitment to staying at the leading edge of a very competitive GDS market, ensuring a secure, robust and future-ready platform.

Advancements in modern retailing and New Distribution Capability (NDC) solutions

NDC is a technology standard that modernises how travel products and services are distributed and purchased. It lets you interact with travel agents through a richer, more dynamic interface, and allows for personalised offers, real-time inventory updates, and greater flexibility in packaging up your hotel services.

Gain access to every major GDS network with SiteMinder

With the help of SiteMinder, you can connect your hotel to all the industry’s major GDS vendors – Travelport, Sabre and Amadeus – to generate more visibility, bookings and revenue than ever before.

Learn more

Travelport GDS frequently asked questions

New to Travelport GDS? Let’s answer some quick-fire questions to give you a sense of what this GDS company is all about.

Who owns Travelport GDS?

In 2019 ownership of Travelport went from public to private, when it was acquired by Siris Capital Group and Evergreen Coast Capital for $4.4 billion.

What is the history of Travelport GDS?

Travelport GDS’s history began in 2001, when the company was formed by Cendant Corporation after it acquired Galileo GDS and CheapTickets. A wealth of acquisitions followed in the subsequent years, most notably Worldspan in 2007.

After an IPO in 2014, Travelport became a publicly traded company, but as mentioned above, it returned to private hands in 2019.

What is the market share of Travelport GDS?

Travelport’s GDS market share sits at around 22%, after Amadeus at 40% (the market leader in Europe) and Sabre at 35% (the leader in the US and Asia).

Who uses Travelport GDS software?

Through its three GDS platforms, Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan, Travelport is used by a diverse range of travel agents to access and book services from providers such as hotels or airlines.. Galileo is more hotel-centric, while Worldspan and Apollo have historically focused more on airlines.

What does Travelport GDS do for hotels?

As a leading GDS vendor, Travelport operates a large online network by which hotels can be found and booked by global travel agencies. The GDS can be a game-changing channel for hotel groups and chains that are looking to compete globally and expand their reach.

What makes Travelport stand out? Travelport GDS connects with a vast network of 68,000 travel agencies across the globe, equating to over 250,000 individual agents. This extensive reach can significantly increase your hotel’s visibility in international markets.

Advanced personalisation and retailing tools

With its modern retailing and NDC capabilities, Travelport makes it easy for your hotel to offer personalised room rates, promotions and bundled packages. This allows you to more precisely target specific travel segments, such as luxury, corporate or group travellers.

Seamless integration with distribution channels

Travelport’s platform is available to connect to by the industry’s leading distributors and property management systems. This ensures real-time updates on room availability, pricing and bookings across all channels, helping hotels maximise revenue and minimise double bookings.

“We used to have to block a few rooms in the busy season to make sure that there were no double bookings. Thanks to SiteMinder, I can sell every last room without worrying about this because it automatically rejects new bookings once the rooms are sold out.”

Tini Diekmann,

Sales and Revenue Manager

Hotel Oderberger Berlin

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How Travelport GDS works with a hotel’s tech stack

A lot of hotels are hesitant to add yet another distribution channel on top of what might already be a large pile.

But adding the GDS to your strategy isn’t any extra work if you’re already investing in a cutting-edge tech stack. For instance, a platform like SiteMinder, with a superior channel manager and seamless PMS integrations, much of the maintenance and admin can be automated. You can update pricing and availability across all your channels in a few clicks, and new bookings are automatically loaded into the relevant systems.

SiteMinder GDS seamlessly connects all major GDSs – not just Travelport, but Sabre and Amadeus too – into your tech stack, allowing information to flow freely between all your platforms and tools, opening up endless opportunities for automation.

Sabre is a travel distribution company that utilises the GDS to allow travel agents and corporations to search, book and manage reservations for flights, hotels and car rentals.

What does Sabre GDS stand for? The name is actually one long acronym: Sabre stands for “Semi-Automated Business Research Environment”, and GDS stands for “Global Distribution System”. Created back in the 1950s, the GDS was the first technology of its kind.

What does Sabre GDS do?

Sabre uses the global distribution system (GDS) – a key hotel distribution channel – to connect travel agents with travel service providers such as airlines, hotels, or car rental companies.

Sabre allows GDS users real-time access to travel inventory, so they can efficiently search, compare and book travel services for their clients. By utilising large amounts of travel data, it streamlines the booking process and allows both agents and hotels to work more efficiently.

In this blog we’ll explore how hotels can capitalise on the opportunities that the GDS and a vendor like Sabre represent.

The impact of Sabre GDS for hotels

Having visibility on the Sabre GDS marketplace via a connectivity partner such as SiteMinder will help you register on the radar of 400,000 travel agencies in 160 different countries. These agencies serve millions of traveller clients looking for accommodation and travel packages.

A presence on the GDS can earn you more bookings and drive more revenue. It also does this in the most efficient of ways, because travel agents tend to be easier and more efficient to deal with than individual guests – they ask fewer questions, and complete the bookings themselves.

It also grants your hotel access to the valuable corporate travel sector, which predominantly uses GDS platforms like Sabre to make a booking. The guests won through this channel also tend to spend more, stay longer and are more likely to book mid-week.

Gain easy access to the GDS with SiteMinder

With the help of SiteMinder, you can connect your hotel seamlessly to all the main GDS vendors to generate more visibility, bookings and revenue than ever before.

Learn more

History and development of Sabre GDS

The history of Sabre began in the 1950s, when the bookings team at American Airlines was struggling to keep up with fast-increasing passenger volumes. The process was totally manual, and it would take an average of 90 minutes for a worker to book a single seat.

While an electromechanical computer was introduced in 1952, a year later, after a chance meeting between an IBM salesperson and the president of American Airlines, the idea for a more automated system came about.

Sabre GDS finally became operational in 1960. It was initially used exclusively within American Airlines, but in 1976 access was granted to travel agents too, leading to the GDS marketplace used by travel professionals and service providers today.

Is Sabre GDS better than Amadeus GDS?

Both Sabre and Amadeus have a strong GDS network, allowing the inventory of hotels to be found and booked by thousands of travel agencies worldwide.

With SiteMinder GDS however, you’ll have a seamless distribution experience that includes Sabre and Amadeus, including being able to manage the GDS channel alongside all other distribution channels such as OTAs.

How to take advantage of the Sabre GDS platform

There are a few key steps involved in making the most of Sabre and other GDS companies.

Step 1: Access the GDS

To get a simple experience while also maximising your exposure, you can use an intermediary like SiteMinder GDS (which can also connect you to Amadeus and Travelport). At registration you’ll be assigned a unique identifier – such as a Chain Code – for your property.

Step 2: Configure property profiles and inventory

Load your listing information into SiteMinder’s system: your room types, amenities, rates and policies. You can upload and manage real-time inventory across multiple properties to ensure that availability and pricing are consistent.

Step 3: Optimise rate and channel management

Use SiteMinder to synchronise rates across the GDS and all of your other distribution channels. Use dynamic pricing strategies to stay competitive and maximise your bookings and revenue.

Step 4: Monitor booking trends and performance

Use the detailed analytics and reporting functionalities of SiteMinder to monitor the performance of your hotel and identify trends. Use these insights to adjust your marketing and pricing strategies for better results.

“SiteMinder has also improved their solutions by providing business analytic tools. It works effectively and efficiently, and when market demand fluctuates we are able to change our pricing strategy in a timely manner, to optimise the business opportunity.”

Annie Hong,

Revenue and Reservations Manager

The RuMa Hotel and Residences

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Benefits of using Sabre GDS for groups and chains

Being visible to travel bookers on the Sabre GDS marketplace can be particularly valuable for hotel groups and chains, as it can be an efficient way to fill your rooms, especially during mid-week and low season lulls, thanks to its popularity with the corporate travel segment.

The benefits that can come from being distributed on Sabre GDS include:

Drive revenue with analytics

You’ll have a valuable source of pricing and booking data via your channel manager. You can use it to inform your dynamic pricing strategies, and to identify new revenue opportunities, such as demographics that you may not have identified or targeted before. You can also leverage promotional tools and offer special rates to attract corporate and group bookings

Scale to reach new markets

The ‘G’ in GDS stands for global for a reason, and with hundreds of thousands of users spread across 160 different countries, Sabre caters to a truly global audience, allowing your hotel group or chain to reach people from around the world, or more effectively enter new geographic markets.

Streamline operations through seamless integration

By managing GDS connections all from place and integrating them with your property management system (PMS) using SiteMinder, you can update your pricing and availability across all your distribution channels in real time, while streamlining and simplifying your internal operations.

A bed bank is a business-to-business (B2B) travel provider that connects hotels with travel distributors, such as online travel agencies (OTAs) and tour operators. Serving as intermediaries in the travel industry, bed banks enable hotels to increase occupancy without directly managing complex distribution channels.

By collaborating with bed banks, hotels gain access to international markets and diverse travel audiences. For instance, a hotel in Australia might use a bed bank to market rooms to European travel agents, significantly expanding its global reach without the need for direct international marketing.

How does the concept of a bed bank work?

Bed banks operate by purchasing large room allotments from hotels at a discounted bulk rate. These rooms are then resold to various travel distributors, such as OTAs, tour operators, and travel agents, who then offer them to end consumers. This model helps hotels fill rooms that might otherwise remain vacant, thereby improving overall occupancy rates without needing extensive marketing efforts or partnerships with multiple distributors.

In the B2B travel sector, bed banks play a pivotal role by serving as a bridge between hotels and distributors, enabling efficient room inventory management and broader market reach. Bed banks negotiate contracts with hotels for specific room blocks, ensuring a steady supply for distributors. In turn, distributors benefit from pre-negotiated rates and availability, which they can offer to their clients.

For example, a medium-sized hotel in a tourist-heavy region might partner with a global bed bank to secure exposure across multiple international markets. The bed bank distributes the hotel’s inventory to various OTAs and travel agents worldwide, attracting guests who might not have found the hotel through direct channels.

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about bed banks, including how you can get connected to them and grow your hotel’s revenue.

Why should hotels use the biggest bed banks?

Partnering with well-established bed banks, such as Hotelbeds, can offer significant advantages for hotels seeking to expand their market reach. Large bed banks have extensive global networks and established relationships with major travel distributors, making it easier for hotels to connect with a broader audience.

In addition to expanding visibility, partnering with major bed banks helps hotels tap into niche markets, such as corporate travel and specialised tour operators. By diversifying their distribution channels, hotels can reduce dependency on direct bookings and ensure a steady stream of revenue.

Tap into new distribution opportunities

With SiteMinder, you can easily automate room inventory and rate updates from your preferred bed bank operators to your PMS, boosting your efficiency and revenue.

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Benefits of partnering with a global bed bank

Partnering with a global bed bank can unlock significant growth opportunities for hotels by providing broader market access and enhanced revenue potential. Below are some key benefits to consider:

1. Expand your hotel’s visibility and reach niche markets

Partnering with a global bed bank opens doors to untapped international markets and niche audiences. Hotels can gain exposure on platforms that cater to specific types of travellers, such as luxury vacationers or adventure tourists, without the need for direct marketing efforts.

2. Increase bookings and overall hotel revenue

Bed banks help your hotel fill unsold inventory, especially during low seasons. By offering rooms to a wider audience through various travel distributors, hotels can maintain higher occupancy rates year-round and increase overall revenue.

Bed bank list: Who are the major hotel bed banks?

Several key players dominate the bed bank industry, each offering unique services and benefits for hotel partners. Below is a list of some of the leading bed banks:

• Hotelbeds. Hotelbeds is one of the largest and most prominent bed banks, providing access to a global network of travel distributors. Their platform offers advanced tools for inventory management and dynamic pricing.
• WebBeds. WebBeds is known for its extensive reach and competitive commission structures. They cater to a wide range of travel distributors, from OTAs to offline travel agencies.
• Travco. Travco specialises in providing hotels with access to international tour operators and wholesalers, ensuring broad market coverage.
• Bonotel. Bonotel focuses on luxury and boutique hotels, offering tailored services for properties aiming to attract high-end travelers.
• HotelsPro. HotelsPro offers a robust platform for managing room allotments and pricing, with a focus on real-time availability and seamless integration.

Is Hotelbeds a Bed Bank?

Yes, Hotelbeds is one of the most established bed banks in the industry, offering extensive distribution networks and advanced technology solutions for hotels.

Is Expedia a Bed Bank?

No, Expedia is not a traditional bed bank. While it operates as an online travel agency, it collaborates with bed banks to source hotel inventory.

“SiteMinder’s channel manager has streamlined our bookings and inventory management. It’s especially improved efficiency, since it allows us to manage four properties at once by eliminating manual updates.”

Alexandra Rolton,

Strategic Sales & Key Account Manager

Brady Hotels & Apartments

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Tips to maximise the purpose of a bed bank for hotels

1. Assess the conditions of bed bank partnerships

Before signing a contract with a bed bank, you must carefully evaluate the terms and conditions, including commission rates, payment schedules, and cancellation policies. This varies from bed bank to bed bank significantly, so check the fine print.

2. Balance bed bank bookings with direct and other sources

While bed banks can significantly boost occupancy, over-reliance on third-party distributors may affect profitability. You should aim for a balanced mix of direct bookings and third-party partnerships – though obviously with direct bookings, you keep more of your revenue.

3. Track and measure bed bank performance

Using performance metrics, such as revenue per available room (RevPAR) and booking lead time, can help you assess the effectiveness of their bed bank partnerships and make data-driven decisions on whether to remain partnered or seek solutions elsewhere.

4. Connect bed banks with existing tech stack

Integrating bed banks with property management systems (PMS) and channel managers ensures seamless updates of room rates and availability, reducing manual workload and minimising errors.

