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.

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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.

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.

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…

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.

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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.

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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.

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 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.

Why should hotels work with a DMC?

You should work with a DMC to benefit from their local expertise and specialised services, which help create unique and memorable experiences for your guests. Their services allow you to enhance your guest offerings, save time, and focus on core operations.

Destination management services list

Common DMC services include:

• Event planning and management: Handling meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE). DMCs ensure that every aspect of the event, from venue selection to catering, is meticulously managed, allowing you to offer seamless experiences to guests and clients.
• Logistics coordination: Managing transportation, staff, and venue setup. This includes organising airport transfers, shuttle services, and ensuring that event venues are set up according to specifications, which reduces the burden on your staff.
• Supplier and vendor management: Coordinating with local suppliers for accommodations, catering, and services. DMCs have established relationships with trusted vendors, ensuring high-quality services and better pricing. This helps you deliver exceptional guest experiences without having to navigate complex supplier negotiations.
• Customised itineraries and experiences: Creating tailored travel experiences, activities, and tours for guests. DMCs provide unique local experiences that align with guests’ preferences, ensuring memorable stays that go beyond the typical tourist attractions.
• Cultural and language expertise: Offering multilingual guides and cultural insights to create more authentic guest experiences. This is especially valuable for international guests, helping them feel more connected and comfortable during their stay.

Reach with the biggest destination management companies via SiteMinder

SiteMinder empowers you to tap into the corporate travel market, boost group bookings, and increase room revenue with seamless integrations and expanded visibility across key channels.

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List of destination management company examples

Every major tourist destination has its own clutch of DMCs. Here are some examples of a few of the most prominent:

Ovation Global DMC (Global)

Ovation Global DMC brings over 30 years of experience in delivering memorable events, meetings, and incentive programs worldwide. With an extensive network spanning more than 100 destinations, Ovation tailors each event to the local culture while ensuring the highest standards of delivery. Known for their creativity and resourcefulness, they excel in handling everything from logistics to exclusive, high-end programs, becoming invaluable partners for corporations, associations, and agencies seeking seamless experiences across multiple continents.

Cititravel (Spain)

As a leading DMC in Spain and Portugal, Cititravel is known for delivering the unique character of the Iberian Peninsula to corporate clients through thoughtfully designed programs. Specialising in events, incentives, and conferences, Cititravel’s team crafts experiences that go beyond logistics, offering cultural insights and authentic local flavour. From dynamic city tours to coastal escapes, Cititravel ensures that every program is immersive and personalised, showcasing the best of Spanish and Portuguese hospitality and heritage.

Mideast Travel Worldwide (France)

Established in 1983, Mideast Travel Worldwide is a trusted name in Greece for destination management, catering to a diverse clientele looking to explore the historical and cultural depth of Greece. Known for their meticulous planning, Mideast provides corporate travel management, luxury services, and tailor-made itineraries that highlight iconic Greek landscapes and experiences. Their expert team crafts events that bring Greece’s timeless charm to life, making them a premier choice for meetings, incentives, and high-end travel experiences.

Melur (Italy)

Melur is an Italian DMC dedicated to curating exclusive, culturally rich experiences across Italy. With services that range from luxury travel and event management to unique excursions, Melur introduces clients to Italy’s art, cuisine, and historic landmarks in an unforgettable way. Their expertise extends from private tours of the Colosseum to fashion events in Milan, offering an insider’s view of Italian life and ensuring every journey is as elegant and storied as Italy itself.

Compass Tours Incoming (Munich)

Compass Tours Incoming is a highly regarded DMC in Germany, operating from major cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich. Known for their comprehensive event management and incentive programs, Compass Tours introduces clients to the diversity and innovation of Germany. Their tailored services include organising large-scale conferences, creative events, and cultural tours that uncover Germany’s rich traditions and modern appeal, making them an ideal partner for companies seeking a distinctive German experience.

The Shackman Group (New York)

Based in the heart of New York City, The Shackman Group is a premier DMC for corporate events, meetings, and incentive programs in the city that never sleeps. Leveraging their extensive local connections, The Shackman Group offers clients exclusive access to iconic venues and curated experiences, from Broadway shows to rooftop receptions. Their expertise and deep understanding of New York allow them to create highly personalised, memorable events that capture the unique energy of the city.

Amstour (Amsterdam)

Amstour is a specialised DMC in the Netherlands, known for providing immersive Dutch experiences with a personal touch. They manage corporate events, incentive programs, and custom tours that highlight the Netherlands’ history, art, and innovation. With services that range from canal tours in Amsterdam to exclusive art museum access, Amstour ensures every visit is a balanced blend of authenticity and modernity, capturing the spirit of Dutch culture for corporate and leisure clients alike.

Abercrombie and Kent (Luxury)

Synonymous with luxury travel, Abercrombie & Kent has been creating bespoke journeys since 1962. Known for their attention to detail and commitment to exceptional service, they provide clients with exclusive access to exotic locations, luxurious accommodations, and curated experiences like African safaris, private yacht charters, and cultural tours. Their expertise in crafting personalised, high-end travel makes them the go-to DMC for discerning travellers seeking unforgettable adventures in the world’s most captivating destinations.

Benefits of partnering with a travel DMC

Now you know who they are and where they’re based, is it worthwhile for your hotel to partner with a DMC? We think so – and here are the reasons why:

Enhance guest experiences

Partnering with a DMC allows you to offer unique, curated experiences that go beyond standard offerings, such as local cultural tours, exclusive event access, and immersive activities tailored to guest interests. By leveraging local expertise, you can provide guests with personalised itineraries, curated local tours and experiences, and tailored recommendations. 

Working with DMCs ensure a seamless booking process integration, cater to international guests with cultural sensitivity, and offer exclusive access to off-the-beaten-path attractions that create memorable stays.

Drive revenue growth

DMCs help you tap into new revenue streams by attracting group bookings, corporate clients, and event-related guests. For example, a DMC recently partnered with a mid-sized hotel to successfully attract multiple corporate clients by organising tailored conferences and exclusive events, resulting in a significant increase in group bookings and overall occupancy. Their expertise in organising MICE events and other group activities can significantly increase occupancy rates, especially during off-peak seasons. 

DMCs also facilitate commission-based bookings and offer exclusive packages that drive value for guests and your hotel. They also assist in upselling local experiences and amenities, optimising pricing strategies with data analytics, and attracting more group bookings and corporate travel.

Streamline hotel operations

By managing logistics, event planning, and supplier relationships, DMCs allow your staff to focus on core responsibilities, such as guest services and hospitality management, improving overall efficiency. 

This includes efficient event management (weddings, meetings, conferences), logistics support (airport transfers, transportation), and improved communication and data sharing through integrated systems. DMCs provide staff training and development, ensuring that your team is well-prepared to provide top-notch service. This streamlining of operations reduces the burden on your staff and ensures that all guest-facing services are well-coordinated.

Address seasonality and boost occupancy

DMCs can help you overcome the challenges of seasonality by attracting different types of travellers throughout the year. By developing attractive off-peak packages, leveraging local events and festivals, and creating unique seasonal experiences, DMCs ensure a steady flow of guests, helping you maintain occupancy rates even during traditionally slow periods.

Leverage data analytics for hotel growth

DMCs collect valuable data on guest preferences, booking behaviour, travel trends, and event success, which you can use to refine your offerings and marketing strategies. By gathering insights into guest preferences and booking behaviour, analysing local market trends and competitor activities, and using data to inform service offerings and marketing strategies, you can better understand your target audience and optimise your services for increased guest satisfaction.

Increase group bookings and corporate travel

DMCs are experienced in managing group bookings and corporate travel, which can be highly profitable for your hotel. By partnering with a DMC, you can attract more business from corporate clients, event planners, and large travel groups, resulting in higher occupancy and greater revenue. 

DMCs assist in developing attractive packages for business travellers and groups, managing logistics and itineraries for conferences and events, and catering to the specific needs of corporate clients.

“SiteMinder reduces so much complexity for us and helps us optimise our business for growth. To input all our required seasonal rates and restrictions for six channels including Booking.com, Agoda, and Expedia, it would take us 12 hours. With SiteMinder, it takes two.”

Vu Thanh,

E-commerce Manager

Fusion Hotel Group

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How to choose the best destination management company

When choosing the best DMC, consider factors such as their local expertise, service offerings, and experience with similar clients. Look for a DMC with a proven track record in event management, logistics coordination, and building relationships with trusted vendors. 

It’s important to evaluate their ability to tailor experiences to your specific needs, integrate seamlessly with your hotel operations, and provide value that aligns with your business goals. Checking references and case studies from previous clients can also provide insight into how effective a DMC is in delivering high-quality services.

Perhaps the easiest way to get involved with a DMC is by consulting with a leading technology provider in your market.

DMC software is a tool used by destination management companies (DMCs) to manage and coordinate the travel services they provide.

DMCs manage travel arrangements and experiences for individuals and groups, particularly for corporate clientele. They are generally local companies that take care of everything – hotels, transfers, tours, activities and other travel-related services – using their deep regional knowledge to craft custom itineraries to suit their clients’ needs and preferences.

What is DMC software for? It is designed to do everything that you’d expect destination management company software to do: itinerary planning, accounting, reporting and analytics, supplier/partner/client communication, and most importantly for hotels, booking management.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at DMC software, to find out how a hotel might be able to gain access to the huge number of guests that DMCs need to find accommodation for.

Why use DMC software as part of your hotel’s strategy?

DMCs represent an incredible opportunity for hotels. They tend to arrange travel for groups, so if you can form a relationship with a DMC, you could win a significant number of bookings. They also predominantly cater to business travellers, so those group bookings can help to fill your hotel mid-week and during low season.

A lot of destination management software offers integrated booking options, allowing DMCs to book hotels directly through the tool. Savvy hotels will ensure that they are listed within DMC travel software, in order to capture these valuable bookings.

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How does DMC software work?

DMC software for hotels works by listing your property within DMC software. When a DMC is looking for accommodation for their clients, your hotel is listed as an option, and bookings can often be made right there in the tool.

Integrate DMC booking software with existing hotel systems

A hotel can’t usually connect directly to DMC software. In order to be listed as a booking option within travel DMC software solutions, a hotel will usually need to connect to an intermediary like Tourplan, which collates accommodation options for DMCs and tour operators.

You should therefore ensure that your hotel systems can seamlessly integrate with leading tour operator solutions like Tourplan, to ensure you can capitalise on the opportunities that DMCs present.

Best practises of DMC software solutions

Beyond booking hotels, how might a destination management company use a DMC tool? Here’s how successful DMCs use these purpose-built solutions.

Streamline group bookings and events 

The best DMC software allows DMCs to streamline group reservations and manage room blocks effortlessly. By integrating event management tools, the DMC can seamlessly coordinate any events that might form part of the itinerary – a particularly valuable feature for conferences and corporate travel events, but also for weddings and other private functions too.

Craft unforgettable guest journeys with personalised service

Success in destination management is built on understanding and catering to guest preferences. The best DMC software will help a DMC do exactly that, by capturing data that paints a picture of each client’s wants and needs, and by facilitating easy communication between client and company.

Fuel revenue growth and optimise distribution channels

This is the important one for any hotels looking to attract DMC business. The best DMC tools will present the user with hotel options that they can book within the tool. This means that by ensuring that you are presented as an option, via an intermediary like Tourplan, you can earn valuable bookings to maximise occupancy and revenue.

Boost operational efficiency and free staff from tedious tasks

The best DMC software solutions will allow staff to more easily book, manage and coordinate client itineraries, while streamlining communication with suppliers, partners and clientele. This allows DMCs to boost their operational efficiency, and allows workers to switch their focus from laborious admin to delivering high-end client experiences.

Harness the power of data analytics for smarter decisions

Smooth, memorable and unique client experiences are the bread and butter of DMCs, and the right DMC tool will help to create and deliver them, by using data analytics to paint a picture of what every client wants. The best tools will also help a DMC to optimise pricing, boost operational efficiency and fine-tune their marketing campaigns.

“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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Choosing the best DMC software for your hotel

As a hotel, you won’t choose a DMC software solution per se, because you’re not a DMC. But you will choose if and how you appear as a booking option within DMC tools.

The key is to ensure that you have put yourself forward as a reservation option with the travel management solutions that collate hotels for DMCs to book.

Take Tourplan, for example: a software solution designed specifically for tour operators and DMCs. Along with operational, accounting and quoting tools, it also offers DMCs an extensive list of hotels that they can book for their clients.

SiteMinder is a Tourplan partner, so as a SiteMinder user you can instantly, easily and seamlessly connect with Tourplan, and ensure that your hotel is presented as an option whenever a DMC is looking to book a hotel on behalf of their clients.

Goway Travel is an inbound tour operator (ITO) that specialises in creating customised trips for travellers to unique global destinations.

Goway Travel offers its clients tailored travel itineraries in 115 countries. For hotels looking to host these travellers, Goway Travel can be accessed via Tourplan, the popular ITO & DMC booking solution.

What is a Goway Travel agent?

A Goway Travel agent is simply a travel agent that has registered with Goway, and who places clients on Goway Travel tours.

Agents can utilise GowayPro – a dedicated Goway Travel agent portal login – to better understand and promote Goway’s travel offerings through resources like training, marketing tools and exclusive incentives.

In this blog we’ll discuss how a hotel can capitalise on the revenue generation opportunities presented by Goway and the Goway Travel agent site.

Is Goway Travel legit?

With a history stretching back to 1970, and having organised tours in 115 countries across all seven continents, Goway Travel is most certainly legit. The legitimacy of the ITO can be seen in Goway Travel reviews, such as the incredible rating the company enjoys on Trustpilot.

Why Goway Travel matters to hotels: Unlock new markets and boost your bookings

Offering up your hotel to Goway Travel grants you the opportunity to tap into a new, high-value market of travellers seeking unique, customised experiences.

You can increase your visibility in diverse international markets, both through Goway and its agents using their Goway Travel agent logins, and through word-of-mouth referrals that can be earned from overseas guests after you’ve hosted them.

Tour groups also tend to have less of a weekend focus, so they can help you fill your hotel during mid-week lulls.

Unleash the power of Goway Travel with SiteMinder

Through complete integration with Tourplan, SiteMinder grants your hotel seamless connectivity with Goway Travel, where you can access the treasure trove of travellers that the ITO organises itineraries for.

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Goway Travel reviews hotels should know about

It’s important that your hotel is associated with reputable travel companies, as this ensures that you host happy travellers, and that your hotel enjoys the reflected glow of being a Goway-certified property. So what do Goway clients say about the company?

Looking at reviews from Goway Travel customers, accommodation is often cited as one of the very best things about a Goway tour. Hotels are generally described as high quality and centrally located, while many exceeded the expectations that the travellers had for the accommodation on the tour.

This indicates that Goway Travel is selective with the hotels that they let into their network. Hotels will need to prove their quality in order to secure bookings through the tour operator, and will need to deliver a quality stay every time. But if both of those boxes are ticked, a hotel can expect ongoing business from Goway.

How Goway Travel works for hotels

For hotels, partnering with Goway can be a lucrative move – but exactly how does such a partnership work?

The simplest and most popular way to get in front of Goway Travel agents is via Tourplan. Tourplan is an intermediary – an itinerary writing tool that a large number of DMCs and ITOs like Goway use to send reservations to hotels.

Tourplan is there to facilitate a dynamic connection between Goway and hotels, making it simple for agents to make reservations through their Goway Travel agent portal login, and making it simple for hotels to receive and manage those reservations – provided the hotel has access to the right tools.

SiteMinder is that tool. As one of only two providers to offer complete Tourplan connectivity, SiteMinder users can automate the otherwise manual task of managing Goway reservations, freeing you up to focus on winning more bookings from the ITO.

Here’s how it works for SiteMinder users:

Step 1: Sign up with Tourplan

Ensure your hotel is registered with Tourplan, so that you’re included in the inventory managed by Tourplan, which Goway uses to source hotel rooms for its clients.

Step 2: Integrate SiteMinder and Tourplan

Speak with your dedicated onboarding manager to ensure that SiteMinder and Tourplan are fully integrated, and that your hotel can be found by travel professionals who have secured a Goway Travel agent registration.

Step 3: Start accepting reservations

Once SiteMinder and Tourplan are connected, any reservation that Goway makes with your hotel via Tourplan will be automatically sent to you, at which point your channel manager can automatically update availability across all your listings, amongst a wealth of other automations.

“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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Examples of the best Goway Travel hotels

What does a Goway hotel look like? In reality any hotel can become part of the Goway network, but those that get the most business from the ITO tend to be found on the more established tourist trails. Goway hotels also tend to boast a great location, and have proven their quality over a few years of operation.

Examples of the best Goway Travel hotels include:

• Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, Peru: As the only hotel that is located within the boundaries of the Machu Picchu World Heritage Site, Belmond Sanctuary Lodge is an absolute favourite for any company that hosts tours to this sacred Peruvian site.
• Four Seasons Resort Bali At Sayan, Indonesia: While Four Seasons is known for its upscale accommodation, it takes things to another level at its Bali at Sayan resort, hidden amongst the forest near Ubud.
• Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome, Germany: Found in Berlin, not the Italian capital, Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome is found on historic Bebelplatz, and is one of the most luxurious and prestigious hotels in this historic city.

While each of these hotels is quite renowned, you don’t need to be a famous property to profit from Goway Travel. You simply need the right technology – a system that can connect you seamlessly to the tour operator, to maximise the chances of its agents picking you.

SiteMinder is exactly that.

An inbound tour operator is a type of travel business that organises and manages travel services for international travellers looking to explore a destination.

Also known as ITOs, inbound tour operators collaborate with local travel businesses and transport operators to facilitate and coordinate organised tours for inbound tourists. What is inbound tourism? It’s simply the act of a traveller visiting a country that isn’t their own.

ITOs are often referred to as domestic tour operators or ground tour operators because that might be a more accurate description of what they do: they’re on the ground, organising tours in specific destinations, for clients who aren’t familiar with the area.

What is the difference between an outbound and inbound tour operator?

Now that we have an inbound tour operator definition, what is an inbound vs outbound operator? Outbound tour operators are simply the companies that organise trips to destinations other than their own.

In this guide we’ll focus on inbound tour operators (ITOs), and how a hotel can capitalise on the incredible opportunities that these companies present.

The value of inbound tour operators to hotels

Why are ITOs so valuable to hotels? Because a lot of people book travel through inbound tour operators, meaning they organise beds for a lot of tourists. By partnering with an ITO, you gain access to the hundreds, potentially thousands of tourists that the company needs to arrange accommodation for.

Why inbound tourism is booming

The inbound tourism industry is booming because travellers are becoming more aware of the value of local knowledge. An ITO brings a deep understanding of their region, so the traveller has the potential to enjoy a more authentic and interesting travel experience.

There are other reasons too:

• Increased global connectivity, including more affordable flights, has made international travel more accessible than ever.
• A fast-growing global middle class has the disposable income for international travel.
• An increased awareness of global cultures has led to more people seeking out authentic, immersive travel experiences.

Advantages of hotels partnering with inbound tour operators

ITOs grant you access to/increase your visibility in a high-value travel market. What’s more, tour groups can fill your hotel mid-week, as international tourists tend to have less of a weekend focus.

Unleash the power of ITOs with SiteMinder

SiteMinder offers complete integration with a number of ITOs and ITO-focused booking platforms, allowing your hotel to capitalise on the wealth of travellers that inbound tour operators organise itineraries for.

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Inbound tour operator examples

What exactly does an ITO look like? Some of the world’s best inbound tour operators include:

• Perla Tours: Based in Barcelona, this ITO prides itself on its knowledge of the Mediterranean, and offers distinctly local tours to international travellers.
• Bonotel Exclusive Travel: The self-described leading ITO in North America gives its hotel partners access to 2600 travel agencies from around the world.
• Travel Addicts Limited: This New Zealand-based company offers group, solo, adventure, cultural and totally customised tours of its remote corner of the world.
• Eurotours: Organising holidays for more than one million travellers every year, Eurotours is prominent in Austria and its surrounding neighbours.
• Neo Travel: This company has roots in Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico, offering tailored services to hotels and travellers alike.

Strategies to build successful partnerships with inbound tour operators

Building partnerships with ITOs requires some effort, but the rewards can be significant. The following strategies can help you to secure this valuable business:

Identify the right ITOs for your hotel

Focus on ITOs that target the same sort of traveller that you do. Work to align your offering with the needs of the ITO and its clientele, such as offering more flexible check-in/check-out times.

Negotiate contracts with inbound tour operators

Create clear agreements in terms of rates, commissions and cancellation policies, and be flexible where you can. Ultimately both you and the ITO should win in this partnership.

Integrate your hotel booking platform with your ITOs’ systems

Ensure your systems can connect seamlessly with inbound tour operator software. SiteMinder, for example, offers integration with services like Tourplan, which allow an ITO to book directly with you.

Create attractive inbound tour packages

Design packages specifically for the ITO and its clientele, such as combining a stay at your hotel with a local tour or experience.

Prepare inbound tour packages for off-peak seasons

Offer unique or discounted packages during low season to attract more bookings from ITOs.

Leverage ITOs to tap into niche markets

Collaborate with niche ITOs that focus on specific markets like eco-tourism, gastronomy or adventure, and to tailor your offerings to meet the preferences of these groups.

Use data from ITOs to personalise guest experiences

ITOs are a treasure trove of traveller data. Request access to insights on demographics, preferences and travel habits to craft a more personalised guest experience, from welcome amenities to tailored services.

Develop long-term loyalty programs with inbound tour operators

Encourage repeat business by establishing loyalty or incentive programs with ITOs, featuring enticing benefits that foster long-term partnerships, such as discounts for a certain number of rooms booked over a certain period.

Assess ITO performance with key indicators

By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like booking volume and revenue per booking, you can evaluate each ITO’s contribution to your business, and adjust your strategies as required.

“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 maintain long-term relationships with inbound tour operators

You can maintain valuable, long-term relationships with ITOs in the same way you maintain relationships with other travel partners. You should:

• Communicate clearly and consistently, particularly if you need to update your rates or policies.
• Establish processes that guarantee you deliver high quality service to every ITO guest.
• Offer exclusive incentives that recognise the value that the ITO is contributing to your hotel.
• Collaborate with the ITO to create better, more memorable experiences for their travellers.

But how do you make sure your connections are strong, reliable, and effective?

Tourplan is a comprehensive hotel software solution that simplifies itinerary planning, booking management, and communication between hotels and tour operators. It automates these tasks, allowing properties to reduce manual effort and ensure that bookings are processed accurately. For hotel groups like yours, Tourplan is an essential tool to ensure smooth operations across all your properties.

Tour planner software vs tour scheduling software

While tour planner software is primarily designed to manage the entire guest experience and itinerary, tour scheduling software focuses more on logistics and timing. Tourplan combines these functionalities, offering you a complete solution to work efficiently with tour operators.

In this article, we’ll explore why Tourplan is important for hotel groups like yours, how it works, and how integrating it with SiteMinder can transform your booking management process.

What is the importance of Tourplan for hotels?

If you’re managing multiple tour operator relationships, keeping up with real-time reservation updates is critical. Tourplan automates this process, reducing your manual workload and ensuring bookings are confirmed and updated in real-time. Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder can significantly boost your efficiency, allowing you to focus on providing great guest experiences – not your admin requirements – while growing your revenue.

More global bookings, more revenue, more control

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How does Tourplan software work?

Tourplan simplifies your booking process by acting as a central hub that connects you with Inbound Tour Operators (ITOs) and Destination Management Companies (DMCs). It automates the flow of booking information between you and the tour operator, ensuring that all reservations are accurate, up-to-date, and confirmed in real-time.

Tourplan’s role in automation

Tourplan automates many of the processes that would otherwise require manual input. By reducing the need for manual updates, you can free up staff to focus on guest-facing tasks, improving your hotel’s overall efficiency.

• Automated booking imports: Tourplan automatically captures reservations from ITOs and DMCs, eliminating the need for manual input and preventing overbookings.
• Real-time updates: Any changes to itineraries or bookings are instantly reflected in your system, reducing errors and keeping availability accurate.
• Instant confirmations: Tourplan confirms bookings in real-time, notifying your team and tour operators without manual follow-ups.
• Centralised communication: It automates the exchange of reservation details and updates with tour operators, streamlining communications across your system.

Connecting with ITOs and DMCs

Tourplan simplifies the connection between your hotel and ITOs and DMCs, by automating the flow of real-time booking information. 

It ensures that reservations, itinerary changes, and availability updates are instantly reflected in your Property Management System (PMS), reducing manual input and preventing errors. The system syncs your room inventory (whether that’s from direct bookings or from the 1,350+ OTAs we connect with) and rates with operators, allowing them to make bookings based on accurate, up-to-date data. 

Tourplan also manages group bookings efficiently, centralising all reservation details in one place and automating communication, including booking confirmations and availability updates. This ensures seamless coordination with wholesale tour operators, while also supporting invoicing and payments, making the entire process faster and more transparent.

Example

A medium-sized hotel group integrated Tourplan to manage reservations from over 10 tour operators. As a result, they reduced their manual work by 40%, saving valuable time and allowing their staff to focus on enhancing the guest experience. 

Not only that, but they solidified their own place as a strong partner in their local tour operators’ business plans, providing an excellent position for supporting long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

Tourplan integration: Everything you need to know

Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder is seamless and ensures that you can manage reservations from multiple tour operators efficiently. This integration removes the need for manual data entry, keeping your Property Management System (PMS) up-to-date without added effort.

Tourplan API

Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder’s API enables you to automate booking management and communication between systems. The setup process is straightforward, and the API supports a variety of popular PMS solutions, ensuring compatibility across your tech stack.

Here are the key steps:

1. Access API credentials: Contact SiteMinder to enable the Tourplan connection and receive your API key for secure integration.
2. Connect to your PMS: SiteMinder’s API supports popular Property Management Systems (PMS) like Opera, RoomMaster, Protel, and Cloudbeds. If you use a custom PMS, the API is flexible for bespoke integrations.
3. Configure API settings: Set up the data flow between SiteMinder and Tourplan. This ensures that bookings from ITOs and DMCs sync in real-time with your PMS through SiteMinder.
4. Test the integration: Run test bookings to confirm the data flows correctly, ensuring rates, availability, and reservations are properly synced.
5. Activate live management: Once testing is complete, your systems go live, and all Tourplan bookings are automatically synced with your PMS.

Tourplan pricing

Tourplan operates on a flexible pricing model, which includes several key costs:

• API fees: Tourplan charges for API access, the exact price depending on the number of properties and the volume of bookings you handle.
• Integration costs: There can be a one-time integration cost, covering the technical setup and connection between Tourplan and your other systems.
• Subscription fees: Tourplan charges ongoing subscription fees, starting from USD$900 per year, depending on the size and needs of your hotel group, the number of users, and additional features.

While there are upfront and ongoing costs, the benefits of using Tourplan often outweigh these expenses. The software automates many manual processes, significantly reducing administrative work, cutting labour costs, and minimising errors that could result in revenue loss. Additionally, improved booking efficiency and real-time inventory management help optimise room occupancy, directly impacting your revenue potential.

For a hotel group handling high booking volumes from ITOs and DMCs, the time and cost savings from reduced manual work, along with enhanced operational efficiency, often make Tourplan a cost-effective choice.

Tourplan login

When you log into Tourplan, you access a comprehensive dashboard to manage bookings, update availability, and track real-time reservation data. Compared to its competitors like Rezdy, TourConnect, and Ventrata, Tourplan stands out due to its unique features:

• Superior automation: Tourplan excels in automating the entire booking process, reducing manual effort more effectively than its competitors, making it ideal for handling high volumes of reservations.
• Real-time updates: Unlike many competitors, Tourplan provides seamless, real-time updates directly to your PMS, minimising the risk of booking errors and ensuring smooth operations.
• Wide integration options: Tourplan integrates with a broader range of systems, including SiteMinder’s Channel Manager and popular PMS solutions, providing you with flexibility that competitors often lack.
• Scalability: Whether you’re managing a small hotel group or expanding into new markets, Tourplan scales effortlessly, offering greater operational control than most competing platforms.

Tourplan’s deep integration with SiteMinder, advanced automation, and real-time updates make it a superior choice for hotel groups looking to streamline operations and boost efficiency.

Tourplan system

Tourplan helps you scale your operations by managing large volumes of group bookings efficiently. Whether you’re dealing with multiple properties or increasing your market reach, Tourplan ensures that your growing reservation numbers are handled smoothly.

“SiteMinder’s data shows me how demand evolves, and which offers or channels are doing especially well. Having these insights makes it easier to double down on what’s working and adjust our approach on slower days.”

Jon Murphy,

Consultant Revenue Director

Kaleidoscope Collection

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What is the benefit of Tourplan for hotels?

Tourplan offers several key benefits, including the optimisation of your revenue management. With detailed booking data, you can make smarter pricing decisions and improve overall efficiency. In combination with SiteMinder, you gain access to valuable data insights that further enhance your booking automation and decision-making processes.

Tourplan is also flexible, allowing you to adapt to the latest trends in the travel industry. By using SiteMinder and Tourplan together, you can offer more customised experiences to your guests, staying ahead of the competition and meeting changing travel expectations.

Tour operator software is a type of digital tool used by the hospitality industry to manage and automate bookings, itineraries and operations between hotels and tour companies.

Many hotel groups run tours, and use specialised tour operator software to do so. But hotel groups more commonly use tour operator software to connect with tour operators and their clientele, to become the hotel of choice for these groups, and enjoy the consistent business that tour companies can deliver.

In this guide we’ll take a closer look at tour operator and itinerary builder software: why a hotel might use such a tool, what the top tour operator software looks like, and how to get maximum value from tour operator software solutions.

Why should hotel groups use tour operator booking software?

There are a number of compelling reasons for a hotel group to use tour operator systems/software.

First and foremost you can greatly diversify your hotel’s distribution channels, allowing you to reach new guest segments while reducing your reliance on OTAs.

These tools can grant you access to international travellers, group bookings, niche markets and more. They can also help your hotel to increase mid-week and low season occupancy, and can drive consistent income for the business.

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How tour management software helps boost hotel revenue

How exactly does tour operator itinerary software help your hotel group make more money? 

• Access new markets: The simple answer to the question above is by connecting your hotels to tour operators who are looking for somewhere to house their guests. You gain access to an otherwise difficult to reach (and in some cases unreachable) market.
• Enjoy predictable occupancy: Web based tour operator software connects you with companies that tend to book several rooms at a time for their clients, generally make these bookings well in advance, and often book during quieter times of the week or year. Such predictable, consistent business can be invaluable.
• Attract different types of travellers: In gaining access to this new market, you might identify a type of guest that you haven’t targeted before, but who represents a huge untapped market.
• Promote unique experiences: Tour groups are a captive audience who you can sell your hotel and region to. By providing a fantastic experience, you could generate buzz about your area which the tour group might spread through word of mouth, which can help to deliver you new business with minimal marketing spend.

Key features of the best tour operator software for hotels

Beyond checking tour operator software reviews, what should you be looking for in the best tools?

Integration with existing systems

The multi day tour operator software you choose will need to integrate with your current tech stack. Before you lock in a tool, check that it can do the following with your property management system (PMS):

• Sync data in real time
• Send, receive and manage booking information
• Exchange data to power reporting and analytics

Automation and efficiency

Integration facilitates automation, as it ensures your tools can talk and work with each other, so connectivity is crucial for tour operator automation software. But you should also look for:

• Tour operator software with communication management functionality, like automated messaging
• Tour operator software with reporting and analytics tools
• Real-time rate and availability updates
• Scalability through upgraded plans and added features

Data security and privacy

Data security is an absolute non-negotiable for any modern tech tool. You’ll often see tour operator software with waiver management and other tour-specific privacy features, but as a hotel you should be looking for compliance with industry standards and regulations.

SiteMinder’s GDPR compliance and PCI DSS certification is a good example of the security you should be looking for.

Commissions and other fees

Most modern tour operator solutions operate under SaaS subscription models. Many offer multiple subscription levels, so you can choose a package that suits your needs to ensure you don’t overpay.

On top of the subscription fee, you should also carefully review the commissions and fees that you’ll pay on any bookings made through your chosen tool, as these can take a significant chunk of your revenue.

Balancing direct and tour operator bookings

Speaking of commissions, while tour operator software is a great way to connect with travel companies and gain access to their valuable clientele, your ultimate aim should be to cut out the software intermediary and attract direct bookings from tour businesses.

“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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How does tour reservation software work for hotel groups?

Tour operator solutions connect hotel groups with tour operators looking for properties that can host their guests. The inner workings can differ from tool to tool: some simply connect hotel and tour company, and let the two parties come to their own arrangement, while others facilitate every aspect of the hotel booking within the tool.

There are a wealth of such solutions available to hotel groups, which serve different tour companies and travel niches. The right tool for you will depend on the type of guest and bookings you’re looking to attract, and how you hope to secure them.

But no matter what your ideal hotel operator software looks like, you can be confident that your perfect tool will seamlessly integrate with SiteMinder.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a regulation within the European Union (EU) that aims to make digital markets fairer and more competitive. It applies to very large online platforms and search engines, often called ‘gatekeepers’, that have a significant impact on the digital economy.

It’s part of a wider movement to tighten regulation in the digital sector, with the EU also introducing the Digital Services Act (DSA) and proposing an AI Act.

In this blog we’ll give a full overview of the Digital Markets Act and how it might impact your hotel business.

Why is the EU Digital Markets Act important?

The EU Digital Markets Act is an important law for ensuring that the digital economy gives all businesses a fair chance to succeed.

Without regulation, the gatekeepers may have unrestricted power to control digital markets and freeze out other operators.

