Selecting a good Online Booking Engine that fits your brand takes time and effort. Currently, to reduce the cost of the booking, many customers have chosen to book directly on the hotel's website or fan page. Cohost AI will send you the factors to evaluate a good booking engine for your accommodation business in this article.

Sales Optimization

This is the first and primary factor in deciding the effectiveness of a Booking engine. Selling rooms directly eliminates distribution channel commissions, significantly increasing the hotel's profit margins. This online booking engine must help increase direct sales by process optimization and transforming your website into a self-service store that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While it is possible to increase sales through online advertising, social media campaigns, brand awareness, and loyalty promotions, using the Online Booking Engine makes a significant difference.

It gives you complete control over the booking process and the customer experience and allows you to experiment with various revenue and price management strategies.

Personalization

Your website should enable you to provide your customers with highly personalized service. Knowing the hotel's target market, this Booking engine must help you meet that need by adjusting room types, pairing bundled services, and creating promotional packages,...

Design & Customize in accordance with the brand

Many Online Booking Engines today allow you to customize the look and feel to better match the brand identity you're aiming for. Colors, fonts, brand theme, link buttons, advertising boxes, call to book, and especially must connect to the hotel's website are all important considerations.

Select a booking engine that has customizable options or the ability to add custom CSS if necessary. Aside from brand awareness, the look and feel of your website will help ensure a consistent experience for visitors. Choose a design with rich images to properly showcase your rooms, amenities, and location, as your hotel website is meant to inspire guests.

User-friendly

Currently, when digital technology develops and the tourism industry is flourishing, the number of bookings on mobile devices has increased significantly. Online booking tools must be compatible with and perform well on mobile platforms such as Android, iOS, and tablets.

A seamless booking experience implies that customers expect a simple, convenient, and quick process when they visit your website. Like any other online shopping site, the steps should be clear, and the customer journey should be simple: Choose a room, look for check-in/check-out dates, and finish your checkout.

According to Google, 77% of smartphone shoppers are more likely to make a faster purchase if they can pay seamlessly. So, to avoid confusing tourists, take only a few unnecessary steps.

System Integration

The most important aspect of the Online Booking Engine is its precision when it comes to checking availability, category, and price. Overbooking, pricing errors, and manual data transfer from one software to the client will be avoided. As a result, real-time integration with your property management and channel management systems is critical.

Integration with a property management system (PMS), a channel manager, data analytics platforms, or even Google hotel advertising will help drive bookings directly from Google search to the hotel website. Other critical integrations include Google Analytics and social booking plugins.

Fast online payment

Online payment gateways aid customers' booking processes. Travelers can now make credit card payments online and receive an instant booking confirmation. This process also eliminates the need to manually charge you when booking or checking the validity of your credit card.

Multi-currency and multi-language

Set up your property to appeal to the global market by allowing guests to book rooms and make payments in their preferred currency. Furthermore, the multi-language and multi-currency feature assists businesses in reaching out to more international tourists. As a result, this is an excellent opportunity for your company to enter a new market.

SSL Protection

Last but not least, ensure that your provider follows PCI DSS and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) guidelines to protect your and your guests' data.

The optimal solution for accommodation businesses

Cohost AI is one of the companies providing comprehensive technology solutions for accommodation business management. The cohost AI management software system is a highly optimized solution for homestays, hotels, serviced apartments, resorts, villas, and more. Using Cohost AI assists lodging business owners in increasing personnel efficiency, lowering operating costs, optimizing profits, developing direct sales channels, and integrating OTA channels.

Final Thought 

Hopefully, you will have a better understanding of the factors that contribute to evaluating a suitable Online Booking Engine and will be able to find an effective solution in technology application accommodation management in this article!