What would make you change your software?

[Evan]

Hey Guys, I don't post here much but I try to help where I can. If people would like to post more questions in the marketing section of the forum we could get a good discussion going! I'm the founder of a hotel booking and marketing startup and I would love your opinions on some things
Anyways.. I would like to know what kind of things would make your change from your current software like reskey or resnexus?
I realise that some people will be stick to what's working and the "if it aint broke dont fix it" kind of thinking and that's fine
I would really like to hear from people who are the explorer type who want to fix things that aren't broken to make them even better!
So I gather that most people using software are happy with it, but what about marketing?
Do these tools help you sell your rooms? upsell rooms? What about email marketing?
If I spell out a few things we are working on and maybe you can tell me if its a bust or something that is interesting that would be awesome!
1. After booking room upsells - After a guest has made a booking they are presented with an upsell to a higher grade room for a discount (Many hotels have told us that guests tend to book the lowest cost room types, with many hotels giving free upgrades so they can sell more of these lower cost rooms instead of losing sales)
This helps you keep the cheaper rooms available to sell as guests will take up the offer on a 50% off room upgrade offer.
2. After booking local attraction offers - Team up with local restaurants and attractions popular in your area and send an offer with your pre arrival welcome message, any offers sold there will be a small commission back for you. And the guest gets a great deal.
3. Membership system - Have a membership section where its easy for guests to sign up and see prices that are for members only, this helps you give a cheaper price and attract direct bookings without breaking that price parity contract.
4. Email Marketing - By collecting email addresses from the membership section and other ways you will soon have a big list, if you create a special offer you are able to set up a new email, include the offer and sent it to your email list. This helps you sell those low occupancy periods. You can even segment your list by distance so you only send last minute deals to people living within an hour of your property.
5. Geo location prices - Have different discounts available to people depending on where they are connecting from: Example: The nearby big city may be happy to pay the full price but the small town down the road you may want to give a small discount as they are less affluent.
6. Price Check: Show the prices of your rooms from the big OTA's on your booking engine so you can prove your website is the best place to book
7. Hosted website: Have your website hosted by the software company, this allows the booking engine to be built into the website without sending the guest to another place. Also means you don't have to worry about the security and updates.
What you think?

 

[Morticia]

What would make me switch would be if the new system could pull in all of my guest notes from the old system.
As for some of the things you mention - email marketing - it's not really an opt in to marketing if the guest must supply their email to make a reservation. If you don't want your domain name being blocked as spam I don't think it's a good idea to take every email address you get and add it to a marketing list.
I'm not a fan of pricing based on supposed ability or inclination to pay. And big name companies are being called out for this practice. Little guys don't have the money to get themselves out of that hole once it's dug.
I like the idea of a membership that offers guests a deal. Except. We have some guests who are SO needy they never get a discount or a gift. They'd be the first to sign up!
I'm one of those people who now books the cheapest room the hotel has. Why? I'm a member and they always upgrade me if they have a room. Why pay full price? They trained me to do otherwise.
Add ons are good. My system offers those to the guest. And I reiterate the offer in the welcome email.

 

[Evan]

What would make me switch would be if the new system could pull in all of my guest notes from the old system.
As for some of the things you mention - email marketing - it's not really an opt in to marketing if the guest must supply their email to make a reservation. If you don't want your domain name being blocked as spam I don't think it's a good idea to take every email address you get and add it to a marketing list.
I'm not a fan of pricing based on supposed ability or inclination to pay. And big name companies are being called out for this practice. Little guys don't have the money to get themselves out of that hole once it's dug.
I like the idea of a membership that offers guests a deal. Except. We have some guests who are SO needy they never get a discount or a gift. They'd be the first to sign up!
I'm one of those people who now books the cheapest room the hotel has. Why? I'm a member and they always upgrade me if they have a room. Why pay full price? They trained me to do otherwise.
Add ons are good. My system offers those to the guest. And I reiterate the offer in the welcome email..

What would make me switch would be if the new system could pull in all of my guest notes from the old system.

Whoa there! Sounds complicated but I can see why you would want it!

As for some of the things you mention - email marketing - it's not really an opt in to marketing if the guest must supply their email to make a reservation. If you don't want your domain name being blocked as spam I don't think it's a good idea to take every email address you get and add it to a marketing list.

The opt in would be to sign up as a member, just making a booking its not possible to add the email address, unless there was an opt in checkbox or something, but hotels can also get the permission on check-in forms or by asking if they want their email address added to the list

I'm not a fan of pricing based on supposed ability or inclination to pay. And big name companies are being called out for this practice. Little guys don't have the money to get themselves out of that hole once it's dug.

