INTRODUCTION

Running a hotel business can be incredibly difficult. You need to keep track of everything from employee records, guest reservations, inventory, accounting and more. The last thing you have time for is trying to figure out the best software to manage your hotel and keep it running smoothly. Below we’re going to go over some eCommerce Software for Hotels that will make your life easier.

E-commerce refers to commercial transactions that are conducted electronically over the internet, so if your hotel website processes bookings through an online booking engine then, technically, you should think of it as an e-commerce site, especially if your goal is to drive direct bookings.

Retailers have shaped consumer expectations of the online shopping experience. Today’s consumers are used to simple, seamless and secure shopping experiences online and hotel websites need to provide a similar booking experience to maximize conversions in an increasingly competitive hospitality industry.

Hotel websites must go beyond compelling visual design and great photos; a frictionless user experience is key to the success of any e-commerce site. So, start thinking about your property’s website from an e-commerce perspective and follow best e-commerce practices to ensure your website provides a simple, seamless, credible and supportive online shopping experience that turns lookers into bookers.

Best E-Commerce Practices for Independent Hotels

When you think of “e-commerce,” online retail sites like Amazon, eBay and Etsy probably first come to mind. But have you ever thought of your property’s website as an e-commerce site too?

Simple

The most successful e-commerce sites keep things simple. Even online retail giants like Amazon that sell hundreds of thousands of products across a multitude of categories offer a straightforward and intuitive shopping experience.

Consumers prefer websites that are visually uncluttered and easy to navigate and understand. For hotel websites that means a clean, modern visual design, a clear USP (unique selling proposition), well-organized content (one topic per page), images that specifically support page content, prominent and relevant calls to action (CTAs) like “book now” and “view deals” buttons, and familiar menu formats for intuitive navigation. 

The online booking engine must also offer a simple, intuitive user experience that guides users effortlessly through the booking process. Avoid overwhelming users with too many options and reduce the steps to complete a booking as much as possible by only asking for the minimum amount of information required to make a booking. Personalization is important here too; your online booking engine should recognize repeat customers and auto-complete information as appropriate to simplify the reservation process.

An uncomplicated path to booking is key to converting website visitors into paying guests.

Seamless

A seamless user experience goes hand in hand with simplicity. It’s important to eliminate any obstacles to booking—you don’t want to give customers any excuse to bail. As mentioned above, simplicity helps pave the way to booking via an easily understandable and navigable website and online booking process. 

As well, look at your website from a more technical perspective to ensure a seamless user experience that eliminates friction.

Ensure pages load quickly; approximately half of website visitors abandon a page that takes more than three seconds to load. You can run your website through a page speed test (like Google’s PageSpeed Insights) to find out how your website performs and what you can do to make it faster—because every second really does count.

Today’s online consumers frequently switch between desktop and mobile devices (and browsers), so a website that functions optimally across devices is key to a seamless online user experience. A responsive website and booking engine automatically detects and adapts itself to the screen it is being viewed on, adjusting layout, content and functionality accordingly to present an optimal and consistent user experience on all screens.

In addition to being mobile friendly, your online booking engine should offer a branded experience with a similar look and feel to your website to create a seamless booking experience and gain customers’ trust. Even basic customization of your booking engine with your logo and background colour helps support credibility of your business (which brings us to the next point)…

Credible

Successful online retailers earn consumers’ trust by establishing credibility. Professional product images, customer reviews, contact information, payment and shipping policies, affiliation badges and secure URLs are all important elements of an e-commerce website that help gain customer confidence.

Make sure your hotel website demonstrates your property’s authenticity and reassures prospective guests that it’s safe to book direct online.

Do this by investing in a quality website design and professional, high-res images of your property (avoid stock photos) that accurately portray the stay experience. Include guest reviews throughout your site or on a dedicated page, and add social media icons to your header or footer that link to your social channels, to provide your customers with the social proof that will convince them to book with you. Most review sites and social media channels provide widgets that display a live feed of your reviews, ratings and posts directly on your website.

Display trust symbols like a TripAdvisor badge (if your property is doing well on TripAdvisor), and affiliation badges for any relevant memberships you have, for example, with your local Chamber of Commerce, lodging association or eco-friendly certification, to show you take your business seriously.