The DMA creates a more level playing field for businesses and also protects the interests of consumers. Here are some of the the main obligations and outcomes:

• Reduced anti-competitive practices: The DMA prevents gatekeepers from engaging in unfair practices like forcing businesses to use their services exclusively or favouring their own products over those of competitors.
• Promotion of interoperability: It requires gatekeepers to allow users to switch between different platforms and services more easily.
• Increased transparency: It requires gatekeepers to be more transparent about their algorithms and data practices.
• Protection of user data: Users have more control over their data and there are limits on the amount of data that gatekeepers can collect and use.

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How does the European Digital Markets Act work?

The European Digital Markets Act works by imposing more than 20 regulations onto designated gatekeepers which operate core platform services (CPS) and satisfy a specific criteria.

Currently the large platforms that have been designated as gatekeepers include:

• Alphabet (Google, YouTube)
• Amazon
• Apple
• ByteDance (TikTok)
• Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp)
• Microsoft

As for the types of core platform services, they include:

• Operating systems
• Browsers
• Social networks
• Intermediation (Maps, marketplace etc)
• N-IICS (Messenger)
• Ads
• Search
• Video sharing

Designation is based on size, market power, and strategic importance, which is why not all large digital companies are included.

To fit the criteria they must:

• Have a significant impact on the internal market
• Provide a CPS which is an important gateway for business users to reach end users
• Enjoy an entrenched and durable position

Once a company has reached the necessary thresholds, they must inform the Commission within two months. The Commission will then decide if the designation is appropriate and enforce the regulations.

As well as the obligations we mentioned earlier, others include:

• Self-preferencing: Gatekeepers cannot self-preference their own products or services, giving them an unfair advantage over competitors.
• Mergers and acquisitions: Gatekeepers must notify authorities of any proposed mergers or acquisitions that could significantly reduce competition in the digital market.
• User choice: Gatekeepers must allow users to uninstall pre-installed apps and choose their default search engine and app store.
• Monitoring and enforcement: Gatekeepers must implement systems to monitor their compliance with the DMA and cooperate with regulatory authorities in investigations.

Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 10% of the company’s global turnover, or up to 20% for repeated infringements.

What is the impact of the Digital Markets Act in the hotel industry?

The impact of Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the hotel industry can be looked at in two ways; direct and indirect.

Potential direct impacts:

• Increased competition: The regulations set out in the DMA would increase competition among online travel agencies (OTAs) by limiting their ability to engage in anti-competitive practices. This could lead to more favourable terms for hotels, such as lower commissions or more transparency in pricing.
• Enhanced interoperability: If OTAs such as Booking Holdings are designated gatekeepers, they would have to promote interoperability between their platforms and others. This could make it easier for hotels to distribute their inventory across multiple channels and reduce their reliance on any single OTA.
• Data privacy protections: The DMA strengthens data privacy protections for consumers, which could benefit hotels by increasing trust and transparency in their interactions with guests.

Potential indirect impacts:

• New players: The DMA could encourage the development of new online travel platforms and services, providing hotels with more options to reach potential guests.
• Booking behaviour: As consumers become more aware of their rights and have more choices, their booking behaviour may change. 

What does the Digital Markets Act mean for your hotel?

While the Digital Markets Act won’t necessarily create huge changes when it comes to running your hotel business, there are a couple of areas you may want to keep an eye on:

Rate parity

The DMA likely means the end of enforced rate parity clauses, meaning your hotel can offer exclusive discounts and promotions on your own website, without the requirement to match the rates advertised on an OTA like Expedia.

It also means OTAs may face more competition with each other to attract hotels, with more diversity in contract terms. 

Search

The DMA requires large digital platforms to treat all search results fairly, preventing them from favouring their own services or those of their business partners. This could lead to more diverse and relevant search results for travellers, making it easier for hotels to display their deals and options to travellers.  

There will also be greater transparency in search algorithms, requiring platforms to disclose how they rank search results. 

How to respond to the DMA at your hotel

The best way to respond to the DMA at your hotel is just to stay informed. If you’re in the EU it’s especially important. However, other regions could look at the DMA and choose to implement similar legislation.

Some other tips to help:

• Review your online booking contracts: Examine your contracts with OTAs to ensure they comply with the DMA’s principles. If necessary, negotiate for more favourable terms.
• Diversify your online presence: Consider diversifying your online presence beyond relying solely on large tech platforms. This could include building your own website, utilising social media, and exploring alternative booking channels. A platform like SiteMinder can give you everything you need to succeed as a hotel business in the digital age.
• Monitor advertising practices: Stay informed about any changes in digital advertising regulations that might affect your hotel’s marketing strategies.

“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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Frequently asked questions about the EU Digital Markets Act regulation

What does Google’s search engine results page look like before and after the DMA? 

Google’s search engine results page (SERP) probably won’t change significantly in appearance before and after the DMA, since it primarily focuses on regulating the behaviour and business practices of large online platforms, including search engines. It’s unlikely to have a big impact on the algorithm.

What is the scope of the Digital Markets Act? 

The scope of the Digital Markets Act includes where it operates, the sector and services it impacts, and who is responsible for complying. Right now, it is a European Union regulation that takes into account core platform services and large digital platforms known as gatekeepers. These include the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

What is the objective of the Digital Markets Act? 

The primary objective of the Digital Markets Act is to promote fair competition, protect consumers, and ensure a level playing field in the digital market within the European Union.

By regulating the behaviour of large online platforms, it will address concerns about the growing power of these companies and their potential to stifle innovation and competition.

What are the benefits of the Digital Markets Act? 

The benefits of the Digital Markets Act include fostering a fairer business environment, healthier competition in the digital sector, better services for consumers, more data protection and transparency, less power imbalances, and ultimately a stronger digital economy in the EU.

Who are the gatekeepers in the Digital Markets Act? 

Gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act  are large online platforms that have significant market power and influence over the digital ecosystem. These platforms are considered gatekeepers due to their ability to control access to key digital services and data.

Examples include Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.

When was the Digital Markets Act proposed? 

The Digital Markets Act was proposed by the European Commission in December 2020 and was formally introduced in December 2022.

What is the Digital Markets Act for social media? 

The Digital Markets Act is not specific to social media but  is a piece of legislation designed to regulate the behaviour of large online platforms, including social media companies.

What are the consent requirements for DMA? 

The DMA does not have specific consent requirements for users. However, it does impose obligations on gatekeepers to be transparent about their data collection and processing practices and to obtain user consent for certain purposes.

So when it comes to regulations, compliance, and digital markets, how can you set your hotel up for success?

The answer lies in using smart technology…

A digital concierge is a virtual system that assists hotel guests by handling requests, providing recommendations, and facilitating communication with hotel staff.

Whether through a mobile app, an in-room tablet, or a web-based interface, digital concierges offer a wide range of services such as booking reservations, managing room service orders, and providing local recommendations—all without the need for guests to call the front desk.

Unlike traditional concierges, a digital concierge operates 24/7, ensuring that guests can access information and services at any time. This not only enhances the guest experience but also reduces the workload for hotel staff by automating routine requests.

In this article, we’ll go through everything you need to know to get started with digital concierge, how they’re shaping the hospitality industry, and why SiteMinder is the best integration partner for implementing digital concierges.

Why do people use digital concierge services?

Guests today expect fast, convenient, and personalised service. Digital concierge systems cater to these demands by offering a self-service experience that allows guests to access everything they need in real time.

Whether it’s requesting extra towels, checking restaurant availability, or receiving recommendations for local attractions, digital concierges provide an easy and efficient way for guests to communicate their needs.

For hotel operators, digital concierges improve operational efficiency by reducing the number of calls and requests that staff have to manage manually. They also offer valuable data on guest preferences, enabling hotels to personalise their services and anticipate guest needs.

Is a digital concierge the same as a virtual front desk?

A digital concierge and a virtual front desk are similar but serve slightly different purposes in the hospitality industry.

• Digital concierge: A guest-facing system that assists with various services during their stay. It provides features like booking reservations, offering local recommendations, requesting room service, and other guest services. It operates as an always-on virtual assistant, ensuring guests have access to information and hotel services anytime.
• Virtual front desk: Typically focuses more on automating the check-in, check-out, and basic administrative tasks associated with guest stays. It can handle things like room assignments, keyless entry, payment processing, and answering frequently asked questions. Essentially, a virtual front desk takes over many of the front desk’s core functions, reducing or eliminating the need for physical interactions.

While both enhance guest experiences and streamline hotel operations, the digital concierge often focuses on enriching the guest’s stay through service-related interactions.

On the other hand, the virtual front desk is more about automating the logistical side of a guest’s arrival and departure. However, the two can overlap, especially as many digital concierges offer check-in/out features.

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How hotel digital concierges are transforming the industry

Digital concierges are transforming the hospitality industry by automating guest services, reducing staff workload, and providing personalised experiences. 

For B2B hospitality brands, they streamline operations, reduce costs, and offer valuable data insights that help refine services and increase revenue through upselling. 

In the luxury travel sector, digital concierges enhance the personalised, high-touch service that luxury travellers expect, allowing hotels to offer bespoke experiences while automating routine tasks.

The role of a hotel digital concierge: What does it do?

The rise of digital concierges in the hotel industry is reshaping the way properties interact with guests. From enhancing the guest experience to boosting revenue, digital concierges are quickly becoming a must-have feature for hotels looking to stay competitive.

Convenience and accessibility

Digital concierges provide guests with 24/7 access to hotel services through their preferred device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or in-room device. This accessibility ensures that guests can get what they need at any time, without having to wait in line or contact hotel staff.

Personalised recommendations

By analysing guest preferences and behaviour, digital concierges can offer personalised recommendations for dining, activities, and local attractions. This level of personalisation enhances the guest experience and makes each stay more memorable.

Seamless communication

Digital concierges streamline communication between guests and hotel staff by allowing guests to send requests directly through the app. This reduces wait times for guests and frees up staff to focus on more complex tasks.

Real-time updates

With real-time updates, digital concierges can notify guests of changes or special offers during their stay. Whether it’s updating room availability or alerting guests to a spa opening, real-time communication keeps guests informed and engaged.

Streamlined service requests

From room service to housekeeping, digital concierges make it easy for guests to request services with just a few clicks. This simplifies the process for both guests and hotel staff, leading to faster response times and greater guest satisfaction.

Self-service capabilities

For guests who prefer a more independent stay, digital concierges offer self-service options such as express check-in, contactless payment, and room upgrades. These features not only enhance the guest experience but also reduce the workload for hotel staff.

Enhanced guest engagement

Through features like upselling and special offers, digital concierges can encourage guests to take advantage of additional services. This not only enhances the guest experience but also helps hotels generate more revenue.

Examples of digital concierge for hotels

Hotel digital concierge apps serve as prime examples of how technology can replace traditional concierge services by providing guests with instant, personalised assistance through their mobile devices:

1. LoungeUp

LoungeUp is a guest engagement platform designed to enhance communication and improve guest experiences through personalised, digital interactions. Hotels can use LoungeUp to send automated messages, provide recommendations, manage check-ins, and allow guests to access key information about their stay via their mobile devices.

The app also offers features like digital guest directories and in-room service requests, reducing the need for front desk interactions and giving guests a seamless, mobile-first experience. LoungeUp’s integration with SiteMinder ensures that your hotel can effortlessly manage guest communications and personalise their journey from booking to check-out.

2. Maditus Concierge

Maditus Concierge is a digital concierge solution that empowers hotels to offer a premium, personalised guest experience. Through this platform, guests can make reservations, request services, and access local recommendations directly from their smartphones or tablets.

The app focuses on simplifying the guest journey, providing intuitive features for managing requests, room service, and booking activities. Integration with SiteMinder allows hotels to synchronise guest preferences and data in real time, enabling a tailored experience that can improve satisfaction and encourage repeat bookings.

3. Venuelytics

Venuelytics is an AI-driven platform that offers real-time guest engagement and automation features to improve the overall guest experience and hotel operations. Through Venuelytics, guests can access contactless check-in and check-out, make service requests, and receive personalised recommendations for on-site amenities and local attractions.

The app also provides powerful analytics for hoteliers, allowing them to track guest behaviour, optimise service delivery, and boost revenue through targeted promotions. By integrating with SiteMinder, Venuelytics helps hotels create a frictionless, high-tech experience that improves guest satisfaction and operational efficiency.

“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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What is the best hotel digital concierge app?

Choosing the right digital concierge app depends on your hotel’s specific needs, but there are a few key features to look for:

• Customisation: The ability to tailor the concierge system to match your hotel’s brand and guest demographics.
• Integration: Seamless integration with existing hotel management systems, such as your property management system (PMS) and point of sale (POS) system.
• Security: Strong data security measures to protect guest information.
• Mobile functionality: A user-friendly interface that works smoothly on both desktop and mobile devices.
• Customer support: Reliable, 24/7 support to ensure that the system runs smoothly without interruptions.

Implementing a digital concierge can elevate your hotel’s guest experience and boost revenue, and SiteMinder’s ecosystem offers a powerful suite of tools to help you do just that.

A hotel tech stack is a combination of software tools used by hoteliers to manage and streamline operations, to enhance the guest experience, and to generate and optimise revenue.

The hospitality industry was one of the earliest adopters of digital technologies, and has remained at the leading edge of innovation ever since. Technology now forms the foundation upon which any successful hotel is built.

As such, digital tools and systems have a significant impact on the future prospects of a hotel. Build an effective, productive and powerful tech stack, and you set yourself up for success.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at hotel tech stacks, how to effectively build and scale yours, and why SiteMinder offers the best tech stack for hotels to boost their revenue.

How is a hotel tech stack interconnected?

What defines a hotel tech stack? Interconnectivity.

The best hotel tech stacks feature seamless integrations between various software solutions like your property management system (PMS), booking system, payment processor, channel manager and customer relationship management (CRM) system.

But why do all these tools need to be interconnected in the first place?

Why is it important to build a modern hotel tech stack?

Modern hotel tech stacks need to be interconnected – or ‘integrated’ – because this allows data to flow smoothly between all of the different tools in the stack, allowing them to talk to one another.

Integrated solutions open up endless opportunities for hotel automation. They take the human intermediary out of the equation, saving you vast amounts of time, reducing instances of human error, and generating data-driven insights that you and your team would’ve never otherwise discovered.

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Common mistakes when building your hotel tech stack

Hotels attempting to build or refine their tech stack face plenty of challenges. It can be an overwhelming process, and mistakes can be made. A few key hazards to avoid include:

• Choosing the wrong vendor or solution: Don’t rush tech stack decisions. Do thorough research to ensure a solution does what you need it to, will integrate seamlessly, is capable of scaling with your business, and doesn’t lock you in.
• Trying to fix square pegs into round holes: Integration is paramount. While you might prefer the look and feel of an incompatible solution, you should always prioritise interoperability.
• Confusing nice-to-haves with must-haves: Before shopping for solutions, you should spend time identifying the features that are absolute non-negotiables, as these will guide your search.
• Failing to consider total cost of ownership: Long-term costs like maintenance and support are often underestimated, which can seriously erode your profitability. Understand the total cost of ownership (TCO) before you commit to any solution

Ideal tech stack when opening a new hotel

If you’re preparing to open a new hotel, having the right tech stack will be essential to how successful the start of your business will be.

In today’s competitive landscape you can’t afford a slow start, so equipping yourself with the best tech stack will ensure you are generating bookings and revenue from day one.

Getting your property online and making sure your core systems are integrated is vital. This includes integration between your PMS, channel manager, booking engine, payments system and more.

You also need to factor in your tech stack’s potential to scale and grow with your business, the level of support and security that’s available, and how user-friendly it is.

Choosing a platform like SiteMinder will give you the perfect foundation for attracting bookings, generating revenue, and satisfying guests while also giving you the industry’s largest ecosystem with which you can build your ideal hotel tech stack.

Key features of a scalable hotel tech stack

What are the key components of a hotel tech stack? The top 3 critical features include:

1. Multi-property management

When crafting your hotel tech stack as a chain or multi-site business, or even as an ambitious hotel with plans to expand, it’s critical to consider how you’ll manage multiple properties within a single tech stack.

There are a number of dedicated tech solutions for multi-property management. At the very least you’ll need solutions with the ability to stretch across multiple properties if you are to maintain consistency across different locations.

2. Data infrastructure and security compliance

Data security and compliance are non-negotiables for any hospitality tech stack. You need to consider how you’ll ensure the safety and security of your business data and your guests’ personal data. Key security features to look out for include GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance.

3. Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Work to understand the total cost of ownership by identifying software licensing fees, implementation and integration expenses, hardware costs, ongoing maintenance, support, training and system upgrades.

Consider the hidden costs of your tech stack, like downtime and the resources required to manage the stack. Craft a long-term budget that includes a buffer for unforeseen costs and future price rises.

“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 to build and scale the best hotel tech stack

Wondering how to build a hotel tech stack? Your specific strategy will depend on your business, budget, goals, preferences and limitations. But as a general guide, building and scaling an effective tech stack involves four key steps:

Step 1: Assess your needs and set clear goals

Begin by evaluating your operational needs, guest expectations and long-term goals. Identify where technology could improve efficiency, including in booking management, customer service, and revenue optimisation. Define the core elements of your tech stack, and the functionality that you’d like to eventually add.

Step 2: Choose scalable, integrated solutions

Maximise the potential for automation and hotel data analysis by choosing solutions that integrate seamlessly together. SiteMinder, for example, offers 1350+ integrations with industry-leading hospitality tools. You should also prioritise scalable, flexible, cloud-based solutions.

Why is scalability and flexibility important in a hotel tech stack? Because it ensures your technology is capable of keeping pace with your business growth.

Step 3: Plan for smooth implementation and training

Develop a step-by-step implementation plan, beginning with essential tools then expanding to include the less critical solutions that add value. Work with your vendors to ensure a seamless transition and to minimise operational disruption – the best software providers will offer full onboarding and deep support. Train staff on using your new systems efficiently and effectively.

Step 4: Monitor, optimise, and scale over time

Regularly assess the performance of your tech stack, making adjustments based on KPIs and feedback from team members and guests. As your hotel grows and evolves and guest expectations change, add or upgrade the tools within your tech stack, such as including guest-focused apps and other mobile-friendly tech for the hospitality industry.

Hotel tech stack list example

What exactly does an effective tech stack look like? To find out, let’s look at an example hotel tech stack map based on the SiteMinder open hotel commerce platform:

• Property management system (PMS): Integrate SiteMinder with a leading PMS like OPERA or Little Hotelier for core operations.
• Channel manager: Use SiteMinder’s channel manager to distribute rooms across 450+ online travel agencies (OTAs) and manage rates and availability in real time.
• Booking engine: Leverage SiteMinder’s direct booking engine to capture more direct reservations and sidestep OTA fees.
• Revenue management system (RMS): Integrate with RMS partners like IDeaS to optimise your pricing strategies.
• Guest communication software: Add features like SiteMinder’s Guest Engagement to streamline guest communications and enhance experience.
• Payment processing solution: Implement a payment gateway like SiteMinder Pay to accept payments directly from your guests, no matter where they are in the world.
• Mobile applications: Experience on-the-go access to crucial management features like bulk adjusting rates and availability in real-time using the SiteMinder Mobile App

As hotels increasingly rely on technology to streamline operations and enhance guest experiences, a well-chosen tech stack becomes essential. From channel managers to mobile apps, each tool plays an important role in improving efficiency and profitability.

However, it’s not just about selecting the right tech provider today—it’s about preparing for tomorrow as well.

Hotel automation is the use of technology to perform routine tasks and manage operations in a hotel with minimal human intervention. This includes automating guest check-ins, housekeeping schedules, inventory management, and communication with guests through automated messaging platforms. Automation helps hotels operate more smoothly and allows staff to focus on high-value tasks, improving both operational efficiency and the guest experience.

How is hotel automation changing the industry?

Hotel automation can make a significant impact on day-to-day operations, providing practical solutions for improving efficiency and guest satisfaction. Here are a few concrete examples of how automation can transform your hotel’s operations:

• Automated check-in and mobile key access: Implementing self-service kiosks or mobile check-in systems allows guests to skip long wait times at the front desk. With mobile key access, guests can unlock their rooms using their smartphones, adding a layer of convenience while freeing up staff to focus on more personalised service.
• Housekeeping automation: Using automated systems to schedule and track housekeeping tasks ensures that rooms are cleaned and ready for new guests without delays. These systems can also alert staff when rooms are vacant, ensuring efficient room turnovers. With real-time updates, housekeeping can adjust their schedules based on occupancy, reducing downtime and improving service quality.
• Dynamic pricing adjustments: Automation can analyse real-time data on occupancy, market demand, and competitor rates, allowing your hotel to adjust pricing dynamically. This ensures that your property remains competitive, optimising revenue without manual intervention.
• Guest messaging platforms: Automated messaging systems allow hotels to communicate with guests in real time. For example, sending welcome messages, room upgrade offers, or notifications about hotel services through SMS or email can be automated, ensuring a seamless guest experience while reducing the need for direct staff involvement.

Why is hotel automation the next big thing in hospitality?

Hotel automation is rapidly becoming essential because it addresses the evolving needs of both guests and hotel operators. 

Guests: In today’s world, guests expect seamless, on-demand service that enhances their overall experience. Automation allows hotels to meet these expectations by streamlining processes such as check-in/check-out, room service, and communication through digital platforms. This not only improves the guest experience but also frees up staff to focus on more meaningful, personalised interactions.

Staff: From an operational standpoint, hotel automation helps reduce costs by minimising manual tasks, eliminating errors, and optimising resource allocation. For example, automating room availability updates, housekeeping schedules, and maintenance requests ensures efficiency, leading to better staff management and faster service. Hotels that leverage automation can also scale more easily and adjust to fluctuating demand, making them more adaptable to market trends.

Management: Beyond efficiency, automation empowers hotels with data-driven insights, allowing owners to make smarter decisions on pricing, occupancy, and guest preferences. By integrating automated systems with property management software (PMS), hotels can track guest behaviour, personalise offers, and ultimately increase revenue by targeting the right services at the right time.

Bottom line: Automation makes life easier for everyone involved, from the staff providing the experience and the guest having that experience. 

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What are the benefits of hotel automation?

Automation is all about efficiency, ease, and providing the best experience – but it’s also about boosting revenue, supporting long-term growth, and gaining/retaining competitive advantage. Here’s how:

Hotel automation solutions improve revenue and upselling opportunities

Automation provides hotels with tools to boost revenue through intelligent upselling and pricing strategies. Automated systems can suggest upgrades, additional services, or package deals to guests at the right moments during their stay. For instance, offering a room upgrade during check-in or promoting spa services through automated messaging increases guest spending without the need for extra staff.

Hotel automation software supports long-term growth and sustainability for hotels

Automation helps hotels optimise operations while keeping costs under control, contributing to sustainable growth. Automated property management systems (PMS) centralise operations, making it easier to manage resources and reduce waste. Long-term, this leads to better resource allocation, cost savings, and scalability as the hotel business expands.

Hotel automation technology help medium-sized hotels compete with larger chains

Medium-sized hotels can leverage automation technology to level the playing field against larger hotel chains. By using advanced booking engines, automated guest communications, and dynamic pricing tools, smaller hotels can offer the same level of convenience, speed, and personalisation as larger brands, enhancing their competitive edge in the market.

How to implement automation in hotels’ most important areas

So you’re sold on automation for your hotel. How do you make it happen? Automation makes things faster, but getting started can feel slow. Here are a few key areas to focus on first.

Sales and revenue management

Automated revenue management systems use real-time data to adjust room rates based on demand, market trends, and competitor pricing. This dynamic pricing model ensures that your hotel maximises revenue potential without manually updating rates. Implementing automated upselling during booking or check-in can further increase your average revenue per guest.

Hotel operations and management

Property management systems (PMS) that integrate hotel automation streamline daily operations such as housekeeping, maintenance, and staff scheduling. By automating these tasks, hotels can ensure rooms are ready for new guests faster, and any maintenance issues are addressed promptly, improving overall operational efficiency.

Reception and front desk administration

Self-service kiosks, mobile check-in options, and automated key distribution are becoming popular tools in automating front desk operations. By implementing these systems, hotels can reduce check-in times, increase guest satisfaction, and alleviate the workload on front desk staff.

“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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Key factors to consider when implementing hotel automation strategies

Let’s get down to brass tacks. Now that you’ve narrowed down your automation journey to a few key areas, there’s a few fundamental steps you must follow for a successful integration.

Step 1: Assess your current operational needs

Before implementing any automation tools, evaluate which areas of your hotel would benefit the most from automation. Identify pain points in daily operations, such as front desk bottlenecks, labour-intensive housekeeping tasks, or inefficiencies in guest communication. 

Pro-tip: automation is rarely a one-and-done deal. Repeat this step during yearly planning to see what the next step for your automation journey could be.

Step 2: Choose the right automation tools

Select automation tools that align with your hotel’s size, budget, and operational needs. For instance, small to medium-sized hotels might prioritise automating front desk operations and booking management, while larger properties may look at revenue management systems and dynamic pricing software.

Pro-tip: Plan for the future before you pick! While you may have a specific idea in mind for automating your hotel and only feel like you need a single solution, remember that automation must integrate with your wider operations – and having lots of different tools stuck together can create problems rather than solve them. Work with a platform that can solve multiple automation issues and/or integrate with third party tools as well.

Step 3: Plan for integration and training

Ensure that your chosen automation tools can seamlessly integrate with your existing hotel management systems. Provide comprehensive training for staff to ensure they are comfortable with the new technology and can manage any guest interactions with ease.

Prop-tip: Training is paramount. No matter how advanced your hotel automation, humans will nearly always be involved at some point – and that means the chance for human error. Train staff – and retrain them regularly on new features – to keep the gears turning smoothly.

A hotel chatbot is an AI-powered tool that allows you to communicate instantly with your guests. Integrated into your website, mobile app, or social media, it lets guests ask questions, make bookings, request services, and get personalised recommendations in real time. It streamlines guest interactions, reduces response times, and enhances the overall experience while automating routine tasks like booking inquiries and room service requests.

Hotel chatbots have been spoken about at length across many industries where customer service is a key aspect of running a successful business. Not the least of these is the hospitality industry. When it comes to hotels, much has been discussed on how chatbots have the potential to dramatically improve the level and quality of guest service, as well as reducing the strain on hotel staff to attend to the needs of all the travellers staying at the property.

From streamlining communication to automating routine tasks like booking inquiries, a chatbot offers a seamless way for you to engage with your guests in real time, enhancing both convenience and satisfaction throughout their stay.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how a hotel chatbot can transform your guest experience.

Why are chatbots used in the hotel industry?

Chatbots excel at providing 24/7 communication, answering common questions, offering recommendations, and promoting additional services like room upgrades or room service.

For both potential and current guests, this AI-driven tool is a convenient way to receive instant assistance at any time. It also allows guests to ask questions they may find too trivial or embarrassing to ask staff, ensuring they always feel supported without hesitation.

Research also found that almost 50% of respondents are interested in staying at a hotel that uses chatbots or automated messaging to enhance communication and convenience.

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Benefits of having a hotel chatbot

A hotel chatbot brings many advantages that improve guest experience and streamline operations. By handling guest inquiries 24/7, promoting services, and providing useful insights, chatbots save your staff time and can even boost your revenue. 

Here are some key ways a chatbot can benefit your hotel:

1. Chatbots save countless man hours for your hotel

A chatbot should be looked at as a colleague – a colleague with a specific job, but one that can work all day everyday, with no need for bathroom or food breaks. With a chatbot manning the decks of your social media messaging platforms, you don’t need a real staff member to do this. It will also reduce the amount of time staff have to spend answering phone calls or emails. If travellers are aware they can get their answers whenever they like via your chatbot, there’ll be no need to call or email.

Just by automating simple requests like FAQs, a chatbot could save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the size of the hotel. Using only a small amount of energy compared to a human, it’s a valid consideration for hoteliers.

2. Chatbots can be a constant marketer and salesperson

While informing travellers that ‘yes, the mineral water in the mini-bar is free’ is quite useful, chatbots have the capacity to operate at much more sophisticated levels. By teasing out further information from simple requests, chatbots can start to learn about the interests and preferences of the person they’re talking to.

Once enough time has been spent, the AI is able to make suggestions on what parts of the hotel the guest will enjoy most, upsell room service options, offer packages, or even make travellers aware of their upgrade opportunities. Again, this is all automated and in place for anyone who contacts the chatbot, so through no further effort than the initial installation and algorithms your hotel might be collecting a new and regular stream of revenue.

3. Chatbots will tell you where you can improve

Another benefit of the countless conversations that will take place between bot and individual is what your hotel can learn when analysing these discussions.

For instance if people are always asking where the best/nearest cafe for breakfast is, it means they clearly don’t want to eat it at your hotel. This provides you the opportunity to see if there is a problem with your menu or your pricing, or if you need a new package to get more guests enjoying breakfast at your property.

Another example might be if guests are asking for numbers to taxis or directions to transport. If you’re in a busy destination, why not set up shuttle services to popular attractions and sights?

4. Chatbots could increase your hotel’s reviews

We know that the more reviews a hotel has the better. Reviews have the ability to boost a brand’s reputation and visibility, making it more bookable to new travellers. Reviews are more than a score, they’re a testimonial and an example to others who want to know what to expect if they are to stay at a particular property.

Chatbots can also be useful in this area by giving an indication of which guests are more likely to post reviews. These might include people who use ‘happy words’ in the course of their interaction, people who spend a longer than average time with the bot, or people who booked directly with the hotel.

Chatbots can also encourage and give reasons for guests to leave reviews at all stages of the stay, even post-stay. Given 76% of people are willing to pay more to stay at hotels with better reviews, this could have a direct impact on revenue.

How does a hotel booking chatbot work?

A hotel booking chatbot works by interacting with guests through messaging platforms or your website to simplify the booking process.

It uses AI to understand guest inquiries and guide them through options like room availability, pricing, and special offers. Guests can ask questions, receive personalised recommendations, and make bookings directly through the chatbot in real-time, without needing to speak to a staff member. 

The chatbot automates the process, making it quick and easy for guests to secure their stay while providing a seamless and convenient booking experience.

“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 to implement a hotel chatbot: Best software to use

Integrating a hotel chatbot can significantly improve guest communication and drive direct bookings. When choosing the right software, it’s crucial to find solutions that align with your hotel’s needs and systems. Chatbot tools like HiJiffy, Easyway, and Bookboost are ideal options for enhancing guest experiences and streamlining operations.

• HiJiffy: HiJiffy’s AI-powered chatbot acts as a booking assistant and virtual concierge, handling guest inquiries, reservations, and service requests around the clock. By integrating directly with SiteMinder’s booking engine, HiJiffy can offer real-time room availability and pricing, turning guest inquiries into instant bookings.
• Easyway: Easyway automates guest communication through platforms like WhatsApp and SMS, offering a seamless, personalised guest experience. Integrated with SiteMinder, it ensures accurate data flows across your booking engine and property management system, making guest interactions smooth and reliable.
• Bookboost: Bookboost offers multi-channel messaging, connecting guests through chatbots, WhatsApp, and other platforms. Paired with SiteMinder, it accesses up-to-date room inventory and booking details, allowing guests to book directly while receiving tailored offers based on their preferences.

SiteMinder is the ideal platform for implementing chatbot technology, providing seamless integration with key hotel systems. It ensures that chatbots can pull real-time data on room availability, pricing, and promotions, helping guests book directly through the chat. 

SiteMinder’s platform also enhances the chatbot’s ability to upsell services and personalise guest interactions by synchronising guest data across your booking engine and property management system. Plus, its multilingual capabilities and automation features make the entire process effortless, maximising the chatbot’s potential while reducing the operational load on your staff.

Airbnb initially made a significant impact on the Chinese market, offering travellers unique and affordable stays. However, Airbnb faced several challenges in China, including strong local competition, regulatory hurdles, and differing consumer preferences. As a result, Airbnb decided to shut down its domestic operations in China in 2022, leaving a gap in the market for both travellers and accommodation providers.

Is there Airbnb in China?

While Airbnb still operates in regions like Hong Kong and the East China Sea, its presence in mainland China has effectively ended. This shift has created an opportunity for hotel owners and operators like you to step in and attract the guests who once relied on Airbnb.

Why is Airbnb failing in China?

Airbnb’s exit from China was due to several key factors that are important to understand if you want to take advantage of the current market landscape.

• Local competition: Platforms like Tujia, often referred to as “China’s Airbnb,” had a better understanding of the local market. They offered services that were more tailored to the needs and preferences of Chinese travellers, making it difficult for Airbnb to compete.
• Regulatory challenges: The Chinese government’s strict regulations on data privacy, rental properties, and foreign businesses created significant obstacles for Airbnb. Complying with these regulations while trying to grow their business proved to be too challenging.
• Cultural differences: Chinese travellers often prefer staying in hotels or state-licensed accommodations, which are perceived as more reliable and trustworthy. Airbnb’s model, based on private home rentals, didn’t resonate as strongly with these consumers.

What are the alternatives to Airbnb China?

With Airbnb no longer operating in mainland China, you may be wondering which platforms can help you attract the guests who previously used Airbnb. Here are some key alternatives:

Tujia: China’s Airbnb

Tujia is the most direct alternative to Airbnb in China. It offers a wide range of properties, from urban apartments to rural homes, and caters to both domestic and international travellers. Tujia’s strength lies in its local expertise and compliance with Chinese regulations. Listing your hotel on Tujia can help you reach a large audience of travellers who are already familiar with the platform and looking for accommodations similar to what Airbnb once offered.

Booking.com

Booking.com is a global platform with a strong presence in China. It offers a variety of accommodation types, including hotels, which makes it an excellent choice for medium-sized hotel chains. The platform is user-friendly and integrates well with hotel management systems, making it easier for you to manage your listings and maximise your visibility.

