7 years
No
Yes
No
Yes but with the myallocator booking widget
PMS - Bananadesk 1 dollar per bed per month
CM - Myallocator 25 dollars per month
How do you process direct bookings?
Website, Computer, and Tech Support
Hey all. I want to work on some content for HostelManagement that compares options we have for running our hostels. Everything from booking engines to locks.
One area I'm particularly curious to gain a better idea about is how hostels accept their direct bookings. Not how you get them in terms of marketing, prices, etc. but what you actually use (software, widgets, etc).
For ex.:
Do you use a booking page from your PMS?
Do you use a booking widget from a chanel manager?
Do you use a booking widget from an OTA, like HostelWorld?
Do you use your own booking page on a website you built?
What PMS/CM/etc do you use, and what is the cost to you? Is it a percentage, flat rate, vary on total bed number, etc?
Thanks!
- Comments
7 years
My case is very specific.
I use a PMS but I don't use its own booking engine (that would automate the process) because I don't like it. Instead I use another PMS just to use their booking engine that I love and receive those bookings on the email
Then I have to manually enter them in the actual PMS.
So far I wouldn't trade this for nothing.
7 years
How does your hostel currently accept direct bookings?
Do you use a booking page from your PMS?
- Yes (kind of... from HW/BPO: a 'mega-micro site')
Do you use a booking widget from a chanel manager?
- Not yet.
Do you use a booking widget from an OTA, like HostelWorld?
- Not on our own site yet, no.
Do you use your own booking page on a website you built?
- No.
What PMS/CM/etc do you use, and what is the cost to you? Is it a percentage, flat rate, vary on total bed number, etc?
- BPO (actively looking to change) - 'free' of charge.
Otherwise, we still accept direct bookings via email, phone, and fb page messages which are all manually input into our PMS.
7 years
I will answer on behalf of 6 properties I currently work with...
Do you use a booking page from your PMS?
Actually most booking engines are from the channel manager as it is a booking channel. And YES ABSOLUTELY!
Do you use a booking widget from a chanel manager?
Im kind of confused as this seems to be the same question as the last. The booking engines I have been using come from the Channel Manager/PMS
Do you use a booking widget from an OTA, like HostelWorld?
NO! It was a great service when booking engines were hard to develop/find, but nowadays they are very easy and standard for many channel managers or even better, PMS's which have their own channel manager!
Do you use your own booking page on a website you built?
yes... again, the booking engine from your PMS/C.M. should be on your own booking page!
What PMS/CM/etc do you use, and what is the cost to you? Is it a percentage, flat rate, vary on total bed number, etc?
-MasterYield with Wubook integration
-Front Desk Master with it's own Channel Manager
-Host with a siteminder integration
-Cloudbeds with a Myallocator integration
all of the above vary in costs and functionality all depends on the kind of property and what their sales strategies. Feel free to contact me for more info on the pro's and cons of each
Lior
7 years
Hi,
I haven't been able to find a solution that satisfies my every need,
the first booking engine was the one given by booking that would only charge a 3% comission which got later downed to 0% (still is) I developed a joomla module that would integrate the booking widget into joomla, then I would feed this reservations to my old PMS (hoteldruid) manually, than i moved to the latest joomla and that widget stopped working and never bothered to update it.
Then I experimented with Solidres which is a joomla component that connects to myallocator, this was in theory a great idea, but the module is a bit of a mess as i would have to update rates from joomla (which would be weird) so I scratched that idea, the good thing about this booking engine is that is Joomla native, has discount codes and you can sell other stuff (tours, services), but the connection with myallocator is weird and doesn't follow any logical flow, so i had to ditch it.
Then i got tired of feeding stuff manually to my PMS and moved to another one called Optilodging which connects to myallocator, their booking engine lacks certain things like the ability to import restrictions and rates from myallocator (yeah weird) so I scratched that one too.
Then i have settled for the myallocator widget which i honestly lacks good features, but is good enough, in my opinion it would be nice if it was more customizable and had more documentation on the CSS and analytics, more custom fields and the ability to sell other things. I know for 22 dollars is hard to ask for all those features, but there hasn't been a front end update to that widget in a long time and everytime you ask them they tell you to get Cloudbeds.
What i like about the current PMS i'm using is that they do custom programming, so if you need something in particular, they quote you a price and is up to you!
hope this helps
7 years
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Hey Courtney,
Here's our piece:
Do you use a booking page from your PMS?
No - we use Loventis and this function is not supported.
Do you use a booking widget from a chanel manager?
Yes, MyAllocator's booking widget works very well with our hostel. You can copy the link directly and put it on your facebook call to action as well.
Do you use a booking widget from an OTA, like HostelWorld?
Nope - they charge commission ;)
Do you use your own booking page on a website you built?
No.
What PMS/CM/etc do you use, and what is the cost to you? Is it a percentage, flat rate, vary on total bed number, etc?
We use Loventis and love its simplicity. It syncs very well with MyAllocator. MyAllocator don't charge anything to use the widget for direct bookings.
All the best,
Dan
7 years
Do you use a booking page from your PMS?
Yes
Do you use a booking widget from a chanel manager?
No
Do you use a booking widget from an OTA, like HostelWorld?
No, for me it can't be considered as direct booking.
Do you use your own booking page on a website you built?
No, just a link to a booking page of PMS, which we use (though PMS have various options to integrate, such as widget and built-in booking form/page, but I don't like that I can't customize their design as I like for our website).
What PMS/CM/etc do you use, and what is the cost to you? Is it a percentage, flat rate, vary on total bed number, etc?
Wubook booking engine, ZAK PMS and their built-in channel manager. Fixed pricing. Wubook - 27 euro per month, ZAK - 22 euro per month and 6 euro per channel manager per month.
7 years
I'm surprised I didn't see the Google suite of tools mentioned here so I thought I'd write. After paying for PMS solutions that never really worked right, I became so frustrated that I decided to build it myself using simple Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar. It's not as automated as other systems, so I may copy/paste more that I used to. But it's free and I can easily get help.
I say it's free, because it is. But you can also pay $5 per month and also take advantage of 24/7 phone support. So my google website has a google form that feeds a spreadsheet with visitor's content. I get a gmail notice that its happened. I paste the information they provided into those dates on the Google calendar (each bed has its own calendar, of course) and send them a "canned response" confirmation. It takes two minutes.
This doesn't account for taking credit card deposits if needed. That would happen in a follow up invoice or phone call.
www,GroundInn.com
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