Amadeus GDS is one of the hospitality industry’s most popular global distribution system vendors. It provides a platform for hotels and travel companies to advertise their offerings to a broad marketplace that is accessed by travel agents. With connections to 400+ airlines and 50+ rail, cruise and ferry operators, Amadeus is a gateway to new revenue opportunities.

What is Amadeus GDS used for?

Amadeus GDS is used for tapping into a huge network where travel supply and demand intersect. For hotels, it’s a chance to have their inventory accessed by thousands of traditional travel agents, tour operators, or package sellers. 

Who owns Amadeus GDS? 

Amadeus GDS is owned by the Amadeus IT Group. They are headquartered in Madrid, Spain, while the central database is located in Germany. How old is Amadeus GDS? Well, the company was founded in 1987 and became the industry’s number one global distributor of travel inventory by 1998.

How many hotels are available via Amadeus GDS?

Amadeus positions itself as having more than one million hotel properties connected to its travel platform. It also states that it generates over 450 million bookings per year.

This blog will take a deep-dive into the importance of Amadeus for your hotel, including what it can achieve and how you can make the most of it as part of your distribution and revenue strategies.

Why is a GDS provider like Amadeus important?

GDS’ vendors like Amadeus provide an important way for large hotels or groups to reach a previously out of reach number of travellers around the world. 

The GDS is particularly useful for connecting with corporate travel programs and winning business transient bookings. High-value guests and corporations will engage companies connected to the GDS to book not only accommodation but sometimes entire travel packages. 

On top of this is the incentive of meetings and events being booked at your hotel, since this is a large part of the corporate travel market, and becoming a preferred hotel for this type of business will lead to financial stability.

Ultimately, being accessible on the GDS via Amadeus’ marketplace is a powerful way to diversify your distribution and add to your strategy for generating revenue and maximising revenue. Let’s take a look at the full range of benefits in the next section.

Succeed easily on the GDS with the best distribution solution

Make the most of global distribution systems with SiteMinder’s leading hotel platform.

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Amadeus GDS meaning for hotel distribution and revenue management

By utilising a connectivity partner like SiteMinder to have a presence on Amadeus and other GDS vendors, your hotel can enjoy a significant boost to both bookings and profit.

A successful strategy depends on diversification, value-added sales, and an ability to capitalise on the right opportunities at the right time.

With a channel like the GDS you’ll see at least five key outcomes:

• Access to high-value travellers that includes those who book mid-week and spend more: This will allow you to combat traditional seasonality and help you maximise average daily rate (ADR) as well as boost the profit from every individual booking.

• The opportunity to negotiate for exclusive rates and agreements: This will help deliver you certainty around your future occupancy and revenue, giving you more accurate forecasts and a strong foundation from which you can optimise your revenue management strategy.

• A chance to become a preferred hotel partner with global businesses: This brings the advantage of a regular flow of bookings that you can rely on yearly or even monthly, and allow you to maximise the value of your loyalty program too.

• The ability to host more meetings and events: This will drive up your total revenue, improving your cash flow and potentially boosting your profit if you can minimise your expenses. It’s also a good way to improve your hotel’s overall reputation.
• Visibility from leading travel retailers such as travel agents, tour operators, airlines, cruise lines, and more: This gives you global exposure to virtually every corner of the globe, allowing you to connect with guests you would otherwise never be able to reach.

Amadeus GDS cost, software integration, and training

Some key details that will be important to know if you’re planning to utilise Amadeus at your hotel are things like how much it will cost you, what kind of integration is needed with your software, and whether training, courses, or certification will be required and/or provided.

Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of all of these.

Cost

How much does Amadeus GDS cost? Unfortunately, we can’t provide a definitive cost for using Amadeus at your hotel. What you pay to use the service will depend on how you connect to the GDS. Research is always important, so you gain an understanding of what will be the best investment for your property. If you’re interested in how SiteMinder can help you get connected, enquire now.

Software integration

Typically, you’ll need property management system and channel manager integration to allow your real-time rates and availability to be seamlessly communicated to the GDS.

A connection provider like SiteMinder can really help make this whole process painless, thanks to its superior connectivity and partner ecosystem.

Training

If you’re using a connectivity partner, you won’t need to be trained on Amadeus, but rather the platform you have invested in to manage your distribution, In the case of SiteMinder, full onboarding and support is provided to customers.

“The channel manager has been invaluable as we expanded from three to 11 channels. It made the process seamless.”

Ahmad Zainal Arifin,

Revenue & Front Office Manager

Grün Resorts

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How to choose between Amadeus GDS pricing and other options

The fact is that you don’t have to choose at all. Instead, you can connect multiple GDS channels at once through a single connection.

How? With SiteMinder GDS, one platform to seamlessly connect and manage all leading GDS vendors. Let us tell you more…

Event-driven travel is undeniably booming, with its influence seen in hotel occupancy and room rates. As Allied Market Research reports, the global events industry is projected to reach US$2 trillion by 2032 – nearly doubling its 2019 size of US$1.1 trillion – suggesting that events are set to become an even more important revenue source for the hospitality industry.

While events have long been a reliable driver of hotel bookings, their growing importance in the hospitality industry is now being driven by shifting dynamics of supply and demand. As Fabian Bartnick, Founder of revenue management solutions Infinito and PerfectCheck, points out: “Everybody is now looking to monetise events … and someone is controlling their supply.” In other words, key players – be it governments, airlines or event organisers – now play a crucial role in deciding when, where and how events happen and are made available, often creating scarcity amid growing demand.

Citing the Singapore leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as an example of controlled scarcity, Bartnick explains how the local government effectively controlled the supply of Swift’s concert in Southeast Asia by securing an exclusive contract with the artist, creating a unique market where the event’s limited availability enabled other business sectors to charge higher prices.

“You and I might think $700 for a ticket is crazy,” says Bartnick. “But if you are a Swifty living in Thailand or the Philippines and have the chance to see her in your backyard, you’re going. So, the entire spectrum of revenue management that is happening [for events] has widened from just ticket sales. Airlines and hotels have capitalised on the trend.”

Changing attitudes to travel

The rise of event travel is also closely linked to the influx of travellers arriving en masse at these events, as seen with Swift’s tour. Bartnick notes that this shift points to a deeper change in attitudes towards travel, where consumers are increasingly prioritising life-enriching experiences.

“After Covid, there was a fundamental shift in what it actually means to have a certain kind of freedom, to have a certain ability to travel, see the world and do something,” he explains.

Additionally, with travel becoming more accessible, more people are choosing to travel for events simply because they now can. Pablo Torres, hospitality consultant and founder of Torres Consulting, explains: “It’s not just that more events are happening. It’s also because more people can now afford to attend them.”

Maximising demand through dynamic pricing

The control of event supply by a handful of key players, combined with a public more eager to travel than ever, has pushed hotels to turn to technology to capture this demand effectively. Revenue management solutions offering market intelligence have been indispensable, and the need is clear; hotels must rely on tools that allow them to keep track of demand round-the-clock, especially for events attracting a more global audience.

“No human, regardless of their experience or skill, can think faster than a machine,” says Torres. “There are tools on the market that already show, for example, the increase in searches and flights to your destination, demand for bookings and the events you might have in your city. You could do that manually and spend the entire day compiling the information, or you can press a button and have a dashboard on your screen and then decide.”

With this information, innovations in hotel tech have given properties the confidence to venture into dynamic pricing, a strategy in which hotels adjust room rates daily or within the day based on real-time demand, allowing them to maximise occupancy and revenue during events. This strategy has become ubiquitous across industries – from airlines to delivery apps – and, as Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist and Development Officer at IDeaS, suggests, it’s high time that hotel revenue managers embrace it fully, now that consumers are more familiar with the concept. Indeed, SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2025 indicates that more than 6-in-10 travellers globally agree that hotels should be able to adjust their rates during peak demand periods.

“Depending on the type of hotel, you could see measurable revenue uplift just by adopting dynamic pricing,” Kohlmayr explains. “From a consumer standpoint, dynamic pricing allows you to pay a lower rate when demand is low, [in the same way] that you accept paying a higher rate when there is high demand. Consumers have been educated on that and they understand that [this strategy] happens in businesses all over the world.”

Avoiding the pitfalls of price gouging

But despite the revenue-generating advantages that dynamic pricing offers, it often attracts scrutiny. Certain ride-sharing services have come under fire for price surges during public emergencies, while ticketing companies have faced backlash for dramatically inflating prices in response to high-demand events in recent months. These instances have caused the line between fair price adjustments and unethical price gouging to blur.

Shannon Knapp, Founder and Director of hotel consultancy SKNapp Consulting, says: “Dynamic pricing is getting an unfair bad rap. A fundamental flaw in retail industry applications of dynamic pricing or demand-based pricing is when they don’t institute a cap or a ‘ceiling’ price point the way we do in hotels, so as to prevent prices shooting up to eleventy jillion dollars when Taylor Swift or Oasis announces dates. The best hotel revenue management systems have configurable ceiling settings to prevent this.”

Knapp adds: “When it comes to dynamic pricing, revenue managers need to remember: price gouging is exploitative and takes advantage of disadvantage, especially during crises. Whereas price optimisation adjusts rates in response to high-demand entertainment events with a ceiling rate configured to ensure responsible application.”

This highlights the need for a thoughtful and data-based approach to pricing, rather than simply reacting to fluctuating demand. Price adjustments should not only respond to market conditions but also consider how guests perceive the fairness and value of the rates offered. In short, dynamic pricing isn’t just about setting prices.

“Unfortunately, the skill set that we have in the industry thinks that dynamic pricing is like playing yo-yo by letting prices go up and down,” shares Bartnick. “Dynamic pricing is a tactical lever with many facets at play. We need to understand how our rates impact pricing power, and our sales and marketing efforts.”

Value-driven strategy

Bartnick adds that the ‘lifetime value of a customer’ must also be factored in when carrying out dynamic pricing for events, keeping in mind loyal, repeat customers and even guests from account-based clients. Balancing dynamic pricing for event customers with these long-term relationships allows hotels to capture immediate revenue without risking future business from high-value guests.

Importantly, at the core of dynamic pricing is the value hotels can offer to guests beyond the room. While revenue managers may have the flexibility to adjust their rates once significant demand from events is detected, their pricing strategies should be paired with meaningful offerings that provide real value for money.

Torres explains, “If your only offer is the same room that cost 20 times less the day before, most customers will find it unfair. Why don’t you include added value? You can create a package with the concert organisers, include transfers to the venue where the event is taking place or include breakfast. Add value in your pricing that guests will find meaningful, so they feel they’re getting a fair price.”

Agility at a time of uncertainty

The rise of event travel signals a future that will only see more demand-driving trends impacting hotels, now that “the macroeconomic factors for hospitality and tourism are very positive”, Kohlmayr points out. “There are a hundred million people every year that are entering the middle class. If you’re in the hotel business, you have to think about the longer term opportunities to tap into that.” This aligns with findings from SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2025, which reveals that 72% of travellers globally will be travelling internationally in 2025, and that almost all (92%) plan to spend at least the same amount or more on their accommodation.

Nonetheless, as travel becomes even more dynamic, the industry is expected to operate in an increasingly uncertain environment. In this regard, Bartnick emphasises that revenue managers have to be more comfortable with the uncertainty brought by emerging travel trends.

And, it all starts with agility.

“Agility is the name of the game. We now have a game where we don’t really know who’s playing or what the rules are. Airlines have become really good at controlling supply of flights, much like how the Singaporean Government managed to control Taylor Swift’s tour location. In many instances, hotels will be at the receiving end of these shifts. Some factors are outside your power, but if they happen to be coming your way, then you have to be fast enough to monetise,” he says. 

Revenue managers must then be more reflective about their strategies, particularly for unpredictable, high-demand events. Rather than relying solely on historical data or going by a rigid ‘wait and see’ approach, changing pricing decisions when it’s too late, they need to set expectations even before they set their revenue strategies and regularly re-evaluate their decisions.

“We’re not looking at cause and effect at the moment when setting dynamic pricing strategies,” notes Bartnick. “We don’t think ahead – that if I throw a ball at a certain velocity, it’ll come back in a specific spot.”

He adds, “That’s why we need to do [away with] that fundamental, rigid mindset in revenue management and become more agile, more experimental. Nothing is created in the comfort zone. Revenue management itself is a field of experimentation.”

The CAP Hospitality Initiative is a strategic program launched by the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism to enhance the country’s tourism accommodations and infrastructure. This initiative aims to improve service quality, upgrade infrastructure, and adopt sustainable practices within the hospitality industry in Morocco, & it includes comprehensive training programs for hospitality staff, encouraging the adoption of best practices and advanced technologies to improve guest experiences.

What are the objectives of the CAP Hospitality Initiative?

There are four main objectives of the initiative, which are:

• Infrastructure Improvement: The initiative focuses on renovating and modernizing existing hotels and developing new, eco-friendly lodging options. This is part of Morocco’s broader strategy to align its accommodations with international standards.
• Financial Support: The program offers financial assistance, including loans of up to 100 million dirhams, to finance the renovation of hotel infrastructure. The Moroccan government supports this by covering interest costs, aiming to modernize 25,000 rooms with an expected investment of 4 billion dirhams.
• Sustainability Focus: By emphasizing sustainability, the initiative seeks to attract environmentally conscious travelers and position Morocco as a leader in sustainable tourism. Hotels must meet specific environmental standards and implement energy efficiency improvements.
• Support for Major Events: The CAP Hospitality Initiative also supports Morocco’s bid to host major international sporting events like the African Cup of Nations 2025 and the World Cup 2030 by ensuring high-quality tourist accommodations.

When did the initiative launch?