Agoda

Agoda is particularly popular in the Asian market and is known for its focus on mobile bookings and competitive pricing. It is widely used by budget-conscious travellers, making it a good option if your hotel caters to this segment. Listing your property on Agoda can help you attract guests from Southeast Asia and other nearby regions.

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Listing your hotel: What is the Airbnb strategy in China?

Despite Airbnb’s exit from the domestic Chinese market, it still maintains listings in regions like Hong Kong and the East China Sea, catering primarily to outbound Chinese travellers and international guests. If you’re considering listing your hotel on Airbnb, it’s important to focus on these regions and tailor your offerings to meet the expectations of travellers who are still using Airbnb for their trips to China’s neighbouring areas.

How to list property on Airbnb China alternatives

To maximise your hotel’s visibility and bookings, it’s essential to list your property on multiple platforms. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Tujia: To list your property on Tujia, start by creating an account and providing detailed information about your property, including high-quality photos, amenities, and pricing. Tujia also allows you to work with local property management companies, which can help with managing your listings and ensuring compliance with local regulations.
2. Booking.com: Setting up a listing on Booking.com is straightforward. You’ll need to provide your hotel’s details, including room types, pricing, and availability. Booking.com also offers integration with various hotel management systems, making it easier to manage bookings and availability in real-time.
3. Agoda: To list your hotel on Agoda, sign up as a partner and fill in your property details. Agoda’s platform allows you to manage your rates and availability, and it offers tools for optimising your listings to attract more bookings, particularly from the mobile-savvy traveller segment.

Tips for hotel owners to attract Airbnb China guests

With Airbnb’s departure from China, there’s a significant opportunity for hotels to attract former Airbnb users. Here are some tips to help you capture this market:

• Offer unique experiences: Many Airbnb users are looking for unique, local experiences. Consider offering special packages that include local tours, cultural experiences, or exclusive access to nearby attractions. This can differentiate your hotel from others and appeal to guests who previously chose Airbnb for its unique offerings.
• Enhance digital marketing efforts: With Airbnb out of the picture, it’s important to boost your hotel’s online presence. Invest in SEO, social media marketing, and paid search campaigns to ensure your hotel appears prominently in search results. Use targeted advertising to reach former Airbnb users who are now searching for alternative accommodations.
• Provide seamless booking options: Former Airbnb guests are accustomed to a simple, user-friendly booking process. Ensure your website offers a seamless booking experience, with mobile optimisation and secure payment options.

“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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What are the alternatives to Airbnb in other Asian markets?

Beyond China, other Asian markets such as Indonesia and Thailand also offer alternative platforms to Airbnb. In these regions, platforms like Traveloka and Flipkey have gained popularity among travellers.

In Indonesia, Traveloka is a dominant platform, offering a wide range of accommodations and travel services. For hotels in Indonesia, listing on Traveloka can help reach a broad audience of both local and international travellers.

In Thailand, Flipkey, a subsidiary of Tripadvisor, is a popular choice among travellers seeking vacation rentals. Listing your property on Flipkey can help you tap into the growing market of travellers looking for unique, high-quality accommodations in Thailand.

AI in the hospitality industry means using artificial intelligence to improve various aspects of running a hotel and serving your guests. This includes automating routine tasks, personalising guest experiences, adjusting pricing strategies, and making your overall operations more efficient.

By using AI, you can simplify your processes and significantly boost both revenue and guest satisfaction.

This blog will provide a full guide to AI in the hospitality industry for your hotel.

How AI is shaping the hospitality industry

AI is transforming key aspects of hospitality by enabling hyper-personalisation, streamlining operations, and optimising revenue strategies. Here are some major areas where AI is making an impact:

• Personalising guest interactions: AI analyses guest data to tailor recommendations, anticipate preferences, and provide a seamless, customised stay. Many hotels use AI-driven virtual concierges and chatbots to enhance guest engagement.
• Streamlining operations: AI automates routine tasks like check-ins, housekeeping schedules, and room service requests, freeing up staff to focus on guest-centric services.
• Optimising pricing strategies: AI dynamically adjusts room rates based on demand, market conditions, and competitor pricing, ensuring maximum revenue potential.
• Enhancing marketing campaigns: AI-driven analytics create targeted advertising and personalised marketing efforts that drive direct bookings.
• Boosting revenue management: AI analyses vast datasets to guide pricing and promotional strategies, ensuring hotels maximise profitability.
• Managing big data: AI simplifies complex data analysis, offering valuable insights into guest preferences and behaviour to improve strategic decision-making.

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Artificial intelligence in hotels examples

Being such a broadly useful tool, artificial intelligence is used in lots of different ways in the hospitality industry. This includes guest communication, revenue management, reservation management, personalisation, dynamic pricing adjustment, and many more.

Here are just a few of our favourite hospitality AI enablers:

Visito

Visito offers an AI-powered operating system designed to streamline guest communication in the hospitality industry. It integrates with platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger to automate over 97% of guest messages, reducing support costs by up to 90%. 

The system helps increase direct bookings by displaying room pricing and availability directly within these apps and sending smart follow-ups. Visito uses advanced AI technologies, including OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Gemini, to enhance guest experiences and boost positive reviews.

Aiosell

Aiosell offers a fully automated revenue management system designed to help hotels set and maintain optimal room rates. Using artificial intelligence, it dynamically adjusts prices based on supply, demand, and competition, operating 24/7 to maximise profits. 

Aiosell integrates with various hotel softwares – including SiteMinder! – to provide a comprehensive solution that includes property management, channel management, booking engines, reviews management, and more. 

EasyWay

EasyWay offers a comprehensive AI-driven platform for the hospitality industry. It focuses on enhancing guest communication through generative AI agents that manage reservations, provide personalised guest interactions, and streamline hotel operations. 

Key features include AI Concierge, AI Reservation Manager, and AI Receptionist, which handle tasks like check-ins, reservations, and guest inquiries in over 100 languages, ensuring 24/7 support and zero errors. EasyWay helps improve efficiency and guest satisfaction.

Myma.ai

Myma.ai is an AI-powered platform made to enhance guest experiences and streamline operations in the hospitality industry. It has features across the entire guest journey, from enquiry and booking to post-stay interactions.

The platform also integrates with various communication channels (like websites, social media, and messaging apps) and uses AI to provide personalized services, automate responses, and offer insights.

Connie the Concierge

Connie is employed by Hilton and can give guests a range of tips on what attractions, restaurants, or activities to investigate. She learns from every interaction so is constantly improving the knowledge and service she can impart.

Ivy the Direct Messenger

Ivy is a program used by many major hotel brands that basically automates all guest interaction. Designed specifically for the hospitality industry, Ivy handles around 90% of real-time requests, effectively becoming the main point of contact throughout the hotel stay. Any question she can’t answer, she can immediately refer to the relevant department.

Advantages of hotel artificial intelligence

Many hotels are using AI to improve their overall performance, but is it the right technology for your hotel? Here are 10 ways that artificial intelligence could help you boost your hotel’s growth:

1. Increase hotel revenue

AI helps you implement dynamic pricing strategies that adjust room rates based on real-time demand and market conditions. This ensures you get the most revenue per available room by selling at the best prices. AI-powered marketing tools also help create personalised ads, leading to more direct bookings and increased overall revenue.

2. Drive operational efficiency

By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, AI allows your staff to focus on more strategic and guest-centric activities. AI-powered systems can manage inventory, handle bookings, and even predict maintenance needs, ensuring smooth and efficient operations. This not only reduces costs but also improves guest experience by providing quicker and more accurate services.

3. Enhance guest experience

AI enables you to offer highly personalised experiences to your guests. By analysing guest data, AI can predict preferences and tailor services accordingly. This might include personalised room settings, customised recommendations for dining and activities, and timely service delivery. Such personalised attention can significantly improve guest satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business.

4. Improve check-in process

The potential for AI to improve the service aspect of hospitality is unlimited. If an AI can instantly sync with your mobile phone or use facial recognition there’s no need for formal identification or check-in. With a mobile room key as well, travellers will have no need to delay between entering the hotel and settling into their rooms.

5. Manage room service

No need to call or wait for someone to accept your order, AI will allow a guest to communicate instantly. The food or beverages could even be delivered automatically by AI bots. AI systems will be extremely efficient in sticking to schedules and maintaining standards when it comes to cleaning and preparing for the arrival of guests.

6. Save on power

Smart technology will raise the bottom line of hotels by sensing what lights and appliances are being used and turning off those that aren’t to save power.

7. AI-powered guest loyalty and retention programs

AI-driven CRM systems analyse guest preferences and stay history to create highly personalised loyalty programs. AI can predict which rewards and promotions will encourage repeat stays, boosting guest retention and direct bookings while reducing reliance on OTAs.

8. AI-enhanced demand forecasting and revenue optimisation

AI analyses market trends, competitor pricing, and historical booking data to provide accurate demand forecasts. This enables hotels to adjust pricing, marketing efforts, and resource allocation in advance, ensuring optimal occupancy and profitability during peak and low seasons.

9. Automated housekeeping and predictive maintenance

AI-driven housekeeping platforms like Optii Solutions optimise room cleaning schedules, ensuring faster turnovers and improved efficiency. AI-powered IoT sensors also detect equipment wear and tear, predicting maintenance needs before failures occur—reducing operational downtime and costly repairs.

10. AI-driven event and conference management

Hotels hosting conferences, corporate events, and weddings can leverage AI to automate venue bookings, manage guest lists, and personalise attendee experiences. AI-powered scheduling tools ensure optimal use of event spaces, helping hotels increase event revenue and maximise space utilisation.

How hotel brands are using AI

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, hotel brands are integrating AI-driven solutions to improve operations, enhance guest experiences, and drive revenue growth. From personalised services to operational efficiency, AI is transforming the way hotels interact with their guests and manage their resources.

Marriott

Marriott uses AI-powered chatbots and data analytics to enhance guest interactions and improve operational efficiency. Their AI-driven recommendation engine personalises guest offers based on past stays and preferences, increasing loyalty and direct bookings.

Hilton

Hilton’s AI initiatives include robotic concierges and smart room technology that adjusts settings based on guest preferences. Additionally, Hilton has integrated AI-powered chatbots for customer service, reducing response times and improving guest satisfaction.

Accor Hotels

Accor leverages AI-driven revenue management tools to optimise pricing strategies in real-time, ensuring competitive pricing while maximising profits. They also use AI for predictive maintenance to prevent operational disruptions.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)

IHG employs AI to enhance guest experiences through AI-powered mobile apps that offer real-time travel assistance, digital concierge services, and smart room controls. Their AI-driven data analytics help identify emerging travel trends, allowing proactive business decisions.

Key considerations when implementing AI in hotels

Adopting AI for your hotel can seem like a daunting step forward, but with a few important considerations, you can simplify the transition and implementation of AI into your operations:

AI adoption barriers

The hospitality industry, particularly hotels, faces challenges in AI adoption due to the high initial investment, complexity of integration, and lack of technical expertise. Smaller properties and independent hospitality businesses may struggle with the costs and training required to effectively implement AI solutions. Overcoming these barriers involves selecting cost-effective, scalable AI tools that require minimal technical knowledge and offer robust customer support.

For businesses with more complex needs, partnering with AI providers that offer customised training and onboarding support ensures a smoother transition.

Phased AI implementation

To ensure successful AI adoption across hospitality businesses, a phased approach is recommended. Rather than implementing AI solutions all at once, hospitality businesses should start with smaller AI-driven projects that address immediate needs—such as AI chatbots for guest communication or dynamic pricing tools—before expanding AI integration into broader operations, including predictive analytics for revenue management or automated housekeeping solutions.

By taking an incremental approach, hotels, resorts, and restaurants can test and refine AI implementations while minimising risks and disruptions to daily operations.

AI software options

Choosing the right AI solution depends on the size, type, and needs of the hospitality business. Hotels should prioritise AI tools that integrate seamlessly with property management systems (PMS), customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and operational workflows. Similarly, restaurants and travel businesses can benefit from AI that enhances order management, guest engagement, and predictive demand analysis.

Key considerations when selecting AI software include:

• Scalability – Can the software grow with your business?
• Integration – Does it work with existing tools and platforms?
• Support & training – Does the provider offer ongoing assistance to ensure smooth adoption?
• Security & compliance – Does the AI software handle guest data securely?

For example, SiteMinder integrates with leading AI providers to enhance revenue management, guest experience, and automated operations, offering rules-based automation to support hotels in their AI journey.

Industry-wide AI adoption

Beyond hotels, AI is also revolutionising restaurants, travel agencies, and event management. Restaurants use AI for demand forecasting and menu optimisation, while travel agencies leverage AI-powered itinerary planners and personalised booking experiences. The entire hospitality ecosystem can benefit from AI’s ability to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance guest satisfaction, making strategic implementation essential for long-term growth.

“If I had to describe SiteMinder in one word it would be reliability. The team loves SiteMinder because it is a tool that we can always count on as it never fails, it is very easy to use and it is a key part of our revenue management strategy.”

Raúl Amestoy,

Assitant Manager

Hotel Gran Bilbao

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The future of AI in the hospitality industry

Fully automated hotels

Advancements in AI and robotics could lead to fully automated hotels, enhancing efficiency and guest convenience. AI-powered reception and concierge services are already transforming guest interactions, with virtual assistants and automated check-in kiosks reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction. Robot-assisted housekeeping and room service further streamline operations, ensuring timely and consistent service without human intervention.

A prime example of this innovation is the Henn-na Hotel in Japan, the world’s first fully robotic hotel. This hotel uses AI-powered humanoid robots to check in guests, assist with inquiries, and handle luggage, while autonomous cleaning robots manage housekeeping tasks efficiently. Such advancements demonstrate how AI can revolutionise hospitality by cutting operational costs, improving efficiency, and enhancing the guest experience.

AI integrations with IoT

AI-driven IoT devices will further personalise guest experiences by automating room settings and services. Smart rooms equipped with AI-powered IoT technology can adjust lighting, temperature, and entertainment systems based on guest preferences, creating a highly customised stay. Voice-activated room controls, powered by AI assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant, enable seamless interaction with hotel amenities, enhancing convenience and accessibility. Additionally, predictive maintenance powered by AI helps monitor and detect potential issues in hotel infrastructure, reducing downtime and ensuring uninterrupted guest experiences.

AI-driven personalisation & guest experience

Future AI innovations will enhance personalisation, ensuring that hotels cater to individual guest preferences with unparalleled precision. AI-driven systems can provide hyper-personalised recommendations for dining, activities, and room settings based on guest preferences and past behaviour. AI-powered sentiment analysis tools help hotels manage customer feedback effectively, identifying trends and areas for improvement. Additionally, dynamic pricing models powered by AI ensure hotels optimise revenue generation by adjusting rates in real time based on demand, seasonality, and competitor pricing.

A hotel booking app is an application or website that travellers use to book a stay at a hotel. Often travellers will use apps via their mobile devices to research, book, and pay for hotel accommodation. Some well known examples of hotel booking apps include Booking.com, Airbnb, or HotelTonight.

This blog will provide a full guide to hotel booking apps and which ones may be the most useful to sell your inventory on.

Why should you be aware of the best hotel booking apps?

Hotel booking apps are now a dominant source of bookings for accommodation providers, with travellers booking their trips online more often than not.

Travellers can spend up to 12 weeks researching their trip and may visit up to 38 websites before they complete a purchase. 

Given the online travel industry generated revenue worth $667.55 billion in 2023, booking apps are where the money is – as well as your own hotel website.

Being present on the best and most popular booking apps will help your hotel become a consideration for travellers as they prepare to book their stays. 

The wider you cast your net, the better too. If you use a solution such as a channel manager, you can list your inventory on as many booking apps as you want with no risk of double bookings or inaccurate inventory.

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List of popular hotel booking and travel apps

As we know, travellers are very resourceful. They look high and low, using many different apps and websites to find the best deals, value, and experiences for their stays. However there are also many different traveller profiles – who all have unique needs. This is another reason why it pays to be advertising on a range of travel apps.

Cheapest hotel app

There’s really no definitive ‘cheapest’ hotel app, since budget hotels and affordable accommodations can be found on all apps. Of course, there are specific examples such as HostelWorld which offers hostels exclusively, a generally cheaper type of accommodation. 

Hotels.com is another channel renowned for having cheap accommodation available.

Travellers might also use metasearch apps like Trivago, or local apps such as Australia’s Wotif, to discover properties at lower prices and easily compare their options.

Discount hotel app

Plenty of hotel apps might offer exclusive discounts or deals, or make it easier for travellers to survey the best options available to them.

Hopper is a fast-growing mobile travel app that offers plenty of personalised deals to users, while Kayak is another strong metasearch option.

Last minute hotel booking app

The very appropriately named Lastminute.com is one of the most popular options for travellers looking to secure hotel rooms at short notice, finding good deals in real-time.

HotelTonight is a similar app that is also used a lot for last minute bookings, while Hotwire is slightly less popular but also advertises last minute deals.

RedDoorz hotel booking app 

RedDoorz is a popular hotel booking app across hot asian destinations such as Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 

Members of RedDoorz can enjoy special offers and deals, while hotels listing on the platform will have access to highly focused and motivated travellers searching for accommodation in these regions.

Best travel booking app for hotels

So which travel booking apps should your hotel be listing and selling your inventory on? There’s no secret about which booking channels are the biggest and most popular in the world – of course we mean Booking.com and Expedia.

However, unique channels like Airbnb, Mr and Mrs Smith, or Lastminute.com can also provide strong reservation and revenue opportunities.

You also have to consider key metrics within your channel performance, such as which channels have the highest cancellation rates or longest lengths of stay. 

Best hotel booking app in USA

Thanks to SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends, we know the best hotel booking app in the USA and across the rest of the world.

If we take revenue generation as a measure of success, the best booking apps for USA hotels are:

• Booking.com
• Expedia
• Agoda
• Airbnb
• Hotelbeds
• HotelTonight
• Hostelworld Group
• Webbeds
• Hopper
• HotelsCombined

Note: Direct bookings (hotel websites) drive the third most revenue for USA hotels, while Global Distribution Systems are at number five.

Best hotel booking app in Europe

Using the same data, we can look at the best hotel bookings apps in Europe too.

For instance, here are the top five in some key destinations:

• UK – Booking.com, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Agoda, Trip.com
• Spain – Booking.com, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Jet2holidays, World 2 Meet
• Italy – Booking.com, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Hostelworld Group, Agoda
• Germany – Booking.com, Expedia, HRS, Hotelbeds, Hostelworld Group
• France – Booking.com, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Agoda, Hostelworld Group

As you can see there are variations across markets in Europe, and the best hotel booking app will depend on the goals of your hotel and who you are looking to attract.

For example, the UK attracts a lot of travellers from China which is why Trip.com is such a prominent booking channel. 

Best hotel reservation app

Determining the best hotel reservation app depends on how you define it, because it will mean different things to travellers and hotels.

For hotels looking for an app to help manage their reservations, there are plenty available on the market.

Popular options include Little Hotelier, Cloudbeds, Preno, WebRezPro, and Hostaway to name a few.

Little Hotelier in particular is a great option for smaller accommodation providers, as it’s an all-in-one solution that includes a property management system, channel manager, booking engine, and more. It’s also equipped with a mobile app so operators can manage their reservations anywhere, anytime.

Similarly, SiteMinder can be a great choice for independent properties and larger hotels, as it has the industry’s leading channel manager and booking engine, making it easy for hoteliers to attract and convert reservations for their business. It also has a mobile app, further enhancing the convenience of the platform.

“Our previous direct booking option was very confusing and not very user-friendly. SiteMinder’s booking engine is a lot better integrated on the website and makes it easy for guests to book. So far, we have increased our direct bookings by 15%”

Mirja Wolf,

Manager

Hotel Kragemann

Read more

Booking apps for and by hotels

Omni hotel app

The Omni hotel app is an app offered by Omni Hotels. It allows hoteliers to maintain efficient and effective housekeeping using real-time data and communication.

Choice hotel app

The Choice hotel app is offered by Choice Hotels and allows travellers to easily search and book Choice hotels from their mobile device. Guests can also manage their reservations, and redeem rewards if they are a member. 

Hilton hotel app

The Hilton hotel app, or Hilton Honors App, is offered by Hilton Hotels. It allows travellers and guests to book stays, search destinations, and earn rewards.

Sheraton hotel app

The Sheraton hotel app is actually the Marriott Bonvoy app, since Marriott owns Sheraton Hotels. The app allows guests to book stays, gives them a mobile room key, unlocks live chat for assistance and requests, and enables them to order food and beverages.

Westin hotel app 

Just like Sheraton, the Westin hotel app is actually part of the Marriott Bonvoy app. Many brands fall under Marriott’s umbrella, including Westin. The app allows guests to get rewards and discounts for these brands.

Radisson hotel app 

The Radisson hotel app is offered by Radisson Hotels. It gives members exclusive benefits, cheaper rates, and additional offers. Guests can book stays across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

Hotel mobile check-in is a technology-driven process that allows guests to check into their hotel rooms using their mobile devices, without the need to queue at the front desk. This innovative service typically involves a hotel’s app or mobile website where guests can confirm their arrival, choose their room, and in some cases, even access their room using a digital key.

Online check-in completely transformed the Airline industry. Until now, the hospitality sector has been slow to follow. One reason has been the lack of strong business needs, but also the complexity of the project. But as guests are demanding it, more and more hotels are embracing this technology.

Each hotel is unique and there are many PMS vendors out there. This makes it very challenging for the hotelier to start planning their digital transformation.

In this blog, we’ll give you an overview of how to go about selecting the best check-in solution for your property.

Before mobile check in 

From the perspective of your guests, the hotel check-in process has been the same for a very long time:

1. Arrive at the hotel
2. Wait in queue
3. Pay
4. Fill in the registration card
5. Get the key
6. Go to your room

All this can take a lot of time, and if your guest had a long journey to make it to your property, this is not what they will want. I don’t care if you have the best smiles in town. They just want to get into their room.

In the ideal scenario, guests will just enter their details before actually arriving at the hotel, in order to avoid this tedious experience. Then, the hotel provides them with all the necessary details like breakfast arrangements, safety rules and door access.

But, in our new reality, guests actually prefer it. For guests, it’s about convenience, the speed of the process, safety, and freedom to choose when to do it.

According to Oracle, 70% of hotels already are or are planning to adopt contactless technology for check-in, food ordering, concierge services and more.

For hotels, it’s about saving on costs, but also increasing customer satisfaction. Handling each guest manually is a labour-intensive process, and during peak times can account for many man-hours.

Master mobile experiences with SiteMinder

Every successful hotel invests in mobile optimisation. With SiteMinder, securing bookings from guests on the go is easier than ever.

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Why your hotel should allow mobile check in

Jumping on the mobile check-in bandwagon is a smart move for any hotel looking to keep up with the times and give guests what they really want. It’s all about making things easy and quick – guests can skip the front desk hassle and head straight to their room, while your team gets more time to provide those personal touches that make a stay special. Plus, it shows you’re up-to-date with tech trends, which is always a positive in the eyes of tech-savvy travellers.

Steps to setting up a hotel mobile check in process

Setting up an effective hotel mobile check-in process can seem complex and overwhelming. 

However, with the right tools, technology, and processes, establishing this crucial aspect of your booking experience is simple. Here’s where to get started:

As with any project, you need to define your goals for what mobile check-in needs to do for you. What do you want to achieve?

1. Collect guest data to speed up the check-in process
2. Need to collect credit card details for payment
3. Ability to upgrade the room or other services
4. Open doors or distribute key codes

By looking at each stage separately, we can start understanding which solution is most suitable for your hotel, as each feature comes with caveats and costs. Next, we will look at each key component separately to make it easy to understand the project.

PMS integration

For mobile check-in to work, guest data needs to be in the PMS in a timely and correct manner. This means the solution needs to be able to get data from the PMS, and ideally, also send data back.

Many PMS vendors support connections with 3rd party systems. This is most commonly done via API. The better and more open the API is, the more solutions you’ll be able to choose from.

Unfortunately, many PMS vendors (especially on-premise ones) lack suitable interfaces. This means that even if you want to go on implementing mobile check-in, you wouldn’t be able to. Having a closed PMS can prevent you from modernising your hotel.

Questions to ask when implementing PMS

• Does my PMS have an open API?
• Can check-in providers send data back to my PMS?
• Is there a fee for using the API?
• Can all vendors integrate?

Pro-tip: If your role in your hotel requires you to be online, all the time, juggling plates and spinning balls, then a PMS like Little Hotelier may be a great fit for you. Its mobile app is designed specifically to help those hoteliers who have to wear enough hats to fill a walk-in closet, allowing them to keep their finger on the pulse whether they’re at the front desk, in the office, at the bank, or meeting with investors. 

Check-in form

Hotels have different needs when collecting data from guests. These may include:

• Verification that the reservation is correct
• For analytical purposes
• Government requires it
• Marketing purposes
• Upselling

You as a hotelier will probably want to convert the existing paper form into a digital one. This means the check-in form editor needs to be highly customisable so that you can create any field in your check-in form.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to fully replace the current processes without making compromises or going against government legislation.

Look for vendors whose customisation options aren’t going to limit what you can achieve.

Key questions to consider when adding a check in form to your hotel mobile check in:

• Can I customise all the fields?
• Will the design match my brand?
• Can I include a marketing opt-in?
• Can the guests digitally sign the check-in?
• Can the guests provide scans of their passports/IDs?
• Can they also check in accompanying guests?

Pro-tip: SiteMinder’s booking engine was designed with these questions in mind – and the answer to all of them is “yes”. A solid booking engine is key to a smooth booking experience, so make sure to investigate your options with SiteMinder here. 

Payment

Guest reservations can be paid in advance, but in many cases, they are partially paid or the guest needs to pay fully on-site.

Even if the payment is made fully, you still might want to get the guest’s credit card details if they order services or accidentally break something. This means obtaining guest credit card details is a must in many cases.

But the term “credit card payment” can have different meanings:

• Asking for the card details using a form
• Verifying that the credit card is valid
• Reserving funds in advance
• Making the actual payment

Try to decide on what you want to achieve before approaching different vendors, because when you accept a payment, you also pay commission to payment gateways, and in many cases to the check-in provider.

Questions you need to consider:

• Will the mobile check-in be available only to paid customers?
• Do my guests need to do payments?
• What is the payment gateway commission?
• Does the check-in provider take a commission?

Pro-tip: We know the last thing you want to deal with as a hotelier is payment issues. SiteMinder Pay, our aptly named payment module, makes it as easy as possible for you to charge what you need, when you need to, to whom you need to, all automatically. 

Door Access

The biggest challenge with all mobile check-in providers is how the guests open the door. Many hotels all over the world use door systems, which very few systems can integrate with. Or even worse, they use physical keys. This means digital solutions have a tough time making the process completely contactless.

Ideally, door locks should also be modernised, but there are ways of going digital even without costly upgrades.

Many properties start their access system modernisation with a single floor or a room category. This means all guests who use online check-in will always end up there. Then slowly build up from there and modernise the entire property.

Also, many options can be combined so that you have a key card with the PIN code, for instance.

Here are some examples of access you might want to consider with your hotel mobile check in. 

Key cards

The most commonly used solution in hotels. The trouble with these solutions is that they offer only limited connectivity options with external systems, and they are expensive.

ASSA Vingcard, which is very popular, does provide its own app for door access. When you want to go with this option, then you either need to hand out keys physically in the reception or have a kiosk that dispenses cards.

Bluetooth module

Another solution is to retrofit existing locks with a Bluetooth-enabled module, so you can run the existing key card-based system in parallel.

This means you can provide the convenience of the contactless door opening without the need to do costly upgrades like changing locks or even doors, and still keep your existing key card setup.

Doors can then be opened using an app on the guest’s phone, or through a centralised web application that is able to open doors.

Pin lock

This has been used extensively in the hostel and vacation rental worlds. The PIN option means guests can enter the room even if their phone is dead, or they lost the key card.

These PIN codes are managed over WiFi and work in the same way as a key card. A PIN is assigned to a door with a lifetime. This means previous guests won’t be able to enter the room past their departure date. Also, you can assign a master code for hotel staff.

Physical keys

Many smaller properties still use physical keys and there is no real business benefit to changing them. You could use storage boxes with code access to store keys; not an ideal solution, but a good intermediary step.

If your property is small, you can prepare the keys in an envelope or PIN code safe and give instructions via email.

“Our previous direct booking option was very confusing and not very user-friendly. SiteMinder’s booking engine is a lot better integrated on the website and makes it easy for guests to book. So far, we have increased our direct bookings by 15%”

Mirja Wolf,

Manager

Hotel Kragemann

Read more

Mobile hotel check-in solutions

Here we look at different solution types that are out there. Naturally, each vendor has its own nuances. There are many different solutions out there. Each one has its pros and cons.

Web-based solutions

These are solutions that don’t require anything to be installed by the user. Just a click from the email, and it all works.

The benefit of web-based solutions is that you can get them up and running very easily, and the upfront cost in terms of time and money is significantly lower.

Many PMS vendors already have some degree of functionality in this area, but you can use third parties who specialise in this.

Implementing mobile hotel check-in solutions comes with a host of benefits. Firstly, they are easy to implement, not requiring extensive training or major overhauls to your existing systems. This makes them a cost-effective option for hotels looking to modernise their guest experience without breaking the bank. 

The user-friendly nature of these solutions is another significant pro; guests find them very easy to use, contributing to a smooth and hassle-free arrival experience. Additionally, these systems are designed to be universally compatible, eliminating concerns about device or software incompatibilities.

However, there are a few considerations to bear in mind. One notable con is that without an upgrade, these systems may face challenges in facilitating keyless entry into rooms, which is a growing expectation among guests. Moreover, the necessity for guest emails to facilitate mobile check-in can be a limitation, especially in instances where guests prefer not to share their email addresses. 

To round off the mobile check-in experience, these solutions can be effectively paired with a kiosk that offers a web-based solution, providing an alternative check-in method for guests and adding to the overall efficiency of the process.

Check in kiosk

Many hotels opt for kiosks because of their physical appeal, and people are accustomed to using them in airports. You put them in the lobby, direct guests to use them, and they generally work well.

Check-in kiosks in hotels come with their own set of advantages and drawbacks. On the plus side, they are particularly beneficial for dispensing key cards, offering a traditional yet efficient way of ensuring guests have physical access to their rooms. 

They are also more accessible for guests who might not have an email address, or those who prefer not to use digital check-in solutions. Moreover, the presence of a kiosk ensures that the hotel can verify the physical presence of the guest at the property, adding a level of security and personal touch to the check-in process.

However, there are certain downsides to consider. From a guest’s perspective, unless there are multiple kiosks available, the convenience factor may not be significantly higher than that of traditional check-in processes, especially if queues form during peak times. The cost of implementing kiosk technology can be quite high, considering the initial investment in hardware and software. 

In addition to this, the ongoing maintenance costs can be higher compared to simpler digital solutions, requiring regular upkeep to ensure smooth functioning. These factors need to be weighed carefully against the potential benefits to determine the feasibility of kiosks for any particular hotel.

With check-in kiosks, hoteliers get the benefits, but not the guests. They still have to wait in the lobby, and kiosks are yet another contact point guests will want to avoid.

Mobile app based solutions

The market is full of providers which enable guests to check-in, upsell, or provide feedback on their apps. Hotel mobile check in apps have the added benefit of working offline and have a very visual experience.

 A J.D. Power survey found that a significant number of guests (38 percent) don’t even use the apps during their hotel stays,

But there’s one key issue—guests need to download the app. 

Mobile, app-based solutions for hotel check-ins offer a dynamic and interactive experience for guests, enhancing their engagement with the hotel right from the start. These apps often come with offline capabilities, ensuring functionality even in areas with poor internet connectivity. 

An added advantage is the potential for these apps to enable keyless entry, allowing guests to use their phones to unlock their room doors, which adds a layer of convenience and modernity to their stay.

However, there are some challenges associated with app-based solutions. One significant hurdle is the substantial barrier to installation; guests need to download the app, which might deter those who are reluctant to install new software on their devices. Additionally, phone compatibility issues can arise, as not all guests may have smartphones capable of running the app effectively. 

The setup process for these systems is also more complicated compared to other digital solutions, both for the hotel in terms of implementation and for the guest in terms of usage. These factors need to be carefully considered when deciding whether an app-based check-in solution is the right choice for a hotel.

And that poses a significant barrier, but that does not mean it is a bad idea. If your hotel chain is big and you have a lot of loyal customers, then it might make sense for you to have a hotel mobile check in app.

There are many different types of solutions out there with different price ranges. And sometimes the limiting factor can be completely something else like your PMS lacks the connectivity options or door locks are outdated.

Cybersecurity in the hospitality industry is the software and processes that safeguard the vast array of sensitive data that hotels and resorts collect from their guests.

For hoteliers, this means not only protecting customer information, like credit card details and personal preferences, but also ensuring the security of internal systems against cyber threats such as data breaches or ransomware attacks. Recognising and investing in cybersecurity measures is not just about risk management; it’s about upholding your establishment’s reputation and providing a safe, seamless experience for every guest.

What are the 5 C‘s of Cyber Security?

The 5 C’s of cyber security provide a framework to help you safeguard their systems and guest data:

1. Change: Regularly updating software, passwords, and access permissions to prevent vulnerabilities.
2. Compliance: Sticking to industry standards and regulatory requirements to protect sensitive information.
3. Cost: Balancing investment in security measures to mitigate risks without extra cost.
4. Continuity: Ensuring business continuity plans are in place, making sure there’s good recovery from cyber incidents.
5. Coverage: Securing comprehensive cyber insurance to reduce the impact of financial damage and liability.