Good point!
Thanks Morticia, great insight.
I also book the cheapest room as I am there for the location not the hotel room, however being presented with 50% discount on the difference to upgrade I would be tempted if I was taking the wife.

 

[gillumhouse]

It is not a case of "if it ain't broke". What I currently have is really all that I need for 3 rooms. It actually has the add-ons, plus things I did not know it had until I got an e-mail - please put me on your waiting list. When I find something that is a fit for me, that I am comfortable with, AND that I can afford (I do not think I will ever find anything for less than what I am paying now that is even comparable.
I do not want to bother my guests with e-mails. My web site is fine where it is - I do not want all eggs in one basket. I have nothing to upgrade to and there is no way I am giving discounts to anyone other than the ones I have listed on my site - and those discounts are a thank you for your service, not thank you for your business (I have the service they want or they would not be calling or booking with me).
I am afraid none of the above would entice me. Sorry.

 

[Lee2014]

What would make me switch would be if the new system could pull in all of my guest notes from the old system.
As for some of the things you mention - email marketing - it's not really an opt in to marketing if the guest must supply their email to make a reservation. If you don't want your domain name being blocked as spam I don't think it's a good idea to take every email address you get and add it to a marketing list.
I'm not a fan of pricing based on supposed ability or inclination to pay. And big name companies are being called out for this practice. Little guys don't have the money to get themselves out of that hole once it's dug.
I like the idea of a membership that offers guests a deal. Except. We have some guests who are SO needy they never get a discount or a gift. They'd be the first to sign up!
I'm one of those people who now books the cheapest room the hotel has. Why? I'm a member and they always upgrade me if they have a room. Why pay full price? They trained me to do otherwise.
Add ons are good. My system offers those to the guest. And I reiterate the offer in the welcome email..

I like the idea of a membership that offers guests a deal. Except. We have some guests who are SO needy they never get a discount or a gift. They'd be the first to sign up!

I like that idea too! Mort, put it this way, Membership. Sign up to see if you qualify! It makes them want it since you have to qualify for it. Sorry, you did not qualify for the membership at this time.

(For those ones.)

 

[Evan]

It is not a case of "if it ain't broke". What I currently have is really all that I need for 3 rooms. It actually has the add-ons, plus things I did not know it had until I got an e-mail - please put me on your waiting list. When I find something that is a fit for me, that I am comfortable with, AND that I can afford (I do not think I will ever find anything for less than what I am paying now that is even comparable.
I do not want to bother my guests with e-mails. My web site is fine where it is - I do not want all eggs in one basket. I have nothing to upgrade to and there is no way I am giving discounts to anyone other than the ones I have listed on my site - and those discounts are a thank you for your service, not thank you for your business (I have the service they want or they would not be calling or booking with me).
I am afraid none of the above would entice me. Sorry..

Thanks for your honesty, I like the brutal truth!

 

[Generic]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment.

 

[Evan]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat

 

[Generic]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.

 

[Evan]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!

 

[Morticia]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!

I think this is where I run into problems with guests looking for that last minute 50% discount. Because I'm not paying anyone to work here, if there are no guests I get to sleep in rather than working for half what I'm worth. ;-) Right now I can't give rooms away so I'm just taking it easy.

 

[Evan]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!

I think this is where I run into problems with guests looking for that last minute 50% discount. Because I'm not paying anyone to work here, if there are no guests I get to sleep in rather than working for half what I'm worth. ;-) Right now I can't give rooms away so I'm just taking it easy.
.

I think sometimes it's not worth your time and the hassle to sell too cheap if your the one that has to do all the work
I always like how the airlines do pricing based on occupancy, if you book in advance its cheaper and the price increases as the plane fills up (makes sense)
Hotels have been caught in a bad place where they reduce the price when they panic looking at next weeks occupancy and seeing its terribly low. Without a revenue manager or automated software this is very common as you charge the same price all the time.
Example:
Lets say you currently charge $100 a night and it doesn't matter if they are booking tomorrow or next year, and it doesn't matter if your empty of full.
This is very typical for a small business to price this way
And it works well enough, theres no work to it. But sometimes this offers no incentive for people to book early and they may leave it till later to book.
So an easy strategy to follow is:
if your occupancy is below 30% you price your rooms at $80
If its between 30-70% you charge your usual rate of $100
And if you get busy you charge the top end of $120
So you end up making the same amount of money, but the early bookers gain while those last minute people who book busy days pay extra.
When i mentioned earlier with the 50% off deal, I was referring to people who are already booked for the Sat night, offering 50% off to stay Sunday can be great business if your quiet as making up a stay room is half the work.
(They are already checked in, use the same sheets, half the work to clean the stay room)
McDonalds uses this trick with its Go Large offer for like 30c, they might make only 5c profit out of it but it's extra money that would never be spent with them otherwise.
If I was booked in Sat night at your inn and you sent me an email that I could stay Sunday for half price I would give it a lot of thought. Obviously you would only give that kind of offer if you were busy on the Sat but very quiet on the Sunday.