The CAP Hospitality Initiative launched on July 15, 2024, with the following key phases:

• Initial Application Period: Applications are processed on a rolling basis starting July 15, 2024
• Project Implementation: Hotels have up to 24 months to complete approved renovations
• Target Completion: The initiative aims to modernize 25,000 rooms by 2026

Eligibility and Application Process

The eligibility requirements for the loans are as follows:

1. Classification: Must be a Classified Tourist Accommodation Establishment (EHTC)
2. Renovation Status: No major renovations in the last five years
3. Project Scope: Must include approved renovation, upgrading, furniture acquisition, or energy efficiency programs
4. Financial Standing: Must demonstrate sound financial management and ability to provide 20% contribution

Required Documentation

The documentation required for the loan are as follows:

• Completed digital application form
• Detailed renovation plans and budgets
• Environmental impact assessment
• Financial statements for the past 3 years
• Proof of classification status
• Energy audit results
• Project timeline and implementation plan

Application Evaluation Process

Once you’ve completed the application, below are the next steps:

• Initial review: 2-3 weeks
• Technical evaluation: 4-6 weeks
• Financial assessment: 2-3 weeks
• Final decision: Within 3 months of submission
• Appeals process available within 30 days of decision

More information on the initiative can be found here 

IoT in hospitality is a technology system that uses the internet to connect hotel and guest devices, creating a digital ecosystem that can enhance hotel efficiency and improve guest experiences.

‘IoT’ stands for the internet of things, where ‘things’ can refer to any device that connects to the internet: smartphones, HVAC systems, security cameras, smart locks, sensors and more.

What is the impact of IoT in hospitality?

IoT in hospitality industry businesses, and specifically IoT in hotels, can have a huge impact on hotel efficiency and profitability. It can also seriously enhance the guest experience.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at IoT in travel and hospitality: what it means to be an IoT hotel, and what you and your guests stand to gain from it.

How IoT helps hospitality

Hotel IoT generates a huge amount of data about your business and your guests. Savvy hoteliers can use this information to better understand their business and their guests, and generate insights regarding issues to solve and opportunities to capitalise on.

How does the internet of things influence the experience of the customers in the hotels? It allows a hotel to provide ultra-personalised experiences. An example: a guest checks into a smart room and sets the thermostat to their preferred temperature and dims the lights to their preferred brightness. The smart room remembers these settings, and automatically sets them as the default every time the guest stays in the future.

Why should independent hotels and groups invest in IoT technology?

IoT technology is increasingly being implemented in hotels. The trend is clear – IoT hospitality systems are the future, if not the present.

Beyond the perks that IoT systems offer, IoT-fuelled guest experiences are also fast becoming less a novelty, and more an expectation for hotel guests. Hotels that don’t offer these experiences could soon be the odd ones out.

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What are the benefits of IoT in the hospitality industry?

The IoT concept is rather abstract, and can be hard to wrap your head around. So what are the real-world benefits that a hotel can expect from an investment in IoT technology?

• The ability to deliver a more personalised guest experience.
• Improved energy efficiency through smart HVAC and lighting systems.
• Greater operational efficiency through streamlined, automated internal processes.
• Significantly reducing equipment repair and replacement costs through predictive maintenance.
• Enhanced security from smart locks and real-time surveillance systems.
• Better business decision-making powered by data.
• Contactless and convenient guest interactions (mobile check-in/check-out, smartphone room access). 

How can IoT in hospitality grow your hotel business?

Knowledge is power. IoT transforms your business into an information generating machine, and the answers to almost any business question you care to ask can be found within the data: what your guests are looking for in their perfect stay, how to deliver on those desires, how to optimise operational efficiency and resource distribution, and more.

Examples of IoT in hospitality

What exactly do IoT solutions for hotels look like? Here are a handful of the most popular IoT trends in hospitality that your hotel can begin implementing right now.

Smart rooms and automation

Smart rooms are hotel rooms fitted with an array of internet-connected devices: air conditioners, lighting systems, TVs and tablets, smart mirrors, voice assistant technologies and more.

These devices allow guests to adjust the in-room experience to their tastes, and allow them to ask questions and order room service quickly and easily.

Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance tools use sensors to track the performance of key hotel systems, such as HVAC, solar arrays and water heaters, and alert you if any early signs of potential issues are detected.

This can result in huge cost savings, both through the prevention of costly equipment failures and the optimisation of hotel resources.

Keyless entry systems

From digital key cards to locks that allow guests to gain access using their own smartphones, smart keyless entry systems can simultaneously enhance the guest experience and the security of your hotel.

“We were aided by SiteMinder because they truly brought about a ‘revolution’ for our property. All tasks are integrated between our website, booking page, and property management system - effective handling of booking channels, thereby increasing revenue, and most importantly, improving our customer experience.”

Viki Edy Priyatna,

E-Business & Reservations Manager

Qunci Villas

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How is IoT used in hospitality? Practical applications for hotels

Let’s get practical. How can you enhance your hotel through IoT? Examples include:

Enhancing guest experiences through IoT

Personalise guest stays, and give guests the power to personalise their own stays, by offering smart room controls, voice assistants and services informed by data on the guest’s preferences.

Improving security and data privacy with IoT

Smart locks and surveillance systems can enhance on-site security, although you need to ensure any internet-connected system are implemented alongside robust data protection measures.

Scaling IoT solutions for hotel chains

Multi-site hotels stand to benefit from the scalability of IoT, as the more data you can collect, the more optimised you can make your operations and the more personalised you can make your experiences.

Balancing cost and scalability when implementing IoT

Not sure which IoT technologies you want to implement? Start small and test out different options, gradually building out an ecosystem that aligns with the wants and needs of both you and your guests.

A key part of implementing any new technology or system is to ensure it integrates with those you already have. Enter SiteMinder, the ultimate hotel platform for IoT integrations.

A hotel key card is a credit card-sized access and security tool that lets guests into their rooms and other hotel facilities.

Also called a hotel room card, hotel card key or room key card, this technology is the modern version of a hotel room key – more versatile, easier to use, and cheaper to replace.

In this guide we’ll explore all there is to know about key cards for hotels: different hotel room card key systems, how to use key cards in hotels, and why the best hotels are choosing to implement this technology.

Why hotels use key cards instead of keys

There are a number of reasons for hotels to implement key card systems instead of traditional, analogue, key systems:

• Enhanced security: Key cards only grant guests access to specific areas of your hotel. And if a key card is lost, you don’t have to change any locks.
• Streamlined operations: Keyless entry simplifies check-in – no more searching through a cabinet full of keys.
• Cost savings: Greater operational efficiency and fewer security issues translate to real cost savings.
• A seamless guest experience: Guests enjoy faster check-in and quick, automated,  entry into permitted areas.
• Greater flexibility: You can set up your key cards to grant entry into whatever areas you choose, and can customise settings for individual guests.

What information is stored in a hotel room key card?

Hotel room key cards typically store the following data:

• Room number (or an encrypted reference to it)
• Check-in and check-out dates
• Guest access permissions (e.g. room, gym, pool)
• A unique code linked to the hotel’s security system

It’s important to note that hotel key cards don’t store any personal or confidential information, such as guest details, credit card details or security system information.

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3 main types of hotel key card systems

Electronic key cards in hotels are powered by three main technologies: magnetic strip, RFID and NFC. Your chosen hotel key card design or type will depend on your specific needs, wants and situation.

1. Magnetic strip hotel key card

The original key card technology, magnetic strip cards work by being swiped through a card reader. The strips can be prone to wear though, and can demagnetise over time. This is also the least secure option, as data can be duplicated with the right hotel key card maker or hotel key card machine.

2. RFID hotel key card

Radio frequency identification (RFID) cards use radio waves to communicate with readers without physical contact, making them a more durable and reliable option. The ability to encrypt data and stop unauthorised duplication also makes RFID a relatively secure option.

3. NFC hotel key card

Near field communication (NFC) is a type of enhanced RFID technology that allows for two-way communication – it’s the technology that allows you to pay for a coffee with a digital wallet. NFC technology is the most secure option, and can do away with key cards altogether, as some systems allow guests to use their own phones as keys.

What is the security on a hotel key card – how can you tell whether your hotel keys are NFC or RFID? There’s no real way to tell which technology a card uses beyond asking the hotel, unless you can use your phone as a key, in which case it’s NFC.

What are the advantages of electronic key cards in hotels?

As mentioned above, by implementing key cards hotels can enhance their security, internal operations, and the guest experience.

Are hotel key cards reused?

Yes, hotel key cards are reused, but the information on the card is generally wiped at checkout and reloaded at check-in. Hotel key card holders can make cards last longer.

Can hotel key cards go in water?

Yes, for the most part hotel key cards are waterproof, and even paper-based hotel key cards can get wet if they’re kept in waterproof hotel key card sleeves.

How long do hotel key cards last?

The lifespan of hotel key cards can vary dramatically, particularly given they’re more likely to be lost than to wear out. RFID and NFC cards last longer than magnetic strip cards, and the use of hotel key card envelopes can extend the life of all card types.

“SiteMinder’s channel manager has streamlined our bookings and inventory management. It’s especially improved efficiency, since it allows us to manage four properties at once by eliminating manual updates.”

Alexandra Rolton,

Strategic Sales & Key Account Manager

Brady Hotels & Apartments

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How do hotel key cards work?

Generally a hotel will encode room number, access permission and date information onto a key card at check-in, using a data system connected to the hotel management software. This information is then erased at check-out

Scale key card systems across multiple properties

If you have multiple properties, you want to ensure that you offer a consistent guest experience, so once you’ve proven the key card system at one site, implement it across all of your properties.

Enhance guest experiences with hotel key cards

Personalise the access that a guest has to on-site amenities. Brand your key cards to maximise your exposure. Use NFC technology to interact with your guests through their phones.

Address operational challenges

A reliance on technology means a reliance on electricity – so what happens when the power goes out? Train your staff on your backup plans in cases of outages and malfunctions.

Balance cost, scalability and sustainability

Consider the following when choosing your preferred key card solution:

• Cost: Consider upfront costs, ongoing costs, and the potential savings that a high-end system could generate.
• Functionality: What system offers all the functionality you need, or you may need in the future? NFC technology could prove a worthwhile investment.

• Scalability: Consider how easy each system is to scale across multiple sites.

• Sustainability: Explore environmentally friendly options like biodegradable and renewable key cards, particularly if your target market is eco-conscious.

Integrate hotel key cards with property management systems

You need to ensure your chosen key card system – whether OpenKey, Wieldy, or any other option – can be integrated into your current hotel tech stack, particularly your PMS.

And in SiteMinder, you have a hotel revenue and distribution platform that integrates seamlessly with the world’s most popular key card systems.

A unified inbox allows you to combine all of your communications into a single view. Typically referring to email, a unified inbox brings different accounts together so you can easily see where you have new messages and switch between accounts to send responses.

An example might be an instance where you want to view Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud in the same place, without the hassle of logging in and out constantly.

Some inboxes may even be designed specifically for accommodation businesses and be able to unify different types of communications such as email, sms, and messaging apps.

This blog will give you a full overview of unified inboxes and how to achieve a seamless messaging hub at your hotel, enhancing guest experience and efficiency in the process.

Why is it important for property management to have a unified inbox?

Your property management will be much improved with a unified inbox. A hotel is a busy place and a challenge to manage even at the best of times. You don’t want to spend valuable minutes on the frustrating task of checking too many accounts and apps to track guest messages and communications.

Not only will this bog down your efficiency, but it could result in you missing a vital piece of information or an important request. Ultimately, miscommunication can lead to an unsatisfactory guest experience and reduction in your reputation and revenue.

It doesn’t take much for some problems to snowball, so having a unified inbox is important for preventing these issues in the first place.

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The impact of a unified email inbox for hotels

Email is still a hugely popular way for guests to book their stay. It’s also very common that guests will use email to send you queries, requests, and feedback. Likewise, you can use email to provide guests with key information, offer upsells and extras, and request reviews.

A unified email inbox will help ensure that your hotel doesn’t miss any guest communications and can respond to queries in a timely manner. Nothing is more anxiety-inducing for a guest than to be left waiting, not knowing if their email was received or read.

When you consider that 3-in-4 customers say that a bad interaction with a business can ruin their day and 73% will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences, a unified email inbox will contribute to making sure your guest messaging strategy is airtight.

In the same way, a unified hub for SMS messaging can be just as powerful and effective for your hotel’s relationship with guests.

Complete benefits of an SMS messaging hub

An SMS messaging hub has benefits simply by existing. Knowing that 40% of customers want multiple options to communicate with a business, an SMS messaging hub gives your hotel’s guests an alternative to email where they can quickly send and receive messages for simple questions or requests.

In fact, these days many customers prefer to send a text message than call or send an email, since it’s fast and convenient – and they know they’ll be alerted as soon as there is a response without having to wait on the line or open up their email.

With an SMS messaging hub your hotel will be able to:

• Send messages in bulk to multiple recipients
• Track and analyse SMS messages in one place
• Send reminders and notifications
• Provide customer support
• Implement marketing campaigns
• Collect feedback

You might even be able to use text messaging internally at your hotel, to coordinate staffing, housekeeping, and department operations.

What to look for in a unified messaging hub solution

If you’re looking to create or implement a messaging hub solution at your hotel, it’s important to research carefully based on your specific requirements. For a hotel, it will be important to use a provider that can create a centralised location for all types of guest communications.

Here are some boxes you should be looking to tick:

Best unified inbox

Does the solution offer a best-in-class unified inbox by which you can manage all incoming and outgoing communications across email, SMS, messaging apps like WhatsApp, social media, and even distribution channels such as Airbnb?

Routing

Routing can be important if you want different messages to go to various different people, so the appropriate staff are handling specific queries.

Automation

Being able to pre-define responses for common queries and frequently asked questions will help streamline your communications and save a lot of time.

Templates  

Messaging templates for particular scenarios and message types will also help you become more efficient but also allow you to be more effective and execute strategies easier.