In this blog, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about hotel cyber security, including what they are, the various ways you could be hacked, the consequences, and how to protect yourself.

Future trends in cyber security for the hospitality industry

Staying ahead of emerging threats is crucial for you to safeguard your guests’ information and maintain trust. Hospitality has unique challenges due to high volumes of sensitive guest data and the growing number of connected devices within hotel environments. Here are key trends shaping the future of cyber security in hospitality:

• AI-driven threat detection: Hotels are increasingly adopting AI-based systems to proactively identify and mitigate cyber threats in real-time. See a threat, alert to threat.
• IoT device protection: With the rise of smart room devices and IoT integration, securing connected devices is a must-have. Continuous monitoring and automated threat detection are becoming standard practices.
• Enhanced privacy regulations: Evolving privacy laws, such as GDPR and region-specific regulations, will require hotels to maintain higher standards of data protection and transparency when handling guest data.
• Rise of biometric authentication: Using biometrics like facial recognition and fingerprint scans allow you to enhance security, streamline guest experiences, and reduce vulnerabilities associated with traditional access methods.
• Cloud security advancements: As hotels increasingly rely on cloud solutions for operations and guest services, you’ll need to improve your cloud security capabilities, including advanced encryption methods and robust access controls.

Blockchain for secure transactions and identity verification

Blockchain is still an emerging technology in hospitality, offering secure, transparent, and reliable methods for managing transactions and guest information.

Decentralised security

Blockchain technology provides a secure framework for processing payments and storing guest information. Its decentralised nature (i.e. there’s no single ‘weak link’ in the security chain) significantly reduces the risk of data breaches. Fewer risks means fewer breaches – which means greater trust.

Identity management

Blockchain technology makes it easier and more efficient to deal with larger volumes of guests. Digital IDs stored on blockchain streamline check-in processes, reduce waiting times, and keeps the data safer. This approach also helps in preventing identity fraud, as guest details can be verified securely and transparently, providing guests with more confidence in how their personal data is handled.

Smart contracts

Smart contracts automate booking and transaction processes securely and transparently on the blockchain. This means that smart contracts help ensure that bookings, payments, and service agreements are executed accurately and reliably, minimising administrative errors and potential fraud. Once it’s locked in, it’s locked in, and it’s much harder to accidentally disrupt the transaction.

AI and machine learning for threat detection

AI and machine learning technologies are reshaping cybersecurity by enabling hotels to detect and respond to threats faster and more effectively than ever before.

Anomaly detection

AI-powered cybersecurity systems continuously monitor network traffic and user activities, quickly detecting any unusual behaviour. This enables immediate identification of potential threats in real time, significantly reducing the likelihood and impact of cyber attacks.

Automated incident response

AI technologies enable faster threat analysis and automated responses, helping hotels swiftly address cyber incidents. By minimising response time, hotels can greatly reduce potential damages and disruption to operations.

Zero Trust security model

The Zero Trust security model is becoming essential in the hospitality industry, reinforcing a robust security posture through rigorous verification and continuous monitoring. Rather than granting access based on trust derived from network location or user credentials alone, Zero Trust insists on ongoing authentication and strict access controls. This significantly lowers the risk of both internal and external breaches, making it a highly effective solution for safeguarding sensitive guest information and ensuring uninterrupted operational integrity.

Continuous verification

Hotels implementing the Zero Trust model consistently verify every user and device attempting network access. This continuous scrutiny prevents implicit trust and regularly assesses permissions, substantially reducing cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication is becoming a standard practice across hotels, requiring multiple authentication methods from employees and guests. By using additional layers of security beyond simple passwords, MFA considerably mitigates the risk of unauthorised access, securing both critical systems and sensitive guest data.

Invest in secure payment software with SiteMinder

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What is a hotel data security breach?

A data breach is the release, intentional or unintentional, of private or confidential information to an untrusted environment. In other words, when data is viewed or transferred by someone not authorised to do so, this is a breach.

Breaches may involve financial information such as credit card or bank details, personal health information (PHI), Personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets of corporations or intellectual property. Most data breaches involve files, documents, and other sensitive information.

Data breaches are a concerning and damaging threat to all kinds of industries and businesses worldwide. Hotels are especially vulnerable because they deal with a large amount of personal information from guests and customers. Hackers can take all types of sensitive information from hotels – anything from email addresses to home addresses and credit card data.

The fines for such breaches are steep, but they’re not the only things your hotel should worry about. A security breach can significantly tarnish your company’s reputation in a very public way and many travellers say they will be less likely to book again with a company that lost their data through a security breach.

Why hotel cyber security is important

In this digital era, the hospitality industry must hurdle a critical challenge: safeguarding the extensive sensitive information generated by day-to-day online dealings and digital interactions. For hotel brands, the imperative to shield their own and their customers’ data has escalated to unprecedented levels.

The recent surge in online business and internet transactions has not just been a boon but a call for heightened vigilance. Hotel brands are now more than ever, under the obligation to ensure the security of their own and their customers’ data. Today’s cyber-criminals are devising newer, more sophisticated methods to infiltrate and extract sensitive customer information from hotel websites, internal systems, servers, and even mobile platforms – your front desk is not exempt from these threats.

So, what could be the fallout of a security breach in your hotel’s systems or those of your partners? The aftermath is often grim: thorough investigations, severe damage to your brand’s reputation, a significant erosion of consumer trust, and these are just the immediate repercussions. The financial implications are no less daunting, often involving thousands of dollars in penalties and fines.

To outpace these relentless hackers, hoteliers must intensify their focus on how they collect, store, and safeguard customer data, and how they manage their systems. Installing firewalls or updating antivirus software is a start, but it isn’t the end. Cybersecurity in your hotel is about cultivating a culture of cybersecurity awareness throughout the organisation, from the executive suite to the front desk. Your hotel’s reputation, customer trust, and financial health depend on this vigilance.

Common cyber security threats in the tourism and hospitality industry

Here are three of the most common forms of online security breaches that may occur – along with some tips to avoid a hotel data breach where you are…

1. Hotel malware

Malware is any piece of software that was written with the intent of doing harm to data, devices or to people. Malware is perhaps the most common and most dangerous online security threat thanks to its diversity.

Officially standing for malicious software, malware incorporates many different types of potential dangers to hotel technology such as reservations systems.

These include:

Viruses

Just like a virus you might contract, a computer virus will infect files on your system and then spread uncontrollably, eventually crippling the machine if left unchecked.

Trojans

Trojans are chameleons, disguising themselves as all types of legitimate software or hiding with legitimate software that’s been tampered with. Once installed, they will then attack the system.

Spyware

Somewhat obviously, spyware is designed to linger undetected in the background of your system and take note of what you do online. It will look for passwords, payment card data such as credit card information, names and addresses, and other private details.

Worms

These have the ability to infect a whole network of connected devices, and then use all of them to infect more, either locally or across the Internet.

Ransomware

Again self-explanatory, this malware essentially locks your computer and threatens to destroy everything unless you pay a ransom to the owner. (Talk about dramatic.)

Adware

This is not the most hostile of the group, often it will simply serve you annoying ads or pop-ups, but it can also open a way for other malware to get in.

The problem is that all of these types of malware require slightly different methods of removal and protection if a breach does take place at affected hotels. It’s always good practice to avoid engaging with suspicious emails and clicking insecure links, but the only way to be completely safe is to ensure you have anti-malware and antivirus software installed on all the devices you conduct your business with.

2. Spam

Spam has its origins way back in 1970 thanks to a Monty Python sketch and is the sending of an unsolicited message, mostly advertising via email.

The term can also apply to other media such as instant messaging spam, search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online ads spam, text message spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social spam, spam mobile apps, television advertising and file sharing spam.

It’s all very unwelcome usually and in some cases carries more dangerous malware with it.

However, there are plenty of ways to ensure you’re not bothered by spam at your hotel. Here are some tips:

• Avoid opening emails that look like scams or spam
• Never give in to spammers by purchasing something or accepting an offer
• Don’t bother replying. Simply delete and/or block
• Don’t be tricked into clicking. Even if a link is labelled ‘unsubscribe’ it will just confirm the email address is active and encourage more spam
• Use a disposable email address for purposes that may attract spam such as online purchasing
• In fact, be very wary where you put your main email address and who you give it to
• Try to use web contact forms instead of actually posting your email address on your website publicly
• When communicating your email address, present it in a way a person will understand but a spambot won’t. For example, test at test.com instead of test@test.com

3. DoS attacks

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack occurs when a hacker or virus shuts down a machine or network and prevents it being accessed by its intended users. This is usually done by flooding the system with an unprecedented amount of traffic or by sending information that triggers a crash.

The victims of DoS are usually high-profile organisations who people have a slight against.

A few different methods of DoS attacks exist. They include:

• Buffer overflow attacks sending more traffic to a network address than the programmers have built the system to handle
• ICMP floods that leverage misconfigured network devices by sending spoofed packets that ping every computer on the targeted network
• SYN floods that send a request to connect to a server, but never complete it. This continues until all open ports are saturated with requests

DoS attacks are very hard to predict or prevent. Usually solutions depend on countermeasures once the attack has been noticed.

Examples of hotel security breach

Some of the world’s largest companies have fallen prey to data breaches, costing millions of dollars in damages. In 2013 Yahoo was attacked and three billion user accounts were compromised. In the same year eBay had almost 150 million customer accounts accessed illegally.

Hotels and bed and breakfast properties have also been key targets of data breaches for many years – and there is one main reason for this: credit card payments. The security breach happens online, because that’s where your guests are making their bookings, or where your front desk staff are making bookings on their behalf. Unfortunately, going ‘off the grid’ isn’t a feasible solution to the issue – the online space is too big to ignore and credit card usage continues to grow.

And while not a strict data breach, Booking.com paid about 10,000 customers who fell victim to a scheme which conned customers out of data.

Marriott hotel security breach

In 2018 Marriott announced that hackers had attempted to access its Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide guest reservation database. Further investigation revealed unauthorised access to the system as far back as 2014, two years before Marriott acquired Starwood.

A valuable lesson here is that businesses should always scrutinise the cybersecurity and data handling of other companies before they enter into any type of deal. Even though the hack happened before the acquisition, it’s still Marriott’s reputation that is compromised. The same principle should be applied when a company acquires new infrastructure, applications, and systems. While these seem like assets, they should also be treated as potential liabilities.

Estimations said up to 500 million guests, including 327 million guests whose data includes “some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date and communication preferences, may have had their information at risk in the period between 2014 and 2018. Marriott also confirmed some compromised guest data includes payment card numbers and expiration dates.

IHG hotel security breach

Front desk cash registers at more than 1,200 hotels in the InterContinental Hotels Group, which includes the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, were infected with malware that stole customer debit and credit card data between September 29, 2016 and December 29, 2016. The company has a network of more than 5,000 hotels in over 100 countries so that could mean more than one-fifth of its hotels were affected.

The malware stole information read from the magnetic stripe of a payment card as it travelled through the affected hotel’s server. That information could have included the cardholder’s name in addition to card number, expiration date, and internal verification code.

Hilton hotel security breach

In 2017 BBC News reported Hilton was fined $700,000 for mishandling data breaches in 2014 and 2015.

The company discovered the first breach in February 2015 and the second in July 2015, but first went public with the breaches in November 2015. US federal investigators said Hilton “had taken too long to warn customers and lacked adequate security measures.”

Wyndham hotel security breach

Wyndham Worldwide were involved in a lawsuit after failing to properly safeguard customer information, in a case arising from three data breaches affecting more than 619,000 customers.

The Federal Trade Commission wanted to hold Wyndham accountable for breaches in which hackers broke into its computer system and stole credit card and other details from customers, leading to over $10.6 million in fraudulent charges.

Under the order, Wyndham established a comprehensive information security program designed to protect cardholder data including payment card numbers, names and expiration dates.

Expedia security breach

Expedia subsidiary Orbitz disclosed that about 880,000 payment cards had been impacted by a security breach that potentially exposed customers’  information to hackers.

The travel booking site said an investigation determined that an attacker may have accessed personal information of people who made purchases between January 1 2016 and December 22 2017.

The personal information potentially exposed includes credit card information, addresses and phone numbers of customers. The information attackers “likely accessed” included people’s names, dates of birth, email addresses, street addresses, and genders, Orbitz said.

“Thanks to the website builder, we were able to create an attractive online presence without much effort. This helped increase direct bookings, which now make up about 30% of our bookings.”

Constanze Gehmacher,

Co-owner

The Little Guesthouse in Salzburg

Read more

Review of cyber security issues in hospitality industry

In the hospitality industry, adhering to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is essential for safeguarding sensitive customer data. 

• PCI DSS, enforced by major credit card companies, mandates secure processing, storage, and transmission of credit card information, affecting every credit card transaction in hotels. 
• GDPR, implemented in the EU, emphasises the protection of personal data and impacts hotel marketing strategies, especially concerning guest databases and email campaigns. 
• HTTPS website security is crucial for building guest trust and securing online transactions. 

Hoteliers must take proactive steps, including appointing a compliance champion, educating staff, controlling data access, and collaborating with PCI-compliant vendors, to adhere to these standards and protect against data breaches and hefty fines.

PCI compliance in the hospitality industry

The PCI Compliance Guide defines PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) as “a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment”.

PCI DSS has changed the way the travel industry approaches safety standards relating to how credit card payments are handled and processed. The standard is enforced by major credit card companies – including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB – as part of their merchant agreements.

Designed to help prevent payment card fraud, the standard applies to any business involved in the processing, storing or transmitting of cardholder data, regardless of the transaction volume or dollar value involved. Should a guest use their credit card to pay for something at a hotel, for example – be it a room reservation, spa treatment or coffee – PCI DSS applies to that purchase.

PCI DSS compliance is not a ‘nice-to-have’, but an absolute necessity. A security breach not only damages your reputation, but it could potentially wreak havoc on the lives of your guests, and cost you a significant amount in the way of data breach fees.

Hotel PCI DSS requirements

Here’s your quick start list on PCI DSS compliance for hotels:

• Name an owner or champion of PCI DSS compliance within your organisation: This person within your hotel can work with the various departments to ensure PCI DSS compliance is understood and act as ‘go to’ person if staff have questions.
• Be proactive: Teach staff why data security is important and the impact any breach may have. Show them how they can be proactive in managing security every day.
• Protect physical data: Control access to the back office and anywhere receipts are filed. Provide secure disposal bins or a shredder for disposal sensitive paperwork.
• Proactively manage access to systems: Restrict access to payment or personal data to only staff who require this information to do their job. Use individual logins and access codes to systems.
• Check your vendor’s approach to data security: Clarify the role vendors play in terms of compliance with data-related standards, and seek PCI DSS compliant partners.
• Secure online booking data: While you may need a paper copy of a reservation, do not print credit card details of customers from your online systems. Select an online booking engine that is fully PCI DSS compliant.

To help businesses determine their level of PCI DSS compliance, the PCI Security Standards Council provides various Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs) online, as well as professional training for firms and individuals.

The cost of becoming PCI DSS compliant depends on a number of factors, including the size of your business, existing IT infrastructure among other factors.

To achieve PCI DSS compliance, follow these steps:

1. Speak with your acquiring bank(s) to determine the correct SAQ for your business (e.g. Visa, MasterCard, AMEX)
2. Complete the appropriate SAQ for your business
3. Submit the SAQ, evidence of a passing scan (if required), the Attestation of Compliance and any other requested documentation to your acquiring bank(s).

Hospitality cyber security compliance: GDPR for hotels

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law introduced on 25th May 2018.

It was implemented to strengthen and unify data protection in the European Union (EU) and could directly affect your hotel.

The GDPR gives more control to residents over their personally identifiable information and aims to simplify the regulatory environment for international business.

Hotels need to ensure they review their connections to third party data processors (such as technology vendors), their own security policies, and if they have the necessary qualified staff on hand to cope with the new laws.

The GDPR dictates that all of these must be reviewed and it’s likely that data agreements will have to be renegotiated to remain compliant.

As is widely reported, serious penalties may apply to companies who aren’t compliant. At worst, a fine of €20 million may be issued, or 4% of the company’s worldwide annual revenue of the prior financial year – whichever is bigger.

What hotels need to know about GDPR

For hotel marketers the new GDPR rules could be especially impactful on their guest databases – particularly in regards to running email campaigns and sending prospective guests promotional offers enticing them to book a room.

Under the GDPR, your prospective guests must explicitly opt-in to having their details stored and they should understand what they are being used for. If you’re looking to send email campaigns with offers to people who haven’t stayed at your hotel previously, these people must have consented willingly to being communicated with.

The key definition is that user consent must be “freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.” But what does that mean?

One example is enquiry forms with a checkbox to receive a newsletter with your hotel’s offers should not be ticked by default, assuming that unless the user selects this they do not wish to opt in to your promotional email messages.

What can your hotel do to keep your guest database intact?

Hotels must have regained consent from prospective guests they’re currently sending promotional emails to – and it will need to be clearly explained what content they will receive and how their data will be used.

One way to do this, is for hotels to run a campaign seeking permission to email prospective guests and ask them to opt-in to promotional communications.

This can actually be a positive way to cleanse databases of disengaged contacts and increase your future email conversion rates.

Here’s what you should include in the initial email of these permission pass campaigns:

• Why you are emailing the contact
• A valuable reason for them to opt-in
• What they will continue to receive if they do opt-in
• A link to re-subscribe
• An option to unsubscribe and have their data removed
• A sign-off from a real person such as your general manager

You should always A/B test your email, trying different variations to see what will garner the most success.

And a last chance follow-up email should be sent, reiterating what was stated in your initial communication, to the people who did not respond. They’ll need a reminder.

You will also need to review and update your privacy statement to comply with GDPR requirements. Is the content in your privacy statement difficult to read? Or are you purposefully using terminology so that potential guests are not clear about what they’re signing up for? If so, rewrite it and make it clearer.

Privacy policy templates are readily available for free online if your hotel website doesn’t have one already. If you think it needs rewriting to comply with the GDPR, SEQ Legal provides a free template privacy policy, subject to certain conditions. You can read more on that template here.

HTTPS website data security for hotels

Creating a safe hotel website experience should be treated as a duty of care for your guests; can you imagine the consequences of a traveller being defrauded via your website? There’s also the very real danger of travellers abandoning or not even landing on your homepage in the first place.

The majority of websites use SSL encryption to protect any data that’s transmitted between a website and a shopper.

The SSL encryption requires a secure form of communication between a website and the consumer, known as HTTPS – where the ‘s’ stands for secure. This is indicated to the user in the URL which displays ‘https’ in place of the standard ‘http’.

It also shows the padlock symbol on the left-hand side of the URL bar which reassures people their data is secure when entering bank details or viewing their account online. It looks like this…

What does it mean for your hotel’s website? Basically, Google shows a huge bias towards websites that are HTTPS secure. In fact, if your website isn’t secure, Chrome will actively warn users it isn’t safe and could even restrict access to your website pages.

The reality is at some point you will probably collect data from visitors, even if it’s just an email address. It’s also been proven that HTTPS sites will load faster than HTTP, another factor influencing user experience.

Surveys say 84% of users would abandon a purchase if data was sent over an insecure connection, and a large majority are concerned about their data being intercepted or misused online. So, if you’re a hotelier that wants to convert direct bookings and maintain a high ranking on Google’s search results, it’s vital you’re HTTPS secure.

In the psychology of a prospective guest, seeing that little green padlock will give them peace of mind and an immediate sense of trust in your hotel business.

How to make a website HTTPS secure

The steps to follow when migrating your website to be HTTPS secure include:

1. Host your website with a dedicated IP address

With a dedicated IP, you ensure that the traffic going to that IP address is only going to your website and no one else’s.

2. Buy an SSL certificate

An SSL certificate will prove your website is your website. When people visit your site via HTTPS that password is checked, and if it matches, it automatically verifies that your website is who you say it is.

3. Activate the certificate

Your web host may do this step for you – check with them before proceeding. This can get complicated and if you can wait 1-2 days it may be best to let them do it.

4. Install the certificate

When installing an SSL certificate on a hotel website, the approach will largely depend on your hosting environment and server software, which is particularly vital for ensuring guest data security and trust in your online booking systems. Here’s how you might proceed in different scenarios:

1. Installation on shared hosting: If your hotel website is on shared hosting (a common option for smaller hotels), log in to your hosting control panel (like cPanel). Find the SSL/TLS section and follow the steps to upload your new SSL certificate.
2. Installation on dedicated/VPS hosting: For larger hotels with dedicated servers, you’ll need to access your server through SSH (a secure network protocol). Upload the SSL certificate files to your server and configure your web server (like Apache or Nginx) to use these files. This might require some technical know-how or assistance from your IT team.
3. For managed or cloud-based hosting: If your website is on a cloud platform (like AWS) or managed hosting, you’ll typically use their interface to upload and activate your SSL certificate.

5. Update your site to use HTTPS

At this point if you go to https://yoursite.com you should see it load! Congrats, you’ve successfully installed SSL and enabled the HTTPS protocol. Keep in mind that you only need to protect a few pages, such as your login or checkout.

If you enable HTTPS on pages where the user isn’t submitting sensitive data, it’s just wasting encryption processing and slowing down the experience

One of the easiest ways to ensure your website is secure, along with many other benefits, is to invest in a professional website builder tool. These solutions will automatically come with secure encryption and will also help you maintain a functional, SEO-friendly, and charming hotel website.

The beauty of using a customisable website builder is that you’ll have your brand new website within days and it will automatically keep up with Google’s updates as time goes by.

The rise of the hotel credit card breach

Statistics show that 74% of travellers from the US alone make use of credit cards while travelling – citing convenience, theft protection, and easier tracking of purchases as the top reasons.

According to data from payment systems industry information provider Nilson, credit card use in the US jumped 42% from 2012 to 2018, accounting for US $120 billion in transactions.

Unfortunately, these transactions are vulnerable to cyber-criminals who specifically target travellers with disposable incomes. Indeed, hotels are an active hotspot for credit card fraud; according to a study by Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, of 218 data breach investigations from 24 countries, 38% of the attacks occurred on hotels and, of the data stolen, 98% was credit card information.

How hotels can avoid credit card fraud

With so much travel now being booked online – and through a variety of channels – the opportunity for hotels to increase sales is getting bigger all the time. However, it also creates challenges in making sure customer payment data is protected and that no breach occurs at the hands of hackers or fraudsters.

The vast majority of security compromises (91%) occur at point-of-sale systems and are most often Card Not Present (CNP) fraud.

Because CNP transactions are so prevalent in the travel industry and much information is exchanged between hotel and customer, it’s important to know when you might be at risk and how to prevent any data breaches from happening. Since guests expect a hotel to be a safe place to escape to, even a single instance of failing to protect a customer’s data could have huge ramifications on your reputation and finances.

Here’s what to look out for:

1. Hurried purchases

It’s common for fraudsters to contact you in a panic, wanting to rush to set up their accommodation.

It’s important you don’t get flustered. Take the adequate time to verify their credit card, passport details, and other relevant documents to make sure they’re genuinely are who they say they are.

Take the adequate time to verify credit cards, passport details, and other relevant documents to make sure people genuinely are who they say they are.

2. First-time guests

It makes sense to be more cautious of people who haven’t booked with you before. With regular customers you can build a relationship and learn their purchase habits.

Be aware of a first-time customer who contacts you online to make a large purchase. Collect all the necessary verification information. For greater security, adopt a payment solution that is designed to capture transaction data in an intelligent manner.

3. Purchaser location

These days many fraudsters have become adept at hiding their true location and stopping themselves being tracked.

If you do have suspicions about a customer, do everything you can to verify their legitimacy, including calling and emailing them to collect data and confirm their identity.

4. Inconsistent addresses

One of the biggest warnings that everything is not what it seems is when someone wants to use different addresses for billing and shipping, which may not apply as strongly to hotels but is very relevant for the travel industry in general.

Hospitality cyber security 101: Email phishing scams

Given 15 million online hotel reservations are made on bogus third-party sites every year, travellers and guests are on high alert about being scammed.

These rogue websites trick people into thinking they’re reserving directly with their hotel of choice then go on to steal their information and money.

Let’s go through what it is, what it may look like, and how to prevent your hotel falling victim to email scams and phishing.

What is a phishing scam?

As the name suggests, phishing is quite similar to ‘fishing’ although far more malevolent.

Whoever the phisher or hacker is attempts to lure their target into opening a malicious download, clicking on fake links, or entering personal information in order to steal data or identities. The end goal, of course, is to make money at someone else’s expense.

In the case of a business like your hotel, the most common form of phishing would come via email. Likely to be posing as a friend, co-worker, manager, or trusted company the email would make a seemingly reasonable request to open an attachment or verify information but would then infect your computer and capture valuable data.

Example of phishing scam

Often a phishing email will look very similar to a normal email you would expect to receive, which is why people can get caught out. Usually the email subject will be around changing a password, discussing transactions, updating information, important notifications etc.

Consider this example of a phishing email from scammers posing as eBay:

Seems perfectly legitimate at first glance but it’s hiding some concerning secrets.

Here are some clues that may indicate this is a phishing email:

• It’s simply addressed to ‘sir’, rather than anyone in particular
• The threat of account suspension – if eBay truly believed the account was being used for fraud they would suspend it immediately
• Spelling and grammar errors – note ‘advise’ is misspelled as ‘advice’. Phishing emails commonly contain errors like this
• The link reveals itself to be a fake website if you hover over it, instead of clicking it

You should also carefully check the incoming email address. Sometimes it’s complete nonsense, but often it will closely mimic the real address it’s passing itself off as.

Looking for these clues will help your hotel to avoid being caught by these online scams.

How to prevent email phishing attacks at your hotel

It’s particularly important you keep your data safe as a security compromise could also endanger the information of your guests, which could do catastrophic damage to your hotel’s reputation and brand image.

There’s a whole range of actions you can take to reduce the amount of phishing emails you receive, and also how to make sure you delete them immediately if they make it to your inbox.

Here’s a list of preventative measures for any email you suspect might be fake:

• Ensure anti-spyware, anti-virus, and anti-malware tools are installed and up-to-date on your systems
• Make sure all your applications are regularly updated
• Check the spelling and grammar of emails you receive
• Test links and attachments before opening them
• Pay close attention to email addresses and the specificity of email content – authentic emails will include your name, account information/numbers etc.
• Be wary of fake login screens trying to capture information – the website URL will not be legitimate
• Run an education session for all hotel employees, since less informed staff members may take the bait

Once you know how to spot general phishing emails you should be relatively safe from harm.

There are more complex attacks, known as ‘spear phishing’, which target high profile figures (whales) such as celebrities, but these should affect your hotel far less.

Cyber security best practices for hotel staff

No hotel is too big or small to be a target. In fact, smaller independent properties may be even more vulnerable to attack, and less able to bounce back from the loss of reputation and damages paid.

It’s not enough to have an SSL certificate on your website, or rely solely on third-party payment services such as Paypal or Google Checkout to handle your guests’ credit card security. Each program you use must be securely locked down.

After all, sensitive data can be intercepted at any point in your guests’ booking process. For example, if your online booking system vendor is not PCI DSS compliant, a wayward employee could easily decide to steal credit card data. This is why the standard was invented.

Furthermore, allowing your guests to pay securely helps to stop abandoned website bookings. Worldpay reports that nearly one in five online shoppers have dropped out of online travel bookings because of security concerns around payment.

If you are not actively protecting your guests credit card data, you are putting your business and customers at serious risk.

1. Keep your devices and systems up-to-date

One of the biggest risks to security is allowing your devices and systems to go too long without updates and software patches intended to improve and keep them safe. This makes them much more vulnerable to attack from hackers.

2. Regularly backup your data

The updates issued by your software providers are designed to protect you so it’s important to set your computers to automatically accept and install them periodically.

To eliminate the risk of losing data or having it irretrievably damaged, it’s essential to make a habit of backing it up. This will include financial records, business plans, customer data, personal information etc. Backing up your data is generally easy and cost-effective, meaning there’s no excuse not to do it.

Here’s a recommended strategy:

• Daily backups to a portable device and/or cloud storage service
• Weekly server backups
• Quarterly server backups
• Yearly server backups

3. Protect against malware and viruses

Often emails, pop-ups, fake accounts and profiles, and actual hackers will try to infect your computer and other devices with software designed to cripple your business or steal from you. Regularly check your bank and billing records to make sure this isn’t happening.

It’s important to install antivirus and anti-spyware and always update when prompted. Additionally you should keep track of all the equipment used by your business and who uses it.

Educate all your employees on the risks and best practices, and never allow them to take sensitive material home with them, or use personal devices for work purposes.

4. Prioritise password security

Some easy-to-remember tips here include frequently updating your passwords, never use the same password for everything, and use unique passwords.

Once a hacker has used one password, every account you own could be under attack if you’ve always used the same one. The same goes if you’re using weak passwords that are easily guessed. The best idea is to change your passwords every few months.

Do not reuse passwords on different business-related accounts. Ideally, use a different, complex password for each online account you have where you have sensitive customer or financial data processed.

5. Know when to trust your software provider

It’s vital that you don’t take every correspondence with your hotel technology providers at face value. Phishing emails are very good at seeming legitimate when in fact they’re fake emails trying to steal information.

So if your provider sends an email they have never sent before, there could be a good reason not to trust it.

6. Use different emails

Try not to use an email address listed on your site as your online system login or username. That potentially makes it easier for a hacker to identify you as their target. 

Don’t use email accounts shared between employees, for example info@hotel.com, to log in to any online platforms and solutions. If an employee is accidentally careless online with the shared password, it can make you that much easier to hack.

7. Regular security training and incident reporting

Procedures are only effective if backed by thorough and consistent training. Regularly train your employees on cybersecurity best practices, highlighting critical skills such as recognizing phishing emails, spotting unusual network activity, and safely handling sensitive guest and financial information.

For example, if you want to maximise effectiveness, introduce training sessions like practical, hands-on activities, such as interactive workshops, realistic simulations, and scenario-based exercises. Consistent training and clearly articulated guidelines will foster a proactive cybersecurity culture, significantly enhancing your hotel’s resilience against threats.

Travel technology comprises digital tools and platforms aimed at streamlining operations and enhancing guest experiences in the travel and hospitality sectors. It encompasses advanced booking engines, property management systems, customer relationship management (CRM) software, AI-driven chatbots, and more. These technologies are designed to automate routine tasks, free up staff for personalised guest services, and provide valuable data insights for improved operations and guest satisfaction. 

The hospitality industry is built upon face-to-face conversations designed to foster healthy relationships and trust between provider and patron. Some of the most successful business owners would likely not hesitate to call their regular customers friends, as it’s this attitude that delivers high-quality service on a consistent basis.

It’s interesting to note then that the hospitality industry is becoming increasingly dependent on technology systems that can limit the amount of interaction people actually have with each other, but in some cases can significantly enrich the opportunity for hotel staff to give guests their utmost attention.

Here’s how travel technology is changing the industry and the possible implications, negative and positive, for hotels.

Why hotels need to incorporate travel technology

Potential customers are increasingly looking to their mobile devices to solve their problems for them, and this is also the way they are searching for, and booking, travel and accommodation.

This creates a critical need for hotels to respond in kind, by implementing mobile-friendly booking engines and websites, collecting and using data more extensively, and investing in robust property management systems.

The technological progress around faster internet speeds, mobile technology, apps, and numerous intuitive online technologies like virtual assistants has given consumers an unbridled sense of freedom and convenience.

Once upon a time your guests would book over the phone, by walking into a hotel, or through a travel agent. Now online travel agents (OTAs), hotel websites, and social media dominate the travel landscape.

However, the convenience of technology extends much further than this for travellers. The desire for quicker transactions at hotels means features like keyless room entry and mobile check-in are trending. Again, this requires the hotel to install and manage the necessary technology.

Even at a more physical level, hotels are hiring specialists to manage social media, Wi-Fi and other IT services, in addition to retail components.

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Travel technology solutions

Travellers now take for granted the service they receive will be authentic, personal, and instant; and they only want this to keep improving. Anything that falls beneath these standards is likely to garner a negative review or poor public feedback.

If a guest took out their phone and searched for a nearby hotel, they’d expect the offered information to be tailored based on their location, time of day, and even past interests and bookings.

This would remain so throughout the booking journey and their stay, whereby they’d require the hotel to maintain a constant level of communication and keep a record of travel preferences.

A survey by Amadeus reported 92% of respondents supported the idea that “…hotel guests will expect their stay to be personalised around a set of choices they make at the time of booking or prior to arrival”.

This means the guest of the future will be able to pick and choose all aspects of their experience including technology, hotel services, the room, the journey, pricing and communications.

Other data sources show 57% of US travellers think brands should tailor their information based on personal preferences or past behaviours. If they did, 36% would be likely to pay more for their services, including hotel rooms.

The advantages of travel technology

For one, it’s what guests want and it’s what they expect so by using technology you will be fulfilling a vital requirement of hospitality service; making the customer happy.

Secondly, technology is designed to simplify and accelerate specific tasks. By making it easier to book, quicker to check in, and more convenient to order amenities, the guest experience has been enhanced without the hotel manager or staff needing to do anything.

Similarly, social media provides a quicker and more accessible way to answer any questions travellers have. We now live in a world where a consumer is more likely to trust the implied perfection of technology over a human.

This creates a flow-on effect whereby hotel staff now have more time to dedicate to guests in the physical surrounds of the hotel and ensure every trip is one without hiccups for the traveller.

