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Front desk systems and property management software

Front Desk Operations

Josh started this discussion 18 years 5 months ago

What kinds of systems does your hostel use to manage reservations and guests?

Here are some of the ones that I have seen:

Paper reservation and accounting system
Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheet
roomMaster 2000
Ros2000
ASSD (including Gomio's version)
Hostelworld's Backpack software

Any others to add? Recommendations or warnings about one system vs. another?

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Irishdon

15 years

Hi All

I have been reading these discussion, but really not clear yet, maybe bc I don´t know much about it since I am starting the developing of our hostel website and booking system for a 54 beds property. What should I considered? or what I should avoid to do during the design phase?
- Should I register with world hostel and this solve all my reservations problem?
- Do they provide me with an engine booking system?
- Should I consider any key issue in order to integrate these kind of booking systems into my webpage?
- If I use Paypal, will solve my reservation issues when a passenger wants to pay with credit cards, avoiding direct high credit card cost?

Please, any advise on the start up phase of a hostel & the key decisions about webpage, booking system, payment considerations at this stage will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

JC

Hostelworld can help but being registered on Hostelworld does not mean your hostel will automatically be full. It depends also on the facilities you offer, the impression people have of your place, the quality to price ratio, and much more.

Paypal payments can work only if your guests are paying in advance. But in hostels many people turn up without reservations and if they want to pay with a credit card you should have the option available to them.

Are you doing your webpage yourself or do you have an 'expert' doing it? The key words you choose will decide how easy it is to find you on Google and other search engines.

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uktrail

15 years

Originally Posted by JCJ View Post
Hi All

- Should I register with world hostel and this solve all my reservations problem?
- Do they provide me with an engine booking system?
- Should I consider any key issue in order to integrate these kind of booking systems into my webpage?

JCJ: With regard to a reservations system, do please take a look at my system "Open Door" which is designed for the smaller hostel. It is able to display vacancies on your webpage, as well as send vacancy data to booking engines. I will also help it to link with your financial package if you use one. This would be a good route if you run your own website, use your own financial package or spreadsheet and want to have all your data under your control on your own computer.

An alternative approach is to use Hostelworld's own reservation system, but then they "own" all your reservations data, and you are tying yourself to Hostelworld with appropriate commission costs without the flexibility of using other avenues.

Open Door

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JCJ

15 years

Yes, I have an expert in websites doing mine site, but he is not an expert on Hostel´s website, so there are still a lot of things we are not quite sure.

For example. if I want to give my customers the option to pay with credit card the final bill when the check out and I don´t want to pay ver high fees and commisions to have a credit card machine at my premises, can I solve this using paypal, so the customer when check out just go to internet and pay me virtually with their credit cards through paypal?

Thanks,

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livaus

15 years

Definitely register with Hostelworld and Hostelbookers. They can provide you with their booking engines. HW has a PMS. We initally used it but it is not good enough for us so we switched to HostelOffice and are very happy.
Websites are very different in this industry, depends on what style of hostel you are and who is your main market. We just relounched our website and put Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube etc on it. SEO we are doing ourselves. As fas as I understand, for a person who understands the backend stuff it is not very complicated

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livaus

15 years

For example. if I want to give my customers the option to pay with credit card the final bill when the check out and I don´t want to pay ver high fees and commisions to have a credit card machine at my premises, can I solve this using paypal, so the customer when check out just go to internet and pay me virtually with their credit cards through paypal?

May I ask what is the comission for accepting credit cards?
For us PayPal is very expensive, because it charges at least 3.5% comission and bank only charges 2.15%. Also situation you mentioned - there is a huge risk that people will avoid paying or you won't be able to claim payment. PayPal themselves say - don't provide the service or deliver goods unless you have received and confirmed payment, and it takes days. You will also need to guearantee access to the intenet all the time.
I know that HW also offers to receive bookings with PayPal, but the big problem there is that we can not charge a guest for no-show if he has made deposit using PayPal. So after couple incidents we just don't accept PayPal payments anymore.
I've seen hostels that clearly state on their websites and booking engines that they accept cash only.

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jonL

15 years

I think that you shoudl charge more for prices on HostelWorld etc because you are not taking the full amount and less on your own website if you take the full amount upfront

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crhostel

15 years

May I ask what is the comission for accepting credit cards?
For us PayPal is very expensive, because it charges at least 3.5% comission

Paypal charges 2.9%

bank only charges 2.15%.

Depends on the bank and the country. In Central America, bank fees can be as high as 7%.

there is a huge risk that people will avoid paying or you won't be able to claim payment. PayPal themselves say - don't provide the service or deliver goods unless you have received and confirmed payment, and it takes days.

Paypal confirms payment immediately and you have access to the funds immediately, not days later. You do realize that you don't have to have a Paypal account to pay through Paypal right? You can pay with a credit card like any other system.

Taking Paypal on HW is a pain in the ass, but taking large payments through paypal for groups works well. Paypal also now has an option for authorization or sale, which allows you to authorize a guests card for incidentals if you want to.

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JCJ

15 years

From your recommendation I understand that I should work with HW and HB, but how about Gomio and Hosteltravelers? It will be to much have 4? My main market interest are to get travellers from Europe, North America, Australia and Latin America. Which are the best engines for those markets?

Thanks,

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crhostel

15 years

I think that you shoudl charge more for prices on HostelWorld etc because you are not taking the full amount and less on your own website if you take the full amount upfront

I believe that that would be in violation of your contract with HW.

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crhostel

15 years

Hi

From your recommendation I understand that I should work with HW and HB, but how about Gomio and Hosteltravelers? It will be to much have 4? My main market interest are to get travellers from Europe, North America, Australia and Latin America. Which are the best engines for those markets?

Thanks,

JC

Just try them all. If it's too much, remove your listing or availability. Or try one, and if you're not getting reservations then add another one. Just do it, you're not obligated to keep using any of those services once you sign up.

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