Reporting

You need detailed insights to know whether your communications are being received, read, and acted upon, as well as how positively or negatively customers feel about the service.

Integrations

Can the solution integrate with other systems you wish to use or that will complement the existing service?

Beyond this, it’s important that your solution provider gives you a user-friendly experience with adequate support and security against data leaks or compliance requirements.

By carefully evaluating these factors, you can select a messaging hub solution that empowers your hotel, improves customer satisfaction, and drives business growth.

“SiteMinder’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimizing my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. My association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform.”

Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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How to create a unified inbox using hotel tech

Across the hotel technology industry there are many solutions that will help you create a unified inbox or messaging hub at your property.

If generic business solutions or your chosen property management system are unable to fulfil all your needs, you can look at at using:

Hotel apps

There are hotel apps available for integration that are specifically focused on guest messaging and communication services. You can plug these into your existing tech stack to achieve your desired outcome.

Hotel experts

A whole ecosystem of hotel experts and consultants exists which you can use to find partners that will help you find and implement the best unified inbox solution for your hotel. There are plenty who specialise in websites and digital marketing which will be able to cater to your unique needs.

A hotel platform

A hotel platform will often provide a centralised control hub for all of your hotel’s operations. It may include features that focus on guest engagement and messaging, or provide seamless integrations to the industry’s leading solutions in the space.

The best hotel platforms will also give you easy two-way connectivity to your property management system and online distribution channels.

So how can a unified hotel platform deliver the necessary messaging hub capabilities that your business needs?

Pricing intelligence, also known as rate intelligence, is a way for hotels to optimise their pricing and profitability. It’s an essential part of a successful revenue management strategy and is implemented via the use of data and dynamic pricing tools.

Pricing intelligence relies on data such as market trends, real-time insights, local competitor rates, and customer behaviour patterns.

Hoteliers can use this data to quickly analyse conditions and make informed pricing decisions, to help drive more bookings and increase revenue.

This blog will cover everything you need to know about pricing intelligence and how to implement it at your hotel.

What is pricing intelligence software?

Pricing intelligence software is a tool that enables hoteliers to optimise their pricing strategies by improving efficiency and highlighting opportunities to increase revenue.

Pricing intelligence software makes it easy to track and analyse key market insights, allowing hoteliers to list their inventory at an optimal price – one that secures reservations for the maximum value possible.

It provides a great return on investment for hoteliers because it enables them to implement dynamic pricing – a crucial strategy for getting ahead of the competition and maximising the revenue from every individual booking.

Some ways your hotel will benefit from using pricing intelligence software include:

• Knowing the market demand for your hotel in advance
• Optimising your room rates
• Accelerating the decision-making process
• Saving time and effort on price monitoring
• Understanding where you stand with competitors

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Why is it important to use pricing intelligence tools?

Pricing intelligence tools are important to use if you want your hotel to remain competitive and profitable in a modern travel market.

They are vital for providing valuable data and in-depth analysis in an easily digestible way, which allows tactical decisions to be made accurately and quickly.

Here’s a list of eight important reasons for a hotel to be using pricing intelligence tools:

1.Understand the demand for your rooms

You can see at a glance when your hotel rooms are in highest demand, and when you typically experience less bookings. This information allows you to create a hotel room pricing strategy to maximise your profits year-round.

2. Don’t fall behind your competitors

Ultimately, the main purpose of a rate intelligence tool is to do just that — provide you with valuable information about what other local hotels are charging for their rooms. With this information on hand, you can make slight adjustments to your rates that may give you a competitive advantage in the market.

3. Accurate, instantaneous data

A pricing intelligence tool not only showcases the most recent information about room rates in the surrounding area, but also collects data and gives you the opportunity to generate reports. These reports will provide information about room rates and hotel room pricing trends that are taking place in your destination and across the industry.

4. Rate change notifications

Notifications serve as instant reminders when there are changing trends in the market. The best part is, you have the ability to determine your own rules for when you should be notified of these updates. This means your tool is going to work to the advantage of your specific property, allowing you to accommodate local demand and competition within your specific market.

5. Simplifies the forecasting process

Forecasting can be an overwhelming and cumbersome process, even for the most experienced hotel operator. Given this, you may opt to avoid forecasting for fear of making mistakes. With the right pricing tool however, long-range forecasting is much easier.

6. Information can be acted upon immediately

The figures you glean from your competitors will help you manage your yield as you can increase your average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) by comparing your live minimum/maximum rates against your competitors, based on length of stay (LOS). You can access this information daily or live on request, ensuring you can always hit your targets for the month or the quarter.

7. Revenue management is simplified

With specific solutions like SiteMinder’s Insights and Dynamic Revenue Plus, the data is broken down in a way that makes it easy for hotels to use and consume, again saving time and warding off any uncertainty.

8. A pricing intelligence tool will make life easier on your channel manager

The rates you set in your channel manager need to be more or less on par with your competitors. Underselling will mean a drop in your revenue, while overselling will see a reduction in bookings. Using a pricing intelligence tool means you can easily track the rate activity of your local market, maintain parity across all your channels, and then use your discretion to make changes.

To take full advantage of your channel manager, you need to be agile and change your rates hourly if necessary, depending on what time of day, month, or year it is.

With the up-to-the-minute data you get from a pricing tool, this poses no issue for you and your revenue will always be in line with your targets. With this data behind it, your channel manager becomes an even more powerful tool.

How does hotel pricing intelligence work?

Hotel pricing intelligence works by providing accurate data in real-time and making it accessible in one place.

Instead of dealing with fragmented data, and wasting time trying to bring it together in spreadsheets, hoteliers can quickly view data reports on demand.

Speed, efficiency, and simplicity characterise pricing intelligence tools. Hoteliers are able to combine historical data with real-time insights to get a full picture of their revenue management opportunities.

A room pricing intelligence tool, such as SiteMinder’s Insights, taps into the local market while integrating with the hotel’s channel manager and property management system. It can then automate the process of unifying data and producing reports, instead of relying on a staff member to do it manually.

“Since implementing SiteMinder, our operations have undergone a remarkable transformation. SiteMinder has revolutionised our approach to channel management and proven to be the ultimate solution for our challenges with availability, inventory, and OTA management.”

Pawarisa Hirantanes,

Corporate Director

Chatrium Hotels & Residences

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What to look for in a price intelligence tool

With a number of price intelligence tools available on the market, how do you choose which one is the best investment for your hotel?

As a general guide, it can be beneficial to choose a tool that is already part of a unified platform, rather than being a standalone solution. This will improve functionality, increase data volume, and broaden the number of ways decisions can be applied.

No matter how you are choosing to implement pricing intelligence, here are a seven things to look out for:

1.Make sure you have rate visibility

It’s vital that you have easy access to your rates at all times, everywhere they are listed, in one unified platform – including on OTAs and your own website.

2. Prioritise a dynamic approach

The best tools keep you updated at all times so your pricing is never static. You need to make adjustments in real-time at the right time to maximise bookings and revenue. For example, SiteMinder’s Dynamic Revenue Plus delivers up-to-date data and live alerts, as well as pricing reccommendations that you can action immediately.

3. Focus on ROI

Often, by automating and simplifying data management, a pricing intelligence tool will generally pay for itself as well as increasing staff efficiency.

4. Ensure you’ll gain a competitive edge

While pricing should never be the only way to differentiate yourself from your competitors, with all things being equal, price plays a big part. And there’s no way to ensure that your offering is truly competitive without clear visibility into what your competitors are offering.

5. Look for in-depth reporting capabilities

Generating a report should be instantaneous, and gleaning actionable insights from it should be intuitive to enable fast decision making that can make an immediate impact on revenue.

6. Seek out accurate forecasting abilities

You need to know what to set your rates at, and when – especially during peak and off-peak periods. Real-time market data is crucial to be able to forecast demand.

7. Prioritise simplicity

Many rate management tools are too complex for your hotel’s needs. The end result is that you are never able to truly master it. Look for a tool that makes ease of use a prime selling point.

Popular price intelligence solutions

If you’re looking for some of the most popular price intelligence solutions, you don’t need to look much further than SiteMinder’s Insights.

With Insights you’ll get:

• Real-time insights
• Accurate data
• A competitive advantage
• An integrated platform
• Advanced reporting and analysis

SiteMinder’s platform also seamlessly integrates with a number of other popular revenue management systems on the market, enabling all hoteliers to have access to price intelligence solutions

For smaller properties, who want simplicity but still want to be sophisticated with their pricing, Little Hotelier’s Insights is powered by SiteMinder but designed for small hotels and accommodation providers.

A hotel receipt is a document that is issued by hotels to guests, which offers proof that the invoice for their hotel stay has been paid.

Is a hotel receipt the same as an invoice?

No, a hotel receipt is not the same as an invoice. An invoice outlines all the charges that a guest has accrued during their stay. Once the invoice is paid, a receipt is produced as proof of that payment.

In this article we’ll take a closer look at hotel receipts: what they look like, why they’re important, and how to create and manage them. 

Note: the term ‘hotel receipt’ can be used to describe receipts issues by suppliers to hotels, but in this article we’ll focus on the receipts that hotels give to guests.

What is the format of a hotel receipt?

While hotel receipt formats are more or less up to hotels, the receipt should feature the following information:

• Hotel details
• Guest details
• Stay details and itemised charges
• Fees, taxes and totals
• Payment method

If the payment was made in-person on a card, the hotel receipt may be paired with the receipt generated by the hotel’s point of sale (POS) machine.

Why customise hotel reservation receipts?

Hotel receipts offer a great opportunity to showcase your brand. By adding logos, colours and a custom thank-you message, you can remind previous guests of the fun time they had at your property long into the future, when they’re doing their taxes or sorting their paperwork.

Hotel receipts can also be customised for functional reasons, such as formatting receipts in a way that aligns with the needs of corporate clients.

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Role of hotel receipts in financial processes

The traditional billing process for a hotel is made up of four stages:

• Folio: A live document that records guest charges as they are made.

• Bill: A summary of charges for the guest to review at check out.

• Invoice: The official tax document that outlines the finalised charges.

• Receipt: The proof of payment for the invoice.

As the last step, a receipt finalises the billing process for each guest, and gives the guest the documentation they need to comply with tax laws.

How to write an itemised hotel receipt

These days most receipts are automatically created by a purpose-built hotel receipt generator or tool. But it’s good to understand how to write a hotel receipt the old fashioned way, as a backup option that you can use if your power or systems go down.

As mentioned above, a traditional hotel receipt template will feature the details of the hotel, the guest and the stay, it will itemise all the charges accrued over the course of that stay (including subtotals and taxes), and it will outline the payment method used.

Hotel receipt examples

For a clearer idea of what a receipt looks like, let’s check out some hotel receipt samples.

Hotel booking receipt sample

This free hotel receipt template is a generic option that can be used by pretty much any hotel business.

Days Inn hotel receipt

As a budget accommodation option, the hotel receipt for Days Inn (a Best Western brand) is perfectly simple and straightforward.

Best Western hotel receipt

Best Western hotel receipts are traditional hotel stay receipts that feature all the information a guest could require.

Holiday Inn hotel receipt

Holiday Inn hotel receipts (an IHG brand) offer a good example of clear branding on receipts.

How to create and manage hotel receipts efficiently

Wondering how to make a hotel receipt? The good news is that it’s easy to create hotel receipts because modern tools can automate almost the entire process.

Automating receipt generation and storage

Choose a tool that automatically generates a receipt as soon as an invoice is paid, and that places a copy of that receipt in the appropriate folder.

Managing complex payment conditions

The best billing, invoicing and receipt tools will also be capable of handling split payments, group bookings, extended stays, refunds and duplicate requests. (You’ll also need to implement operational processes to ensure these complex tasks are handled correctly.)

Leveraging hotel stay receipt data

Data from receipts can reveal how your guests prefer to pay for their stays, so you can ensure that you support the most popular payment methods. In tandem with invoices, receipts can also help you to track revenue trends, optimise your pricing, and identify new opportunities that you can capitalise on.

“SiteMinder has also improved their solutions by providing business analytic tools. It works effectively and efficiently, and when market demand fluctuates we are able to change our pricing strategy in a timely manner, to optimise the business opportunity.”

Annie Hong,

Revenue and Reservations Manager

The RuMa Hotel and Residences

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How to use technology to simplify hotel receipts

While plenty of tools automate the process of generating hotel receipts, the best will seamlessly connect to your property management and accounting systems.

Integration allows all your solutions to talk to one another, and for data to seamlessly travel around your tech stack. This opens up a world of automation, where repetitive, laborious, time-consuming tasks are done automatically. Automation can save a hotel huge amounts of time, while also minimising the opportunity for human error.

And in SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel platform, you have a revenue and distribution tool that can open up this world of automation, by seamlessly connecting with whatever your chosen integration might be.

A hotel invoice is a document that is issued by hotels to guests, which provides a detailed record of charges incurred during their stay.

What is the difference between a hotel invoice and a receipt?

Hotel invoices and hotel receipts are slightly different documents. Once the invoice is paid by the guest, a receipt is generated as proof of that payment.

In this guide we’ll reveal everything that hotel businesses need to know about invoices: why they’re important, how and when they’re created, and how a hotel can better manage them.

What is the purpose of a hotel invoice?

The purpose of a hotel invoice is to provide your guests with a detailed record of the charges they’ve incurred during their stay. It offers transparency to guests and shows that your business is trustworthy.

And if the trip is tax-deductible, the hotel invoice also serves as the official record of the transaction if the local tax authorities ever conduct an audit of either the guest or hotel.

Why is streamlined hotel invoicing important?

Invoicing is an unavoidable part of any business’s operations (not to mention the part that ensures you get paid), so you should work to make the process of invoicing as efficient and effective as possible.

By streamlining invoicing and ensuring it is fast and accurate, you can:

• Reduce the time your staff spend on laborious admin, and increase the amount of time they spend on high value tasks like enhancing the guest experience.
• Minimise human errors through automation, to enhance both accuracy and compliance.
• Reduce waiting times for guests, and leave them with a good impression at check-out.

Integrate your chosen hotel invoicing tool with SiteMinder

Boasting 1350+ integrations, you can be confident that SiteMinder will seamlessly connect with the preferred systems or apps you use to manage revenue.

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Understanding the lifecycle of a hotel invoice

Hotel invoices form the third of four steps in the hotel payment process, which goes folio > bill > invoice > receipt.

A hotel invoice is generated from a hotel bill that the guest usually reviews at check-out. The bill is created from a hotel folio – the record of the charges that a guest accrues during their stay. Once the invoice is paid, a receipt is generated as proof of payment.

How to check a hotel booking invoice

When you generate a hotel invoice you should check it over before handing it to your guest. You should verify the guest’s details by asking their name or checking their ID, then briefly review the charges for anything that looks odd or out of place.

Who pays a hotel invoice?

Most hotel invoices are paid by the guest at check-out. But if a guest has pre-paid for the room, and not accrued any extra charges or paid for everything as they went, there may not be any payment to complete at check-out.

There’s also direct billing, where a company or organisation pays for a guest’s stay. This is a common payment option with corporate travellers and tour groups.

How to pay a hotel room invoice

In terms of how a guest pays their invoice, hotels are in total control of which methods they offer. Successful hotels always try to offer all the payment options that their target guests prefer.

Hotel invoice examples

Let’s look at a few sample hotel invoices to understand the look of a hotel room invoice template.

Hotel invoice sample

Looking for a free hotel invoice template? The following generic accommodation invoice template could be used by any type of accommodation business. It could be a hotel invoice template for a small, independent B&B, or it could even be an Expedia hotel invoice.

Marriott hotel invoice

If you want to take inspiration from a booking invoice template used by one of the big hotel chains, here’s what a Marriott hotel invoice looks like.

Hilton hotel invoice

You might also want to use Hilton’s hotel invoice format as inspiration for your own.

How to make a hotel invoice: Format fundamentals

How do I make a hotel invoice? These days most documents are created automatically by hotel invoice generators or billing tools, but it’s good to know how to create one yourself, just in case your power or systems go down. Here are the fundamentals.

What to include in an accommodation invoice

Hotel invoices should include the following information:

• Hotel details
• Guest details
• Stay details
• An itemised list of charges
• Payments and adjustments
• Subtotal, tax and gross total
• Payment terms

Customising invoices for brand identity

Invoices offer an excellent opportunity to display your hotel brand. Add logos and contact details, dress the document up in your brand colours, and place a custom thank-you message at the bottom.

Ensuring tax compliance and accuracy

Work with an accounting professional to ensure your invoices and billing systems meet all relevant tax codes and requirements.

Managing complex room invoicing scenarios

Choose an invoicing tool that can handle situations like group stays, extended stays, cancellations, split payments and bundled services like packages or events.

Streamlining hotel invoicing with technology

The best invoicing tools aren’t standalone solutions. They have the ability to integrate with the rest of your hotel software, which opens up the option of automating and streamlining the entire billing process, reducing errors in the process: a bar bill that is automatically added to a guest’s folio at the end of the evening, for example.

“SiteMinder’s channel manager has streamlined our bookings and inventory management. It’s especially improved efficiency, since it allows us to manage four properties at once by eliminating manual updates.”

Alexandra Rolton,

Strategic Sales & Key Account Manager

Brady Hotels & Apartments

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Hotel invoice data strategies

When data flows freely between your hotel software, it also grants you the ability to analyse the information generated by your invoicing software. The resulting insights can help you to track your occupancy, refine your pricing strategies, forecast revenue and identify service gaps and opportunities.

And if you’re looking for a hotel revenue and distribution tool that can maximise your use of data, by seamlessly connecting to whatever your chosen invoicing solution might be, there’s no better option than SiteMinder.

A hotel bill is a document that summarises the charges incurred by a hotel guest, and forms a record of expenses for the guest to review at the end of their stay.

A bill is generated from a hotel folio, which tracks the charges that a guest incurs throughout their stay. At check-out the folio is converted into a bill that is given to the guest for them to review. If the guest is comfortable with all the charges outlined on the bill, it is then converted into an invoice for payment. Once payment is made, a receipt is generated as proof.

Who prepares the guest bill? That’s usually done during check-out by the front desk staff, to ensure that charges can be added to the folio right up to the very end of the guest’s stay.

Is a hotel bill an invoice?

No, a hotel bill is not an invoice – but it is the document that the guest invoice is generated from. What is the difference between a hotel bill and an invoice? The bill is what the guest reviews, and if all is well, the invoice is what the guest pays.

What is direct billing in hotels?

Direct billing is where a company or organisation is billed directly for a guest’s stay, rather than billing the guest at check-out. It’s a popular option within the corporate travel and tour operator sectors.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at hotel bills, from how they work with your other systems and processes, to how your hotel can better handle guest billing.

The importance of hotel bills in preventing disputes

Prevention is better than cure for guest billing disputes. Some simple steps can help you to avoid issues at checkout, including:

• Implementing integrated systems that ensure folio data seamlessly and automatically goes where it needs to.  
• Ensuring your staff are trained to efficiently and accurately update folios throughout a guest’s stay.
• Providing clear, itemised, easy to read bills at check-out, and running guests through all the charges.
• Offering guests multiple payment options so they can pay their preferred way.

Can you split a hotel bill?

Some hotels allow guests to split bills, others don’t. The choice is yours: it’s an option that many guests appreciate, but it can mean more work for you and your staff.

Integrate your chosen hotel billing tool with SiteMinder

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Hotel bill format: How to make a hotel room bill

How do you write a hotel bill? Generally speaking these documents are automatically generated by software, but it’s useful to know how to make a hotel bill should your power or systems ever go down.

No matter whether we’re talking a Hyatt hotel bill or a bill from a small, independent hotel, the document should feature:

• Hotel details: Business name, address, contact details.
• Guest details: Name, personal details.
• Itemised list of charges: Including room rate, food and beverage, additional services, taxes, fees, payments and adjustments.
• Notes: Offering relevant context and explanations for any of the information listed on the bill.
• Totals: Subtotal, tax and gross total.

What is a destination fee on a hotel bill?

A destination fee, also called a resort, amenity or facility fee, is a type of hotel charge meant to cover the cost of providing a wide range of extra amenities. A hotel should think carefully about charging such a fee, due to the questions it can generate from guests.

Hotel bill example

What does a guest bill look like? The hotel bill template below gives you an idea, although the look of your document will be determined by your hotel bill generator or tool.

Key principles of hotel billing management

By following these established hotel billing principles, you can minimise billing issues, protect your hotel’s reputation, and ensure that every guest leaves your property with a smile on their face.

1. Ensuring compliance and data security in hotel billing

It is absolutely essential that you follow all relevant rules and regulations to safeguard your guests’ personal and financial data and work to prevent fraud and privacy issues.

2. Enhancing guest satisfaction with transparent billing

By creating a clear, itemised bill, you reduce guest confusion and show yourself to be a trustworthy business.

3. Addressing complex billing scenarios

You need to establish accurate but easy to follow procedures for effectively managing complex billing situations like split bills, third-party billing and the use of multiple payment methods.

4. Training staff about operational excellence in billing management

Train your staff on how to create bills, explain bills and effectively handle billing objections.

5. Dealing with hotel bills for group bookings or corporate accounts

Special billing procedures will need to be established, and specialised billing software may need to be implemented, for groups and corporate clients who want to pay for multiple guests.

6. Handling recurring charges for long-term or extended stays

Implement periodic billing, say once a week or month, to ensure that long-term guests don’t accrue too many unpaid charges.

7. Leveraging technology to streamline billing processes

Implementing automated systems streamlines your billing processes, reduces human error and frees up your team to spend more time on enhancing the guest experience.

8. Using billing data for revenue growth and guest personalisation

Billing is a goldmine of guest data. By analysing it, you identify trends, optimise your pricing, and generate insights on what your guests want from their stay.

“Thanks to SiteMinder, we are now working much more efficiently. I have seen an increase in direct bookings, the revenue has increased, and it has reduced human error. Doing my job is now more enjoyable and easier.”

Kris Vanaerschot,

Chief Commercial Officer

Helios Hotels

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Benefits of an interconnected hotel billing system

What is a hotel billing system? It’s the tool that you run your billing through (and usually your folios, invoicing and receipts too). An interconnected hotel billing system, meanwhile, is one that connects seamlessly with the other tools in your hotel tech stack. This allows data to flow freely between your billing tool and all your other solutions, driving a wealth of benefits, including:

• Improved accuracy: It reduces manual errors by automatically updating guest charges and payments across your hotel as they happen.
• Faster processing: It seriously speeds up check-in and check-out for both guests and staff.
• Enhanced guest experience: It reduces errors, confusion and wait times.
• Better financial reporting: It facilitates more accurate and comprehensive revenue tracking and reporting by generating a wealth of detailed data.
• Streamlined operations: It brings together multiple services across multiple departments (room, restaurant, day spa) in a single, unified system.

And if you’re looking for the ultimate centralised experience, there’s no hotel tool quite like SiteMinder.

A hotel folio is a document that collates charges and payments incurred by a guest during their stay, and helps a hotel to accurately track these numbers. Historically the word “folio” has referred to a ledger or book of accounts, and the hotel industry is one of the few that still uses the term.

That’s the hotel folio definition, but what is the use of hotel folios? This itemised record of all the charges that a guest has incurred over the course of their stay – room, food and drinks, laundry, spa treatments – brings transparency to the dealings between a hotel and its guests.

Who manages guest folios? They’re generated by the hotel throughout the course of a guest’s stay. At the end of the stay the folio is converted into a bill that the guest reviews, then an invoice that the guest pays, and a receipt that is proof of that payment.

What is the difference between folio and invoice?

A folio is a record of charges that is updated in real time throughout a guest’s stay. An invoice is the final official document that collates all these charges.

Is a guest folio a receipt?

No, a guest folio isn’t a receipt. As mentioned above, a guest folio is a live, itemised record of charges, while a guest receipt is proof of payment for the finalised list of fees and charges.

In this guide we will take a closer look at hotel folios to understand what they are, how they work, and how your property can better manage them.

What is the purpose of a hotel folio?

Hotel folios allow properties to track the charges incurred and payments made by a guest during their stay, to ensure that the guest is billed accurately both during and at the end of their visit.

Why is hotel folio so important for billing and payment workflows?

An itemised hotel folio is critical for billing and payment processes, as it accurately tracks and organises charges, prevents discrepancies, and can seriously streamline the check-out process.

Make your folios count with SiteMinder

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Types of hotel folios

While the term ‘hotel folio’ is often used interchangeably with ‘guest folio’, there are other types of folios in hotel businesses too.

Guest folio

As mentioned above, this folio tracks all charges incurred and paid by a guest staying at your hotel.

Master folio

A master folio in a hotel consolidates the collective charges for a group or organisation, covering multiple guests or even multiple events.

Non-guest folio

This folio records transactions for individuals or entities using hotel services without staying overnight.

Employee folio

This folio monitors any expenses incurred by your staff.

What is included in hotel folio?

A hotel folio includes any charges that can be incurred by a guest. This can include room charges, taxes, food, drinks, tours, service fees, payments and adjustments, as well as any additional costs incurred during the guest’s stay.

Example of a guest folio in hotels

What does a hotel folio actually look like? Let’s bring a bit of clarity to the concept with a hotel folio example:

Common problems when managing hotel folios

If you’re not careful with hotel folio management, a lot can go wrong, including:

Data inaccuracies

Hotel folio errors – incorrect or missing charges, misapplied taxes – can lead to disputes and can ultimately damage the reputation of your hotel.

Folio retrieval issues

Delays or difficulties in accessing folios can slow down the check-out process, wasting the time of guests and staff alike. This can be caused by technical issues, poor collaboration between hotel departments, or a lack of worker training.

Manual processes

The more manual your folio processes, whether updating records, reconciling payments or managing disputes, the more prone they are to errors and inefficiencies.

“The collaboration with SiteMinder’s GDS platform has significantly boosted Urban Rest Group’s visibility among global travel agents and positioned it for continued success.”

Cody Walker,

Revenue Performance Director

Urban Rest

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Hotel folio management strategies

To successfully manage hotel folios you need to implement the right tech, deliver the right training and establish the right systems and processes:

Reinforce payment regulations in hotel folio management

When establishing your hotel folio systems and processes, you need to ensure that they tick all the relevant regulatory boxes, from tax compliance to consumer rights.

Train hotel staff on effective folio handling

The best hotel folio systems and procedures in the world won’t mean much if your staff aren’t trained on them. Make sure that every team member knows exactly what they need to do, and when and how they need to do it.

Leverage on hotel folio data

Once you’ve established the basics, you can maximise the value you gain from hotel folios by leveraging the data you collected. You can create more personalised guest experiences, develop more enticing loyalty programs, and invest in services that have proven most popular with guests.

Integrate folios with hotel systems

The best hotel folio management tools tend to be cloud-based and mobile optimised, so your staff can use them from anywhere.

They should also be easy to navigate, intuitive to use, and perhaps most importantly, they should integrate seamlessly with your other hotel tools, as this opens up opportunities for time-saving, error-minimising automations.

A hostel is a type of accommodation that offers travellers an affordable stay and more opportunities to socialise with fellow guests.

What is the easy definition of a hostel? It’s simply a cheaper and more communal version of a hotel. Some hostels also offer long-term lodgings.

Why is it called a hostel? The word has roots in Latin and Old French, having been used to describe a place offering shelter, often shared, to travellers.

Is a hostel like a dorm?