Smart hotels will do the following when it comes to travel technology:

• Move to faster-speed internet and provide increased bandwidth for guests
• Use technologies like mobile apps to create better ways to promote loyalty
• Implement technology like voice recognition or gesture-activated interfaces to speed up guest activities
• Adopt new guest-facing technology early to gain a point of difference over competitors
• Embrace automated marketing opportunities, and experiment with new features like including machine learning to unlock new customer insights
• Use hotel technology like channel management and online booking engines to streamline backend processes, allowing more time to be dedicated to guests
• Consider virtual technology to improve in-room guest service

Very soon the majority of new hotel technology will arise from guests’ desire, rather than pure innovation – so it’s extremely important hotels listen to what travellers want from a trip and a hotel stay as it’s happening now.

All signs point to the ever-growing need for individually customised guest experience.

The disadvantages of travel technology

Some technologies do present a double-edged sword to hoteliers who aren’t vigilant. For example, social media is a very powerful weapon in the wrong hands. Any disgruntled guests can quickly and publicly air their concerns or complaints, potentially damaging a hotel’s reputation in the process. Travellers more often trust their peers than they do the defence of a hotel. 

For this reason, reputation management has become even more critical.

Another potential pitfall is mobile check-in and check-out. If guests are arriving and bypassing the front desk, the hotel has a reduced opportunity to establish a rapport, offer advice or assistance, or sell extras, additional packages, or amenities. While this can be done via email, mobile app, or at other times, it’s still one less chance to influence a guest. 

The same applies to departing guests when the hotel is trying to gain a positive review or induct a new member to its loyalty program.

It’s an interesting and challenging situation for hotels to be in as they work to implement the best technology while preserving what has always been their greatest value; friendly and personal service.

Best travel technology solutions for hotels

Channel manager

A channel manager is a crucial tool for hotels to effectively manage and distribute their inventory across various online travel agencies (OTAs) and booking platforms. It automates room availability and rates across all channels in real-time, eliminating the risk of overbooking and ensuring rate parity. By centralising the distribution process, a channel manager saves time, reduces manual errors, and optimises the potential for increased bookings and revenue.

Property management systems 

Property Management Systems are the backbone of hotel operations, managing everything from reservations, check-ins/check-outs, billing, room assignment, and housekeeping schedules. A robust PMS can streamline daily operations, enhance guest satisfaction through quicker responses, and provide useful analytics for data-driven decision-making. Integrating a PMS with other systems like channel managers and booking engines can create a powerful tech ecosystem within a hotel.

Revenue management systems

Revenue Management Systems (RMS) employ data analytics to predict demand, optimise pricing, and maximise revenue. They analyse market trends, competitor prices, and historical data to suggest the best room rates at any given time. By automating the dynamic pricing strategy, an RMS helps hotels stay competitive and profitable, especially during peak seasons or special events.

Booking engines

Booking engines facilitate direct reservations through the hotel’s website, providing a seamless booking experience for guests. They help hotels reduce dependency on OTAs and improve profit margins by eliminating commission fees. A user-friendly booking engine with a secure payment gateway can significantly enhance direct bookings and overall guest satisfaction.

Review management software

Review Management Software helps hotels monitor, respond to, and analyse guest reviews across various platforms like TripAdvisor, Google, and Yelp. It’s vital for maintaining a positive online reputation, understanding guest feedback, and making necessary improvements to enhance guest satisfaction. 

Future travel technology trends

Augmented reality

Augmented Reality (AR) offers a blend of the digital and physical worlds by overlaying digital information onto the real world. In the hospitality sector, AR can enhance guest experiences by providing interactive hotel tours, local area information, or even virtual menus. Guests could point their smartphones at a nearby historical landmark to learn more about it or view a hotel room virtually before making a booking. 

Biometric authentication

Adoption of biometric authentication, using unique biological traits like fingerprints or facial recognition for verification, could bolster security and streamline processes in hotels. This technology can speed up check-ins and access control, enhancing guest convenience while reducing operational hassles. Moreover, it provides a robust level of security, ensuring that only authorised individuals gain access to certain restricted areas within the hotel premises.

Sustainable travel

Modern travellers are increasingly seeking eco-friendly options. Hotels can leverage technology like carbon accounting software to measure, manage, report and reduce their environmental footprint through energy management systems, waste reduction technologies, and water conservation measures. This will help them show potential guests that they walk the talk around sustainability through reliable data and meaningful climate action.

Smart speakers

Smart speakers and voice-activated assistants are making inroads into hotel rooms, offering guests a hands-free way to control room settings, request services, or get local recommendations. This technology enhances guest comfort and convenience while enabling hotels to provide personalised services and recommendations.

AI in hotels

From chatbots that provide instant responses to guest inquiries, to predictive analytics that help hoteliers make data-driven decisions, AI is poised to drive operational efficiency and guest satisfaction to new heights. AI can automate routine tasks, freeing up hotel staff to focus on delivering exceptional guest service. The insights garnered from AI can also inform strategic decisions, helping hotels to continually improve and innovate their offerings.

The average 5-star rating of SiteMinder reviews is 4.2 across credible online review websites and software marketplace platforms. SiteMinder reviews are widely available on HotelTechReport (HTR), the global authority on hotel technology solutions.

Trusted by industry professionals, HTR serves as a centralised hub for verified reviews, ratings, and in-depth reports which aid hoteliers in making informed decisions about technology adoption for enhanced hotel management.

Why are SiteMinder reviews important?

SiteMinder reviews are important because they provide valuable insights and real-world experiences from users who have used the software, offering prospective buyers a glimpse of the platform’s functionality and reliability, among other features.

Generally, reviews also contribute to transparency and accountability within the industry, fostering a culture of improvement as software developers can leverage on feedback to refine and upgrade their tech products.

Evaluating SiteMinder reviews enables accommodation providers to determine its suitability for their specific needs and operational requirements, allowing them to invest in solutions that align with their business goals and increase overall efficiency, guest satisfaction, and revenue results.

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SiteMinder review examples

The collective wisdom shared through reviews helps hoteliers navigate the complex landscape of hotel management software. When looking at SiteMinder reviews, it’s essential that they come from legitimate sources.

Reviews about Siteminder abound online, but here’s the top seven most trustworthy sites on the internet:

“Very reliable with excellent support” – HotelTechReport

The hotel manager of a UK-based boutique accommodation declares this on HTR and shares more about the award-winning software, “SiteMinder is easy to use and we enjoy it. Very user friendly, simple to use.”

In terms of things that can be improved, the reviewer states, “Nothing really that I can think about, it’s great in all ways. I really enjoy using SiteMinder and the support is great.”

As the leading information centre on hotel technology providers worldwide, HotelTechReport functions as a dependable resource for SiteMinder reviews. Their strict verification process ensures high quality review content from real hoteliers.

With the title, “Our Growth Has Been Inseparable from SiteMinder’s Support”, the revenue manager of a US-based 500+ room resort writes this comprehensive SiteMinder review:

“The remarkable ease of use for the booking engine, channel manager and metasearch, and the swift issue resolution make my experience with this system highly satisfying. I greatly value promptly updating rates, efficiently managing various aspects, and maintaining seamless connectivity with the platform. It liberates me from the laborious manual tasks that were once the standard practice, significantly enhancing my workflow.

This newfound efficiency enables me to allocate more time and attention to meaningful tasks, secure in the knowledge that any potential issues will receive the swift and effective attention they require. This system’s user-friendly nature is invaluable in optimising my productivity and overall work experience, making it an indispensable asset to my daily operations. I highly recommend any hotelier stop doing manual processes and use SiteMinder.

After relying on SiteMinder as my go-to solution for a significant three years or even more, it has been a remarkable journey witnessing the continuous evolution and improvements made to the platform. Over this extended period, I have come to appreciate how diligently the SiteMinder team has worked to enhance its functionality and features, leaving me with the distinct impression that there is little, if anything at all, left to be desired.

The diligent commitment to progress exhibited by SiteMinder’s development team has not gone unnoticed. Their dedication to refining and expanding the platform has resulted in a robust and highly effective tool that has consistently met and exceeded my expectations.

In fact, I am hard-pressed to identify any further improvements that I believe could be deemed necessary at this point.This extended experience with SiteMinder has instilled in me a high degree of confidence in the platform’s ability to meet my evolving needs effectively. It has become an indispensable part of my daily operations, allowing me to streamline various aspects of my work while knowing that any necessary enhancements have been diligently implemented.

In conclusion, my long-standing association with SiteMinder has been nothing short of exceptional, and I am thoroughly content with the current state of the platform. The consistent efforts put forth by the SiteMinder team to refine and improve their product have culminated in a highly reliable and user-friendly solution that I fully trust and appreciate.”

Related: SiteMinder pioneers mobile-first intelligence, partners with IDeaS to make dynamic revenue management accessible to all hotels

Detailed below are other SiteMinder reviews on HotelTechReport:

“We have been working with SiteMinder for years. It is very intuitive and, what we like most, is that in addition to not having problems with the channel, is that if you have a question, you can call by phone and they will guide you, it is ideal! The best we have tried! Everything with SiteMinder works correctly, it has everything we need. Easy to use and effective. It has everything our company needs.” – Vacation rental and villa administrator in Spain

“SiteMinder is the best Channel Manager. Easy to use, amazing support, and one of the best options available in the market, having been using this platform for the last 15+ years. Keep adapting, the current format is good, once the initial setup is done accurately, very few items will have any issues.” – Condotel franchisee in Australia

“Great way to upkeep rates and availability across all channels. The ease of use and functionality of the system are what I like the most. Rates and availability are updated within minutes of submitting the change. You can also set restrictions. So far, I haven’t found anything that needs to be improved. The system does exactly what I need it to do.” – Hotel reservations supervisor in the United States

“The channel manager is very efficient: Fast set up, fast connectivity. Also, a very good and attentive customer service team. At the moment, I don’t have any improvement to suggest. However, I will notify them if I have any suggestions in future.” – Hometel revenue and distribution manager in the United Kingdom

“I really like that the channel manager is in real time, maintains connections without errors, and provides me with an excellent, punctual, and precise tool for managing sales channels. Keep up to date with technologies as they are doing. The truth is that SiteMinder will always be my best management option.” – Bed and breakfast manager in Mexico

Key takeaways from SiteMinder reviews on HotelTechReport

Without a doubt, SiteMinder offers the most superior software for managing distribution channels and direct bookings, consistently ranking as number 1 in the world. More than this, the platform has evolved into an all-around solution for generating hotel revenue, winning the coveted #1 Hotelier’s Choice Award.

For the third year in a row, SiteMinder has been recognised as the company which demonstrates the strongest customer relationships across all categories of the awards, determined by total verified customer reviews, geographic reach of reviews, and overall review sentiment and ratings.

“SiteMinder, impossible to dislike” – Capterra

This is the title of one of the latest SiteMinder reviews on Capterra, an extensive repository of user-generated reviews for software solutions across various industries.

The Portugal-based hotel assistant director of sales and revenue continues, “I have worked with different channel managers, however SiteMinder has been the most intuitive to work with and the support of the team has been amazing since day one. The connection with our PMS was and is perfect. Overall, the benefits are more than enough for us to keep SiteMinder as our channel manager for a long long time.”

Capterra employs a rigorous review validation process to ensure the authenticity of user contributions. Upon submission, reviews undergo a thorough evaluation to properly identify the reviewer’s relationship with the software.

To maintain a high standard of accuracy, they utilise a combination of automated tools and manual checks in verifying the legitimacy of the feedback.

Here is a sample of SiteMinder reviews on Capterra:

“Overall, I like SiteMinder’s channel manager and always recommend it to my clients (large 4 and 5 star hotels). I switched from STAAH Channel Manager because SiteMinder is much easier to use.” – Managing director of a hospitality consulting firm in Malaysia

• Pros: In my capacity as a revenue management consultant, I have used many different channel managers. SiteMinder definitely is my favourite channel manager as it’s easy to use, integrates with all the major OTAs and has very good customer service.
• Cons: It can be a bit overwhelming when just starting out, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be fine.

“Great integration and channel management” – Revenue manager of a business hotel in South Africa

• Pros: The ability to distribute inventory to all channels with a click of a button. Being able to access booking information across all channels and manage them accordingly. Integration between our PMS and SiteMinder.
• Cons: The software is easy to use and has many pros, there are no cons to report.

“Very good. I love Siteminder. I will recommend this system to someone I know.” – Reservation manager of a luxury hotel in Taiwan

• Pros: Very easy to control the allotment/ rates. Very easy for reservation management.
• Cons: Overall, I think this system is very good and easy to use. The only thing I hope is that more OTAs can integrate with SiteMinder in the future.

General response to SiteMinder reviews on Capterra

Currently, SiteMinder connects with 450+ global distribution channels, including top online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, etc., the largest of any hotel tech provider to date.

It also hosts the largest ecosystem of partner integrations and apps in the world with over 1000 live connections for property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), revenue management systems (RMS), and more.

“Easy-to-use system” – GetApp

A Colombia-based hotel manager says this about our smart platform and further mentions, “Easy-to-install software to be able to control inventory from all channels. Lots of integrations with OTAs which helps improve distribution.”

GetApp is a popular digital marketplace that simplifies the process of assessing business-to-business (B2B) software and services, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises.

SiteMinder reviews on GetApp may look similar to some reviews on Capterra because they’re a family of brands under the same suite of services, Gartner Digital Markets. However, they also articulate about sourcing their reviews from a variety of channels while implementing meticulous quality assurance.

Take a glimpse of SiteMinder reviews on GetApp:

“Smart software.” – General manager of 4-star hotel apartments in Italy

• Pros: Easy to use software with smart performances. Great technical support.
• Cons: Nothing. The different SiteMinder apps I use daily are brilliantly performing.

“Very reliable and easy-to-use.” – Hotel manager of a boutique stay in the United Kingdom

• Pros: I have used SiteMinder for almost 10 years. This channel manager is very reliable and easy to use. I highly recommend it for the revenue manager and general manager of small to mid sized properties.
• Cons: None, I did not find anything that I would consider a flaw.

“Reliable and wide connectivity. SiteMinder is still the most valuable and workable in their range. I love their service and product development.” – General manager of a hospitality management group in Thailand

• Pros: I love its reliability and consistency of its work. The sales team and support team are professional and helpful. That’s why I always prefer SiteMinder.
• Cons:  A bit high price when compared to many products in the market, however the value in return is a key.

Valuable insight from SiteMinder reviews on GetApp:

Pricing is certainly one of the main considerations when checking out any technology vendor—-as well as the value they get from their purchase. SiteMinder gives hotels unbeatable revenue results. Customers gain the most power, unrivalled performance, and the best experience, only with SiteMinder.

Unlike most hotel software providers, transparency is easily observed on their pricing page, where it generally depends on the number of rooms per property and optional add ons. The smart platform even offers a 14-day free trial without requiring credit cards and users can cancel any time.

“4.7 out of 5” – FeaturedCustomers

SiteMinder receives a near-perfect score from FeaturedCustomers, the world’s largest customer reference platform that aims to help businesses make informed decisions through transparent and unbiased views of different solutions.

Presenting authentic feedback from real users, it serves as a valuable resource for potential buyers looking for insights into software performance and customer satisfaction.

Examples of SiteMinder review content featured on the platform:

SiteMinder is a FeaturedCustomers premium vendor for channel partner management software with the most user ratings—more than 3,000 reviews, testimonials, and customer stories.

Being a premium vendor means not only that an increasing number of hotels choose SiteMinder as their technology partner, but also that customers consistently trust the global brand to unlock their full revenue potential.

“Brilliant human team” – TrustPilot

This is the title of one of the most recent SiteMinder reviews on TrustPilot, written by the managing director of a family-owned modern hotel based in Spain. The rest of the expressive review is as follows:

“Very good and reliable products. The channel manager is top class. However, what needs a special mention is their outstanding human team. I have done a lot of calls with them over the years and in ALL of them they were very courteous, nice, resolutive and professional. Brilliant job!”

Trustpilot is a widely-used online review website that empowers consumers to give their honest opinions about companies.

Explore a few more SiteMinder reviews on Trustpilot:

“SiteMinder is the best solution for dynamic strategy. SiteMinder is a great and easy way for rate and availability distribution for our resort enabling our dynamic strategy. The customer support team is absolutely amazing! Easy to manage and all in one screen for rate and availability enabling quick rate upload for dynamic yielding.” – General manager of a luxury resort brand in Thailand

“Over 10 years experience with SiteMinder. Since I came across SiteMinder back in 2010, I’ve never looked back, and ever since, having SiteMinder on all of the properties I look after is a basic requirement. Also, a HUGE thank you to their support and accounts team. Even during tough times, they were always absolutely amazing, transparent and helpful.” – Associate director of a real estate investment boutique in the United Kingdom

“The seamless connectivity, easy navigation and continued enhancements made truly helps us and valued us as partners. SiteMinder continues to evolve without even being asked. They just know what needs to be done or improved, with that I am grateful. Definitely makes our job much easier.” – Operations manager of a city hotel in the Philippines

Important note about SiteMinder reviews on Trustpilot:

Not only do SiteMinder customers have a dedicated onboarding specialist, but they can also take advantage of 24/7 chat, phone, and email support. There may be cases when concerns need more time to process likely due to complexity, among other factors.

In the meantime, feel free to access online learning and help articles or browse through a comprehensive collection of hotel industry resources, including blogs, ebooks, and more. SiteMinder is obsessed with customers and committed to their success.

“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

Read more

“We were able to increase RevPAR by more than 30%” – Customer Stories

Atchara Nakpoom, Revenue and Reservations Manager of a 5-star Design Resort in Thailand (Kirimaya), says that SiteMinder is extremely user-friendly, stable, and simple to understand, as well as having a wide range of capabilities that fully suit the needs of varied tactics. Executing yield management on the platform swiftly and accurately, they experienced a 50% increase in overall bookings.

SiteMinder reviews via customer stories:

“SiteMinder is so reliable and fast, I am able to make last minute changes, ultimately increasing my occupancy and avoiding overselling. Along with the booking engine integration, I increased my direct website bookings by 20%.” – Christina Ongerth, Owner of a boutique hotel in the United States (The Dylan Hotel at SFO)

“If I had to describe SiteMinder in one word it would be reliability. The team loves SiteMinder because it is a tool that we can always count on as it never fails, it is very easy to use and it is a key part of our revenue management strategy.” – Raúl Amestoy, Assistant Manager of a 4-star hotel in Spain (Hotel Gran Bilbao)

“Back when we first signed up, our online bookings increased from 21% of our overall room revenue to 32% within only 12 months. We have seen our room nights grow by 57% over the 7 years we have been using these products.” – Robert Lennon, Owner of a multi award-winning property in Australia (Emeraldene Inn and Eco-Lodge)

Clearly, SiteMinder stands out as a top choice for accommodation providers looking to simplify operations and maximize online bookings. With its powerful channel management, booking engine, and seamless integrations, SiteMinder offers the tools needed to boost visibility and drive revenue.

A hotel robot is an automated machine designed to perform various service tasks, enhancing guest experiences and streamlining hotel operations with a touch of technological innovation – and not a small amount of artificial intelligence.

While robots roaming the halls of hotels, delivering room service meals, turning down beds, even acting as front desk receptionists, may seem like science fiction, it’s coming closer to reality faster than you might think.

Hotel robots that exist in today’s hospitality world

No more than 15 years ago we were watching robots in sci-fi films that boggled the mind and tested the limits of our imagination. Facial recognition technology, fingerprint biometrics, intelligent phones and computers that talked to people, functional artificial intelligence; all of this seemed worlds away when Tom Cruise and Will Smith were in their action movie prime.

How things have changed.

The technology dreamed up for those blockbuster productions is the same as what we see entering our reality today. To the average person, it still feels unimaginable that innovation like artificial intelligence (AI) is on our doorstep.

Apple’s ‘Siri’, the intelligent computer program that also happens to be a personal assistant, has already been around for over five years.

This technology is applicable to almost every industry thanks to customer interaction – a prime area for smart tech to be implemented. The travel industry is a massive target for newer, smarter, more automated, personalised, and predictive processes. In fact, as progress continues, tourism could be a world leader for cutting-edge technology and advanced AI.

Let’s take a look at what other technology is infiltrating the hotel industry.

Experience cutting edge hotel tech

Hotel robots are only the tip of the technological iceberg. Discover smart automation, in-depth data insights, and competitor research with SiteMinder.

Learn more

Messenger applications

The popularity of apps has been on the rise for a while now and will only continue as developers introduce slicker platforms. Apps have already been appropriated by many companies to provide intelligent real-time customer service without the need to place a human in position.

Facebook has ‘M’, Amazon has ‘Alexa’, Apple has created ‘Viv’ in addition to Siri, and Google has announced its ‘Assistant’ service. There are some apps specific to travel too, like ‘Lola’ and ‘Pana’.

All of these apps are designed to deliver an instant concierge-style chat service to help customers plan and manage their everyday needs. They’re smart enough to handle even some complex requests and they’re constantly being refined to deal with more scenarios.

Parts of the travel industry are embracing them with open arms. Edwardian Hotels London employs the aptly-named virtual host Edward who can take amenities requests, give directory and review information, facilitate complaints and connect guests to an immediate call-back if they need human assistance. He’s designed to respond within a few seconds.

Dutch airline KLM is using a Facebook messenger chat service to send passengers booking confirmations, notifications, and boarding passes. This process is easily transferable to hoteliers who can maintain an ongoing dialogue with guests from the booking to check-out stages, and everything in between.

Chatbot services

Kayak CEO Steve Hafner believes voice and physical interaction are the only way forward, saying we’ll see an increase in travellers being helped by spoken word and chatbots:

“There’s a whole generation who are more familiar with text messaging and voice via Siri looking for a different interaction with an online travel agency. We’ve got a Facebook Messenger chatbot for example. We have voice interaction with Alexa, where you can actually talk to Kayak and say, ‘Hey Kayak, what’s the status of my flight to Denver later today? Where can I go this weekend for $300?’”

Chatbots are meant to engage customers in a ‘live’ scenario without the need to trade communication back and forth via email or phone. Facebook aims to use this technology to enhance its personal assistant ‘M’, who will be able to purchase items, have gifts delivered, and make various bookings and appointments.

Yahoo’s Enrique Munoz Torres urges all companies to embrace this new opportunity: “Users are increasingly more comfortable with conversational interfaces, and they expect that systems will be able to handle complex requests.”

Booking.com launched a chatbot to connect hotels and travellers in two-way communication, which can be used from iOS and Android. The conversation is more natural, having been freed from templates or automated script. However, specific templates are provided to translate frequently asked questions into 42 different languages.

Hotel robot butler

Yes, real robots already exist in the travel industry.

Marriott has Mario welcoming guests, Hilton has Connie the concierge, and InterContinental has Dash transporting items between guests and staff.

On Mario, Ghent Marriott General Manager Roger Langhout says: “As soon as we saw Mario interacting with our guests we saw a smile. Nobody has seen it before.”

Mario spends his time helping guests check-in, giving speeches, inspecting rooms, discussing the menu, and giving presentations. Most intriguing is the effect Mario has on audience attentiveness when he is delivering speeches.

Another interesting example comes from Japan. The Henn-na Hotel has over 100 rooms and features multilingual robots (one human woman, one dinosaur) at the front desk, a robot-arm locker service, a robot porter to transport your luggage, and facial recognition software so you don’t have to worry about carrying a key.

The adaption of robots in hotel industry

The crux of exciting developments like this is that predictions are often overblown. Attempts to create A.I. generally date back to the mid 1950s and back then machines with human-like intelligence were thought to be about 20 years away. These days the estimated deadline is about the same.

Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa have taken the world by storm, making life easier for people in the office and at home. They not only perform tasks but learn as they go, meaning each time you interact with them you can rely on them even more to take care of things like placing orders, researching, shopping, and operating other technologies.

Hotels are adopting robots, but more as a novelty than a strategic business decision – for now. Marriott has Mario welcoming guests, Hilton has Connie the concierge, and InterContinental has Dash transporting items between guests and staff.

How advanced is this trend in reality and what are the real life applications for hotels? That’s a question we’re going to try and answer.

Pros and cons of robots in tourism

As always, there are two sides to this story. While many welcome the day where apps and machines will take them all the way from the research phase to the checkout phase (bypassing any potential human inconsistencies), others enjoy quality ‘people time’ and believe there should be a limit on how far this technology is taken.

Business travellers in particular are behind the movement, with 52% of UK survey respondents saying it would improve their trip.

Both views hold merit considering the following pros and cons:

Pros of hotel robots

• Efficiency and productivity could reach an all-time high with A.I – the technology can work all day, every day, without suffering exhaustion or burnout.
• Robots can be a great novelty for guests, drumming up excitement and publicity, especially at hotels looking to create a brand image that’s fun and futuristic.
• Androids could actually make for a healthier guest service environment. By taking care of manual or routine tasks, hotel staff can focus their attention on guests.

Cons of hotel robots

• Technical glitches are not 100% safeguarded against, so it’s possible guests could receive wrong or misleading information, causing mistakes to be made that lead to negative experiences.
• Security could also be a concern if A.I or other systems could be hacked for data or even controlled by foreign entities.
• Accessibility to this technology has been increasing but it’s still a very costly and highly complex undertaking for a business to consider

How hotel robots could impact the travel industry

Obviously, any influx of mass change will have mixed reviews. Tour guides in particular may be worried about their jobs becoming automated. For instance, it’s easy to imagine a robot at the front of a bus giving a history lecture – and probably without the need for a microphone.

Even though AI is still in its infancy in the hotel sector, its potential is broad. With that in mind, let’s look at the six major effects we think it could have

1. A diversified booking method

Chatbots and conversational messaging will add yet another dimension to a customer’s path-to-purchase. Imagine a traveller making a booking via their TV during an ad break, or on their hands-free mobile while driving. From a customer’s perspective, it could seem like an easier method for booking a trip, especially at the last minute

2. An improved pre-arrival experience

Gone will be the days of email back and forth and multiple phone calls. With a chatbot the hotel or customer need only make a conversation request and any requirements, such as booking additional services, can be finalised in an instant

3. More on-site guest interaction

Virtual assistants will be able to fulfil any rudimentary requests from guests including food and beverage orders, amenity needs, basic complaints, and tour/directory information

4. Sustainable teams of hotel staff

This will free up other staff to concentrate on optimising the guest experience even further and perhaps provide more luxurious features. Saving man hours will either mean increased profit or unbind money to spend on guest experience, leading to increased bookings and revenue. In seasonal lows, it may reduce the need to cut staff entirely

5. Increased personalised data collection

If an AI is taking a traveller through the whole customer journey it will gather a raft of valuable data in the one place that can be used to incorporate more personalised services based on the preferences the guests have shown. This in turn increases the rate of return business and direct bookings

6. Seamlessly integrated customer journeys

Messenger apps and chatbots will remove many pain points because the connection between online and offline services will become seamless. However, if it’s something hotels want to take advantage of it’s even more important that they have an optimised and mobile responsive website, as well as an integrated booking engine that can move with the guest throughout their complete customer journey.

The speed and innovation of technology, such as robots and AI, present hotels with a fantastic opportunity to become cutting-edge accommodation providers, giving guests an enhanced experience driven by forward-thinking service.

Different use cases of hotel robots

It’s easy to see the real-life applications A.I and robots could have in a hotel, with some staff careers in potential jeopardy. In general the technology could deliver:

1. A diversified booking method
2. An improved pre-arrival experience
3. More on-site guest interaction
4. Sustainable teams of hotel staff
5. Increased personalised data collection
6. Seamlessly integrated customer journeys

More specifically, here are some jobs where A.I could edge out humans in the future:

Check-in and reception services

Given check-in and front desk tasks are somewhat routine and the number of possible queries do have limits, this is the perfect place for an android or hotel robot to start its career successfully.

Valet

In the future, vehicles powered by smart technology could make valet services redundant or at the very least a position that could easily be handled by A.I.

Cleaning and maintenance

Cleaning and maintenance in hotels is evolving with the introduction of robots like hotel cleaning robots. Hotel room cleaning robots are designed for specific cleaning tasks, operating continuously to ensure a consistently clean and well-maintained environment. Their 24/7 functionality is ideal for routine upkeep, from thorough room sanitation to general hotel cleanliness, contributing significantly to maintaining high standards of hygiene and freeing up human staff for more complex duties.

Room service

No need for idle chit chat or delays. A guest could place their order with a hotel robot room service and have the task completed as efficiently as possible, and with a minimum of fuss. A robot won’t get flustered or frustrated by any request.

Imagine this: guests simply tap a screen, and moments later, a hotel robot room service glides up with their order. This seamless service adds a splash of modernity to their stay, delivering everything from breakfast to midnight snacks with quiet efficiency and a touch of futuristic charm, transforming room service into an experience in itself.

Property management

A.I will be able to optimise how a hotel deploys staff during peak and off-peak periods, along with saving energy by automatically turning off lights and appliances.

Security

AI and robots can assist in the security infrastructure by monitoring the premises for scrupulous activity and report any mishaps. Incorporating AI and robots into hotel security systems offers real-time surveillance, significantly enhancing the ability to detect and respond to unusual activities. These advanced technologies can analyse patterns, recognise faces, and even track movements, providing a comprehensive security shield. This integration not only fortifies the safety of guests and staff but also brings a sense of reassurance, knowing that an extra layer of intelligent vigilance is always at work.

So, the question remains. Is there really a rise of robots? The answer is yes and it’s already changing customer service. Hospitality is a natural fit for this type of technology so it seems inevitable to play a major role in future businesses.

The Hostelworld inbox is a communication hub within the Hostelworld (a popular hotel room distribution channel) extranet platform, designed to facilitate seamless interactions between hoteliers and potential guests.

Through this inbox, hotel operators can manage reservations, respond to inquiries, and foster a personalised guest experience before, during and after arrival, all contributing to a more streamlined operational workflow – particularly when integrated with a broader property management system like SiteMinder.

The importance of a Hostelworld inbox login

Effective communication is crucial for successful hotels, whether it’s confirming booking details, providing guests with up-to-the-minute updates on hotel events and services, or following up with guests after their stay to encourage rebookings and forging stronger customer loyalty.

However, with potentially hundreds of individual rooms and thousands of individual guests, manually managing an effective customer communications plan is practically impossible for larger hotels. Having a Hostelworld inbox login is a gateway to solving this administrative challenge, as the platform provides a suite of functionalities geared towards streamlining hotel operations, enhancing guest satisfaction, and ultimately, boosting revenue growth.

But what does Hostelworld actually do? Here’s a breakdown of its significance:

Centralised communication

The Hostelworld inbox houses all guest interactions in one place. This centralisation is crucial as it eradicates the hassles of juggling multiple platforms, ensuring that no message falls through the cracks and facilitating prompt responses.

Customer loyalty

In the digital era, online reputation is king. The Hostelworld inbox login allows hoteliers to solicit, manage, and respond to guest reviews swiftly. A well-managed online reputation not only attracts more guests but also fosters trust and credibility, which are invaluable in being able to command a more optimised hotel room rate.

PMS integration

The Hostelworld inbox login opens up the pathway for seamless integration with SiteMinder’s comprehensive hotel management solutions. This integration amplifies the benefits manifold, providing a cohesive platform for managing guest interactions, reservations, and online presence, all under one roof.

How do I log into the Hostelworld extranet?

Step 1

Navigate to the Hostelworld extranet login page via your web browser.

Step 2

Input your credentials, which include your username and password, in the respective fields.

Step 3

Click on the ‘Login’ button to access your Hostelworld inbox and begin optimising guest communications and managing reservations.

Siteminder + Hostelworld = more revenue, faster

Discover how integrating SiteMinder with Hostelworld can massively improve your booking numbers and revenue growth in just a few clicks.

Learn more

How to use the Hostelworld inbox for hotels

The Hostelworld property inbox is a powerful tool that, when used effectively, can significantly enhance guest communication, boost online reputation, and subsequently drive more bookings. Here’s a breakdown of practical steps and tips on how to navigate and make the most of the

Hostelworld extranet:

1. Familiarise yourself with the interface

Take time to explore the Hostelworld extranet interface. Understanding where to find essential features such as the inbox and review sections will save you time in the long run.

Pro tip: Integrate Hostelworld inbox with SiteMinder early to streamline communications further and manage reservations from a unified dashboard. This integration will also allow for seamless management across other platforms and communication channels.

2. Set up automated responses (where appropriate)

Utilise the automated response feature for common inquiries. This ensures guests receive immediate acknowledgment of their queries, even during out-of-office hours.

Remember that while automation is helpful, personalised responses to specific guest queries can significantly enhance the guest experience. Use the guest’s name and address their individual needs or concerns in your responses.

Pro-tip: Ensure you or your team respond to messages in the inbox promptly. Swift responses not only portray professionalism but also increase the chances of securing a future booking.

3. Ask for (and respond to) guest feedback

Post-stay, send a friendly message to guests thanking them for their stay and encouraging them to leave a review. Honest reviews provide valuable insights and help build your online reputation.

Pro tip: Whether positive or negative, respond to reviews quickly and professionally. Thank guests for positive reviews and directly address any concerns raised in negative reviews.

4. Monitor, analyse and adapt

Hostelworld provides analytics around your messaging and reviews. Regularly revisit this data to understand guest interaction trends, response rates, and overall communication effectiveness. Use this data to continually refine your communication strategy and improve your yield management methodology.

Features of the Hostelworld extranet

The Hostelworld extranet is a comprehensive platform packed with features tailored to augment the management capabilities of hoteliers. These features, when harnessed correctly, can significantly contribute towards efficient operations, enhanced guest satisfaction, and a notable boost in revenue. Here are some of the standout features of the Hostelworld extranet:

• Pre-set responses – People can message you but can you message people back on Hostelworld? Yes, and much more! You can create preset responses for common queries to ensure prompt communication, even during peak hours or outside business hours.
• Automated welcome messages – Send automated welcome messages to guests upon booking, fostering a positive interaction from the outset.
• Scheduled messaging – Schedule messages in advance based on booking details or guest preferences, allowing for personalised communication and better preparation for guest arrivals.
• Review solicitation – Encourage guests to leave reviews post-stay, which can significantly impact your hotel’s online reputation and visibility. You can also respond to reviews from within the extranet, showing appreciation for positive feedback and addressing any concerns or issues raised by guests.
• Multi-language support – Cater to a global audience with multi-language support, ensuring clear communication and information accessibility for guests from different regions.
• Payment processing – Secure and efficient payment processing features facilitate smooth transactions, enhancing the overall booking experience for guests.

By integrating with SiteMinder, you can also get access to:

• Live availability updates – Keep room availability and rates updated in real-time to prevent overbooking and discrepancies.
• Instant booking confirmations – Provide instant confirmations to guests upon booking, enhancing their experience and trust.
• Centralised reservation system – Manage all reservations – from Hostelworld and 450+ other OTAs – from a centralised dashboard, ensuring a streamlined booking process and easy management.
• Comprehensive reporting – Access a variety of reports on booking trends, revenue management, guest feedback, competitor pricing, and more, aiding in informed decision-making and strategy formulation.
• Promotion and deal setup – Create and manage special deals, promotions, and packages to attract more bookings, especially during off-peak seasons.
• Mobile management – Access and manage your hotel’s listings, bookings, and guest communications on-the-go with a mobile-friendly interface.

“To me, a great guest experience is more than just a comfortable stay; it’s about creating unforgettable moments and forming a genuine connection with each individual who walks through our doors. A great guest experience is marked by personalised service, attention to detail, and a commitment to exceeding expectations.” – Chatrium Hotels & Residences.

The Hostelworld extranet, with its array of features, coupled with the integration capabilities offered by SiteMinder, provides hoteliers with a robust toolkit to navigate the demanding landscape of hotel management, optimise guest engagements, and ultimately, boost revenue growth.

Booking channels are platforms by which your hotel can accept reservations online or offline. They can also be known as distribution channels and are crucial for ensuring your hotel maintains a healthy occupancy rate and revenue stream.

Examples of booking channels include your own website, online travel agents like Booking.com, metasearch sites like Google, traditional travel agencies, global distribution systems (GDS), and more.

These booking channels are a ticket to accessing the millions of travellers around the world who could potentially be your guest.

This blog will explain which channels are the most lucrative for your hotel and how you can maximise revenue using them.

Why are online booking channels important for hotels?

Online booking channels are important for hotels because they greatly increase your reach and visibility to potential guests.

Travellers are now predominantly booking their accommodation online, making it more crucial for hotels to focus on capturing bookings via their own website, OTAs, metasearch, and other online channels.

Using online booking channels makes it much easier to:

• Access international travellers
• Sell your rooms in more places
• Optimise pricing and revenue strategies
• Take and process online payments
• Gain insight into your performance

Online booking channels are best utilised when being managed by hotel software such as a channel manager. A channel manager will allow your hotel to connect to as many channels as you like and list your entire room inventory at the same time. The technology ensures that your availability is updated automatically across every channel, and your property management system, every time a reservation is made.

You can also use it to quickly and easily update your rates across every connected channel, and access key performance reports that allow you to make strategic adjustments.

Achieve booking channel success

Use SiteMinder’s platform to access more booking channels easier, and maximise revenue at your hotel.

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Top hotel booking channels

So what are the most popular hotel booking channels?

According to recent SiteMinder data, the top revenue making channels for hotels in the United States are:

• Booking.com
• Expedia Group
• Hotel websites (direct bookings)
• Agoda
• Airbnb
• Global Distribution Systems
• Hotelbeds
• HotelTonight
• Hostelworld Group
• Getaroom
• HotelsCombined
• British Airways Holidays

See the list for your specific country.

Of course, choosing which channels you connect to will also depend on the individual circumstances of your property. Often there are smaller, niche, channels that can provide valuable bookings and revenue.

For instance, Mr and Mrs Smith is a channel that caters exclusively to luxury guests. That’s why it’s always best to use a channel manager, so you have flexibility and agility around your hotel booking connections.

Other popular channels with travellers include:

• TripAdvisor – Aggregates reviews for hotels, restaurants and tourism activities.
• VRBO – Short for Vacation Rentals by Owners, similar to Airbnb.
• Kayak – One of the players in the metasearch market.
• Lastminute.com – Great for those looking for last minute stays, especially in Europe.
• Skyscanner – A common choice for travellers on a budget.

“If I had to describe SiteMinder in one word it would be reliability. The team loves SiteMinder because it is a tool that we can always count on as it never fails, it is very easy to use and it is a key part of our revenue management strategy.”

Raúl Amestoy,

Assitant Manager

Hotel Gran Bilbao

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How to boost booking channel revenue at your hotel

You can get the most out of your booking channels by understanding your market, knowing your strengths, targeting the right guests, and using the best technology.

Here are five ways you can use booking channels to increase revenue:

1. Define your audience

Start by building profiles of your current guests to get a clear idea of who is most likely to stay at your hotel, how they research and book, and also what they do and don’t enjoy based on the feedback they leave.

Once you know who the best market is to target, you can make the right decisions about which online channels to focus on and how to maximise revenue from those channels.

2. Connect to a wide range of channels

The more channels you connect to, the wider your net is to reach all the travellers who would be interested in staying at your hotel.

OTAs and your direct website may be your main source of reservations, but metasearch is a growing channel and the GDS is still very much relevant today. So it’s important to be aware of all the channels that help you boost occupancy.

When you use a tool like a channel manager, connecting and managing extra channels requires no extra effort.

3. Tap into the billboard effect

The billboard effect is when travellers first discover you on an OTA, but end up booking directly through your website. This is why it’s important to make your OTA profile stand out and always provide a link to your website so travellers can learn more about you and access value-added offerings.

4. Utilise metasearch channels

Channels such as Google Hotel Ads and Trivago are a great way to ensure your hotel is able to compete alongside OTAs and score direct reservations. If it seems complicated, for a small fee platforms like SiteMinder can handle it all for you while you watch the bookings roll in. The advantage of metasearch is that you own the guest relationship, rather than the OTA, meaning you can better upsell and also communicate with guests to grow loyalty.

5. Monitor metrics and performance

Use your hotel software to access performance data. Look at which channels are bringing in the most bookings and revenue, which have the longest lengths of stay, which have the highest cancellation rates, which packages are succeeding, and more. You’ll soon pick up on trends that you can use to make informed decisions to improve your results in the future.

Online bookings are the lifeblood of the modern hotel industry. With just a few taps on a smartphone or clicks on a computer, guests can secure their stay at your establishment from anywhere in the world. This seamless process is powered by sophisticated yet user-friendly online booking systems, hotel websites, and online travel agencies (OTAs).

Online bookings are about both convenience and connection. These reservations give hotels the unique opportunity to capture valuable guest data and preferences. This information is incredibly valuable for crafting personalised experiences that not only meet but exceed expectations. Imagine knowing your guest’s favourite type of pillow or their preferred check-in time before they even arrive. That’s the kind of customer focus that turns first-time guests into lifelong advocates. 

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about online bookings and how to take advantage of them.

How do online bookings work for hotels?

Online bookings for hotels is a diverse process with many different customer journeys. 

However, there are generally two main routes:

1. Direct online booking: This is when a guest books through a hotel’s individual website, typically through a dedicated online booking engine. Hotels can also funnel direct traffic via metasearch services or social media pages. This captures all of the guest information, integrates it with the hotel’s property management system, and blocks out that room for the booked period in the hotel’s scheduling.
2. OTA booking: This is when a guest books through an online travel agent, such as Expedia or Booking.com. In these cases, the guest books through the OTA’s booking process, typically through the OTA website. Hotels must be listed on the given OTA to appear as an option for that guest. Once booked, the OTA takes a commission from the sale, and then transfers the booking details to the reserved hotel. From there, depending on integrations, a hotel’s property management system will then translate that information into the hotel’s calendar, schedule, and listing availability.

This is a broad overview of how online bookings work for hotels and there will be unique situations and processes. Generally speaking, however, online bookings will either be direct or through an OTA.

Make online bookings effortless with the best technology

With a feature like Channels Plus, SiteMinder makes it easy for you to connect more online channels all in one place.

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Why are online hotel bookings important?

We know that, while COVID-19 took a toll on tourism, the excitement of international travel is quickly returning as fears ease and restrictions loosen. 

Figures from the UN World Tourism Organisation show that, in 2022, the number of people travelling internationally reached 900 million, with cautious optimism the feeling of the day across the board. For many, if not most, of those travellers, online booking will be their preferred method of securing accommodation for their inevitable overseas adventures.

Online distribution is growing at a faster pace than the entire travel market. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) estimates 500 online bookings are made every minute, across the US, alone. It’s a fascinating statistic that emphatically demonstrates how much the hotel industry has changed over recent years – and how imperative it is for hoteliers of all sizes to master their online booking process.

This heightened desire to travel and see parts of the world that 25 years ago would have been considered out of reach, and of course too costly, has been spurred on by the Internet economy, the desire for experiences once reserved for the elite, and the sheer volume of information that’s available to travellers making it more accessible.

But if we dig deeper into this observation, the broad accessibility of information isn’t just changing a handful of travel industry trends, it’s completely shifting the balance of power – from a consumer economy with intermediaries, to a user economy with “self-service”.

The consumer economy is now a user economy

Travel knowledge and information used to lie in bricks and mortar, dominated by brands and agencies, renowned for delivering an expertise that could be rarely challenged.

But the Internet has caused a tipping point to occur, enabling hotels to sell themselves to potential guests who appear to know precisely what they want, and the research they need to carry out in order to make their travel aspirations a reality.

Everything from photos through to guest reviews are creating information overload, as user generated content becomes a critical variable in the consumer’s battle for power. In the early days, travel agents and experts influenced consumers with experience and brochures illustrating what was available.

Later OTAs, and especially Booking.com, revolutionised this idea of putting the traveller in control by providing more content and information available at their fingertips.

Now we see the user economy taking control with the growth and development of Airbnb, Uber, Flip.to, and many others enabling self-selection. Travellers can have an authentic experience of living like a local, in the neighbourhood, visiting their host’s local favourites – and quite often at a fraction of the price. Travellers are willing to transact beyond hotel rooms, and as a result guests are becoming more efficient at making their final booking decisions.

The new doesn’t always replace the old

While online booking dominates among travellers, that doesn’t mean that traditional travel agent driven bookings have disappeared entirely. Many guests still use physical, brick-and-mortar travel agencies. Research has shown that about 30% book their trips via travel agents or tour operators – about the same as book direct.

However, digging deeper into the data, there is an important addendum to make. Nearly half of self-proclaimed regular travellers preferred using OTAs, followed by direct booking, leaving only 20% for travel agencies. The opposite was true for those who hardly ever travel: half of respondents in this category primarily use travel agencies, with a rough even split for the remainder between OTAs and direct booking.

The bottom line? Online booking is increasingly popular, particularly among those valuable frequent flyer guests. Hoteliers who haven’t yet mastered their online presence should do so to maximise their revenue. For hoteliers, it’s a question of managing and adapting to these changes. It’s evolution, not revolution.

“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 to harness the power of hotel bookings online

Hoteliers must think global and act local in order to capitalise on the guest’s winding path to purchase. We live in a multiscreen world, with many points of conversion, and it’s important to remember that rate is not the prime decision tool.

Yes, price is a big differentiator when assessing the challenge presented by the likes of Airbnb, but there are many more factors to consider. Hoteliers can take on the challenge in many ways. 

1. Offer unique guest experiences

One example is to become more service-orientated, focusing on the elements of a hotel that home-sharing can’t offer – such as tour guides, chauffeured drivers, dry cleaning, restaurants, gyms and a bounty of amenities and loyalty points.

By offering an extraordinary guest experience, hoteliers can really capitalise on the impact of user generated content – reviews, social media check-ins, comments, ratings – and in turn use these positive affirmations to drive bookings.

2. Know where your bookings are coming from

A hotel’s biggest weapon in the fight for bookings is knowing the business mix inside out. Ask where your bookings are coming from. Ask what your local competition is doing to fill their rooms. Ask how you are driving your online and offline business. It is truly all about the details.

3. Use a channel manager

Hoteliers need to find balance and control of how your rooms are being distributed. Take charge of your bookings mix and ultimately your business.

Cloud technology, such as SiteMinder’s hotel channel manager, is levelling the playing field for independent hotels, helping them compete in a fast-changing market. It gives hotels of any size the power to be exactly where prospective travellers are – without the need to invest heavily in IT and systems providing more time for creativity and caring for your guests.

The multichannel, multiscreen world is now completely accessible, giving hoteliers greater opportunity to reach, attract, and convert global guests. Chain hotels have been doing this for years, reaping the benefits of having a visible online presence to ensure they turn lookers into bookers. It’s time for independents to take charge, challenge the status quo, and compete in the same way.

4. User-friendly booking process

In today’s digital landscape, a seamless and intuitive booking process is non-negotiable. A complicated or clunky interface can deter potential guests and lead to abandoned carts. SiteMinder’s user-friendly hotel booking engine is designed to simplify this process, guiding guests through each step with ease. 

From room selection to payment confirmation, every touchpoint is optimised for convenience and speed. By reducing friction in the booking process, you not only enhance the guest experience but also increase the likelihood of converting browsers into confirmed guests.

5. Showcase riveting reviews 

Reviews are the new currency of the digital age. They offer social proof and can significantly influence booking decisions. SiteMinder enables you to effortlessly showcase guest reviews and ratings directly on your booking platform. By integrating these testimonials, you’re not just displaying stars; you’re telling a story of satisfied guests and memorable stays. These authentic reviews serve as powerful endorsements, instilling confidence in prospective guests and tipping the scales in your favour when it comes to making a booking decision.

A hotel property management system is technology that allows operators and owners to streamline their administrative tasks while also increasing their bookings in both the short and long-term.

Your hotel property management system is not only important for your own day-to-day operations, but it’s a vital part in improving overall guest experience.

From the beginning of your guests’ online booking journey until the completion of their stay and their feedback once they return home, your hotel management system is there to enhance their experience.

We’re going to take you through everything you need to know about hotel property management systems, so you can make the best-informed decision for your hotel.

Property management systems in the hotel industry

Technology in the hotel industry continues to advance at a rapid pace and hotel property management software (PMS) remains essential for hoteliers looking to improve how they run their business.

The key to reaping the benefits of an effective hotel management software system is to select the right one for your property. It’s critical that you know exactly what the hotel management technology is and why it is important for you to implement it at your hotel.

All hotels need some variation of a property management system, however not all PMS systems are created equal and it can be confusing knowing which one is best suited for your property.

Finding a hotel management system that offers the features you both need and want is necessary to effectively manage your hotel in the global economic climate.

Streamline operations and increase revenue

What if you could simplify the management of your hotel property while also boosting your revenue? Our smart hotel platform helps you do exactly that.

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Cloud-based hotel property management systems

Cloud-based PMS solutions are a superior way to automate and accelerate all the important processes at your hotel including;

• Taking and confirming bookings,
• Managing reservations,
• Generating bills and reports,
• Check-in/out,
• Room transfers,
• Checking/editing availability,
• Guest communication.

Cloud-based technology can handle all these tasks with ease because of its ability to deeply integrate with channel managers, booking engines, and revenue management systems. Despite this, there are still concerns over the validity and cost effectiveness of cloud-based PMS tools, such as:

Is hotel PMS software important?

PMS hotel software is incredibly important for any business looking to optimise their daily tasks. From collating data in one place to automation processes – these are key to ensuring time-consuming activities are completed quickly, boosting overall efficiency. This means you can focus on the more important hotel operations.

Benefits of hotel property management systems

In today’s fast-paced travel environment, it’s critical that you automate as many tasks as possible. A property management system can help you tremendously with that. Here are other benefits of implementing a hotel property management system:

Reduce time spent on administrative tasks

The right hotel management system should do a lot of the work for you, minimising the amount of time spent on admin tasks, allowing you to focus your efforts and energy on the big picture. The software should also provide you with valuable data on employee retention, satisfaction and productivity.

Increase your online presence

Management software that is integrated with a website builder allows you to accept direct online bookings and develop a user-friendly website. Naturally, this can increase your relevance in search engine results and online presence, allowing more travellers to discover your property during their online booking journey.

Build relationships with guests

Develop a better rapport with your target market segment. Loyal guests that have stayed in your property a few times will appreciate the improved experience.

Hotel management software not only benefits returning guests but the technology will allow you to reach out to new markets that would not have discovered your brand.

Manage hotel distribution

With a property management system in place that integrates with a channel manager, you’ll be able to advertise across many channels whilst maintaining rate parity. From the large OTAs and GDSs to individual retail travel agents, you’ll be able to instantly provide real-time booking information to your agents that will help drive bookings.

Optimise hotel revenue

Using innovative pricing tools that allow you to create a flexible room pricing strategy, you can maximise revenue per room at any given moment.

Pricing your rooms right is the key to succeeding in this competitive industry, and having these tools available can help your hotel’s revenue management strategy significantly.

Increase bookings

At the end of the day, the point of every feature within your hotel management business solution is to boost the bookings your property receives.

Whether you want to increase your off-season bookings or expand your offerings to new market segments, the right hotel management software can improve success for your property.

“Since implementing SiteMinder, we have experienced a significant increase in online bookings, up to 60%, through effective yield management strategies based on market trends. This has minimised revenue loss from vacant rooms while maximising our occupancy rates.”

Prapinporn Phanchakorn,

Assistant Director of Sales

Silavadee Pool Spa Resort

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Features of a hotel property management system

Management systems are important for both hotel operators who manage large chains as well as independent hoteliers. There are several features it can provide, including:

Property management system feature 1: Reservations

Your property management system should help you efficiently and effectively manage your reservations by automating the process for you.
It allows you to focus more on interacting with your guests. A PMS also significantly reduces the risk of overbooking your rooms, directly improving the guest experience at your property.

And with travellers today more likely to book online than they are to call or partner with a travel agent, you need to consider both direct bookings and third party bookings. This will allow you to maximise the revenue generated per booking. Consider software that integrates with an online booking engine.

Property management system feature 2: Front desk operations

This functionality will allow a front-desk manager to view and update room reservations, check guests in and out, and process payments. Guests want a seamless check in experience. Convenience is key, so having a system that enhances processes will ensure your guests are happy and enable your staff to have more time to support guests.

Property management system feature 3: Channel manager

Managing a hotel with software that offers a channel management will allow you to create and implement a diverse distribution strategy that continually drives bookings. Creating partnerships with different types of agents in the industry, from OTAs to GDSs, is necessary to survive in a competitive climate.

Property management system feature 4: Revenue management

A Revenue Management System (RMS), helps a hotel management team to understand how to adjust and improve processes to achieve better results and optimise finances. Key management indicators such as Occupancy, RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) and GOPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room) are all measures that are considered to help improve pricing strategies to sell more rooms at the most optimal rate.

Property management system feature 5: Customer data and CRM integration

Collecting and organising guest data is critical for any hotelier. A CRM system needs to integrate with the front desk and reservation system in order to collate all guest data from each source. This will then provide a powerful database for your management team that can help you keep in touch with guests during and post-checkout. This will boost marketing efforts, allow you to share promotions, and encourage guest feedback. Repeat customers can be rewarded through loyalty programmes, which are particularly important for large-scale hotel chains and resorts.

Property management system feature 6: Housekeeping

A housekeeping module within your PMS system can connect housekeeping staff to the front-office team. The key functionality of the housekeeping module is for property maintenance, such as management of room status, cleaner assignment and assignment of tasks for housekeepers. If you’re using a cloud-based PMS software, housekeepers can simply update the status of tasks through a digital device.

Property management system feature 7: Mobile capabilities

Mobile optimisation is a key component of any hotel technology, and that includes the processes involved in a property management system such as mobile check-in and communication with staff.

Property management system feature 8: Point of sale services

It’s likely there are multiple point-of-sale touch points across your hotel. Whether it’s front desk, a hotel restaurant, or spa, a point-of-sale module in your PMS system is indispensable when it comes to handling transactions. Its purpose is to automate and keep financial data secured in one place. This will improve a guest’s experience when they are looking to charge products and services to their room for a seamless experience throughout.

Property management system feature 9: Invoice and payment options

When your hotel PMS system integrates with your payment system, you will benefit from faster payments, a reduction in errors and more options for automatic payment processes. This is not only beneficial to your guests but can be efficient for your hotel staff. These payment systems are designed to process debit and credit card payments at reception, payments made online, and can automatically create invoices for guests.

Property management system feature 10: Performance reporting

Making data-driven decisions is key to understanding and enhancing your business performance. Reporting and analysing allows you to review current processes, determining what is working well and what needs improving. An effective report through your PMS can allow for better strategic planning, and depending on the PMS software, you may be able to generate audit reports, housekeeping reports and so on.

Things to consider when choosing a property management system for your hotel

Choosing a program that offers a web editor or website creator will allow you to build a clean, appealing and user-friendly site that encourages guests to book their stay at your property. Some top features to look for:

• Cloud-based
• Integration with other softwares
• Multifunctional
• Self service interaction functionality
• Easy reservation and upselling processes
• Supports classic and dynamic price models
• Helps detect repeat customers
• Simplifies daily routines

Advantages of cloud-based hotel property management systems

There’s plenty of data that shows how overall a cloud-based PMS can provide you more control over your hotel business, in some of the following areas:

• An extra degree of customisation,
• Reporting and data analysis capabilities,
• Integration with other third-party systems like OTAs and booking systems,
• Ease of access through any location and device.

List of property management systems in the hospitality industry

There are hundreds of property management systems on the market. The most important aspect when choosing one is to ensure it’s easy to use, has all the functions you need, and that it is able to integrate with your other important systems, such as your channel manager.

Some popular examples you might come across include:

• Little Hotelier
• Sirvoy Reservation System
• Frontdesk Anywhere
• eZee Technosys
• OPERA
• Hotelogix
• Maestro PMS
• Avvio
• Protel Cloud PMS

The list goes on. Finding a PMS if you don’t already have one will require some research and evaluation.

Hotel property management software: Questions to ask providers

Selecting the right hotel software is critical, particularly in a world where consumers are relying more heavily on their devices with each passing day. An investment into the right software can make all the difference to your overall success as a hotel operator, but will require some research.

These are seven main questions that you should ask your hotel system provider as soon as possible:

1. How does the product maintain its relevance in the hospitality industry?

While the core of a technology system may remain the same over time, the product will need to adapt to changing trends and preferences from travellers within the hospitality industry. You need to ask this question so you have an understanding of how technology can aid and support your hotel’s growth along with the industry.

2. How often is the platform updated or upgraded?

There’s always room for improvement within softwares and technology, and the best hotel software providers will ensure that regular updates and upgrades are available for their clients. It’s important to have an understanding of how often these upgrades will be available, how you’ll be able to successfully implement the upgrades and how they might impact your distribution channels or reporting.

3. What level of customer service will you receive from the company?

Unfortunately, far too many hotel technology providers focus on hard sales tactics without much support after the purchase is complete. You will want to verify with the provider that there will be an on-hand contact to support the software, provide training when requested and work with staff after the technology has been installed.

4. Is the hotel platform secure?

Security should be a top priority with your chosen hotel technology provider. Ask about the details regarding their security features, as it’s imperative that both your hotel and guests’ data is secure.

5. How easily can the system be personalised?

Hotel technology providers need to offer a versatile system that includes not only the generic features that are necessary for any hotel, but also adaptable features that allow a business to personalise the platform to a particular brand. Ultimately, your investment in technology needs to result in a system that works specifically for your hotel.

6. What reporting features are available?

Some of the most important features of a hotel management software include the reporting features. Verify that you’ll be able to run detailed reports using live data, as this is the only way to get an understanding of the market, your performance and competitors to ensure that you can grow your brand.

7. How can I access the hotel technology system once implemented?

Be sure that you are investing in a system that allows you to run your hotel from anywhere. You need hotel technology that is optimised for all devices, including smartphones and tablets.

The future of hotel property management systems

A hotel property management system is an essential business tool for any hotel or property. Technology drives everything we do in our daily lives, so having top-of-the-line software in place can enhance your business model immensely. Hoteliers depend on this technology to run seamless front-of-house operations, including front desk management and back-of-house operations, such as reporting.

By upgrading your PMS system, you are staying up to date with the latest technological trends, and enabling your business to meet the demands of today’s travellers. Expectations from both guests and staff are continuously evolving so your hotel software needs to match to keep up. Flexible payment options, keyless entry and self-service check-ins are just some of the ways that the hotel industry is moving.

And what it comes down to is this: their guests are changed. Following an e-commerce boom, they today expect a service that’s hyper-personalised and 24/7.

Yet, for hotels, the incessant need to sell expiring inventory remains.

In what we’ve identified as the hotel commerce era, hoteliers not only need to excel at selling their rooms, as they always have. They’re being pushed to operate at a higher standard, too.

Connecting with our customers, we knew that helping them to simply acquire their guests online would no longer be enough.

To meet their updated needs, and the expectations set of them, we ourselves needed to evolve.

Reflecting on the always-on nature of being a hotelier today, it was time our brand better reflected how we support hoteliers to holistically sell, market, manage and grow their business – all from our one, world-leading open hotel commerce platform.

Our new brand elements

In a landscape where legacy systems were (and remain) abundant, we’ll always be proud of our disruptive roots in providing the first cloud-based, SaaS-based distribution offering built for complete accessibility and scale for hotels. But as the years have gone on, and our hearts have been warmed to see hoteliers embrace cloud-based technology, we’ve come to know that the cloud has evolved to become a mere checklist item rather than a point of difference. It’s hardly the symbol that embodies our always-restless, perpetually-inquisitive, never-average nature.

Our new logo doubles down on our fresh purpose of opening up every hotel to online commerce.

As a company that was founded to create opportunity and access, openness has always been the essence of our brand. We may operate in an industry that’s largely-closed, fragmented and has historically been slow to innovate, but that isn’t how our customers should, themselves, operate. In the hotel commerce era, they can’t afford to.

No matter their size, goals, tech setup or location, online commerce is knocking at the doorstep of every hotel.

Called the ‘door to more’, our new logo invokes an image of entering into a hotel lobby and is our invitation to every hotel to open up their world of opportunity, beyond guest acquisition. Designed to include the ‘S’ in our name, it captures the every-way transactions and togetherness that we represent, too.

Just as we’ve witnessed the pleasing rise of the cloud among hotels, claims of ‘revenue generation’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘ease of use’ have also become household phrases that have held us back in an industry that seems to strive for sameness. Our new tagline, ‘Hotel software that means business without boundaries’, recognises hotels for what they are – businesses that deserve every success. It leans into our renewed focus on being a partner to hotel businesses in the new, hotel commerce era that knows no limits and leaves no room for compromise.

When developing our new logo and tagline, we landed on an open and legible typeface called Untitled Sans developed by New Zealand type foundry Klim Type.

We also updated our primary and secondary colour palette to allow for AAA accessibility, making our brand open to more people than ever before.

Our gradients were a simple nod to light entering an open door.

15 years and counting

We’re almost tempted here to tell you that while we look different, we’re still very much the same. That would be the cliché, right? Only, it wouldn’t be true. We’re better. We’re more committed to our customers than ever before. Our laser focus? It’s off the charts.

As importantly, we’re as committed to opening up our industry for the good of everyone in it, from hotels to the established technology vendors we’ve grown up with, to the startups that fuel us with drive for a more connected tomorrow. Because no matter how big or small, we believe in creating opportunity.

Our rebrand comes as we celebrate our 15th year in business, and we thank our people, tens of thousands of customers, 1,350+ partners, and the entire hospitality and travel industry for standing by us always. The openness that’s long been at the heart of what we do has found its home in our new brand – so join us in wishing it a warm welcome.

Love, the team at SiteMinder.

TripAdvisor Plus is a subscription service for travellers to get exclusive rates and benefits at participating hotels. It’s an annual membership that will cost travellers USD $100 with TripAdvisor noting this outlay could be saved on the first booking alone, making sign-up almost an accomplished fact.

Guests are set to enjoy lower rates as well as a range of benefits and discounts such as bar/restaurant and spa vouchers, included extras such as breakfast, complimentary upgrades or tickets to local attractions, flexible check-in/out times and more.

Hotels which participate in the program will be able to offer guests exclusive perks, increasing their capability to win the booking of ready-to-buy travellers. While TripAdvisor will offer this initiative to hotels on a no-commission basis, hotels will need to offer a minimum 10% discount from BAR (Best Available Rate) and commit to offering value-added services.

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about TripAdvisor Plus and the potential impact it will have on your hotel business.

How does TripAdvisor Plus work?

On the traveller side, TripAdvisor Plus is a simple service: pay $100 per year to gain access to amazing travel deals.

On the hotel side things are slightly more complex. As mentioned above, TripAdvisor won’t charge a fee for opting into the program, but the platform does require properties to offer a discount of 10% or more on their best available rate in order to participate.

Opting in will see a property receive a special badge on its profile, as well as increased visibility on the platform, so the cost of this discount could be more than covered by the extra bookings you receive from TripAdvisor Plus members.

Capitalise on TripAdvisor Plus with SiteMinder

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How does TripAdvisor make money?

Most visitors to the TripAdvisor website have never directly paid to use the platform. But this is not a charity – TripAdvisor owner, Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc, sees to that. So how does TripAdvisor, and TripAdvisor Plus, make money?

TripAdvisor makes money through three primary channels: advertising, subscriptions and commissions.

In terms of TripAdvisor Plus, the $100 charged to travellers who take part in the program falls into the ‘subscriptions’ channel.

In terms of TripAdvisor Plus hotels, while the platform may not charge a fee to properties for taking part in the program, it does take a commission fee on any bookings made through the program, so earns money through its ‘commissions’ channel.

Is TripAdvisor Plus legit?

Asking whether TripAdvisor Plus is legit is similar to asking “is TripAdvisor legit?” A global company with an enviable reputation to uphold, it simply isn’t in TripAdvisor’s best interests to create a dodgy program. Key stakeholders in the company will always ensure that a wealth of boxes are ticked before any new initiative sees the light of day.

That said, TripAdvisor Plus reviews from the member side have been mixed, perhaps as a consequence of outsized expectations. TripAdvisor’s marketing stated that the savings from a single stay could pay back the entire annual membership fee. This is technically true, but unlikely. Some members have also stated that they could find member-only deal prices elsewhere on the internet.

As to the properties taking part in TripAdvisor Plus, yes, the program is certainly legit. Whether it makes sense for your property to take part will depend on your circumstances and business goals.

Benefits of TripAdvisor Plus to hotels

TripAdvisor Plus is a mutually beneficial program for guests and hotels, given that participating hotels will have a boosted chance of winning the bookings of members who have a very healthy appetite for travel. 

TripAdvisor states that Plus members will book further in advance, stay longer, and spend more.

So is TripAdvisor Plus worth it? Here are some benefits your hotel should see:

• Increasing your hotel’s visibility for travellers searching in your area, including Plus members
• Unlocking a self-rewarding system of offering more value in return for higher rankings in organic search results
• Utilising badges to stand out from your competition
• Enjoy a new demand channel that enables you to give more value to your guests, with a free to join model
• Stronger customer relationships given guests will be saving money on their booking with you and you get to keep the booking data to personalise future offerings

Tripadvisor has also stated hotels in the program receive up to 20% more clicks to their property page.

Will my hotel be eligible for TripAdvisor Plus?

TripAdvisor Plus will be offered to a range of accommodation types and sizes, including small independent hotels, chains, and resorts. Initial acceptance will rely on a curated process to ensure guests are getting the best experience possible and that hotels suit location, ranking, and connectivity requirements.

Properties who boast a better than average ADR and are equipped with a prepared range of additional perks to offer will likely be looked upon favourably. The baseline for hotel discounts is 10% below the lowest available online rate, though TripAdvisor may suggest up to 15% to be more competitive than OTA offers.

Connectivity is currently offered via a selection of leading hotel technology providers including SiteMinder, Roiback, WebHotelier, Derbysoft, and select GDS providers.

TripAdvisor Plus is free to join and incurs no upfront costs on your part. If you think you should be included in the program, contact TripAdvisor or apply here.

Why SiteMinder is such a valuable connection partner

SiteMinder is one of TripAdvisor’s exclusive launch partners; home to the industry’s most powerful channel manager and one of the most sophisticated connectivity ecosystems, with 35,000+ hotels achieving success with the platform.

Additionally, connecting to TripAdvisor Plus via SiteMinder’s channel manager presents a cheaper option than connection via GDS, since you would have to pay large GDS commission fees and the discount off your BAR.

SiteMinder can send rates via the Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Book connection, which is now enabled to manage a hotel’s Tripadvisor Plus rates, OR Tripadvisor Instant Booking. If a hotel on Tripadvisor Instant Booking joins Tripadvisor Plus, Tripadvisor will switch the programs.

James Bishop, senior director, global ecosystem at SiteMinder, said “there is no cost for our customers to connect to Tripadvisor Plus through SiteMinder.”

“For this reason, the launch of Tripadvisor offerings has always proven popular among our customers, from Instant Book to Reputation Pro,” Bishop said. “We see a high volume of interest among our customers upon every launch, due to the sheer strength of the Tripadvisor brand among travellers.”

Need help connecting? Contact us here for a chat or check out our channel manager now.

Hotel technology is a solution which allows hotels to achieve their most important goals, including automating everyday processes, optimising distribution, driving bookings, creating a healthy revenue stream, analysing data, providing an amazing guest experience, and more. 

The most successful properties have at least one thing in common: they all use sophisticated hotel technology and software.

Hotel technology is an ever-growing, ever-changing, concept which has really only established itself in the last decade or two, meaning there are still thousands of hotels across the world that haven’t adopted a wide-ranging technology strategy. This is why so much opportunity exists for hotel businesses and technology developers alike.

