SuperInn vs. ReservationKey

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

NRV Runner

Active member
Joined
Feb 7, 2019
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
I hope this is the right forum to post about this. The B&B that my wife and I are purchasing on Tuesday is using SuperInn for their bookings. The current owners have not taken any bookings in advance of the sale, so the system is empty.
From browsing the forums the last few weeks, it seems like Reservation Key is the go-to system for people here. Should I go ahead and make the switch from SuperInn to ResKey as we transition ownership and management?
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL.
 
NRV Runner said:
The current owners have not taken any bookings in advance of the sale, so the system is empty.
It seems like Reservation Key is the go-to system for people here.
Not taking reservations for the future doesn't sound helpful for your operation, but maybe it is a quiet time of year. When we arrived to begin our business, expecting to have reservations with a closing the following day, I found instead an dark building, the prior owner seemed to have stopped operations a couple of months earlier at the end of the busy season, a couple of weeks in and having rented only a few rooms I began to wonder what I had stepped into, but fortunately it was mostly the time of year and all worked out over time.
Reservation Key: I use RK and it does everything I need and probably things I have not thought of as yet, but the truth is for years and years we took reservations only by telephone and used pencil and paper until I found this forum and folks here steered me into online booking and RK. I think the majority of my guests now book online. The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services. You probably want to consider the plans for your operation when making your choice.
Caution: Does your (future) business have a contract with SuperInn? If you don't know for sure I wouldn't just assume that you are free to change providers, please ask. RK does or did when I started have a 30 day free trial, if you have something that is working and in place on your business website you may want to continue (providing that doesn't lock you into the program) and then compare after you get your feet on the ground. Feel free to PM or email if there is any way I can be helpful.
 
NRV Runner said:
The current owners have not taken any bookings in advance of the sale, so the system is empty.
It seems like Reservation Key is the go-to system for people here.
Not taking reservations for the future doesn't sound helpful for your operation, but maybe it is a quiet time of year. When we arrived to begin our business, expecting to have reservations with a closing the following day, I found instead an dark building, the prior owner seemed to have stopped operations a couple of months earlier at the end of the busy season, a couple of weeks in and having rented only a few rooms I began to wonder what I had stepped into, but fortunately it was mostly the time of year and all worked out over time.
Reservation Key: I use RK and it does everything I need and probably things I have not thought of as yet, but the truth is for years and years we took reservations only by telephone and used pencil and paper until I found this forum and folks here steered me into online booking and RK. I think the majority of my guests now book online. The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services. You probably want to consider the plans for your operation when making your choice.
Caution: Does your (future) business have a contract with SuperInn? If you don't know for sure I wouldn't just assume that you are free to change providers, please ask. RK does or did when I started have a 30 day free trial, if you have something that is working and in place on your business website you may want to continue (providing that doesn't lock you into the program) and then compare after you get your feet on the ground. Feel free to PM or email if there is any way I can be helpful..
SI does not require a contract.
 
Do you have guest data in SI? You'll want that data if you plan on keeping the same guests as repeats. SI does not have a way for you to export your data yourself, they will need to send you a data dump. I opted to only transfer over repeat guest data. So, I'm losing a lot of history in the rez system, but sorting thru it was more than I wanted to undertake.
 
NRV Runner said:
The current owners have not taken any bookings in advance of the sale, so the system is empty.
It seems like Reservation Key is the go-to system for people here.
Not taking reservations for the future doesn't sound helpful for your operation, but maybe it is a quiet time of year. When we arrived to begin our business, expecting to have reservations with a closing the following day, I found instead an dark building, the prior owner seemed to have stopped operations a couple of months earlier at the end of the busy season, a couple of weeks in and having rented only a few rooms I began to wonder what I had stepped into, but fortunately it was mostly the time of year and all worked out over time.
Reservation Key: I use RK and it does everything I need and probably things I have not thought of as yet, but the truth is for years and years we took reservations only by telephone and used pencil and paper until I found this forum and folks here steered me into online booking and RK. I think the majority of my guests now book online. The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services. You probably want to consider the plans for your operation when making your choice.
Caution: Does your (future) business have a contract with SuperInn? If you don't know for sure I wouldn't just assume that you are free to change providers, please ask. RK does or did when I started have a 30 day free trial, if you have something that is working and in place on your business website you may want to continue (providing that doesn't lock you into the program) and then compare after you get your feet on the ground. Feel free to PM or email if there is any way I can be helpful..
JimBoone said:
The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services.
What are OTA's?
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL..
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
 
NRV Runner said:
The current owners have not taken any bookings in advance of the sale, so the system is empty.
It seems like Reservation Key is the go-to system for people here.
Not taking reservations for the future doesn't sound helpful for your operation, but maybe it is a quiet time of year. When we arrived to begin our business, expecting to have reservations with a closing the following day, I found instead an dark building, the prior owner seemed to have stopped operations a couple of months earlier at the end of the busy season, a couple of weeks in and having rented only a few rooms I began to wonder what I had stepped into, but fortunately it was mostly the time of year and all worked out over time.
Reservation Key: I use RK and it does everything I need and probably things I have not thought of as yet, but the truth is for years and years we took reservations only by telephone and used pencil and paper until I found this forum and folks here steered me into online booking and RK. I think the majority of my guests now book online. The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services. You probably want to consider the plans for your operation when making your choice.
Caution: Does your (future) business have a contract with SuperInn? If you don't know for sure I wouldn't just assume that you are free to change providers, please ask. RK does or did when I started have a 30 day free trial, if you have something that is working and in place on your business website you may want to continue (providing that doesn't lock you into the program) and then compare after you get your feet on the ground. Feel free to PM or email if there is any way I can be helpful..
JimBoone said:
The folks at Reservation Key seem nice and the cost is reasonable, at present it seems that if you use OTA's you must also use My Allocator to make those connections so that is an additional cost. I don't use OTA's so I can't address that cost or any issues of using the service, it is my understanding that John (RK) is working on a direct connection to at least one of the OTA's if you feel the need to use their services.
What are OTA's?
.
Online Travel Agencies such as Expedia, Booking.com
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL..
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
.
NRV Runner said:
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
I didn't know there was one. I'm assuming you mean a mobile app for the back end.
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL..
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
.
I just go to the regular ResKey back end website in my phone browser and it automatically formats to fit the phone screen. I can do pretty much anything on my phone that I can do on my desktop.
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL..
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
.
I've been using it for years. As Arks says, just the regular online site formatted for the phone.
 
I just switched from SI to RK. SI has more reports, a cleaner back end, fewer problems with functionality. There is a help desk and they will give you a tutorial on how it works.
For you, with fewer rooms, the price point should be similar between the two.
Where you will find a difference is the cost to link to any OTA s, should you go that way. RK is way less expensive.
I switched because I wanted to lower my costs and have a couple of bells and whistles that SI has not implemented.
SI is functional out of the box. RK is a build it yourself product.
Both do the job.
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Are you set up with the old version of SI, or the new one - SI Plus? You can tell by the URL..
Morticia said:
If you have specific questions about what either one does, I'll answer as best I can.
Do you use RK's mobile app? If so, how do you like it?
.
I went to the Apple app store but couldn't find a ReservationKey mobile app for my iPhone.
The system itself is "mobile friendly" with responsive themes, thus the pictures of phone views on the RK website, but I don't think there is a specific app...
 
We have used Rezstream for almost 4 years now and are super happy with it. Great customer support, user webinars, always improving. I hate to throw another option in the mix, but it's worth looking at.
 
Back
Top