Hotel Booking System Review

A few weeks a go I posted a shout out to Ed Sansbury who is in the process of developing a cutting edge hotel booking system. I have had the privilege of viewing his software during its infancy (I believe it to be less that fifty per cent complete) and am impressed with the options section, which has clearly marked tabs allowing users to customize the system for their own requirements.

At this early stage, my feedback to Ed included improvements in integration to enhance the logical system flow. These improvements included naming conventions, a call to action, booking reference customization, an enhanced pricing system, and free fields for tax.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished version of this hotel booking software and am confident that Ed is capable of developing this system to a highly competitive level.


Despite the fact that the system is less than fifty per cent complete, I would rate the software with a 4 out of 10, with a potential for 8 or more in the future.

Good luck with the continued development, Ed!

On a related topic, I spoke with Tristan from http://www.hotelsystems.co.uk/ today and was very excited by news of his latest booking software upgrades, due for release shortly. I'll be taking a look over the next couple of days and will post information about his updates here. So, watch this space!

A Hotel in Macau (which will remain nameless!)

I spent a very enjoyable week in Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia, a couple of weeks a go and booked my hotel a week in advance via www.asiarooms.com, having read the reviews on the service, the room quality, and the location.

On arrival we checked in with my member’s card and received an upgrade, as I would have expected. The hotel lived up to our expectations and Macau exceeded our expectations. Until our final night in the hotel…

Due to unexpected circumstances I was required to stay in Macau for an extra night, so off I trotted to reception to extend my stay. The price per night for my stay had been 750 HK dollars (this was for both week nights and week days) for a deluxe suite (due to my upgrade). However, when I attempted to downgrade to a standard single room I was quoted 1250 HK dollars and was told this was the cheapest room available.

A long discussion into the logic of this pricing system ensued, and the outcome was that we received the price of 750 due to the room being of deluxe criteria and my membership status. If I wanted to downgrade I had to pay more. To this day I still do not understand the reasoning. However, after a lengthy discussion with the manager, I deduced that if I were to sit in the lobby with my laptop and book online (as any Tom, Dick, or Harry) I would receive a price of 750 HK dollars, but if I were to try to book a room (as a returning customer, having spent a great deal of money in the hotel) face to face I would have to pay 1250 HK dollars.

Another example of customer service gone wrong, and the problems surrounding conventional hotel booking systems, which allow absolutely no flexibility and hinder the empowerment of employees.