Make sure you’re providing your customers with a safe shopping experience with secure URLs (secure URLs begin with https rather than http), and that goes for your online booking engine too. Display a Best Rate Guarantee and make booking and cancellation policies readily available for customers.

Supportive

Without easy and instant access to customer support, online shoppers are more inclined to abandon their shopping carts if they have a question about the purchase. The same goes for travelers booking accommodation online.

Live chat is a common element of e-commerce websites, allowing an agent to help customers via real-time messaging as they are shopping. Now, AI-based chatbots, which can handle basic queries well, are replacing live chat. An increasing amount of hotel websites successfully employ live chat or a chatbot to answer prospective guests’ questions and guide them down the purchase funnel.

Whether or not you use live chat or a chatbot on your property’s website, it’s crucial to display contact information—especially a phone number and email address—on every page of your website (ideally in the header) so that customers can reach out at any point. Including social media icons in your header too will catch those millennial customers who prefer to communicate with businesses through their social channels.

But it doesn’t stop there. Once a customer completes a booking through your website, continue to offer excellent customer support via booking confirmation and pre-arrival messaging that invites them to upgrade their stay, informs them of useful property information, or asks if they have any special requests. They’ll feel reassured about their choice to book with you, and you’ll have laid the foundation for a loyal customer relationship.

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

E-BOOKING

It has been reported that the online booking in the hospitality industry (including hotel / motel , airlines , travel packages , etc.) is increasing at a very rapid speed recently , especially at the lower rate end . Online hotel room bookings has been increased by six times just during the last two – three years . More significantly, the groups who are now going online bookings are those of business travelers and above the average vacationers , who are traveling more frequently than the average publics . Targeting great deals while still in control of their search process , those online bookers claim that more than often they are able to book a hotel room at much lower rate online comparing traditional phone reservation systems or old styled travel agents .

First, now every hotel/motel chain has developed its own website in which bargain hunters can book their hotel rooms online – other than though an Internet travel agency. Another attempt by the industry is to change its early agreements with those online travel agencies – from old ” merchant model ” where hotels making rooms available to online travel agencies at wholesale rates and the agencies marking up those rates by 15% to 30% before peddling them to the public at fixed prices for fixed periods of time to a new ” sharing model ” where the hotels will have more control of their rooms via online booking by providing a higher priority to their own websites over the websites of those third-party travel agencies . Thirdly , other than allowing those online travel agencies to profit for an average 20% from original wholesale prices, some hotel chains now offer a more competitive price on their own websites to directly compete with those online travel agencies . While the e-booking of airline tickets has reached about 46% of total annual sales in 2012 , the online hotel room booking is just account for half of that proportion – 23% to total annual hotel room bookings , but the industry has predicted more quick increase in online room bookings during the next few years , as the Internet technology becomes more popular and the access to the Internet becomes more easy and convenient to the public .

AN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FIT

The Internet provides a means to internally network the hotel’s business processes together from bookings , food , service and housekeeping to car rental , tours and even kennel services for dogs and cats . Centralized Internet based property management systems will eliminate the need for expensive on-site computer hardware and software . The Internet may also control such routine hotel processes as credit card authorization , travel agent commissions and point of sale transactions .

Station Casinos, Inc. has ordered InfoGenesis Revelation POS for an innovative “complexed” installation for its four Las Vegas hotel-casino properties . The four separate properties will use more than 190 POS terminals linked via a high-bandwidth wide area network (WAN) to a server cluster located at one property. The InfoGenesis POS check detail data warehouse will also be linked to Station’s player-tracking application to enhance guest recognition and service . The Internet also provides a way for hotels to integrate external businesses into their supply chain as when Omni Hotels upgraded its reservations system to a seamless environment for agents both within and outside the company .

A BUSINESS TO MULTI-CUSTOMER FIT

The Internet facilitates the hotel’s interaction and helps to transform relationships with three distinct customer groups: individuals as tourists , individuals on business and businesses looking for support facilities .