 

[Generic]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!
.

PriceMatch.Travel offers a smaller version of revenue management for small properties, I think.

 

[Morticia]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!

I think this is where I run into problems with guests looking for that last minute 50% discount. Because I'm not paying anyone to work here, if there are no guests I get to sleep in rather than working for half what I'm worth. ;-) Right now I can't give rooms away so I'm just taking it easy.
.

I think sometimes it's not worth your time and the hassle to sell too cheap if your the one that has to do all the work
I always like how the airlines do pricing based on occupancy, if you book in advance its cheaper and the price increases as the plane fills up (makes sense)
Hotels have been caught in a bad place where they reduce the price when they panic looking at next weeks occupancy and seeing its terribly low. Without a revenue manager or automated software this is very common as you charge the same price all the time.
Example:
Lets say you currently charge $100 a night and it doesn't matter if they are booking tomorrow or next year, and it doesn't matter if your empty of full.
This is very typical for a small business to price this way
And it works well enough, theres no work to it. But sometimes this offers no incentive for people to book early and they may leave it till later to book.
So an easy strategy to follow is:
if your occupancy is below 30% you price your rooms at $80
If its between 30-70% you charge your usual rate of $100
And if you get busy you charge the top end of $120
So you end up making the same amount of money, but the early bookers gain while those last minute people who book busy days pay extra.
When i mentioned earlier with the 50% off deal, I was referring to people who are already booked for the Sat night, offering 50% off to stay Sunday can be great business if your quiet as making up a stay room is half the work.
(They are already checked in, use the same sheets, half the work to clean the stay room)
McDonalds uses this trick with its Go Large offer for like 30c, they might make only 5c profit out of it but it's extra money that would never be spent with them otherwise.
If I was booked in Sat night at your inn and you sent me an email that I could stay Sunday for half price I would give it a lot of thought. Obviously you would only give that kind of offer if you were busy on the Sat but very quiet on the Sunday.
.

I do 66% of that. The price is $100 until 4 rooms are booked. Then it's $120. I don't discount just to get reservations early. I do this myself, but it's only 7 rooms so easier for me to see when prices need to change.
If someone books on the way out the door for next year they get this year's rate. That's the early bird discount. Plus, with a B&B booking early means choice. You get to choose the kind of room you want, amenities you need, etc because each room is different.
That's a huge stumbling block with booking software. It's designed for big blocks of identical rooms. Standard Queen, Standard King, Luxury Queen, etc. Not 7 rooms that are all different.

 

[Lee2014]

1. Channels integrated. I use XPDA, BKING and TripC as well as Air to a minor extent.
2. Ability to manage garage/parking. We currently manage it as if it's a room.
3. Ability to sell upsells a few days before. Add-ons that they turned down, room upgrades if they still exist.
4. Ability to track when arrival times are missing and to remind guests.
5. Ability to interface with Zwave server for door programming.
6. Multiple languages.
7. Mail Merge with some boolen ability. For example [arrivaltime.missing,"Please email us with your approximate arrival. ",We will see you at "&arrivaltime&". ")
8. Ability to recognize and sell adjacent days (abutting days) based on a price difference. For example, I might be willing to sell a Thursday if the Friday is already sold for 10% more than normal price as a single day. Or be willing to offer it to the guest from Friday for 10% discount as an upsell.
I'm sure I can think of many many more. The software isn't very intuitive at the moment..

You have given me lots to think over, thanks for that
I really like the email idea with the choices inside, reminds me of excel.
I can already think of other uses where that would be useful.
No8: I forgot to mention this but we are working on a rule based system where you can setup rules like this
Example: If Thursday is less than 30% occupancy and its 4 days prior then change min stay req to 1 and reduce/increase price by X%
You mention going 1 step further and taking account of adjacent days which is a good idea!
We also want this rule to automatically send an email, but not sure you would like that?
So lets say we make a rule that says if Sunday is quiet we send a 50% off Sunday night upsell to all guests staying on Sat
.

