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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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groovetribe

16 years

Is there any software that can handle incoming bookings from all hostel booking sites and our own website in one streamlined system?

It occurs to me having to check all these emails and different booking sites individually in addition to logging reservations and cash in/out in 2-3 diff places, (as they are doing here where i am working), is a monumental waste of time, so wanted to see if there is any software to solve those issues.

Most of our bookings come from Hostelworld, Hostelbookers and our own site, but also some come from other smaller sites.

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Josh Hostels

16 years

Is there any software that can handle incoming bookings from all hostel booking sites and our own website in one streamlined system?

There is Siteminder, but they never got back to me about the details and I'm not sure how it works with hostel booking sites.

Their info page says it works with Hostel Bookers and Hostel World.

If anyone has tried it, please let me know your thoughts on it.

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uktrail

16 years

It strikes me that the needs of hostels for such comprehensive systems vary greatly with the size of hostel.

A hostel of 200+ beds, with several rooms of each type (twin, 4-bed, 8-bed etc) will want to have them all available on all the booking engines they use, will be getting some 50-100 guests per day from all booking engines combined and will need a smooth system for incorporating each booking as it comes and updating all the rest nearly instantly. And they will be able to do this because they will have a large number of beds of each type (in 8-bed dorms, or female 4-bed dorms, etc). Such a system would need to be held totally on the Net. Siteminder appears to be of this type.

But a medium hostel of say 80 beds may have a mixture of different rooms and beds, no two alike, and need to juggle the bookings a bit to get them suitably fitted in. If so, an automatic system like the above is not a lot of help. They would normally want to insert the bookings manually. This system could just as well be on the hostel's own computer, but while it would not be an automatic connection, it should be made as convenient as possible, for example with the use of standard comma-separated files so that info could be set up and transferred quickly both ways between hostel and booking engine.

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WilsonLisaM

16 years

Hello everyone,

I just started working at a hostel and got promoted to assistant manager, so I don't have alot of say in what goes, but I'd like to sway my manager into changing our frontdesk software.

My biggest frustration is that we are using RemCo's Nightvision software which I find to be very lacking in many areas. The software has so many bugs, the biggest one is that it allows guests to book via the web though we have no availability. When their database goes down (which happens frequently) we can get 10-15 bookings a day that go through without availability.

The interface is bulky and too linear, so when a rush comes, we cannot expedite customer service.

Certain features we need such as displaying the # of beds per room in our roomtape are not editable on the user end, though I think something as simple as that should be. I'm so frustrated with this software, and I know it's only been around so long because it's cheaper than packages offered by hostelpower. Does anyone know if these problems are universal w/ all management software?

My manager complains that employees make mistakes, but I feel if you give your employees better tools to work with there will be fewer mistakes made.

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Josh Hostels

16 years

How many beds do you have?

I think front desk software is an essential investment, especially if there are a lot of beds to manage.

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WilsonLisaM

16 years

We have 330 beds total.

7 mens dorms ranging from 4-23 beds.
5 women's dorms ranging from 4-21 beds.
3 types of private rooms (no bath, 1/2 bath, full bath) ranging from 2-5 beds, most of which are 2 double beds...

It can get really hectic especially since # of beds cannot be posted in our roomtape. We have to reference a sheet of paper when we book people. When there's a problem, this makes solving it take 2x as long!

Thanks for responding!

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uktrail

16 years

I could not find anything about your package on the Net; the only reference I found was a mention of its being used somewhere in training. Many packages seem to have been developed by people who are not directly familiar with hostels, and once written they are fixed in form.

A complex package would be great if it is exactly right for you, but if it is so complex or so ill-matched to your needs that you are reduced to using a paper system, it's absurd! The England & Wales YHA once had a system developed for them, and they spent their funds on elaborate training courses etc for their staff, and their staff found exactly the types of problems that you are finding, and the whole thing was a gigantic flop. I see the need for simple packages, which may be limited in what they can do but, if they do it properly, must at least be better than having to maintain a paper system!!

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Josh Hostels

16 years

We have 330 beds total.

I was asking because if you are a smaller hostel, an expensive front desk system might not make sense. But 330 beds is a fairly large hostel. It saves money in the long run and cuts down on bad reviews to have a reliable system at the front desk.

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Nickognito

15 years

There's something I don't understand.

There are a lot of hostels all around the world
Even if they are different in dimensions, they usually have same needs and problems, and they all need a good front desk software
A good front desk software is not so difficult to find out. It's relatively easy and not so expensive.

So, why do we have such a market, and noone who wants make some money in developing it?

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santa klaus

15 years

I wouldn´t say it´s inexpensive. I know a hostel where they thought it should be really easy and started making a software, but they eventually found out it´s not that easy, but requires a lot of work. I guess you could very easily spend a six-digit amount and still get something which is only a start.

The next thing is that most hostels probably wouldn´t pay a lot of money - especially since BPO is free. OK, it´s not perfect, but free.

I also doubt we all need the same stuff.

If you are a person who can make good software, there are maybe more promising markets for you.

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