This blog will take you through everything you need to know if you’re a hotelier looking to adopt technology for the first time, or upgrade your current systems to a best-in-class provider.

Why is smart hotel technology important?

Smart hotel technology is becoming increasingly prevalent, with huge strides being made in the past decade or two. It’s an ever-growing area that holds huge potential for operators who recognise that there needs to be ever greater levels of detail put into managing various aspects of their accommodation business.

According to Statista, the top five reasons hoteliers worldwide use technology is to:

1. Improve guest experience (24%)
2. Grow profits (18%)
3. Future-proof the business (16%)
4. Gain a competitive advantage (15%)
5. Grow topline revenue (11%)

Once, the priority may have been to increase occupancy and periodically increase rates to grow revenue, but occupancy is fast being left behind as the key metric with which to measure success.

Accommodation providers today are faced with a multitude of key metrics within every department of the hotel and they must keep technology top of mind when considering strategies for:

• Distribution and inventory management
• Revenue management and pricing
• Direct bookings
• Property management
• Guest experience
• Market intelligence
• Business insights and performance
• Website conversion
• Sales and marketing
• Brand reputation
• and more…

Those hotels that still subscribe to traditional, manual, methods of management are at a significant disadvantage. Leading hotels have recognised that smart hotel technology is not an expensive gimmick, but something that can effectively address modern industry challenges and not only make management of the accommodation business easier, but pave clear paths for business growth.

Essentially, smart hotel technology unlocks the endgame for hotels: revenue.

Growing revenue is going to require growth across multiple departments in the business – often through a trickle down process that isn’t only about optimising room rates.

For example:

• Growing revenue might mean improving brand reputation
• Improving brand reputation means enhancing the guest experience
• Enhancing the guest experience might mean physical property improvements
• Or a simplified and flexible booking process
• Or personalised communication
• This might mean investing in a tech platform with an online booking engine feature
• Which then means integrating with additional or existing systems
• And this introduces valuable partnership opportunities
• To open up new revenue streams

Growing a hotel business relies on connecting every web of this complicated matrix, and that’s often the sticking point for many properties. There’s a lot to get right, and a multitude of data available to do it.

Smart technology effectively tackles the struggle of bringing it all together.

Frequently asked questions about technology in hotels

What technology is used in hotels? 

All kinds of technology is used in hotels, including technology that only staff interact with but also technology that is solely in place to enhance the experience for guests.

Mostly, hotels use cloud technology and the internet of things (IoT), which allows for speed, automation, integration, and ease of use.

Examples can range from property management systems, which hoteliers use to run their business day-to-day, to smart devices such as remote controlled heating and lighting which guests use to customise their comfort.

What is the effect of using technology in a hotel? 

The effect of using technology in a hotel is that the hotel will become more efficient, deliver a superior guest experience, and will earn more revenue than a hotel that is relying on outdated, manual, methods of management.

Using technology in a hotel allows for many crucial tasks to be performed quicker, easier, and more accurately.

It also provides hoteliers the opportunity to access more data with which they can base important decisions on, which ultimately improves the outcomes of the strategies they are employing.

Why is hotel technology becoming more important? 

Hotel technology is becoming more important because travel is growing, the industry is becoming more competitive, and guest expectations are changing.

As the industry expands, hotels need to look for ways to cash in and capitalise on the opportunity. At the same time, consumers are becoming more and more used to relying on technology to speed up their lives and make things more convenient for them.

To stay afloat in the modern market, hotel technology is becoming increasingly necessary for hotels, as they seek to gain and edge on the competition and match the preferences of their target guests.

What can we expect of future hotel technology?

For hotel owners and managers, future hotel technology will continue to revolve around how to maximise revenue based on sophisticated sets of data and analysis. This will also include greater focus and enhanced capabilities when it comes to personalised services and automated processes.

Artificial intelligence will almost certainly have a part to play, both behind the scenes and guest-facing, since its ability to process large amounts of data at speed and provide valuable outcomes is predicted to outstrip that of human capability.

For guests, hotel technology will be about how their expectations can be met and exceeded. What can technology do to delight and surprise them, or make their stay ultra convenient and therefore luxurious without needing to burn the budget on a five-star resort.

Use the best hotel technology to unlock more revenue at your property

SiteMinder’s award-winning platform is perfectly positioned to boost revenue while reducing your workload.

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Understanding the hospitality technology solutions of today

Automation and integration are the buzzwords for any technology provider, but that’s because they truly are the key to achieving hotel business goals.

For hotels looking to implement superior hospitality experiences, there is a whole range of technology solutions that can be used to impact both backend processes and front-facing operations.

Some of the hotel technology you’ll hear about most includes:

Online distribution technology  

Online distribution technology will help you effectively and efficiently market and sell your inventory to a wide net of potential guests. Examples include channel managers, which use automation to help you list your rooms on more booking channels and streamline inventory management.

Direct booking technology 

Direct booking technology enables you to bypass the commission fees of third-parties such as Booking.com and instead deal with the customer directly. Examples include online booking engines, which integrate with your website and allow guests to book and pay directly with your business.

Revenue management technology 

Revenue management technology helps you set pricing strategies, review and forecast performance, make tactical decisions to maximise revenue, and more. Examples include revenue management systems, which can automate data collection and analysis as well as make strategic suggestions.

Property management technology 

Property management technology keeps you in control of the everyday running of your business. Examples such as property management systems allow you to use one interface to manage things like reservations, your booking calendar, guest profiles, housekeeping, maintenance, and more.

Business intelligence technology 

Business intelligence technology keeps you up-to-date on market conditions and your local competition. Examples such as SiteMinder Insights allow you track competitors, view and analyse performance, and maintain rate parity.

Website and SEO technology 

Website and SEO technology help you optimise the amount of visitors and potential guests you can attract to your brand. Examples such a hotel website builder can give you an SEO and mobile optimised website quickly, allowing you to compete on Google and create valuable content for travellers.

Guest-facing technology 

Guest facing, or in-room, technology directly affects a guest’s experience at a hotel. There’s an enormous amount of products for hotels to work with depending on their budget and property type. Many of these, such as free Wi-Fi or streaming and entertainment, may qualify as necessities in the minds of today’s consumer. 

Marketing technology 

Marketing technology is useful for boosting brand awareness, enticing travellers to book with you, and creating a strong relationship with your customers. Examples might include guest engagement tools, which make it easy to communicate with guests and personalise the offers you send to them or their in-stay experience.

Hotel technology in hotels: Operating on the cloud

Cloud technology is now the dominant force in online distribution. Not only does it help hotels generate more bookings, but it can improve almost every aspect of running a successful hotel business.

Cloud technology can be an especially useful and affordable tool for independent hoteliers who don’t have large budgets.

Here are six benefits of using cloud technology, like the examples we listed above, at your hotel:

1. Cloud technology is cost-effective

Upfront costs are always low with cloud technology because you only pay for what you need in regards to storage and computing power. Hardware, energy, and operational costs are also reduced because the financing of that infrastructure falls to the provider. There’s also going to be no maintenance costs involved because no damage will be done if your hardware breaks down. Simply log on with another device and continue working.

2. Cloud technology saves time and increases productivity

Processing is much faster with cloud technology and the automated nature of cloud-based processes helps your hotel do more, in a shorter period of time. It can automate reservations, emails, inventory updates, payments, and even housekeeping. The flexibility of the cloud also means you can operate your property management system from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and a device.

3. Cloud technology is secure and safe

Data is always stored securely and remotely rather than in a physical location, meaning there is far less risk of your data and records being compromised or lost. It’s also compatible with any device, since any updates or apps can be done within the software. Look for a technology provider that is PCI DSS compliant.

4. Cloud technology is a powerful processor

The actual processing and computing with cloud technology is faster because it utilises connected abilities that weren’t previously possible on a single computer. This makes it much easier to track, collect, and analyse metrics such as booking data.

5. Cloud technology improves staff collaboration

With cloud-based hotel systems you can implement strategies to make your staff more responsive, freeing them from the confines of the front desk to give quicker and more personalised service to your guests. This reduces downtime and keeps your guests happy and willing to return in the future.

6. Cloud technology helps you develop and deliver on your business strategy

Because you can use this technology to collect and analyse a vast amount of guest data, you can easily develop relevant loyalty programs and pricing plans that will maximise both your guest acquisition and retention. The more you know about your guests, the more accurately you can market your hotel.

What are open hotel technology services and why do they matter?

Open hotel technology services refer to a system that is ‘open’ to being accessed and interacted with by third-party integrations. The open nature is established by the publication of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which allow for external access.

The developers of open platforms can also add features to the system on an ongoing basis, constantly enhancing its functionality, expanding the ecosystem (think third-party hotel apps), and improving user experience.

This is in contrast to a ‘closed’ system, which is usually characterised by the provider limiting access and connection to a fixed range of services and technologies. There is a distinct lack of freedom and flexibility for hoteliers using closed systems, and not much room for growth. 

It’s vital to be plugged into an open, evolving, ecosystem to adapt to change and meet challenges with the right solutions. Of course, ‘open’ here refers to access and connectivity. Not just anyone can happen along and help themselves to valuable data. Data will be available in an open format, but only to authorised users.

Benefits of an open technology platform for your hotel

As we know, hoteliers today are flooded with challenges that include staff shortages, unpredictable revenue, managing multiple service providers, optimising distribution and sales, ensuring guest satisfaction, handling maintenance and admin, and trying to run a profitable business overall.

Open technology is how hoteliers can ensure they take the right path and adapt to the needs of guests today and business operations, instead of being quickly left behind by their competition. An open platform unlocks doors for your hotel to explore that you didn’t even know existed, allowing you to seamlessly plug-in additional third-party solutions to your existing tech stack.

This greatly increases your ability to implement strategies and services that increase revenue and efficiency at your property.

It also removes the barrier of associated costs that have traditionally come with wanting to customise or add to your technology. Open technology reduces risk and cost by allowing you to access ‘plug and play’ features that can be used in a way that suits your needs.

Open platforms will also benefit your hotel by enabling you to:

• Develop unique functions and services at your hotel to improve both back and front end operations
• Centralise data sources to help with analysis and informed decision making
• Gain operational flexibility and freedom via increased connectivity
• Collaborate with and learn from other industry experts and professionals
• Adopt tech solutions much faster and with less cost
• Solve communication failings, both within your internal operations and between you and your guests with seamless integrations
• Gain vital holistic visibility of your business, so you can identify issues, gaps, and opportunities for growth
• Upsell to guests and increase your revenue per guest
• Give your property access to meaningful solutions without prohibitive expenses or hoops to jump through

Whether you’re looking to simplify your day-to-day, sell more rooms, boost revenue, enhance guest experience, or hopefully all of these – an open platform is how you can achieve your goals stress-free, and at low cost.

The use of information technology in the hotel sector

When you weigh everything up, IT can be just as important to your hotel as beds, the minibar, and room service etc. Only once your property is operationally smooth can you really focus on optimising the guest experience.

Here are some examples of the ways that IT continues to improve the hospitality and tourism industry:

Selling your brand
Usually a traveller’s first experience with your hotel is a visit to your website. They’ll view galleries and reviews, along with rates and any other content you have prominently displayed. It is vital for a business to effectively utilise online advertising, social media, blogs, and promotions to help convince, and convenience, their customers.

Internal Systems
Computer systems allow for much quicker, easier, communication on a larger scale. It allows chains to manage their properties in multiple locations much easier. They also help keep staff on the same page and make it easier to access information, with guest requests, housekeeping information, and reservations all kept in one place. If things on the back end are working, you have more time to perfect the front end – the parts guests see.

Mobile functionality
So many travellers search and make travel arrangements on the run from their mobile devices now. This might be a smartphone or a tablet. Larger home PCs are a lot less common. It’s important that hotels can enable this need on their website. IT systems also enable hoteliers themselves to manage their property from mobile devices.

Information technology’s greatest impact can be seen in the form of speed and accuracy. Speeding up property management tasks and point of sale service helps reduce labour costs and ensure a more seamless customer experience.

What is the role of IT in the hotel industry?

IT plays a major role in developing and maintaining competitiveness within the industry. Since a lot of success depends on a business’s ability to access and analyse the latest data – and act on it – IT systems are big players.

IT helps meet the demands for timely and accurate information by customers and hotel managers alike. It’s a massive enabler, evidenced by the industry trend of IT systems that work cooperatively to assist managers to deliver quality service to their customers and to enhance operational efficiency and control costs.

If hotels don’t master the right IT systems, they’ll struggle to manage and utilise the data at their disposal. As investment in IT is basically now an indispensable component of tourism and hospitality business strategy.

Areas where IT has affected the realm of hotels:

• Reservations Systems
• Mobile Communication
• In-Room Technology
• Organisation
• Coordination
• Booking systems

These stats can help you understand just how important IT is in the industry

1. Two-thirds of guests want to check-in on their smartphone
   Guests want check-in to be as painless as possible. If they just travelled from somewhere, especially if they came from overseas, the last thing they want to do is wait a long time to get into their room. It also means you don’t have to deal with a crowded lobby.
2. More than half of hotels are planning to ramp up IT spending
   This means a lot of your competitors are making shrewd investments. You can’t afford to fall off the pace in the face of something guests clearly expect from you.
3. Three-quarters of guests want customised offers or loyalty programs
   IT systems can really help you build guest profiles, keep track of preferences, and make personalised offers. Note special requests, room service orders, and other data so that when they check in again down the line, you can surprise your repeat guest with a thoughtful gesture.
4. More than half of all hotels are operating in the cloud
   This is growing all the time. It’s a mass abandonment of old methods such as books and spreadsheets. Using systems like channel managers is now starting to be referred to as standard operating procedure – meaning those who aren’t have found themselves unaligned with the industry.
5. Half of business travellers factor free Wi-Fi into their decision to book
   Clearly W-iFi is a must for corporate travellers and if it isn’t complementary, there’s no excuse in their eyes. A small matter like this can cause large amounts of friction for guests if you aren’t catering for them. It’s an easily solved problem that could be impacting your online reviews and reputation.

When and how should your hotel adopt new technology?

It’s vital to know what technology is worth investing in, and what will just be a gimmick burning a hole in your hotel’s budget.

Will the technology attract more guests and increase bookings? Or will the higher price of rooms outweigh the pull of cutting-edge gadgets?

Some hotels have gone all out to give guests ultimate convenience, leaving no stone unturned in the hope that a ‘five-star’ experience will persuade travellers to book. Others have been more circumspect, preferring to rely on proven technology systems that are more measurable. After all, what use is a robot in your hotel if you don’t have a sound distribution strategy to ensure travellers are actually finding your hotel?

Let’s take a look at some of the most impressive technology implementations in hotels today and discuss the value of each, before looking at some guaranteed revenue boosters.

The world’s most innovative hotel technology solutions

Keyless door entry

This type of technology allows hotel clerks to use NFC, RFID, or Bluetooth to pair guests’ phones with electronic room locks and eliminate the need for a physical door key.

While convenient, it is expensive and not currently standardised across the industry. There are also some potential pitfalls. What if a guest had forgotten their phone charger but can’t get back into their room because their phone is out of battery? What if you are travelling with multiple people? Is a key zapped to all their phones?

Ultimately it doesn’t seem like this technology would be a significant extra incentive for guests to book at the hotel, at least for now, considering it would come with a higher price tag for hoteliers.

Robots

There are many examples of robots in hotels that can greet and check-in guests, handle luggage, provide information, and perform concierge duties.

The benefit of robots is that they’re a huge novelty at the moment and could be a driving force for bookings. They also don’t require wages, meaning the hotel can eventually spend even more money on enhancing the guest experience. The downside is if anything goes wrong, it may take a lot of time and money to fix, and prove inconvenient for a guest who then has to wait for a real person to come and help them. There’s also the risk of alienating some guests with large scale uptake of robotic technology because there are many travellers who still enjoy the human touch.

The efficiency and range of uses for robots will only increase as time goes by. With artificial intelligence on the rise, hotels should seriously consider investing in this technology. However, the next few years should be approached with caution.

Geolocation

Some hotels are using geolocation apps to track guests through every part of the hotel. For instance, if a guest is near the gym they may receive a text message offering a special service or discount. Likewise if they’re relaxing near the poolside bar etc.

While it may seem like a smart and cutting-edge strategy, it’s quite possible guests will find this invasive and annoying. On top of that, building and running these apps is expensive and doesn’t add all that much to your business. It’s certainly not going to be a big booking incentive.

In-room technology

Here are five examples of in-room technology guests will love:

1. High-speed wifi for your hotel guests

To many this may seem like a no-brainer, but the reality is some properties still aren’t providing guests with the service they desire. Guests spend a lot of time in their room researching options for dinner, shows, attractions, bookings etc. If they’re experiencing slow internet, they’ll be quickly frustrated and your hotel will be dealing with a lot of complaints. Guests expect speeds to be on par with what they use at home.

It’s also important to make sure Wi-Fi is free. Charging a fee for the internet is often a big factor in travellers choosing one hotel over another.

2. Hubs of technology to boost your room experience

Hot on the heels of fast internet is the need to make sure all devices are powered and usable at all times. Guests want adequate power stations to charge multiple devices, they want space to use their computer if need be, and they want docks for their phone or music player to provide their own entertainment.

Things like charging stations, small desks, and docks are easy to implement and guests will be very appreciative of them.

3. Netflix and YouTube for guest entertainment

The ability to cast and stream from devices like mobiles, laptops, and tablets to a bigger screen in the hotel room is essential. This might mean Netflix or other streaming services, YouTube, Spotify, or even a web browser.

Guests may want to use this feature simply for entertainment or they might also want to work via the television so ensure you can have this available

4. Smart technologies for guest comfort and luxury

This is where you can afford to get a little more complex. The right smart technology can offer guests a lot of convenience and a sense of luxury.

Smart thermostats allow guests to use an app to adjust the temperature in the room. They can do the same with smart lighting, dimming or brightening the room from their phone. This can even extend to changing the position of the bed, or opening and closing blinds.

Mobile door keys are also a piece of technology that’s being perfected at the moment and when optimised will give guests a much more streamlined stay to combine with mobile check in.

5. Texting services for hotel concierge and services

Giving guests the option to use texts or messaging apps to communicate with the hotel will satisfy their need for feeling pampered. Currently, more than three billion people use messaging apps to communicate. 

At the touch of a finger they can elicit information and make arrangements with a concierge, order room service, book amenities, provide feedback or inform staff of an issue. At no point do they have to leave their room or wait on hold during a call.

Many hotels are outfitting rooms with tablets or iPads to allow guests to adjust room temperature, order room service, request housekeeping, adjust the lighting, control the TV, and more.

This is probably going to be the biggest influencer on bookings when it comes to guest-operated technology in a hotel. All of this is relatively affordable and provides a level of control and convenience guests really enjoy experiencing on their trip.

Staff technology

Improving staff efficiency can have a flow-on effect across the business. Saving man-hours and improving guest experience will save time, money, and potentially boost return bookings. Connecting staff to portable devices such as iPads will allow staff to be more responsive to guest and general hotel needs.

Again, this is relatively cheap but can have a lasting positive effect on the profitability of your hotel so it’s something all hotels should be executing.

Tech gimmicks

Some technology is perhaps too smart for its own good, to the point where it becomes superfluous. Here are some examples of technology that may not be worth it:

• Luxury shuttle services – Some guests may pay more to be driven to the airport in a Teslabut many won’t, and the price and upkeep of expensive shuttle vehicles won’t help your hotel.
• Bathroom televisions – The logistics of this is difficult to start with, but concealing a flatscreen behind the mirror seems neither practical or convenient.
• Clever buttons – For example, a button to turn the shower glass from clear to frosted and back again just seems pointless and if it’s adding money to the room rate, would a guest really want to pay for that?
• Heat-sensors – These can be used to alert a staff member if a room is empty or not, so they can perform housekeeping duties. A do not disturb sign and a simple knock are probably still functional ideals, especially if you’re taking a budget into account.

Hotels need to think carefully about the problems that need solving and what they’re hoping to achieve with the technology they invest in.

Your specific goals will dictate your ultimate decision, but in general, here are some of the more important objectives you should consider…

1. Will it give my hotel global reach?

Guests won’t be able to book with you if they can’t find you, so the first concern you should raise with your technology provider is if they can make you more visible on a global scale.

Generally, the two main methods for increasing your awareness is to connect to online travel agents (OTAs) and global distribution systems (GDSs).

2. Can it lower the cost of my guest acquisition?

Any technology you invest in should do one thing for certain; save you time. You should be saving on man hours by eliminating manual data entry and no longer doubling up on tasks.

It’s vital that your technology partner can gift you seamless integration with world leading hotel technology systems such as central reservation systems (CRSs), property management systems (PMSs), and revenue management systems (RMSs).

3. Will technology drive more revenue at my hotel?

As stated above, OTAs will give you the opportunity to increase your occupancy and therefore your revenue – but only if you have a channel manager that offers pooled inventory, rather than allocated inventory.

Pooled inventory allows you to give every channel, including your own website, access to all your rooms at once and if a booking is made, the total available inventory will decrease automatically across all channels.

Allocated inventory means that a specified number of rooms is allocated to each channel and once they are booked, no more can be pulled from the total inventory and the availability won’t update on other channels, creating the risk of overbookings.

4. Will it give me higher profit margins?

One way to increase your hotel’s profit is to drive as many bookings directly through your hotel website as possible, to avoid commission fees from OTAs or other third party booking channels.

Your website needs to be optimised for search engines, designed attractively, function with a quick load time, set up for mobile and social, and most importantly possess a booking engine that can complete bookings in a two-step process.

Your booking engine should also be customisable to fit your hotel’s brand and be integrated with your other systems like your PMS. Direct bookings will not only increase your profit but may encourage return business because travellers become familiar with your brand when they visit your website. The most important requirement your technology provider should address is that a booking needs to be made in no more than a few clicks of the guest’s mouse.

“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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What is the best hotel technology?

The best hotel technology is hard to define, given hoteliers will have different needs and preferences based on their particular business. However, there are a number of crucial systems and tools that all hotels should consider using. Choosing between providers comes down to research.

One thing we can say is that integrated hotel technology – technology that has all your required features in one location – is the way to go. 

This is both a simpler and more sophisticated way to run a hotel business, thanks to a greater amount of control and insights being available to you.

Some of the features of platform that offers this may include:

Channel management technology

One of the main issues hotels face without the help of distribution technology such as a channel manager is overbookings.

If a hotel has a really healthy occupancy rate and is receiving a lot of reservation information it can be impossible to manually enter it quickly enough before another customer has also made a reservation in the same room.

The use of a channel manager that integrates with the hotel’s property management system will automatically record the reservations and update inventory accordingly, meaning there is no need for hotel staff to stress or spend undue amounts of time on manual processing.

Channel management tools also allow a hotel manager quick and easy access to an overview of all bookings on a single platform. This means a hotel can increase its visibility by easily being able to manage an increased number of online distribution channels such as online travel agents like Expedia. Instead of the five it had before, it could now have an ideal 15-20 channels active in order to accept bookings.

A good channel manager uses pooled inventory and allows you to automate the management of the online travel agents (OTAs) you connect to. Availability, rates, and inventory can be updated in real-time so you can basically eliminate the risk of overbookings, saving time on manual processing and recording.

Booking engine technology

When hotels distribute their rooms through online travel agents the bookings they accept come at the cost of a commission to the booking channel.

This is only fair but the fee can be as high as 15% and put a strain on the overall profit the hotel makes from each room. It makes sense that hotels will want to attract as many bookings directly through their website as possible. For this they need a reliable, optimised, and integrated booking engine that will form part of their channel network.

An online booking engine that provides a fast and easy two-step booking experience for the guest will go a long way to increasing hotel website and Google Hotel Ads conversions for any of a hotel brand’s properties, and again saves a lot of man hours.

It also allows a hotel to have more control over its rates. With a modern booking engine hotels can set promotions, craft packaged deals, create last-minute rates, and use urgency messages to attract more customers.

The best booking engine will provide a seamless online experience and take no longer than a few seconds or a couple of clicks to process a guest’s reservation from anywhere in the world.

Your booking engine should integrate with your website and branding as well as other systems like a channel manager, a property management system (PMS), central reservations system (CRS), and payment gateways to retain the ease of operation both you and your guests desire.

Not only will a good booking engine enable commission-free bookings but it will also allow you to nurture your customer through the whole trip cycle; pre, during, and post-stay. You can set up email notifications, offer extras and promotions, and integrate with social media and mobile platforms.

Hotel website technology

Every hotel needs a beautiful, functional, website that is optimised for mobile and SEO. This ensures guests are finding your website and staying there to make a booking instead of looking elsewhere. If your website is not well designed, loads quickly, and is responsive to all devices, people will soon look elsewhere. However, hiring a designer or trying to build a website yourself will be time consuming and costly, not only in the first instance but every time it needs updating.

This is why you require technology like an intuitive website builder and editor that will have you up and running in less than an hour and can be updated in an instant – as often as you like.

The benefits of using website builder software are wide-ranging and include: custom themes and templates, SEO indexes are taken care of, mobile integration is optimised, seamless partnership with your booking engine, it can act as a content management system (CMS) for your blogs and photos, and it’s multi-lingual.

Business intelligence technology

Real-time pricing intelligence will let you watch and analyse your competitors and make smart choices about your own rates, to optimise your revenue management. Hotel revenue management can be a complex undertaking, especially in a market that is becoming more complicated by the minute due to continued growth in both hotels and channels. Real-time access to revenue management metrics is a priceless addition to your pricing strategy.

With the right tool you’ll be able to keep track of your competitors but more importantly access a range of rules and notifications so you never miss a change in the market. You can also pull reports and forecast demand to make the best possible decisions for your pricing strategy.

With a versatile and intelligent tool you’ll have rate visibility and the capability to meet your revenue targets while using affordable revenue management software.

Global distribution technology

Connecting to a global distribution system (GDS) will put your hotel on a more diverse and broad range of booking ‘maps’, to give your hotel the best chance of being found by as many people as possible. A GDS gives you access to a virtual marketplace to showcase your wares to hundreds of thousands of travel agents across the world.

It grants the opportunity to offer bundled packages with airlines and car rentals to further incentivise agents to advertise you and travellers to book with you.

A GDS can also be updated in real-time and acts as a reliable middleman, saving you time and hassle.

With a GDS you need to be sure you’re getting value for money. Are you getting access to a big enough network? Does it integrate with other common hotel systems? Are there commissions and what are the contract agreements?

Marketing automation

Marketing automation platforms automate the lead-to-sale process. For hotel operators, this means 1:1 communication with potential hotel guests to educate, engage and book. When integrated with your CRM system sales and marketing are on the same page. By allowing you to build out your campaigns, EDMs, and landing pages all in one place with relevant and personalised content across a variety of online channels – marketing automation software provides the missing link in your email marketing strategy.

Some of the key benefits of using a marketing automation platform include:

• The ability to create and experiment with different emails and landing pages to improve CTAs and lead generation.
• The ability to nurture your leads (guests) by running automated lead-nurturing campaigns with multi-touch communications to enhance conversion opportunities.
• A lead scoring model that will allow you to match your hotel’s offerings to the unique criteria of your guests and prospects – which in turn will give you greater insights into your guests’ behaviour to create more targeted communications and promotions.
• Detailed reports showing the performance of emails, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) broken down by campaign.

Your marketing automation platform’s tracking and reporting metrics are an invaluable resource to help you fine tune the performance of your email and nurture campaigns, increase conversion rates and bookings, as well as improve your overall business processes.

Beyond this you should pay close attention to:

• Social media platforms
• Email tools
• Apps targeting promotional offers
• Systems to improve customer communication

This all before you even think about buying a fancy keyless door lock or installing a smart TV in your room. Get the basics right and then assess your budget to give guests the stay they really need and want. Guest feedback is vital – listen to what your guests are saying. If you have never received any complaints about your bathroom, maybe you don’t need to spend money on heated floors. Instead you could update the entertainment system that a few guests have mentioned seems a little out of date.

Technology ROI: How to your maximise hotel’s return on investment

When all is said and done, any technology you use at your hotel should be helping you to boost revenue and profit, either through efficiency and cost-savings or by generating more income. Let’s look at the relationship between technology and return on investment at your hotel. 

What does ROI mean in technology?

ROI in the context of technology refers to how much money you get back from the technology that you purchase or subscribe to. When you begin a partnership with a technology provider for solutions such as a property management system, booking engine, channel engine and more, you will pay a fee to use the service. Tracking ROI will mean looking at how much revenue these tech systems are generating for your business, compared to how much money you invest in them.

It goes without saying that you should aim for a positive ROI from your technology investments if you want to enjoy longterm success.

Why is ROI on technology investment crucial to measure?

Measuring ROI on your technology investments is essential for making informed business decisions that benefit you from a long-term perspective.

It will help your hotel understand if your tech stack is actually helping you attract more guests, boost profit, enhance guest experience, improve cash flow, or increase efficiency.

When you know what your technology is delivering to your business, you can decide how to allocate resources and whether you need to make changes to your strategy – such as switching to a different provider. 

How to calculate the ROI of technology at your hotel

To calculate the ROI of technology at your hotel, you’ll need to consider both the costs and generated income. 

Costs might include a sign-up fee, monthly fee, and transaction fees. Generated income will include revenue from bookings, extras, upsells, and pricing optimisation as well as less tangible benefits such as boosting guest experience and loyalty, reducing customer friction, identifying market trends and opportunities, and creating operational efficiency (and reducing costs).

Once you have a clear idea about these, you can calculate your technology ROI by using the following formula:

ROI = (Net Profit / Cost of Investment) x 100   

For example, if you invest $2000/year in a hotel platform like SiteMinder that hypothetically saves you $2,500 per year in labour costs and increases your revenue by $10,000 per year, the calculation would be:

ROI = ($2,500 + $10,000) / $2000) x 100 = 625%

Even without the intangible benefits, this is a great return on investment and in many cases it will be much greater.

How to maximise your property’s ROI with technology

Maximising your hotel’s ROI with technology depends on a number of factors, some of which are easier than others. There are also different types of technology and systems that will impact your ROI in different ways.

For example, a hotel booking engine might increase direct bookings, reducing commission costs and improving profit margins, while a business intelligence tool can help you optimise pricing strategies, leading to higher average daily rates and occupancy. 

Here are some of the best ways to maximise your technology’s ROI.

Choose the right solution

Step one is choosing a well-credentialed technology provider so you can have confidence in achieving positive results. For instance, a hotel platform like SiteMinder can provide a centralised solution for managing bookings, distribution, and revenue. By integrating various functions into one system, you can streamline operations, reduce errors, and gain valuable insights. This comprehensive approach often yields a higher ROI on technology investment than implementing multiple standalone solutions.

Leverage dynamic pricing strategies

Pricing and insights technology will allow you to gain access to all the crucial data that you need to make informed decisions. Optimising your rates and offers based on real-time information will ensure you are always getting maximum value from the bookings you win.

Prioritise efficiency

Becoming more efficient can sometimes be even more powerful than increasing revenue generation. If you can save time, you may be able to save money on staff salaries and reduce costs in departments like housekeeping and customer service. You can also allocate extra time to improving the guest experience, which will contribute to future revenue growth. 

One of technology’s biggest selling points is around efficiency, so make sure you provider is delivering this for you.

Invest in personalisation

Technology that helps implement personalisation into your customer service can significantly enhance the guest experience and drive repeat business. By leveraging guest data to provide tailored recommendations, personalised offers, and customised services, your hotel can increase guest satisfaction and loyalty. 

Look at mobile-first solutions

With an increasing number of travellers using mobile devices to research and book accommodations, investing in mobile-first technology is crucial. This includes having a mobile-responsive website, a user-friendly booking engine optimised for mobile, and mobile check-in options. 

Of course, you also need to continuously monitor how your chosen tech solutions are performing, preferably via in-built reporting functions on top of your own analysis. If you are having problems unlocking value, make sure to liaise with your providers help centre, support staff, and learning resources.

Ultimately, if you do your due diligence and choose a strong technology partner, your ROI will take care of itself.

A hotel booking engine is a system used on hotel websites and social media pages to capture and process direct online reservations.

It’s your key to commission-free bookings, which allows you to optimise your property’s sales strategy and maximise profit.

While online travel agents can make your hotel known to large new audiences, the hefty commission fees can often be frustrating. A booking engine is a way for your hotel to balance your distribution strategy and reduce OTA dominance.

This blog will give you a detailed rundown of booking engines in the hotel industry, including how they work, how your hotel can use them to your advantage, and everything else you need to know.

Why is a booking engine important for your hotel?

Using a booking engine at your hotel is important for allowing guests to book rooms online in a way that is convenient and secure. It’s something that modern travellers have come to appreciate and expect.

This is because:

• Guests can easily self-serve – Travellers can check which rooms are available when, and for how much, without ever speaking to you.
• Guests trust online booking – When guests make a booking, your booking engine can securely accept credit card payments, and guest data is safely stored and accessible in one place.
• Guests can book quicker – Online booking puts an end to games of phone or email tag, with travellers and hotels liaising for days before confirming a booking.
• Guests look for direct booking perks – People will often head to your website in the hopes that if they book directly they’ll get something a little extra added to their stay. This is a trade-off many properties will make to save on paying third-party commissions.
• It’s more professional – Modern guests will be surprised if they can’t perform an online booking on your website. It’s likely to give them the impression that you’re not organised and they’ll end up booking another property.

It’s also important that you’re able to own the guest relationship. Once a guest books directly, you can do everything in your power to personalise their service and make them a return visitor. You can improve the profitability of every guest, one by one, just by securing their direct booking and earning their loyalty.