Ah... you aren't an innkeeper... from my experience, people from certain countries and cities don't plan ahead... I make good money by charging them full price or more at the last minute when they get desperate. But it's better to fill earlier than later, to have it in pocket. People were lulled into thinking that they get the best deal at the last minute... in some cases it means they get NOTHING but desperate phone calls to me and in others it means they are staying in the worst places. Not my clientele. But I would like to know when a date becomes too popular too far in advance so that I can increase prices. Those small increases can bring in good money. Oh and analytics working FULLY, so I can track things.
I would like to offer prepaid discounts, but need a rolling date feature. For example, 10% off 30 days in advance and maybe 5% off 14 days in advance, but only if prepaid. Pay here and there is no discount because you can still cancel.
There are also some MC and Visa requirements that are very important when doing prepaid.
Oh and the gateways. Not being in the US, the best Gateway is sometimes Paypal Payflow, which interfaces with Moneris, Elavon etc and not Authorize.net, which can be expensive. In fact, the hook into APIs is more important. Oh and DCC would be nice, but not an end all, but only on prepaid, because exchange changes daily would increase risk.
Address input should be done backwards. Country first, then postal code. The postal code should do a lookup that fills in city and in some cases even street. Postal codes in Canada are down to the half street, so you not only have the right city, you can even fill the street and just need the number and apartment. The less the client needs to do the better.
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!
.

Your right I am not an innkeeper, maybe inns are different to hotels? I've been in the hotel industry all my life as my parents own a small hotel of 17 bedrooms.
From a hotel perspective hotel rooms are like perishable goods, once they go unsold they are gone! so its a balance of lowering and raising prices to manage demand.
So selling them at 50% off is better than leaving the hotel at 15% occupancy and telling the cleaners that theres no work for them that day.
I would like to have this kind of automated revenue management system but only when I can make it simple enough for normal people to use it
I like the idea to track what dates guests are searching for on your website, I think this is really interesting!

I think this is where I run into problems with guests looking for that last minute 50% discount. Because I'm not paying anyone to work here, if there are no guests I get to sleep in rather than working for half what I'm worth. ;-) Right now I can't give rooms away so I'm just taking it easy.
.

.... if there are no guests I get to sleep in rather than working for half what I'm worth. ;-)

 

[JBloggs]

#1 I don't want the online booking built into my site, I want/need it to be third party for security purposes. When we have it on our site, or on our pc as software the PCI Compliance is a huge issue, monthly scans, $$ and headaches.
It is great that YOU are trying to reinvent the wheel. You see the program many of us use is very innkeeper friendly, and as the needs arise our I.T. guy builds systems into it for us. I will stick by reservationkey 100%. Cost, interface and user friendliness.

FYI Most of us did not just begin with reservationkey, most of us were shafted by other online booking agents before we flew the coup. So there would have to be something major for me to interrupt what works - to halt the processes and spend hours and days on a new booking platform. And so you know you are the not first nor only who has been here trying to acquire business and feedback. If you wonder why we sometimes are a little harsh tired answering these type questions.

 

[Evan]

#1 I don't want the online booking built into my site, I want/need it to be third party for security purposes. When we have it on our site, or on our pc as software the PCI Compliance is a huge issue, monthly scans, $$ and headaches.
It is great that YOU are trying to reinvent the wheel. You see the program many of us use is very innkeeper friendly, and as the needs arise our I.T. guy builds systems into it for us. I will stick by reservationkey 100%. Cost, interface and user friendliness.

FYI Most of us did not just begin with reservationkey, most of us were shafted by other online booking agents before we flew the coup. So there would have to be something major for me to interrupt what works - to halt the processes and spend hours and days on a new booking platform. And so you know you are the not first nor only who has been here trying to acquire business and feedback. If you wonder why we sometimes are a little harsh tired answering these type questions..

#1 I don't want the online booking built into my site, I want/need it to be third party for security purposes. When we have it on our site, or on our pc as software the PCI Compliance is a huge issue, monthly scans, $$ and headaches.

Well it is built into your website but the website is full managed by the company, making all the problems with PCI, hosting, security etc our problem and not yours.
Yeah I get that a lot of you are 100% into Reskey, To be honest with you we are not ready to sell anything yet till early 2016 and even then we start with UK. I'm not familiar with US taxes and laws so I would need time to see what alterations are needed.
Thanks for pointing out that I need to specify that PCI wont be of concern in regards to the booking engine.