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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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yesinn-HK

15 years

Dear all,

Few months ago I start to use Hostelpower in fully operation after I open another place. In overall, the software has given me great help. I mostly enjoy the feature of the Network version so that I can monitor the booking and occupancy anytime anywhere by my computer. Once I update the booking, the data will upload into the server so that every one will have same database. As usual, every software got some problems. Following are few of the major issues I came across
- This software is designed by a hostel owner. He is familiar with the operation. However, he got very limited resources for the support.
- There are still many bugs or features need to be fixed
- I have once changed some set-up that caused system down. My staff has used overnight to recover the data by manual input the old record
- The system unable to link up with HostelBookers and Hostelworld (Backpack version)
- They don't have updated user manual available
- They don't have UNDO key if we make incorrect action

On the other side,
- It is user friendly
- Network version is very good for multi-site hostel; it is best feature for the owner to monitor it at home
- You can switch room, switch bed very easily

I don't have experience of other software, but I think this one is very good to me and save me a lot of time.

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Nickognito

15 years

For us, the main problem we have with BPO is about statistics. In italy we have to send a report of our guests nationality and the date of their arrival and departure. With BPO not only it takes a long time to write down all guests details, but it's impossibile to make these statistics. It would be a simple feature tu add, and if there was a similar software, but open-source, we could fix the problem easily.

So, do you use BPO too in your hostel, Santa?

Most of the other softwares i tried are totally user-unfriendly. For me, it's not so important, but i think it's usually important for receptionists.

Unfortunately i'm not able to make new software myself :-)

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santa klaus

15 years

and if there was a similar software, but open-source, we could fix the problem easily.

EXACTLY. I think it´s impossible to make a software which makes every hostel 100% happy, but it shouldn´t be so hard to make a very simple one which makes enough hostels happy enough to start working with it. It should be open source, because in most hostels there is a computer geek who can fix little problems like this. Bring all those hostel computer geeks together in a forum like this one where they share their improvements and I am sure we would have a really good software very soon which makes 100% of the hostels 100% happy. Open source is the only way to go.

So, do you use BPO too in your hostel, Santa?

No, we use Gastrodat. It is pretty good, the only disadvantage is the price. It´s expensive and you need expensive hardware, too. I assume a large company like PLUS has already a terminalserver and the receptionists work with remote desktops - that´s exactly what you need to run this software. If it runs on individual PCs it´ll be terribly slow. Their website is only in German, but as far as I´m aware the software is available in various languages. Outside Austria, a lot of hotels in Croatia work with it.

We had a really close look at BPO and talked a lot with Hostelworld if some improvements we really would need could be made, but in the end we decided against it. Two of our ex-staffers went to work in a hostel in London where they use BPO and both told me Gastrodat is much, much better and we shouldn´t switch to BPO even if it saves a lot of money.

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Nickognito

15 years

Thank you, Santa, I don't actually know what our management is planning at the moment, and we're also paying fro a pretty expensive software for our chip-card system of guest payments, but every suggestion for a good software is very welcome :)

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santa klaus

15 years

I think chip-card paying systems are not a good idea, but if your bosses want to stick with it, but as far as I know you can even manage the cards with Gastrodat, so you could throw your old sofrware away.

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Crofter Andrew

15 years

If you have any questions about ASSD dont hesitate!

We've been looking for a online booking/reservations system for a month or so now (it was Christmas...!). The choice has come down to Gomio's version of ASSD, or nothing. We can't justify the expense of ASSD own software. But the Gomio version is cheaper and looks possible for smaller rural hostel like us. Can you give any more wisdom of your experience? Particularly interested with how easy it is to learn to use, adaptable to unusual situations, changing bookings around, allocating rooms, etc. Is it flexible and user friendly? Thanks.

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nwspencer

15 years

Can someone break down pricing for Gomio ASSD? We're a 50 bed hostel, and I need to figure out if it's within our price range before I try the demo. Thanks!

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wenke

15 years

If anyone would like to know more about the GOMIO.COM reservation software (ASSD special version) then please feel free to contact us directly [email][email protected][/email]. We also do offer new features to handle bookings from other online reservation systems. There are a lot of hostels working with our system smaller and bigger ones.

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Alexandra

15 years

Can someone break down pricing for Gomio ASSD? We're a 50 bed hostel, and I need to figure out if it's within our price range before I try the demo. Thanks!

You are better with gomio for that size. assd is to expensive for 50 beds. and gomio is just a smaller version of the assd programm.

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wenke

15 years

I don't know if any of you received our email from yesterday as we (from GOMIO.COM) pronounced our new product that is sold in addition to the GOMIO.COM reservation software. It is called the channel manager and it automatically updates availability in various hostel booking engines. For example GOMIO.COM (of course), Hostelworld, Hostelbookers, Hostelsclub, booking.com, expedia, etc. All in all it's ten booking engines but more will follow.
Would anyone be interested in that?
Just email us [email][email protected][/email] or write me a message through Hostelmanagement.com

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