Hotel Booking System Results - Now In!

On Monday April 13th, I posted an article titled, “A New Dawn?” which mentioned my customer research involving fifty owners and GMs of small to medium sized hotels, motels and guest houses. Since I posted the article, a further ten people have come forward offering their thoughts and expertise, which has boosted the validity of my data immensely.

Thank you very much to those of you who took part; your participation was invaluable.

I am pleased to announce that the data has now been collected and analyzed and the results will be published here over the following days and weeks.

I will start today by offering you the top ten requirements of hotel, motel and guest house owners when looking for a hotel booking system:

1) Accessibility
2) Ease of use – Intuitive flow through
3) Customer support – 24 hours
4) Software customization and upgrades – Regular upgrades and ad-hoc customization upon demand
5) Required functionality
6) Value for money
7) Positive company reputation
8) Real time updates on internet availability searches
9) Recommendations from previous buyers – Reliable and trustworthy sources
10) Company longevity – One or two years just isn’t enough

As I predicted, ‘software customization and upgrades’ is close to the top of the list. However, I have rarely met a hotel owner that hasn’t wanted to customize their software in some way, shape, or form, so I am surprised that this was not in the top three.

I am positive that number eight, ‘real time updates on internet availability searches’ would not have appeared in the top ten a year a go, which proves that the need for software developers to be constantly evolving their hotel booking systems is vital.

I have A LOT more data and information to bombard you with over the coming months, and hope that it is useful for both developers and hotel owners searching for the perfect system.

Thanks again for reading,

Emma

I am still on a search for the best hotel booking system for small to medium sized hotels. If you know of hotel booking software that can beat HotelSystems.co.uk for ease of use and functionality then please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk