In this world of modernization, we can notice a rapid shift of the hospitality business towards online bookings. But at the same time, we don’t have to neglect the impact of a quick and effective hotel booking engine.
In this article let’s see more about, “what to look for in a hotel booking engine and the features that drive conversions.”
What Is A Hotel Booking Engine?
A Hotel Booking Engine is a software application system that helps to book your reservations directly by using a hotel’s website. It allows visitors to check the latest information about the hotel including room availability, the types and rates of rooms, and bookings.
With the right hotel booking engine, you can improve the user experience that helps in maximized direct bookings and revenues.
What To Look For In A Hotel Booking Engine: Features That Boost Conversions:
Given below are the top features of a booking engine that improves conversion:
1. User-friendly Interface:
Your hotel booking engine need to contain a user-friendly interface. It has to make the booking process simple, intuitive, and faster. It has to take a fewer steps to complete a booking for a better user experience.
➢ Ease Of Use:
The user interface must have easy navigation, and provide the proper instructions and prompts.
➢ Mobile-friendly:
As the number of smartphone users is increasing, the booking engine must have to be mobile-friendly.
➢ Visual Appeal:
Having a better image quality and a clean, elegant design will boost the user experience.
2. Multiple Language Support:
Your hotel booking engine needs to support multiple languages in order to serve a large global audience. This ensures that international users can book the reservations in their native language while improving their booking experience.
➢ Language Options:
Having more languages in your booking engine benefits a larger audience.
➢ Currency conversion:
Hotel booking engines not only have to support more languages but they should also offer multiple currency conversion options.
3. Flexible Search Options:
Another important feature of hotel booking engines is the flexible search option. With the customized search filters, guests can narrow down their options depending on their preferences including room type, price range, and days of stay.
➢ Date Flexibility:
It has to allow guests to search for availability of rooms on their preferred dates.
➢ Filter Options:
The booking engine has to offer more filter options which makes it easier for guests to find what they are looking for.
4. Secure Payment Gateway:
A secure payment gateway is other feature that a hotel booking engine should have. It ensures safe and reliable transactions and helps the guest to have peace of mind while booking.
➢ Security:
The hotel booking engine should follow the highest security measures to protect the sensitive data of a customer.
➢ Payment Options:
It needs to provide various safe payment methods including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets.
5. Real-time Availability And Instant Confirmation:
The important feature of a hotel booking engine is the real-time availability which allows guests to check the real-time room availability. It removes the errors in booking by reducing the chances of double booking and optimizes the overall booking experience for its users. As soon as the booking is made, it has to provide immediate confirmation. This feature ensures guests that their booking is safe.
6. Integration With Other Systems:
The booking engine should have to connect with the property management system (PMS). This helps the customer with real-time synching of data, ensuring accurate availability and rates.
➢ PMS Integration:
The hotel booking engine should have to connect easily with your existing PMS.
➢ Channel Manager Integration:
Your hotel booking engine must also connect with a channel manager, letting you manage your distribution channels from a single place. For example, a well-integrated solution like UNO Rate Gain can help manage listings efficiently across platforms.
Conclusion
With the right hotel booking engine features one can enjoy the booking experiences, which helps in increased bookings and conversions.
Therefore, it is important to select the right booking engine that offers a user-friendly interface, along with multi-language support, flexible search options, safe payment gateway, real-time booking, instant confirmation, and integration with other systems.
This is all about what to look for in a hotel booking engine and the features that drive conversions.
