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Front desk systems and property management software

Front Desk Operations

Josh started this discussion 18 years 2 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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HostelOffice

11 years

It is very good to see the hostel industry so well serviced by many software providers. The majority of hostels do not use a software solution so there is still a lot of work to do to share the message on the benefits of using software. I know that just about every hostel can increase revenue from the use of just about any Property Management Software (PMS). Then the issue comes down to specifics:

Each software provider has their list of technical capabilities. If you are a large hostel then you would be ok with software that requires you to have a person with technical skills. So choose a provider that is a good fit for your needs. Do you like to support corporate delivered or small business delivered solutions? Corporate hostels tend to gravitate to corporate delivered solutions.

Will you be a small fish in their big pond, a big fish in their little pond of users, or similar sized like minded hostel benefiting from collaborating with other users facing similar challenges as you.

Be prepared to be responsive. A good relationship with your software provider is two way communication in a consultative manner. This means that the hostel persons need to be prepared to act on the valuable knowledge that is shared with them. At the 2013 HostelWorld conference in Dublin there were pearls of wisdom shared by highly paid consultants. Most attendees were not writing down notes. So this tells you that if you act then you have a good chance to gain an advantage.

The solutions provider ought to be sharing their knowledge with you on what they learn on what works and does not work. Use your provider to get advise not just on software configuration but on how to improve your web presence that includes Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and latest trends that are delivering value. Delays in adopting techniques can lose you the competitive advantage you could have gained.

What is the opportunity cost for you? By doing nothing you suffer the biggest cost from lost efficiency and lost revenue you could have been gaining. So the hostels without software are suffering the biggest cost. The hostels that choose the right software provider for them essentially pay nothing for the software as the software will pour money in to the pockets of the hostel owner.

What are things you think ought to be considered?

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Federico Finki

11 years

Mini Hotel is the best solution for hsotels.

very complete, pms + channel manager + revenue manager (conection with hostelbench.com)

for details contact [email protected]

Good luck

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rjd1983

11 years

I'm looking for a PMS that is flexible as a spreadsheet - it must support bed numbers (as we assign guests beds), being able to see cancelled reservations at a glance (like in a spreadsheet), and being able to use MyAllocator or similar links to HB/HW.

I looked at Loventis, and Hostel Office, and neither of them offered the spreadsheet flexibility. We have 60 beds.

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HostelOffice

11 years

I think most hostel software has the basic ability to display each bed in a room.

Can you please tell me what gave you the impression that our software can not present rooms and beds individually in an easy to see spreadsheet layout?

Our software actually enables users to drag n drop reservations from one bed to another whether that bed is in the same room or in another room.

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hostelsystem

11 years

Hello,
Our BedView doesn't allow you to see cancelled bookings on beds, but the spreadsheet is quite flexible. Please have a look at www.hostelsystem.com and let me know if you want to give it a try.
Cheers, Mat

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rjd1983

11 years

Sorry, my mistake, what I meant to say was, as we assign specific bed numbers to guests, and next to the bed numbers it shows us whether or not that is a top, middle, or bottom bunk on the spreadsheet. Some rooms have triple bunks in them, so using a 'crib' sheet would not work for us.

Also, an automated online backup feature would be good.

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HostelOffice

11 years

Ok then to answer that situation. Each bed or room can be given any name or identifier you want. So by naming the bed Bottom, Middle, or Top then you can see clearly what bed it is that you are giving the guest.

If you drag n drop the guest to another room of the same type then that is seamless and you could put them in to a different Top, Middle, or Bottom bed. If you drag them to a different room type then you get a pop up warning that you can quickly OK if you want to proceed.

Then of course any change like that is auto backed up and within seconds auto adjusting allocation to the integrated agents of HW and HB. We have contracted server networks in Germany and own server networks in Switzerland that provide you painless cloud style backups, mirroring and data recovery. As per this film https://vimeo.com/28433997

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Federico Finki

11 years

Hi,
take a look at Mini Hotel,
It can assing bed numbers on the room map grid.
and you can see canceled reservations on the map grid also, as you do on spread sheet.
it has a channel manager embeded so you can conect beds/rooms inventory and pricing lists to HW, HB,HC, gomio.com booking.com, expedia.com and many others.
contact me at [email protected] or add me to skype fedefin1

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CraigD

11 years

Hi RJD1983,

GuestCentrix PMS for Hostels offers several different screens where you can view cancelled reservations. Not sure what your definition of being as "flexible as a spreadsheet" means, but you can order your beds or dorms on GuestCentrix in any order you wish, have them named or numbered any way you wish and can be alpha / numeric.

You can either install GuestCentrix in the Cloud, or if you don't have a decent enough internet connection, you can install the software at the hostel. Either way - we can show you how to have your database backed up and saved wherever you want... another PC, Drop Box, Google Drive, (Microsoft) Sky Drive etc etc.

I'd love to hear from you.

Craig - [email protected]

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Partenopeo

11 years

Hi all!

I'm new in this forum. I'm an italian neo-engineer and i'm working to open an hostel in the South of Italy with a close friend. We are new in this trade so we need an help to build our business. We already found a location: an apartment of 700 sq.m. and we expect to have 3 private rooms and 3 shared rooms, totally 30 beds. What kind of solution you suggest for software? We know that we need a channel and a booking engine, does it exist an all-in solution? we are also looking for a solution that can allow the guests to book directly from our website.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation

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