Bruce Rosenberg – Hilton Hotel’s senior vice president for e-business and distribution states : ” The Internet thus makes it easier for Hilton to book rooms and meeting facilities . ” People who visit our web site stay on the site for five or six minutes , want to know more about the hotel, destination, services and rooms . The online environment is less structured , than the telephone and people will spend the time they think they need to spend at the web site they go at their own pace , they feel comfortable asking questions, digging deeper and have no pressure to make up their mind .

Web interaction with the tourist customer is evolving so fast that Trump Casino Services in Atlantic City plans to teach visitors to its web site how to play casino games . Individuals on business provide another opportunity for integration of web technology to attract and provide service to this unique client base . LodgeNet Entertainment Corp. will add Internet based services to all the 6,000 guest rooms LodgeNet serves . This will allow guests to access the chain’s web-based hotel directory , reservations service and E-Commerce sites , in addition to having high- speed , general Internet access via the television’s remote control or wireless keyboard .

A BUSINESS TO BUSINESS FIT

The Internet provides the ability for the HRI to engage in two types of business to business E-Commerce : back office integration with external suppliers and network integration with external businesses . ” Hotel industry purchasing has long been regarded as a painful process – inefficient and bureaucratic and certainly ripe for radical overhaul .” The functionality of a web- based hotel purchasing system lies in its ability to provide substantial savings to hotels both in decreased product costs and increased departmental efficiency.

Increased functionality, efficiency and savings can only come about through back office integration . Back office integration allows suppliers direct access to the operation center of the hotel which reduces ordering time and inventory storage, thus reducing transaction cost. The Internet gives small suppliers an equal footing with larger suppliers and allows the hotel to find the best possible fit. Hilton Hotel views buying materials online as critical. They have formed a partnership with E- Commerce service and software provider PurchasePro.com to build Hilton’s next-generation procurement system and start a purchasing exchange that will be opened up to other hotel chains. Hilton also provides hardware (digital distribution) to franchisees that lack their own systems for accessing the Internet . In addition to allowing two-way access to suppliers, the Internet makes possible the networking of suppliers and support companies directly into the value chain allowing them to replace functions normally carried on by an organization. It even provides a platform to permit competitors to share individual core competencies , thus increasing the worth of both companies .

Much more than a pretty digital brochure, hotel websites today are highly functional e-commerce sites designed to drive direct online bookings.

3 Softwares for Hotels

Hotelogix

Hotel management software for small & medium businesses

4.3READ REVIEWS

Hotelogix is a cloud based hotel management system that helps small and mid-sized hotels manage their operations and room inventory distribution seamlessly. The property management system includes Front Desk, Point of Sale, Housekeeping and Reporting modules.Learn more about Hotelogix

Hotelogix features

• Reservations Management
• Online Booking
• Room Booking
• Payment Processing

Value for money4.3

Ease of use4.3

Features4.2

Customer support4.4

Likelihood to recommend8.7/10

eZee Absolute

All-in-one online hotel management software

4.6READ REVIEWS

eZee Absolute is an all-in-one hotel & property management system (PMS) platform for managing hotels effectively, even while on-the-go via mobile appLearn more about eZee Absolute

eZee Absolute features

• Reservations Management
• Booking Management
• Online Booking
• Reporting & Statistics

Value for money4.6

Ease of use4.5

Features4.5

Customer support4.7

Likelihood to recommend9.0/10

Viewpoint

Cloud-based timeshare management softwareN/A

Viewpoint is a cloud-based timeshare management software designed to help vacation ownerships handle properties, clubs, payments, reservations, housekeeping, maintenance, and more. Administrators can export reports in CSV, PDF, or Microsoft Excel formats.Learn more about Viewpoint

Viewpoint features

• Reservations Management
• Booking Management
• Reporting & Statistics
• Third Party Integrations

Value for money0.0

Ease of use0.0

Features0.0

Customer support0.0

Likelihood to recommend0.0/10

Compare a full list of software products on our Hotel Management Software directory.

CONCLUSION

Hotel ecommerce software is one of the best ways to increase online visibility, grow conversions and ultimately generate more revenue from your hotel business. It’s a great way to stay on top of your industry and make sure that you are selling products directly to your customers without a middleman holding you back. So whether you’re looking for a full-blown omnichannel solution, or an easier way to manage inventory, shipping and more, we’ve got the ecommerce software for hotels to fit any budget