A hotel room search engine is an important tool for aggregating listings, reviews and prices from a variety of online travel resources. It also helps travelers narrow down their search options and find the best hotel for their needs.
Hotels that use a hotel room search engine should make the booking process as simple and clear as possible for their guests. This will help ensure they stay engaged and complete their booking.
Multiple Booking Sources
Hotel room search engines are a great way to find and book a hotel room. These websites will compare prices from a variety of online travel agencies (OTAs) and other booking sites to give you the best price.
OTAs are online travel agencies that sell hotels provided by third-party companies. Many tourists make their hotel reservations through these agencies.
Real-time Integration with Channel Managers
Channel management allows you to adjust pricing and availability across multiple third-party hotel booking websites without having to visit each website separately. This real-time integration with channels is essential for ensuring that you always have the right room inventory available on all distribution channels.
It also eliminates the risk of overbooking, which can be caused by errors or a lack of connectivity between systems. A good channel manager will automate updates of availability and rates in real-time, ensuring that your hotel rooms are never overbooked and that customers can book only the room they want to stay in.
Easy Booking Process
Hotel room search engines provide customers with a convenient, streamlined booking process. They offer search filters and sorting options to easily find accommodations that meet their specific requirements, and they integrate payment gateways for secure online bookings.
A booking engine should also be connected to a revenue management solution to automate rate updates and ensure that prices stay competitive at all times. This can help hotels generate more direct revenue by identifying new opportunities to upsell rooms and increase guest loyalty.
Hotel rooms are a major selling point, so it’s important to choose a booking engine that offers high-quality images of available room types. Guests want to see the real thing before they book, and a good image gallery can be the first impression that makes or breaks your booking.
Multiple Languages
If you’re running a hotel, you know how important it is to have a multilingual staff and website. Having your site in multiple languages is a sure fire way to attract international customers and make it easier for them to find you.
Having your site in a few languages is also a good way to improve your SEO rankings and make it easier for guests to discover your hotel. The best hotel room search engines allow you to choose the language you want and then show you results in that language. The most impressive part is that it all works in the background while you do other things.
Multiple Currency Support
The latest gen hotel booking engines have got your back when it comes to handling multiple currencies. A few of them even support multi-lingual customer support so that your front-of-house staff can better serve their burgeoning international clientele. The best part is they are easy on the budget! You can also glean valuable information from their analytics and customer data to tailor your marketing campaigns and improve your service offering, and make your sexiest hotel rooms more profitable by the second.
Easy Extras Selling
Hotel room search engines enable hotel owners to sell additional extras, such as breakfast, spa treatments and other in-property services, as well as third-party packages like city tours. These can boost occupancy and help hotels earn more revenue.
Price matching can also be a good way to score last minute deals. This can be particularly effective when traveling out of season to large cities or popular tourist attractions. It can be time consuming, but it’s worth the effort if you want to save money on your next trip.
Social Media Integration
Social media platforms are a powerful way to connect with your guests and increase brand awareness. But you need to know how to use them effectively.
To boost your social media presence, try to make your channels feel personal. This means interacting with your followers on a regular basis, posting pictures and videos of your staff and showcasing interesting local stories.
For example, Conrad Hotels is one of the first hotel brands to use Instagram as a booking platform, allowing potential guests to follow links in its profile and book rooms directly from its photo galleries.