Hostels traditionally offer shared sleeping quarters, called ‘dorms’. These rooms can have anything from three to dozens of beds, and offer travellers that cheaper, more communal and more social experience that hostels are known for.

Many properties also offer private rooms. What is a private room in a hostel? It’s essentially a hotel room within a hostel – sometimes minus a private bathroom – which gives a guest an opportunity to enjoy the social aspects of a hostel, while still retaining a level of privacy.

What is a hostel like to stay at? For a certain type of traveller, hostels are the ultimate type of accommodation, offering plenty of fun at a far lower price than any other type of property.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at hostels: how they work, who they target, and what other types of properties can learn from them.

Difference between a hostel and a hotel

Is a hostel a hotel? No, not quite. The main difference is the communal nature of a hostel. While hotel guests largely keep to themselves, apart from potential interactions at on-site bars, pools and other communal areas, hostel guests tend to sleep, cook and relax together.

This privacy aspect is also the main difference between a hostel vs Airbnb, although some small, independent, boutique hostels may be allowed to offer beds through the Airbnb platform.

What is the purpose of a hostel?

The purpose of a hostel is to help guests save money, both through lower room rates and (usually) through the opportunity to cook for themselves using shared kitchen facilities, while granting them the opportunity to meet and mingle with other travellers.

What is a hostel room good for on the business side? Put simply, a dorm gives a property owner the chance to fit more people into their property, and to potentially make more money doing so. Hostels are also just fun businesses to be involved in!

Why do people stay in hostels?

Hostels are particularly popular with younger, budget-conscious travellers who are happy to enjoy more basic amenities. What are the benefits of staying in a hostel? Backpackers on longer trips can make their money stretch further while meeting like-minded people.

Why are hostels so cheap?

Simple: economies of scale. A hotel room for two can be converted into a hostel dorm for four, six, or maybe even eight. While a hostel might charge each of its guests far less, it can ultimately make more money by fitting in a greater headcount.

What is it like to stay in a hostel? Quality properties can offer a surprisingly luxurious experience! Many modern hostels offer privacy curtains on their dorm beds, while lower bed counts and female-only dorms can also make a stay more comfortable.

Win more direct reservations for your hostel with SiteMinder

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Types of hostels

Hostels come in a few different categories, although there are areas of overlap for the types of hostel listed below (and many hostels might describe themselves as all three).

What is a youth hostel?

Youth hostels specifically cater to younger travellers. Some actually have age restrictions, only accepting bookings from guests who are younger (typically under 35).

What is a party hostel?

Party hostels are unashamedly social. They tend to have bars, and host on-site events most nights of the week. They will often organise tours of the local nightlife too.

What is a backpackers hostel?

Backpacker hostels cater to the long-term budget traveller. These hostels are often more economical, and usually offer guests a shared kitchen where they can cook their own meals.

Key features of a hostel: Room and house

What features define a hostel? A few include:

• Size and space: With a focus on fitting more guests in, hostels tend to be more compact and tightly packed than hotels. The challenge for property owners is to make the most of what you’ve got.
• Cleanliness and comfort: These two simple features are perhaps the most important for any hostel guest – they don’t ask for much, but they do want the property, particularly beds, dorms and kitchen, to be clean and comfortable.
• Amenities: Common hostel amenities include shared kitchens, pools, on-site bars, and communal relaxation areas.
• Privacy: In recent years many hostels have been offering guests greater levels of privacy by adding curtains or screens to hostel beds.
• Security: Many hostels give guests cards that grant access to their dorm and the hostel outside of reception hours. In-dorm lockers are also a must-have.
• Activities: Walking tours, game nights, family dinners and nights out as a group are great ways to build a sense of community within the hostel.

Examples of hostels around the world

Now that we’ve answered the questions “what is a hostel house?” and “what is a hostel room?”, let’s look at a few real-world examples from across the globe.

Hostels in Europe

• Pfefferbett Hostel, Berlin: What is a hostel in Europe that’s kicking goals? As perhaps the coolest hostel in one of the world’s coolest cities, it’s hard to go past Pfefferbett.
• Ostello Bello, Milan: Located in the heart of Milan, Ostello Bello is a vibrant hostel that was recently nominated as the best in Italy.

Hostels in the UK

• Seadragon Backpackers, Brighton: This boutique hostel pairs homely comfort with clever tech, including smart locks that grant property and dorm access with a smartphone.
• Castle Rock Hostel, Edinburgh: What is a hostel UK hoteliers can aim to replicate? Look no further than Castle Rock, which is continually voted Edinburgh’s best hostel.

Hostels in Spain

• The Central House Barcelona Gracia: Sleeping is optional at Central House, a beautiful property that feels like the answer to the question “what is a hostel in Spain supposed to look like?”
• Onefam Centro, Sevilla: This popular and ultra-social hostel hosts group activities every day and night.

Hostels in the USA

• California Dreams Hostel, San Diego: What is a hostel in the USA that captures the Californian vibe? Look no further than California Dreams, located steps from the beach.
• Generator Miami: A hostel in Florida that takes style to the next level, here you’ll enjoy budget yet boutique surroundings in the heart of Miami Beach.

Hostels in New York

• Chelsea International Hostel, 20th Street: What is a hostel in New York that almost any traveller could afford? This hotel, one of the city’s first, could be the answer.
• HI NYC Hostel, Amsterdam Avenue: This hostel offers a sprawling array of comfortable room options, and is part of Hostelworld’s Best Hostel Network in North America (2024).

Hostels in Australia

• Wake Up! Sydney: Located in the heart of the CBD, Wake Up! Sydney offers comfortable quarters and easy access to all the city’s most famous sights.
• Gilligan’s, Cairns: What is a hostel in Australia that’s not a hostel? Part hotel, part resort, all fun, Gilligan’s gives guests the best of every type of property.

Hostels in Japan

• UNPLAN Shinjuku, Tokyo: What is a hostel in Japan that gives you a distinct Tokyo experience? From the pod beds to the integrated tech, our pick is UNPLAN Shinjuku.
• The Evergreen Hostel, Hiroshima: Cosy and traditionally appointed, Evergreen in Hiroshima is also just five minutes’ walk from The A-Bomb Dome.

“Since implementing SiteMinder, our operations have undergone a remarkable transformation. SiteMinder has revolutionised our approach to channel management and proven to be the ultimate solution for our challenges with availability, inventory, and OTA management.”

Pawarisa Hirantanes,

Corporate Director

Chatrium Hotels & Residences

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Strategies to implement hostel-style elements

By taking a bit of inspiration from how hostels operate, and implementing hostel elements within your property, you grant yourself the opportunity to attract a large demographic of travellers that you may never have attracted before. Here are a few ways to do just that.

Create inviting communal spaces for social interaction

Lounges, shared kitchens, pool areas and on-site bars can encourage guests to interact. Human connections can greatly enhance the guest experience, and they do so with minimal effort from your side – all you need to do is provide the space for them to happen.

Diversify room options to attract a wider range of travellers

Consider adding discounted dorm beds to your room offerings. Or perhaps a private room with a shared bathroom. These options can help you attract a wider range of travellers.

Appeal to digital nomads and long-term guests

Create co-working spaces where digital nomads can work and network. Offer the fast and reliable internet that modern remote workers need.

Use efficient property management practices

In search of greater efficiency, hostels often lead the way in terms of tech. Consider implementing mobile check-in and self-service options, or streamlining guest communications through a dedicated tool.

Set flexible and competitive pricing models

Use a business intelligence tool to understand the room or bed rates that will earn you more bookings while making you more money. Save on OTA fees by offering direct bookings, and do all that you can to guide guests toward that booking option.

For modern properties, enhancing operational efficiency and pricing your beds smarter than your competitors is only possible with the help of smart tech – which is where SiteMinder comes in.

Hospitality leadership is a management approach used by hospitality industry professionals to guide their teams and enhance guest experiences.

What does a hospitality team leader do? Leadership roles in hospitality are similar to leadership roles in other industries, in that the focus is on training, guiding and managing a team. But one difference is how hands-on hospitality leadership can be – hotel managers tend to have more customer interactions than leaders in other industries, particularly at small-to-medium properties.

In this guide we’ll comprehensively discuss hospitality leadership to understand what roles are involved and how to do them better.

Why is hospitality leadership important?

The importance of leadership in hospitality cannot be understated. It motivates workers, fosters exceptional service and drives business success. Demonstrating leadership skills in hospitality is about leading from the front, through both actions and words.

Be the best leader you can be with the help of SiteMinder

Empower your staff to do more, streamline internal operations, and deliver a better experience than ever before with SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel platform.

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The 5 essential hospitality leadership skills

What are the characteristics and qualities of a good leader in hospitality? You need to be adept at resolving conflicts, managing guest interactions and motivating teams. In terms of skills, the 5 essentials of hospitality leadership are:

• Strategic thinking: The ability to plan and make decisions that align with long-term business goals.

• Effective communication: The ability to clearly convey information to team members and guests.

• Creativity and adaptability: The ability to develop innovative solutions and adjust to changing circumstances.

• Emotional intelligence: The capacity to understand and manage your emotions while empathising with others.

• Trust-building: Establishing reliability and credibility with staff and guests to inspire confidence and loyalty.

How to become an effective leader in hospitality

How do you become an effective leader in hospitality? Experience is key, but training can help you to develop faster. Popular hospitality leadership certifications, programs and courses include:

Hospitality leadership course

This training focuses on building specific skill sets or gaining specific knowledge within hospitality leadership, like customer service management, strategic decision-making or running a team. Courses tend to be short-term (from hours to weeks) and participants don’t gain an official certification. Examples include:

• A workshop on “Conflict Resolution in Hospitality Teams.”
• A webinar on “Effective Leadership Communication.”

MBA in hospitality leadership

This comprehensive, graduate-level program combines business management principles with specialised training in hospitality leadership, and is designed to prepare workers for senior roles.

Hospitality leadership program

Hospitality leadership programs, such as diploma programs, are a step down from an MBA, but still cover multiple aspects of hospitality leadership, including operations, finance, marketing, and human resources. Programs usually feature curriculums that take months to complete, but provide in-depth training on hospitality leadership.

Hospitality leadership certification

A certificate in hospitality leadership is a more formal qualification that can prove very valuable for anyone looking to build a successful career in hospitality. The focus is on validating your knowledge and expertise, and ensuring it aligns with industry standards. Completed over months, it’s something that you can take with you wherever you go in the industry. Examples include:

• Certified Hospitality Supervisor (CHS) by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI).
• Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA).

Exploring leadership styles in hospitality

What type of leader do you want to be? There are three main leadership styles to choose from – transformational, service/servant and innovative – although the very best hospitality leaders will be able to seamlessly transition between each depending on the situation.

Transformational leadership in hospitality

This style is based on inspiring and motivating your team. You set out your vision, then encourage team members to work toward it, both individually and collaboratively. This strategy is particularly effective in driving cultural change and achieving ambitious goals. It can also increase employee engagement and improve guest experiences along the way.

Service or servant leadership in hospitality

What is service leadership in hospitality? It’s where you lead by example and prioritise employee and guest needs over your own. This leadership style fosters trust, encourages collaboration, and builds a supportive work environment. It is best applied in boutique hotels or high-end restaurants where service is everything. When done well it can not only lead to service excellence, but higher levels of team satisfaction and loyalty too.

Innovative leadership in hospitality

Innovative leaders are always looking for fresh ideas and solutions, to create unique, unforgettable, stand-out experiences for guests. This leadership style helps a hospitality business to stay competitive in the market while adapting to trends and implementing difference-making technology.

“We’re getting more bookings since using SiteMinder. As an added bonus, more than half of those are coming in via our own website. The setup was super easy. Our team quickly learned to navigate the new system and today, we’re operating seamlessly.”

Jan Wichmann,

Owner and Property Manager

Hotel Graf Bentinck

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Global hospitality leadership strategies

Next question: what strategies can a hospitality leader employ to get the most out of themselves and their teams?

Balancing hands-on management with leadership responsibilities

Hospitality leaders need to know when to take responsibility for a task, and when to delegate. Wherever possible you should empower your team to take responsibility, but in some situations – when time is a factor, when a guest is particularly upset – it can be important to step in.

Building a cohesive and motivated team

To build a cohesive, motivated team, you need to establish a culture where goals are clear, where workers feel trusted to achieve those goals, where they feel heard, respected and rewarded, and where interpersonal relationships are developed (like through team-building activities).

Developing leadership skills across all team levels

Tomorrow’s leaders are built today. When you nurture leadership qualities in front-line and mid-level staff, you’re more likely to entrust them with key responsibilities, clearing your plate so you can further help them, which creates a virtuous cycle. Deliver regular training, and set up mentorship or coaching programs for the most promising emerging leaders within the team.

Using technology to support leadership and streamline operations

Better tools help you to become a better leader. Digital tools for staff scheduling, internal communication, team performance and guest management can streamline systems and processes while revealing areas of improvement for both you and your team.

As a leader you know the importance of technology in modern hotels. But gaining maximum value from smart tools is only possible when they’re set up and used correctly – and it can be tricky for leaders to find the time for proper implementation and training.

And in SiteMinder, you have a tool that can seriously enhance the performance of leaders, their teams and the business at large.

A hotel franchise is a business model where an independent hotel owner operates under the brand and management system of an established hotel chain. In exchange for fees, the franchisor provides access to brand recognition, marketing resources, reservation systems, and operational support.

Franchising a hotel offers a powerful way to grow your business, boost visibility, and leverage established brand support. Whether you’re an independent hotel owner looking to scale or a medium-sized chain operator exploring franchising, this guide will help you understand the key benefits, costs, and opportunities in hotel franchising.

What is the purpose of hotel franchising?

The purpose of franchising is to create a win-win situation for both the hotel owner and the franchisor. Owners benefit from established systems and brand credibility, while the franchisor expands its market presence without directly managing all properties.