More direct revenue, less work

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Your hotel website needs booking engine integration

Effective communication and cooperation between the systems you use at your hotel is always important. Your website and booking engine are two of the most important cogs in the machine.

To be optimised for potential guests:

• An online booking engine must be synchronised with your website
• Your website needs to display a ‘Book Now’ button
• The experience of your website and booking engine need to align on functionality and performance
• Design quality on your website must also be reflected on the booking engine and vice versa
• Your website will be HTTPS secure with an updated SSL certificate

Benefits gained from website and booking engine integration include:

• The ability to stay on par with the booking experience on OTAs, which is important if your hotel wants to remain a viable booking alternative to the third-party channels
• A consistently mobile-friendly platform which will help reduce user friction
• A quick and functional experience for guests given they won’t have to repeat actions or input the same information more than once
• A much easier way to manage rates and reservations since you won’t have to do any manual processing between the two systems, eliminating accidental errors
• Greater success with search engine optimisation because your content and functionality will be optimised on both your website and booking engine
• More traffic, more regularly, to your booking engine flowing straight from your website in a single click

How does an online booking engine work?

An online booking engine works by plugging into your hotel website and processing secure online reservations made through the site. The data is then passed onto your property management system so you can access and manage the bookings.

The booking engine will display your rates and availability in real-time and allow guests to select their dates and finalise the reservation. Other features may come with it – for example, the automation of reservation confirmation emails.

A booking engine can also integrate with a channel manager, so it can be managed in the same manner as the online travel agents you connect to. By connecting your booking engine with a channel manager, you’ll have access to powerful performance reports that let you compare your direct reservations with your third-party bookings.

Key benefits of booking engine software

While the core message around booking engine software is direct bookings, there’s a lot more potential than that.

With the right booking engine in place:

• You can increase conversions with a simple guest booking experience
• You can save time with quick and easy setup
• You can eliminate manual data entry with instant integration
• You can make better decisions with data
• You can gain an advantage over competitors who don’t have one

Here’s a full list of 10 benefits:

1. Improves your efficiency as a business

With PMS and channel manager integration your availability is updated immediately upon receiving a reservation, not only in your own system, but across all of your channels.

2. Simplifies the administrative process for you and your staff

Rather than requiring you to respond to email inquiries and accept reservations over the phone, an online booking system does the work for you. You can then spend more time interacting with your guests and keep the rest of the staff more organised and efficient, because everyone will have access to live information about the current occupancy at the hotel.

3. Allows you to collect valuable data about your guests

Data collection is absolutely critical, especially in the hotel industry where guests are demanding a more personalised experience. Guest data can help you tailor your marketing campaigns to attract the most motivated guests to your hotel brand.

4. Directly improves the guest experience at your property

A cloud-based system allows your guests to book their preferred room type on their computers, from their tablets or on their phones. With short forms and secure payment portals, it makes the process of online booking a room simple, easy and enjoyable. 

Remember, this is their first impression of your hotel and it will have a lasting impact on their perception of your brand. It should be user-friendly if your guests will complete the process and book online.

There’s a lot of arguments for adopting an online booking system for your hotel and not many against. Let’s cement the advantages and identify the issues you have at the property that can be solved by this technology.

5. Enables your property to be instantly bookable through your hotel website

Research shows that most guests will look at both OTAs and the property website to inform their decision. By presenting an easy way for them to book right on your page, you increase the chances that when they’re ready to reserve, they’ll do it directly with you.

6. Reduces your reliance on OTAs

OTAs are a great way of getting your name out there. Your property shows up on search results for your destination, and guests find your presence there trustworthy, but it can limit your revenue to have all of your bookings coming through a third party. Why not take charge of your earnings by getting some of your bookings from your own channel?

7. Easily accepts credit cards and processes payments

A major plus of an online booking system is that guests can pay directly by credit card and the system will automatically process the reservation details – saving you time and hassle. This includes extra payments like deposits or charges for additional services such as breakfast and cleaning fees.

8. Controls the guest experience through the entire customer journey

From the moment a potential customer lands on your property website, they only interact with the content you have chosen. That means you can use your own branding throughout the process, and play a key role in making their user experience a positive one.

9. Gives guests the option to pay in their own language and currency

An online booking engine can enable your customers to book in the language they feel most comfortable in, and pay in the currency that makes the most sense for them. This gives them the comfort and ease-of-use most customers hope for, and sets their expectations even before they arrive at your property.

10. Creates flexibility on the type of promotions you offer

Your booking engine can easily set up last-minute deals and extended stay discounts with the click of a button. These kinds of offers increase loyalty and the likelihood that your guests will have a positive experience and leave a good review.

Essential features of an internet booking engine

As with any product you purchase for your hotel, quality will vary along with the price. Obviously you’ll want the basics covered at a minimum.

Here’s a comprehensive list of the most essential booking engine features you should expect:

1. An extensive image gallery

It’s already an established fact that visual experience through image galleries is one of the top factors to get guests over the line when booking. Being able to add a lot of high-resolution images to your gallery is important if you want to entice guests to book.

2. Banner images

What is the first thing that you notice on a website? Isn’t it the banner image that steals the show for first impressions? Your booking engine should allow you to display an exciting banner image.

3. Social media connection

A booking engine should connect with your social media pages, so you can effortlessly drive your social media followers to book via your direct channel rather than OTAs.

4. Room order auto optimisation

When you want your guests to have seamless and hassle-free booking experience, the best you can do is to present them with the options they searched for. This feature displays the rooms according to your guest’s search criteria on the top of the search results, making it quick and easy for them to book.

5. Intuitive booking summary

Whenever a guest chooses a room that is not close to the search criteria, a booking summary can alert the guests with a message that the rooms they selected do not match what they were looking for. This way, your guests are constantly engaged and guided to make the best choices for them.

6. Google Analytics integration

When you have a hotel business and most of your bookings are coming from online, you need to know exactly where they are coming from, and where your website visitors are exiting from. Data can be crucial in analysing the success of your hotel website, so your booking engine should empower you with Google Analytics integration to keep track of your website visits and make decisions based on crucial data.

7. Promotion codes

You can always be a step ahead of your competitors by attracting more customers with the help of promotion codes. A booking engine should enable you to create your own promotions and give a code to your customers to avail discounts. You can have something special going on during school holidays, local festivals, or even corporate promotions, and sell your rooms much faster with value-for-money offers.

8. Multilingual functionality

The hotel industry is one of the most diverse in the world. Since the hospitality business involves such a wide customer base from various regions and countries globally, your customers should be able to select the language they wish and have a smooth booking process without any language barriers.

9. Multi-currency enabled

Where there are multiple languages, there are multiple currencies too! Setting up your booking engine to receive payments in your local currency should be easy.

10. Extras and add-ons

Extras are a great way to upsell your rooms. These are the items or services that you can sell along with a room for an extra fee. You can actually keep the basic room rate low and earn from extras. Say your lowest rate is priced at $100, you can offer an extra massage worth $40 with the room for a more attractive offer for the guest.

11. Hide unavailable rooms

Sometimes, your customers can be turned off or navigate away from your hotel website because they see more unavailable rooms than available ones. Well, you don’t always have to show what’s not available – instead, present them with all you have and let guests choose from the list.

12. Quick and simple reservation process

Your booking engine should offer a short form for your guests to fill out when they are ready to book a room. They should not be redirected to a different site to complete their reservation or process their payment.

13. Mobile friendly

The number of mobile bookings throughout the industry continues to increase with each passing year so your hotel booking software needs to allow you to accept mobile bookings.

If you need help choosing the best booking engine for your hotel, download our free buyers guide.

Hotel booking engine providers

There are a number of hotel booking engine providers available on the market. Some are suited to large independent hotels or big hotel chains, while others can be perfect for smaller properties like boutique hotels or bed and breakfasts.

Ranked the #1 hotel commerce platform, SiteMinder offers a hotel booking engine that gives medium to large hotels everything they need to take commission-free direct bookings, personalise guest service, grow profit, and save time.

SiteMinder’s booking engine also integrates seamlessly with the platform’s website builder as well as hundreds of the most popular property management systems.

For smaller properties, Little Hotelier is a great option. It’s an all-in-one solution that includes a booking engine and is designed specifically for boutique hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, inns, motels, and more. Little Hotelier is also backed by SiteMinder’s technology, so the quality is among the best in the industry.

How to implement a hotel website booking engine

It should be straightforward to implement your hotel website booking engine, once you have chosen a provider. 

In most cases, your booking engine provider will be able to integrate seamlessly with your existing website. If you don’t already have a website, providers like SiteMinder offer a website builder so you can easily create one. 

Learn more by watching a demo or trying it out yourself for free.

How to use a hotel Facebook booking engine

Your booking engine provider should also be able to connect your booking engine to your Facebook page.

You can create a call-to-action on your business page that links directly to your booking page. This means you can take direct bookings without the guest ever needing to visit your website.

Like all businesses, hotels have goals – or at least, they should. For successful hotels, a goal is much more than just an aspiration: they’re beacons, guiding every aspect of your operation, from guest satisfaction to financial growth. Understanding the essence of hotel goals and their pivotal role in your business’s evolution is the first step towards transformative success. 

By definition a goal is an aim or desired result, or also the destination of a journey. However, for businesses it goes far beyond that and goals are a crucial part of any business plan.

When defining your hotel business goals, a few simple questions need to be answered: Where? When? How? Who?

• Where do you want your business to be? For example, you may want to increase direct bookings by 20%.
• When do you want to have this objective achieved? Be realistic and give yourself a timeframe for the hotel goal completion, you may work with short, mid and long-term ranges.
• How are you getting there? Which tool can you use to achieve this hotel goal? Using the same example, you may want to invest in online content creation, search engine optimisation, paid advertising and more.
• Who are you trying to impact? Define your target segment, perhaps your audience is mainly backpackers, or even flashpackers. This will help you define the tone of voice of your communication.

Answering these questions will assist you moving forward to stay focused. Here is why you need clear hotel goals – now!

How to get started with hotel goals

Every great hotel’s story starts with a vision and a plan. Below, we help you lay the groundwork for you to create a blueprint for success, guiding you through the initial stages of setting practical and ambitious hotel goals.

1. Begin with the end in mind

The mental process described in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey, suggests that when having the clear image of what you want to achieve in your mind, you’ll be able to put every action and decision into perspective to focus only on the final objective.

This change of focus will provoke a mindset change, which will help you and your team to overcome procrastination, since the focus is now on the means of goal pursuit or on the individual task outcome in relation to the overall goal.

2. Say NO to distractions

Referring back to our example, if you want to increase your direct bookings by 20% in six months, any investment of money and/or time that will not contribute to the goal is a distraction.

If you know the backpacker audience you’re targeting requires an informal, fast and friendly communication, you won’t waste time with long and formal content production. Filter everything diverting you from your path and discard what you don’t need.

Achieve more business goals with the best technology

Unlock the full potential of your hotel with SiteMinder’s smart platform; everything from distribution, guest communication, and KPI tracking in one place.

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3. Keep the team engaged

Once the finish line is defined, the entire team will work together towards the same result. Analyse the relevant metrics and reports along the way and make adjustments when necessary.

If two months after releasing the campaigns to increase your booking conversions you notice paid advertising is bringing more revenue than other tools, talk to your team and adapt your plan to better achieve the goal.

By running periodic reviews you can keep everyone aligned and motivated to continue making progress.

4. Be S.M.A.R.T and track your performance

The S.M.A.R.T. criteria – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound – offer a structured and efficient approach to setting goals. In the hotel industry, where the pace is fast and the competition is fierce, having clear and attainable objectives is crucial.

• Specific: Your goal should be clear and specific, so you know exactly what you’re working towards. For instance, rather than saying “increase bookings,” specify “increase direct online bookings by 15%.”
• Measurable: Quantify your goal to track progress. Using our example, you can measure the increase in online bookings through your booking system.
• Achievable: Your goal needs to be realistic and attainable. Ensure that a 15% increase is feasible considering your current resources and market conditions.
• Relevant: The goal must align with broader business objectives. Increasing direct online bookings can reduce dependency on third-party booking platforms, aligning with the goal of enhancing direct revenue channels.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline. For instance, aim to achieve this 15% increase in direct online bookings within the next six months.

Here’s how you can implement a S.M.A.R.T goal in your hotel management strategy:

Example of a Hotel Smart Goal: “Increase direct online bookings by 15% within the next six months, leveraging targeted digital marketing campaigns and improving the user experience of our booking platform.”

By defining a S.M.A.R.T goal like this, you provide your team with a clear, focused target. It also allows for regular tracking of your progress, ensuring you remain on the right path and make adjustments as necessary. This systematic approach can significantly enhance your team’s motivation and the overall effectiveness of your hotel management strategies.

Working towards a nonexistent or intangible goal can be very frustrating for you and your team, as it is hard to measure how effective it is. Regardless of the model you decide to use, stay away from vague objectives.

Hotel goals and objectives examples

Setting well-defined goals and objectives is pivotal for the success of any hotel. Here are some practical examples that can guide your strategic planning:

Revenue growth

Goal: Achieve 10% year-over-year revenue growth

Objective:  Implement dynamic pricing strategies, expand service offerings like spa and dining experiences, and promote loyalty programs to encourage repeat visits.

Increase occupancy rate

Goal: Increase hotel occupancy rates by 20% within the next year.

Objective: Launch targeted marketing campaigns focusing on off-peak seasons, establish partnerships with travel agencies, and offer special packages for weekends and holidays.

Improve guest satisfaction

Goal: Elevate guest satisfaction scores (e.g. Net Promoter Score) by 15% over the next 12 months.

Objective: Enhance customer service training for staff, upgrade room amenities, and streamline the check-in/check-out process for a smoother guest experience.

Boost direct bookings

Goal: Increase direct bookings through the hotel’s website by 25% in the next six months.

Objective: Optimise the hotel website for user experience, implement an effective SEO strategy, and utilise social media marketing to drive traffic to the website.

Sustainability initiatives

Goal: Reduce the hotel’s carbon footprint by 30% in two years.

Objective: Implement energy-efficient systems, reduce water waste, and adopt sustainable sourcing practices for food and materials.

Improve online presence

Goal: Grow the total number of website visitors by 25% within a year.

Objective: Develop a content marketing strategy, engage actively on social media platforms, and encourage guests to leave reviews on online travel forums.

A hospitality startup is an innovative new business venture that seeks to revolutionise the hospitality industry through fresh ideas and cutting-edge technology. These startups aim to address the evolving needs of both businesses and customers by offering solutions such as advanced booking and reservation systems, efficient property management software, personalised guest experience tools, and sustainable operation practices. 

There’s a broad range of different types of hospitality startups, but the one thing they all have in common is that they have incredibly high pressure to succeed, and to do that, they must be both efficient and innovative in equal parts.

Every day new business ideas are formulated, new companies are created, new businesses established. Many of them, regardless of industry, are looking to disrupt and change the environment they exist in. The only way for them to get ahead is to offer something consumers haven’t seen before, or offer value no competitor can match.

In this blog we’ll explore the ins and outs of hospitality startups, including some tips on how you can make sure yours succeeds.

Challenges hospitality startups face and how to overcome them

Launching a hospitality startup presents some hurdles, from securing initial capital to building a trusted brand and maintaining operational efficiency. Overcoming these challenges relies on recognising and addressing them early, and adopting effective strategies can significantly improve your startup’s chances of long-term success.

1. Funding and financial management

Securing adequate funding and managing finances is often the first major hurdle for hospitality startups. Initial investments can be substantial, covering property, technology, staffing, and marketing. Poor financial planning can quickly derail promising ventures.

• Explore diverse funding sources: Consider angel investors, venture capital, crowdfunding, government grants, or small business loans to diversify your financial base.
• Scale responsibly: Launch with a minimum viable product (MVP), validate your business model, then scale operations incrementally to manage risk.
• Optimise cash flow: Invest in reliable accounting software, apply dynamic pricing to maximise revenue, and regularly review expenses to eliminate unnecessary costs.

2. Brand recognition and differentiation

Standing out in the highly competitive hospitality landscape is critical yet challenging. New startups often struggle to differentiate themselves from established brands, making it tough to attract customers and build trust.

• Invest in a compelling brand identity: Craft a unique and consistent brand identity, featuring a user-friendly website, striking visuals, and a clear unique value proposition (UVP).
• Focus on storytelling and social proof: Highlight customer success stories, leverage influencer partnerships, and maintain an active social media presence to build credibility and awareness.
• Clearly define your niche: Specialising in eco-friendly travel, hourly bookings, digital convenience, or wellness tourism can help you connect directly with your target market.

3. Customer acquisition and retention

Hospitality startups must continuously attract new customers and foster loyalty, but reliance on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) can increase acquisition costs and limit direct engagement.

• Prioritise direct bookings: Build an intuitive, well-designed website equipped with direct booking technology and implement targeted digital marketing campaigns.
• Personalise guest experiences: Use data analytics to understand your guests’ preferences and offer tailored recommendations, loyalty rewards, and exclusive offers.
• Proactive reputation management: Respond promptly and professionally to reviews, swiftly address negative feedback, and continuously refine your guest experience.

4. Scaling and operational efficiency

Scaling your hospitality startup involves managing complex operations across multiple properties while maintaining quality, consistency, and efficiency.

• Standardise operations: Develop clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for tasks such as check-ins, housekeeping, and customer service.
• Automate with technology: Integrate solutions like AI-powered chatbots, automated revenue management systems, and smart locks to streamline guest interactions and operations.
• Optimise management systems: Adopt cloud-based hotel management systems to centralise processes, making it easier to monitor performance and quickly respond to challenges.

5. Workforce management and retention

Employee turnover in hospitality is notoriously high, impacting service quality, increasing recruitment costs, and making talent retention a continuous challenge.

• Invest in your people: Provide competitive wages, ongoing training, and clear career progression pathways to foster loyalty.
• Enhance staff engagement: Recognise achievements, offer growth opportunities, and foster a positive, inclusive workplace culture.
• Utilise workforce technology: Implement staff scheduling and management software to reduce workload stress, streamline communication, and improve overall staff satisfaction.

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Why is innovation in travel startups important in the hospitality industry?

Differentiation is crucial for success in hospitality, and providing unique and personalised guest experiences is paramount. The tourism sector, a major economic driver, constantly evolves to meet customer needs, with technological innovation playing a key role. 

Adopting both new technology and innovative practices is essential for enhancing guest satisfaction, streamlining operations, and staying competitive. Here are a few of the reasons why:

To improve guest experience

Using advanced technology helps hotels offer more personalised and memorable stays. Real-time solutions and customisation enhance guest satisfaction and encourage repeat visits.

Enhance hotel operation efficiency

Automating tasks like check-in/check-out, room service, and energy management saves time and cuts costs. Streamlined operations make everything run smoother and more cost-effective.

Stay competitive 

In a constantly evolving industry, hotels need to adopt new tech to stay ahead. Smart rooms, virtual reality tours, and AI-driven recommendations give guests a unique experience that rivals can’t match. By continuously innovating, hotels can attract more guests and keep them coming back.

Meet changing industry and guest needs

As technology improves, so do guest expectations. Guests now look for instant booking confirmations, voice-activated room controls, and personalised recommendations. Leading in innovation ensures hotels can meet and exceed these rising expectations, offering a top-notch experience.

Hourly hotel startup: How this travel startup idea works

Innovation in hospitality startups means thinking outside of the box—or, in the case of Brevistay, thinking outside of typical reservation times.

Brevistay, launched in 2016 in Noida, India, offers a unique hotel booking model where guests can book rooms by the hour. This service caters to travellers needing short stays, with options for 3, 6, or 12 hours and flexible check-in times. It provides an affordable and convenient solution for layovers, business trips, or day-use. 

Short term hotel room rentals is not necessarily a new idea. Brevistay’s innovation comes in the form of how that need is met. Rather than providing the rooms directly, Brevistay partners with over 3,000 hotels in 70+ cities, operating on a commission-based model. By filling otherwise vacant rooms, this startup helps hotels increase occupancy and revenue.

This is just one example of what innovation can look like in the hospitality industry. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; simply improving on an existing solution – or in Brevistay’s case, applying new technology to it – can make all the difference in the world.

“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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Recent & successful hotel startups

In a highly variable and constantly shifting industry like hospitality, it pays to keep your eye out for new players that are making it work. Here are our top 3 movers and shakers of recent times.

Nuitée

Nuitée offers infrastructure APIs to hotels and travel businesses, enabling developers to seamlessly embed hotel booking features. The company operates in Ireland, Spain, London, Morocco, and the US, and is currently profitable. In December 2024, Nuitée announced a €44.3 million Series A funding round led by Accel; until then, it had been bootstrapped.

Tebi

Tebi, co-founded by Arnout Schuijff, former co-founder and CTO of Dutch fintech giant Adyen, aims to simplify finance for restaurants, bars, and cafes via a streamlined Point of Sale (PoS) and operations platform. Tebi distinguishes itself from competitors by offering free services to businesses below a certain revenue threshold.​ In October 2024, Tebi raised a €20 million Series A round led by Index Ventures.

Katanox

Katanox is a platform that unifies direct distribution and financial infrastructure for the hospitality industry. The company has consistently grown its employee count since its launch. In 2022, Katanox secured €5.2 million in early venture capital funding.

5 top hospitality tech startups 

A select few manage to forge a successful niche, or in some cases a global presence, striking at the right time, in the right place, to the right people. Here are 5 startups providing a unique and useful service in the travel industry…

1. Airportr

Based in London since 2014, Airportr picks up luggage anywhere inside the M25, and drops it off at either Gatwick or Heathrow airports. Collaborating with British Airways, it also offers the additional service of checking in bags remotely. The company also plans to expand by adding more airlines, before branching out geographically.

What makes Airportr special?

Given international arrivals are set to increase from 1.3 billion in 2017 to 2.3 billion by 2030 and increasingly strict regulations around baggage, a company that takes away the hassle will be popular.

2. Flyto

Launched two years ago, Flyto builds software that integrates with a travel provider’s website and offers customers a way to pay for their travel in instalments, while Flyto pays the travel provider upfront. Flyto is already backed by Mastercard and Telefonica and is being advised by executives from Sabre and British Airways.

What makes Flyto special?

It’s a system that presents a very lucrative offer to travellers, who may use it to travel more regularly. It gives them more freedom and flexibility to visit the places they love.

3. Hotel Tonight

This app lets users find cheap hotel rooms at the last minute and is now available at 250 destinations in 17 countries, expanding further into Europe with the additions of Germany and Switzerland last year. The company also added a couple of innovative features: users can now ‘gift’ a room to someone else, and ‘Snap Your Stay’ encourages users to snap, edit, and upload shots of their hotel rooms to receive credits ranging from $5 to $10. 

This means instead of hiring professional photographers to generate a visual presence, it crowdsources photos from its social media base of customers.

What makes Hotel Tonight special?

For hotels in busy destinations, it’s a perfect partner to achieve late increases in occupancy and drive more revenue. You can read more about how we work with Hotel Tonight here.

4. Net Solutions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come a long way. Its ability to understand human behaviour, particularly in terms of natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language processing (NLP) is now advanced. Chatbots allow travellers to directly interact with travel agents in a trusted manner, before and during travel.

Net Solutions leverages chatbots to provide a personalised travel experience. The startup’s chatbots can be launched on Messenger, Telegram, and Slack and other services, providing full analytics to better understand customer behaviour. The service includes features such as customer support, tracking orders, and distributing content.

What makes Net Solutions special?

As hotels move deeper into improving customer service, systems like these could help make the job much simpler, paving the way for more fluid conversations between businesses and guests.

5. Alice

Alice was created four years ago to make life easier for hotels to manage their operations. With Expedia as an investor, Alice provides a single system for guests, front-of-house workers, and back-of-house staff to communicate and track requests. The unified system means that a guest request sent via text message for perhaps more pillows or mini-bar snacks is conveyed to the right member of staff at the hotel.

What makes Alice special?

It presents an attractive offer for hoteliers who are often very busy and short on time. Being able to get everything right and respond quickly is vital for giving guests a good experience.

The Billboard Effect definition: When a guest discovers a hotel through an online travel agent (OTA) like Booking.com or Expedia, or a metasearch engine like Google Hotels or Trivago, but ends up booking directly with the hotel on its website.

The billboard effect was first described in 2009 by Chris Anderson, an Associate Professor at Cornell University. For accommodation providers who know how to capitalise on it, a billboard effect marketing strategy can prove a powerful way to maximise bookings and revenue.

The impact of The Billboard Effect in marketing for hotels

Despite popular belief that ‘The Billboard Effect’ is but a shadow of its former self, recent research suggests tales of its demise have been much exaggerated.

It may be true that online travel agents (OTAs such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb) are certainly now the most popular site for travellers to visit. They’re using it for research, inspiration, and final booking decisions.

However, the influence of OTAs on direct hotel website visits is still very much alive. Google found that over half of all travellers will visit a hotel’s website after seeing it on an OTA.

Often, ‘The Billboard Effect’ is diminished by frustration. Travellers make a shortlist of interesting hotels they find on the OTA and then check each hotel website for more information. If they don’t find the same room types, names, pictures, and policies they get frustrated and head back to the OTA.

This is why it’s so important to treat your OTA profile like an extension of your own website so the offer you make to guests is consistent.

Nethertheless, the report proved that being listed on an OTA’s site increased reservations through the hotel brand’s site – so how can you take better advantage of the traffic your website receives from visitors coming via OTAs?

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Why should hotels take advantage of The Billboard Effect?

In the billboard effect hotels have an organic marketing opportunity similar to that offered by Google. 

The advantages of the billboard effect in business terms are many and varied, including:

• Expanded reach: OTAs and metasearch engines have incredible reach, so by listing your hotel on the likes of Booking.com and Expedia you gain access to millions of potential guests.
• Free advertising: Hotels aren’t charged for simply listing on these platforms, so you can gain access to huge audiences for free!
• More bookings: For a hotel billboard effects can drive far more bookings by getting your property in front of far more potential guests.
• More revenue: One of the biggest reasons to implement this strategy is the added billboard revenue. OTAs commonly charge a 15%-25% commission on every booking – the billboard effect drives direct bookings that allow you to keep that cash.

Example of The Billboard Effect in the hotel industry

We’ve got our billboard effect marketing definition, but what does this phenomenon look like in real life?

Let’s say your hotel attracts plenty of business travellers. You begin constructing your travel ‘billboards’ by listing your hotel on the major booking platforms, as well as all the niche OTAs that speak more directly to a corporate audience.

You then work to ensure that potential guests know that they can book direct with you, and incentivise them to do so. You mention your direct booking capabilities on your website and social profiles, and promote things like direct booking deals, loyalty programs and best price guarantees.

You create ads and content that keeps direct booking top of mind for anyone who is considering booking with your hotel.

Often if there is enough awareness of the incentives, guests will be happy to book directly with your accommodation.

How to optimise ‘The Billboard Effect’ for your hotel

As a hotel operator you should make sure your online presence is easy to find, is attractive, and stands up to the competition. Here are five ways you can convert travellers into guests who book direct:

1. Keep guests engaged with content

When a traveller finds themselves on your website you obviously don’t want them to leave without making a purchase. In an ideal world, every visit would equal a booking. To increase your chances you need to offer visitors interesting and relevant information.

The easiest thing you can do is create a blog where you can share travel stories, tips, news, and information on the local area such as events and tourist attractions.

If you have any partnerships with local businesses, you should also list these and the ways guests can benefit from the agreement including discounts to cinemas, restaurants, or activities.

The more time a guest spends on your website, the more familiar they become with your brand and the likelihood of a booking increases.

2. Use promotions to close the sale

When a traveller is investigating the idea of booking with your hotel, you should have an online booking engine they can engage with. One of the ways this technology will help drive direct bookings is through the use of deals and offers. When a guest clicks on your rates, use your booking engine to highlight hot deals, last minute offers, early-bird rates, or particular packages. This will create purchase impetus and give the traveller an extra incentive to buy.

3. Optimise your website

Nothing will send a user back to the OTA quicker than a bad user experience on your hotel’s website. Your site needs to be aesthetically pleasing with high quality images and clear font, load quickly, and be functional on all devices; especially mobile.

It’s also important for guests to easily rediscover your website if they want to visit again. This means you also need to pay close attention to your search engine optimisation.

If you’re not experienced or knowledgeable in website design, the best thing you can do is invest in intuitive website builder software, that does everything for you and is constantly updated.

“Our previous direct booking option was very confusing and not very user-friendly. SiteMinder’s booking engine is a lot better integrated on the website and makes it easy for guests to book. So far, we have increased our direct bookings by 15%”

Mirja Wolf,

Manager

Hotel Kragemann

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4. Give direct bookers a little extra

While rate parity will dictate you don’t undersell or oversell yourself in comparison to the OTAs, there are still ways to push your percentage of bookings closer to direct.

For instance, you might offer a deluxe room at the same rate on both your website and on booking.com but on your website you can offer the room with the added benefit of free breakfast. This way you can get the direct booking and save on the commission you would have paid to the OTA. This traces back to giving guests value-for-money and instils a sense of loyalty in them to your brand.

5. Balance domestic and international tourism markets

It’s a good idea to manage your channel connection effectively by balancing your distribution between domestic and international travellers.

While international travellers might be more inclined to make a booking through the OTA, regional travellers could be thorough in their research of your website and be more likely to book directly. A healthy balance between global and localised channels is recommended for effective hotel distribution.

A mobile-only price is a promotional offer from hotels to travellers that is exclusively available when booking through mobile devices. When guests ask, “what does a mobile-only price mean?”, they are inquiring about a special discount that hotels offer to encourage mobile bookings. This strategy is particularly effective for engaging a mobile-savvy audience – think younger travellers and those working in a rush/on a budget – and securing last-minute reservations to optimise occupancy and revenue targets.

This is such a popular method, that many online travel agencies have mobile-only pricing baked into their offering to hotels connected via a channel manager. 

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about mobile only prices and other targeted rate strategies that can bring your hotel revenue success.

What does mobile only price mean when booking a hotel?

Your hotel can offer mobile-only prices by using a channel manager system that supports mobile-specific rates and partnering with online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia, which allow for mobile-only pricing. They should ensure their own mobile websites and apps can display these exclusive rates. 

Creating targeted promotions and discounts for mobile users, marketing these offers through social media and email, and using analytics to track performance and adjust strategies are also crucial. Clear communication about the benefits of booking via mobile devices will help attract more guests to take advantage of these special rates.

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The importance of mobile only price for hotels

When you consider that more than 60 of the world’s population now owns a smartphone, it makes sense that hotel marketing and mobile devices should go hand in hand.

Not only is mobile ownership skyrocketing, so too is the use of mobile devices to research and book travel. Consider these statistics:

• 52% of travellers use a mobile device to find information about hotels, restaurants, tours, and activities
• The preferred channel for last-minute bookings is mobile
• Total bookings on mobile for hotels were above 40% in recent years
• 63% of US travellers say it’s extremely important to use a smartphone when planning a trip, while nearly two-thirds rely on a mobile app during their trip
• More than 80% of travel bookings now take place without human interaction

By making mobile users a priority, you’ll be able to find tremendous value in implementing mobile-only promotions and rate restrictions for your hotel.

Why should hotels offer exclusive mobile price only promotions?

Hotels should offer exclusive mobile price-only promotions because they provide a strategic advantage in today’s mobile-centric travel market. 

Here’s why:

• Capitalise on mobile traffic: With a significant number of users researching and planning their travel on mobile devices, offering exclusive mobile-only discounts can effectively convert this intent into bookings. The high volume of mobile traffic presents an excellent opportunity to attract and secure bookings with enticing mobile-exclusive rates.
• Drive immediate conversions: A discounted mobile rate can be the deciding factor for a guest deciding whether to book immediately or continue searching. The perception of getting a special deal encourages guests to make quick decisions, increasing the likelihood of a booking on the spot. This sense of urgency and exclusivity is beneficial for boosting your hotel’s occupancy rates and revenue.
• Boost visibility on OTAs: Mobile price-only promotions can also enhance your hotel’s visibility on online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com. Mobile rates can improve your mobile ranking, which is distinct from your desktop ranking, leading to increased exposure and more potential bookings. This additional visibility can attract more viewers to your listing, further increasing the chances of conversions.

Offering exclusive mobile price-only promotions not only leverages the growing trend of mobile bookings but also provides a competitive edge in attracting and converting potential guests quickly and effectively.

Does Booking.com have mobile only prices?

Yes, Booking.com is one of the OTAs that allows your hotel to promote mobile-exclusive rates.

Data from Booking.com shows that 59% of all bookings are now made on a mobile device, making the feature particularly valuable.

Additionally, properties that offer a mobile rate on Booking.com experience:

• 3% more click-throughs
• 24% more attempted bookings
• 22% more bookings from mobile customers

“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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Targeted rates other than mobile only prices that can boost hotel profit

Mobile prices aren’t the only exclusive rates you can offer to guests booking on OTAs like Booking.com. You can also apply country rates and rates that allow you to maximise the value of each individual reservation.

What are country rates?

Country rates are a targeted pricing tool that you can use on Booking.com that allows your hotel to offer a particular price to guests from specific countries and regions. With international travel on the rise again, it’s a great way to entice international travellers with special or discounted rates. 

Offering such a competitive rate will also help you be more visible to the travellers in the countries you target.

International guests tend to book their trip earlier and cancel less frequently, so you’ll be able to better manage your property’s revenue.

What does price per guest mean?

Pricing per guest (PPG) is an additional way of optimising the revenue return from each room.

Also available on Booking.com, it works by allowing your property to set different rates for the same room based on the number of guests staying in it, the length of the stay or a combination of both.

Not only is this a way to maximise profit, it will also enable you to maximise occupancy and improve your visibility in search results.