In this blog we’ll outline everything you need to know about franchising a hotel, including examples.

Why is owning a hotel franchise better?

Owning a hotel franchise can offer a range of advantages over operating as an independent property. By joining a franchise, hotel owners can tap into proven systems and gain a competitive edge in attracting and retaining guests.

What are the benefits of a hotel franchise?

Joining a hotel franchise can offer significant advantages that help property owners attract more guests, streamline operations, and increase revenue. Here’s a look at some of the key benefits:

• Increased visibility through brand recognition: Being part of a well-known brand instantly boosts your hotel’s credibility and visibility in the market. Guests often trust familiar names when booking accommodation, and a strong franchise brand can draw bookings that might be harder to secure as an independent hotel. Your property benefits from the global reputation and marketing reach of the franchise.
• Access to loyalty programs: Many hotel franchises offer robust loyalty programs that encourage repeat bookings. These programs connect your property to a network of returning guests who prefer to stay within the brand. By leveraging these
  established programs, you can attract and retain a steady stream of loyal customers.
• Operational support and training: Franchisors typically provide comprehensive training programs and ongoing operational support. This includes resources like standard operating procedures (SOPs), staff training materials, and guidance on running a successful hotel. For new or less experienced operators, this support can be invaluable in improving efficiency and maintaining high service standards.
• Marketing and advertising power: Franchises handle large-scale marketing campaigns that your hotel automatically benefits from. Whether it’s digital ads, social media promotions, or television commercials, these campaigns help drive traffic to the franchise brand and, in turn, to your hotel.
• Group purchasing power: Franchises often negotiate bulk purchasing deals with suppliers, allowing you to save on everything from furnishings to cleaning products. This purchasing power helps reduce operating costs, enabling you to allocate resources to other areas of your business.
• Improved guest trust and satisfaction: Guests often expect a consistent experience across franchise properties. By aligning with the brand’s standards for quality and service, your hotel can meet guest expectations more effectively, leading to higher satisfaction and better reviews.
• Access to industry insights and benchmarking tools: Franchisors typically provide data-driven insights and benchmarking tools to help you analyse your hotel’s performance. This allows you to identify strengths, address weaknesses, and make informed decisions about pricing, services, and operations.

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Hotel franchise cost and other fees

Franchising involves costs that vary by brand and contract terms. These typically include:

• Initial franchise fees: Initial fees can range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the brand’s reputation, market reach, and the property type. Budget brands like Motel 6 often have lower fees compared to luxury chains like Hilton or Marriott.
• Royalty fees: Royalty fees typically range from 4% to 6% of revenue and are paid regularly, often monthly or quarterly. These fees cover the cost of maintaining the brand’s infrastructure, such as reservation systems and operational support.
• Marketing contributions: These fees, usually a percentage of revenue, are used for brand-wide advertising campaigns, digital marketing initiatives, and loyalty program promotions. While marketing contributions ensure strong global visibility, it’s important to understand how these funds are utilised and the specific benefits your property receives.

Other fees may include reservation system fees, training and support fees, and property improvement plan costs (if you are converting an existing hotel into a franchised property and require upgrades to meet franchise requirements).

What are the most profitable hotel franchises?

Choosing a profitable hotel franchise is critical for ensuring a strong return on investment. Profitability often depends on factors like brand recognition, guest loyalty programs, operational support, and market demand. Here’s a closer look at three of the most profitable hotel franchises:

Marriott International

With over 30 brands under its umbrella, including luxury names like Ritz-Carlton and affordable options like Fairfield Inn, Marriott International offers unparalleled flexibility for franchisees.

Marriott’s Bonvoy loyalty program is one of the most extensive in the world, driving consistent guest loyalty. Marriott’s strong focus on technology, marketing, and operational training makes it a top choice for franchisees looking to maximise revenue.

Hilton Worldwide

Hilton has built a reputation for innovation and guest satisfaction across its portfolio of brands, which includes Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, and the iconic Waldorf Astoria.

Hilton’s Honors loyalty program connects franchisees with millions of repeat customers, and its robust digital tools make it easy to manage operations, bookings, and revenue. Franchisees also benefit from comprehensive training and ongoing support tailored to their market.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Wyndham caters to budget-friendly and midscale markets with brands like Super 8, Days Inn, and La Quinta. This makes it an ideal choice for owners of small to medium-sized hotels.

With a lower cost of entry compared to luxury brands, Wyndham provides reliable profitability through its efficient reservation systems and established reputation in key markets. Its Rewards loyalty program ensures repeat business, and its streamlined franchise model keeps operational costs manageable.

How to franchise a hotel: A step-by-step buyer’s guide

Franchising your hotel can feel like a complex process, but breaking it down into clear, actionable steps makes it more manageable. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the journey from research to joining a franchise successfully.

Assessing franchise costs and fees

The first step in franchising your hotel is understanding the costs involved. These typically include:

• Initial franchise fees: This one-time cost grants you access to the franchise’s brand, systems, and resources. Compare the fee across multiple franchises to find one that aligns with your budget and revenue potential.
• Royalty fees: Ongoing payments, often calculated as a percentage of revenue, support the franchisor’s operational systems and ongoing improvements. Consider how these fees will impact your profit margins.
• Marketing contributions: These fees fund the franchise’s collective marketing efforts. Ensure the brand has a proven record of effective campaigns that will benefit your property.

Budget carefully to ensure the projected revenue uplift will offset these costs and provide long-term profitability.

Negotiating favourable franchise contract

Franchise agreements are legally binding and often lengthy, so understanding the terms is critical. Focus on negotiating aspects like:

• Territory exclusivity: Ensure your franchise will have sufficient market protection to avoid competition with other properties under the same brand in your area.
• Termination clauses: Clarify conditions for ending the agreement early to avoid financial penalties if unforeseen circumstances arise.
• Performance metrics: Discuss realistic goals for revenue and occupancy. Aim to include flexibility if market conditions change.

Working with a legal or franchising expert can help you identify areas to negotiate and secure favourable terms.

Analysing franchise performance metrics

Research the franchise’s historical performance and success rates to evaluate its suitability for your property. Key metrics to review include:

• Average occupancy rates: Compare these figures with similar hotels in your market to ensure the franchise offers a competitive advantage.
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): This metric reveals how effectively the franchise drives revenue across its properties.
• Guest satisfaction ratings: Consistently high ratings indicate strong brand loyalty and effective operational practices.

Look for data that demonstrates the franchise’s ability to increase profitability while maintaining guest satisfaction.

Understanding franchise agreement terms

Franchise agreements outline the rights and responsibilities of both parties. Pay attention to:

• Contract length: Most agreements last 10–20 years, so ensure you’re comfortable with this long-term commitment.
• Renewal conditions: Understand what’s required to renew the agreement and whether you’ll need to pay additional fees.
• Brand standards: Franchisors often require strict adherence to their brand guidelines. Assess whether these align with your property’s capabilities and goals.

Having a clear understanding of these terms will help you avoid surprises and maintain a positive relationship with the franchisor.

Considering multi-brand franchising strategies

If you own multiple properties, consider diversifying with different brands under one parent company. This approach allows you to:

• Target varied market segments: For instance, one property can cater to budget travellers while another focuses on luxury guests.
• Reduce risk: Diversifying across multiple brands reduces reliance on one market or demographic.
• Maximise market coverage: Multi-brand strategies help you capture a broader range of guests in your region.

Some franchisors, like Marriott or Wyndham, offer a portfolio of brands that make multi-brand franchising more accessible.

“People who have used numerous systems will find SiteMinder to be extremely user-friendly. Compared to the other complicated systems, it is just so simple to use. When we expand our hotel to other areas, SiteMinder will again be our first choice.”

Pichata Ritchie,

Cluster E-commerce Manager

VALA Hua Hin – Nu Chapter Hotels

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5 best hotel franchise opportunities

If you’re considering franchising, these five hotel brands are some of the best options available. They cater to a variety of property types and market segments, making it easier to find one that aligns with your business goals and target audience.

1. Motel 6

Motel 6 is a well-known budget-friendly franchise that appeals to cost-conscious travellers. It’s ideal for owners looking to attract a steady stream of guests without the need for extensive amenities or services. The franchise offers:

• Affordable franchise fees and operational costs, making it accessible for smaller properties.
• A strong, recognisable brand that draws travellers seeking affordable stays.
• Marketing and operational support to streamline guest acquisition and retention.

Motel 6 is a smart choice for hotel owners who want a straightforward, reliable model focused on affordability and simplicity.

2. Days Inn

Days Inn is a family-friendly brand under the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts umbrella. It’s known for providing consistent, comfortable accommodations at an affordable price point. Benefits include:

• A wide network of loyal customers thanks to Wyndham’s loyalty program.
• Access to reservation systems and marketing tools that simplify operations and boost visibility.
• Support for implementing modern design upgrades to stay competitive.

This franchise is a great fit for properties located near highways, airports, or family travel destinations.

3. Super 8

Super 8 is one of the largest economy hotel brands, catering to budget travellers who prioritise value over luxury. It’s a strong option for small hotel owners who want a trusted name with minimal operational complexity. Highlights include:

• Cost-effective franchise fees and royalty structures.
• A focus on efficient design and operations to maximise profitability.
• Global brand recognition, ensuring consistent occupancy across diverse markets.

Super 8’s simplicity and affordability make it an attractive option for first-time franchisees or those operating in highly competitive areas.

4. Extended Stay America

Extended Stay America focuses on longer-term stays, appealing to business travellers and guests on extended trips. This niche segment offers unique advantages, including:

• A stable revenue model based on extended bookings, reducing reliance on nightly turnover.
• Suites designed with kitchenettes and workspace areas, catering to modern traveller needs.
• Strong brand recognition among corporate and relocation clients.

This franchise is perfect for properties located near business districts, universities, or areas with high relocation activity.

5. Choice Hotels International

Choice Hotels International offers a diverse portfolio of brands, from economy to upscale, giving franchisees flexibility to find the right fit for their property. Notable benefits include:

• Access to one of the largest loyalty programs in the industry, Choice Privileges.
• Comprehensive support for marketing, distribution, and operational efficiency.
• A range of brand tiers, including Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, and upscale options like Cambria Hotels.

Choice Hotels is ideal for owners seeking scalability and the ability to cater to a variety of guest demographics.

A BEO is a document that outlines event details, and is used by hotels, catering companies and hospitality professionals to coordinate and execute events.

What does BEO stand for in events? That would be ‘banquet event order’ – ‘banquet’ used here as a synonym for an event, rather than as a food and beverage-specific term.

Now that we have a banquet event order definition, what is an example of a banquet event order? A BEO is typically created by the hotel in collaboration with the client, and lists information like:

• The event date, time and location
• The number of guests and seating arrangements
• Menu items and timing for food and beverage service
• Room setup, audiovisual requirements and décor
• Any other specific instructions that ensure the event flows smoothly

Is a banquet event order a legally binding contract?

Yes, a BEO contract is usually a legally binding document once it has been signed by both the hotel and client.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at BEOs, to answer such questions as ‘what is a banquet event order used for?’, and ‘how do you prepare a banquet event with the help of a BEO?’

Why are banquet event orders important for hotels?

A BEO in hospitality brings much-needed clarity to the often complex task of running an event.

A BEO is an agreement between client and hotel. The client signs off on the specific details of the event, and agrees to the hotel’s terms and conditions, while the hotel is given a clear list of responsibilities to fulfil.

What is a banquet event order vs catering event order?

While the term ‘catering event order’ is sometimes used in place of ‘banquet event order’, it usually refers to a specific type of BEO that describes the catering needs of an event.

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Who creates the banquet event order?

BEOs are created by the hotel in collaboration with the client, who signs off on the document once all relevant details have been collected and collated.

Step-by-step guide to creating a banquet event order

How do I create a banquet event order? A BEO/catering event order can be built by following these simple steps:

Start with the key components of a banquet event order

Begin with a hotel BEO meeting between you and the client, where you establish essential details like the event date, location, guest count, menu and setup requirements.

Remember the most important detail in a banquet event order

Guest count is often seen as the most crucial BEO detail, because it affects venue size, seating arrangements, food and beverage quantities and more. Work to get a very specific number from your guest.

Consider legal compliance for banquet event orders

Ensure the BEO meets any relevant legal requirements, such as health and safety standards and alcohol service laws, to avoid potential liabilities.

Avoid the common mistakes when creating a BEO

Double-check every detail to prevent simple errors like mis-timings, unsigned documents and special requests being overlooked.

Training hotel staff on effective BEO management

Train staff on how to read and execute BEOs to ensure every event is delivered smoothly and successfully.

Banquet event order example for hotels

Looking for a more specific BEO example? Imagine a tech company’s corporate awards dinner hosted in the grand ballroom of a hotel.

There are 200 expected attendees, with the event scheduled from 18:00 to 23:00. The BEO includes specific details on key moments: welcome drinks with hors d’oeuvres from 18:00 to 19:00, a three-course seated dinner beginning at 19:15, and a brief awards presentation at 20:30.

The document specifies the ballroom layout with round tables for 10. It lists a podium and audiovisual support for the presentations. Special dietary requests are noted for certain guests.

Signed by both the client and hotel, the BEO serves as the guiding document for the hotel, and more specifically the event team.

Banquet event order template for hotels

A (very basic) BEO sample template for the event above might look something like this:

Event information

• Event name: Corporate Awards Dinner
• Date: 15 November 2024
• Time: 18:00 – 23:00
• Location: Grand Ballroom
• Client contact: Sarah Johnson, +00 000 000 000

Guest details

• Guest count: 200
• Seating: Round tables for 10

Event schedule

• Reception: 18:00 – 19:00
  • Cocktails, wine, soft drinks, hors d’oeuvres
• Dinner: 19:15
  • Three-course meal (starter, main, dessert)
• Awards Presentation: 20:30
  • AV: Podium, projector, screens

Special requests

• Dietary needs: Noted per guest requests

Client approval

• Signature: ____________

Date: ____________

“The collaboration with SiteMinder’s GDS platform has significantly boosted Urban Rest Group’s visibility among global travel agents and positioned it for continued success.”

Cody Walker,

Revenue Performance Director

Urban Rest

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Software solutions for managing banquet event orders

A simpler answer to the question of ‘how to BEO’ is with the help of banquet event order software. The best purpose-built BEO tools will offer:

• Event scheduling and calendar integration
• Customisable templates
• Client and guest management features
• Menu and inventory management
• Real-time updates and collaborative tools
• Reporting and analytics

BEO software example 1

Planning Pod is a BEO tool designed to keep your entire team in sync before, during and after an event. It allows you to build custom BEO templates and share detailed banquet event orders with staff, suppliers and clients.

BEO software example 2

Built specifically for hotels, Tripleseat is event management software that boasts 200,000 users, and that promises to boost your hotel’s event revenue by over 30%.

But beyond BEO-specific solutions, fully capitalising on the opportunities presented by events also demands the implementation of capable revenue, distribution and management tools. That’s where SiteMinder comes in.

Hotel ROI means return on investment, which evaluates how much money you are getting out compared to what you put in. The aim is to generate a positive ROI, which you can then use to grow and improve the business or take out as profit. Generally recorded as a percentage, it’s a vital financial metric for hoteliers to track if they want to make sure their objectives are being met.

What is a good return on investment for a hotel?

There is no single answer to what constitutes a ‘good’ return on investment for a hotel, since it will vary significantly depending on the size and scope of the property, where it’s located, the goals of the management team, marketing efforts, features of the hotel and more.

A good ROI at your hotel will be relative to what you’re trying to achieve, what part of the business you’re measuring, and also what other opportunities are available to you. For instance, you may be focusing solely on your housekeeping for one calculation and your food and beverage department for another.

Average return on hotel investment

It’s agreed upon within the industry that 6-12% is a reasonable return on hotel investment. However, the average ROI will also depend on the factors we discussed above, including the economic conditions in different parts of the world. As long as you can improve your average return on investment each year, then your business will be on track to be comfortably profitable.

In this blog, we’ll cover what it means to build a strong ROI at your hotel and the tools you can use to maximise it.

Why is hotel return on investment important?

Hotel return on investment is important because it’s both a simple and effective metric to measure the general health of your hotel overall, or individual aspects of the business that you have invested in.

Here are some ways that using ROI at your hotel can help:

• Investment decisions: Helps you decide when to invest and what to invest in.
• Performance analysis: Allows you to understand the effectiveness of strategies and overall operational efficiency.   
• Industry benchmarking: See how you compare to local industry standards and competitors.   
• Financial planning: Gives you insights for future investment decisions and budgeting.
• Operational success: ROI will help you discover which parts of your business are thriving and which departments need to improve. To succeed overall, you can’t afford too many areas to be falling behind.

For example, if you have invested in technology to help you attract and acquire more guests, calculating ROI will let you know if the solution is performing to expectations or not. This will then influence decisions you make, such as investigating whether you are using it to its full potential or if you need to switch to a different provider.

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How to calculate ROI at your hotel

To calculate ROI at your hotel you need to identify your:

• Net profit: Calculate your hotel’s net profit by subtracting your total expenses from your total revenue.   
• Investment cost: Determine the total amount of money invested in your hotel or a specific function. For example, monthly subscription to a hotel software service.

After this, you can divide the net profit by the investment cost and multiply by 100 to get the ROI as a percentage.   

Return on investment formula

As we mentioned above, the return on investment formula is ROI = (Net Profit / Amount Invested) x 100.

An example of the ROI equation for hotels looks like this:

• A hotel generates a net profit of $100,000 on an investment of $500,000.
• ROI = (100,000 / 500,000) x 100 = 20%

This means that the hotel is generating a 20% return on the investment.

Hotel cap rate definition

A hotel cap rate, or capitalisation rate, is a key metric used to estimate the potential return on a hotel investment. It’s calculated by dividing the property’s net operating income by its current market value. This gives investors and owners a snapshot of expected yield without needing to consider financing or tax impacts.

While ROI looks at your return compared to the full investment, cap rate is more specific to property value and operational performance. It’s a useful tool when comparing multiple hotels or analysing whether to buy, hold, or sell a property.

Why you need to know about hotel cap rates

Hotel cap rates help investors and owners assess how a property stacks up in its market. Used as a comparison tool, cap rates reveal which hotels offer stronger income potential relative to their price. A lower cap rate often reflects higher buyer confidence or a more desirable location, while a higher cap rate could signal more risk or operational issues. 

That’s why understanding cap rates isn’t just about valuation, it’s about market positioning.

Cap rates also help buyers and sellers find common ground. By working backwards from a desired cap rate and known income figures, you can estimate a property’s value more realistically, streamlining negotiations and helping both parties spot a fair deal.

However, for new developments or highly unique hotels without reliable income history, cap rates may not tell the full story. In these cases, broader financial modelling or alternative valuation methods may be required.

The current hotel cap rates

Current hotel cap rates vary depending on location, asset class, and market conditions. According to CBRE’s U.S. Real Estate Market Outlook 2024, hotel cap rates averaged 8.0% in Q3 2023. This reflects how investors are balancing opportunity with risk in a post-pandemic market that remains in flux. Luxury hotels in high-demand city centres may command lower cap rates, while midscale or regional properties tend to sit higher on the scale. 

These figures aren’t static. They shift alongside broader economic indicators like interest rates, consumer confidence, and travel trends. For hotel owners and investors, tracking current hotel cap rates helps clarify whether your property is priced competitively and performing in line with the market.

Historical hotel cap rates

Looking at historical hotel cap rates helps you understand long-term trends in property valuation and investor sentiment. Over the past decade, cap rates have generally compressed in prime markets, reflecting strong competition for high-performing assets. For example, in 2010, average cap rates for full-service hotels in major cities hovered around 8%, but many have since dropped closer to 5% in the years leading up to 2020.

Tracking these shifts can help you spot timing opportunities, both for reinvestment and repositioning your hotel. They also give useful context when considering renovations or major capital improvements, especially if you’re planning for a future sale.

Hotel cap rate: Formula and calculations

The standard formula for calculating the capitalisation rate (cap rate) is:

Cap Rate (%) = (Net Operating Income / Current Market Value) × 100

Example 1:

• • Annual Revenue: $1,500,000

  • Operating Expenses: $600,000

  • NOI: $1,500,000 – $600,000 = $900,000

• Market Value: $10,000,000

Cap Rate: ($900,000 / $10,000,000) × 100 = 9%

Example 2:

• • Annual Revenue: $5,000,000

  • Operating Expenses: $2,500,000

  • NOI: $5,000,000 – $2,500,000 = $2,500,000

• Market Value: $30,000,000

Cap Rate: ($2,500,000 / $30,000,000) × 100 = 8.33%

Cap rates by city

Cap rates can differ significantly across various cities due to factors like location desirability, market demand, and economic conditions. Here are sample cap rates for select U.S. cities:

• New York City: 5.64%

• Los Angeles: 5.25%

• Chicago: 6.10%

• Houston: 6.75%

• Miami: 5.50%

• Dallas: 6.00%

• San Francisco: 5.30%

• Atlanta: 6.20%

These figures provide a general overview and can fluctuate based on specific neighbourhoods, property types, and market dynamics.

Common pitfalls to prevent negative hotel ROI

While you may be focusing on returning a positive ROI, preventing a negative hotel ROI is essentially the same thing but attacks the challenge from a different angle.

Some elements of your hotel may not be running smoothly or creating hidden problems that prevent your progress. Some of these may have easy fixes that go a long way to making your mission of a positive ROI more manageable. Examples might include:

1. High fixed costs

High costs are obviously the enemy of profit and it can be worthwhile to see if the status quo really needs to be that way. Are there areas where you can make adjustments, such as with suppliers, energy providers, or waste management that can lower your hotel’s fixed costs?

2. Ineffective pricing strategies

Pricing plays a major role in how successful you are each year when it comes to earning revenue and maximising profit. If you are consistently pricing too low, you’re leaving money on the table. Too high and you risk travellers looking elsewhere.

And if you don’t price based on supply and demand, and market fluctuations, you won’t be hitting your sweet spot regularly. Using a channel manager, booking engine, and business intelligence tool will allow you to price your rooms effectively, book more guests, and easily make adjustments to strategies.

3. Subpar staff training

If staff aren’t performing to high standards, either through poor training or poor hiring, then all aspects of your hotel are going to suffer. Operations won’t be efficient, guests won’t be happy, and revenue opportunities will be missed.

Make sure you are building a highly motivated and skilled team of staff to keep things running smoothly.

4. Overlooking market trends

There are always changes occurring in the hotel and travel markets. If you aren’t keeping your finger on the pulse and tracking real-time trends, you will certainly be missing out on chances to maximise revenue and improve your ROI in the long run.

Using insights tools and a mobile app, such as what SiteMinder provides, will help you track local markets and competitors, and get notified of any significant updates or alerts based on preferences that you set.

Hotel ROI strategies: How to maximise your hotel investment

All the talk is about how AI can help hotels improve profitability, but the good news is that there are also a lot of other ways to impact your ROI so you can achieve a positive outcome for your hotel. Here are five of the best ways to maximise it:

1. Invest in hotel software

Spending money to make money is an often employed strategy, and in the case of hotels it’s certainly necessary. However, one of the most efficient ways to do it is by using technology to support the operations and revenue management of your hotel. 

When you choose a quality provider, all parts of your business can benefit and contribute towards profitability. For example, a hotel platform like SiteMinder will help you find more guests, boost revenue, optimise pricing, enhance the guest experience, improve cash flow, analyse performance, and more.

2. Optimise revenue management

Look at how you can make more money up-front, boost revenue from each individual booking, and minimise expenses. 

Some strategies you should think about include using dynamic pricing, prioritising direct bookings, offering upsells and extras, and connecting more booking channels.

3. Enhance the guest experience

When guests are happier, they’ll spend more and also be more inclined to return to your hotel. Ultimately your profit margins and ROI will improve with satisfied guests. Work on streamlining your booking and check-in processes, providing quality communication, and implementing a rewarding loyalty program.

4. Create operational efficiency

Whether it’s through a property management system or a whole hotel tech stack, becoming efficient on both the backend and frontend of your business will have a flow-on effect on your bottom line. With more spare time on your hands, you’ll be able to focus more strongly on strategies, investments, and analysis to unlock better decision making.

5. Make informed, strategic, decisions

Use any and all data at your hotel to inform your decision making. This includes sales and marketing performance, revenue management metrics, distribution mix, direct booking metrics, staff efficiency, promotion uptake, and more.

Your hotel is a hive of data, which can often be gleaned easily from your software solution reports or senior staff, and you can use data to ensure each plan you make is more successful than the last. 

For example, by using solutions such as a channel manager and booking engine, you’ll be able to see which third-party booking sites are bringing you the most revenue and what percentage of your business is coming to you directly from your own website or other direct channels such as social media or metasearch.

“SiteMinder’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimizing my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. My association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform.”

Heather Minyard,

Director of Commercial Strategy

Smoky Mountain Resorts

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New hotel return on investment key factors

If you’re looking to open a new hotel and want to achieve a positive ROI quickly, there are a few factors that are crucial.

• Location: Where is the hotel (or where do you plan to build it)? Is this area typically popular with tourists and how much competition is surrounding your site? Try to choose somewhere that has high demand but isn’t overly saturated with accommodation options.
• Target market: You need to have a firm vision and understanding of who your hotel is for and how you plan to attract them.
• Staff: Hiring, building, and managing a team of staff can get expensive quickly if you don’t get it right. You need people who see hospitality as a career and have high standards when it comes to service.
• Operations: Plan ahead and see how you can create efficiency – including in energy usage, water usage, waste management, administration and more.
• Profit generators: What extras can you offer at the time of purchase? Which amenities do you plan to install and monetise? How can you attract revenue from people who aren’t guests at the hotel?
• Guest relationships: You need to wow guests from the very start, to build loyalty and create word-of-mouth marketing so your business can get a foothold in the market.
• Partnerships: As a new player, it won’t pay to be isolated. Try to form partnerships with other local businesses that will mutually benefit you.
• USPs: Unique selling points are things that make your property unique. Make sure you have a couple and market them strongly to encourage additional bookings and maybe even some local media coverage.
• Budgeting and forecasting: Understand how much cash you have and how much you need to make to keep the business running long-term. Set and accomplish goals that give you extra breathing room.
• Technology: This will make all the other factors easier to manage and ultimately deliver a positive ROI to your hotel. From automating distribution, bookings, and payments to simplifying revenue management and reporting, there are specialised providers which allow you to do everything at the click of a button.

With industry leading tech support, you can be sure your ROI will thrive and your hotel will remain successful longterm.

A destination management company is a professional services firm specialising in local expertise and resources to design, plan, and manage events, activities, and tours. Also referred to as a DMC, it works as a strategic partner for you, helping to provide authentic and well-organised experiences for your guests.

What is the difference between destination management companies and travel agencies?

Destination management companies (DMCs) and travel agencies serve different purposes in the travel and tourism industry. A DMC focuses on providing in-depth local expertise and on-the-ground services, such as event planning, activities, and logistics coordination, specifically for groups and business clients. They tailor their services to create unique, curated experiences. 

On the other hand, travel agencies primarily sell travel products such as flights, accommodation, and package holidays to individual travellers. They act as intermediaries between customers and service providers, focusing on facilitating travel bookings and reservations.

In this blog we’ll cover everything your hotel needs to know about destination management companies.