Affordable Online Reservation Systems

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Please post a link to a recommended affordable online reservation system (booking agent) on this thread.

 

[EmptyNest]

http://www.availabilityonline.com/
http://www.netbookings.com/pricing.html

 

[happyjacks]

http://availability.ca/

 

[Morticia]

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.

What do YOU mean by 'real time'? That the innkeeper needs to do nothing in re the rez? Or the innkeeper has SOME interaction?
The way I view 'real time' is that when the guest hits 'send' the room is offline and unavailable for other bookings. I still have to review the rez before the confirm goes out. That prevents folks from stating in the notes section that they are bringing 3 kids, 'But, they're just kids, so there's no charge, right?' If the confirm went out immediately, I have no control over the guest now bringing 3 extra people who they didn't get charged for. And that happens a lot.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.

What do YOU mean by 'real time'? That the innkeeper needs to do nothing in re the rez? Or the innkeeper has SOME interaction?
The way I view 'real time' is that when the guest hits 'send' the room is offline and unavailable for other bookings. I still have to review the rez before the confirm goes out. That prevents folks from stating in the notes section that they are bringing 3 kids, 'But, they're just kids, so there's no charge, right?' If the confirm went out immediately, I have no control over the guest now bringing 3 extra people who they didn't get charged for. And that happens a lot..

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.

What do YOU mean by 'real time'? That the innkeeper needs to do nothing in re the rez? Or the innkeeper has SOME interaction?
The way I view 'real time' is that when the guest hits 'send' the room is offline and unavailable for other bookings. I still have to review the rez before the confirm goes out. That prevents folks from stating in the notes section that they are bringing 3 kids, 'But, they're just kids, so there's no charge, right?' If the confirm went out immediately, I have no control over the guest now bringing 3 extra people who they didn't get charged for. And that happens a lot.

Whatever you see online is real to be booked NOW. You can book that room, specifically. When you book it it takes it out of inventory. So when I am on vacation all the reservations just populate my inbox. The confirmation is sent out AUTOMATICALLY (I have it set that way). I don't want to approve of disapprove. You book it now it is yours! BOOK NOW.
Weberv has # of guests field, if they add more ithan 2 hey are charged more, if they call then I add it to the rez.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.
Clarification - it sends a reservation request. Not a real booking with confirmation.

 

[Morticia]

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.

What do YOU mean by 'real time'? That the innkeeper needs to do nothing in re the rez? Or the innkeeper has SOME interaction?
The way I view 'real time' is that when the guest hits 'send' the room is offline and unavailable for other bookings. I still have to review the rez before the confirm goes out. That prevents folks from stating in the notes section that they are bringing 3 kids, 'But, they're just kids, so there's no charge, right?' If the confirm went out immediately, I have no control over the guest now bringing 3 extra people who they didn't get charged for. And that happens a lot..

Availabilityonline.com is not real time. Affordable, but the innkeeper needs to process the reservation and confirmations. If you prefer that, this is a good one.

What do YOU mean by 'real time'? That the innkeeper needs to do nothing in re the rez? Or the innkeeper has SOME interaction?
The way I view 'real time' is that when the guest hits 'send' the room is offline and unavailable for other bookings. I still have to review the rez before the confirm goes out. That prevents folks from stating in the notes section that they are bringing 3 kids, 'But, they're just kids, so there's no charge, right?' If the confirm went out immediately, I have no control over the guest now bringing 3 extra people who they didn't get charged for. And that happens a lot.

Whatever you see online is real to be booked NOW. You can book that room, specifically. When you book it it takes it out of inventory. So when I am on vacation all the reservations just populate my inbox. The confirmation is sent out AUTOMATICALLY (I have it set that way). I don't want to approve of disapprove. You book it now it is yours! BOOK NOW.
Weberv has # of guests field, if they add more ithan 2 hey are charged more, if they call then I add it to the rez.
.

Mine does not send out an auto email, there isn't even an option to do that (that I know of). I wouldn't use the option anyway, simply because of the scenario I mentioned.
However, it is real time in that the calendar is always up to date. I don't have to touch it if a guest books online. If someone books on the phone, I use the booking software right then, no paper notes.
I know it's a lot more expensive than Webervations, and Swirt didn't think it was robust enough for what he wants to do (which really sounds like what you want), and they take forever to make changes, but take a look at their info anyway. SuperInn

 

[Hangfive]

http://availability.ca/.

Cup and Pillow (www.thebedandbreakfastlist.com) has free reservations software with a premium listing. They are advertising that the reservations software will have a lot of extra reporting features for accounting and guest management in the near future. Looks like they are trying to drive listings with features until they can build up traffic.
I use SuperINN, which I feel is a good value at $50 per room per year. Includes realtime reservations plus lots of useful (I feel necessary) reporting features.

 

[scrambled_eggs]

http://availability.ca/.

Cup and Pillow (www.thebedandbreakfastlist.com) has free reservations software with a premium listing. They are advertising that the reservations software will have a lot of extra reporting features for accounting and guest management in the near future. Looks like they are trying to drive listings with features until they can build up traffic.
I use SuperINN, which I feel is a good value at $50 per room per year. Includes realtime reservations plus lots of useful (I feel necessary) reporting features.
.

I use SuperINN, which I feel is a good value at $50 per room per year. Includes realtime reservations plus lots of useful (I feel necessary) reporting features.

You only pay $50 a year? I pay $40 a month for 4 rooms.

 

[Hangfive]

http://availability.ca/.

Cup and Pillow (www.thebedandbreakfastlist.com) has free reservations software with a premium listing. They are advertising that the reservations software will have a lot of extra reporting features for accounting and guest management in the near future. Looks like they are trying to drive listings with features until they can build up traffic.
I use SuperINN, which I feel is a good value at $50 per room per year. Includes realtime reservations plus lots of useful (I feel necessary) reporting features.
.

I use SuperINN, which I feel is a good value at $50 per room per year. Includes realtime reservations plus lots of useful (I feel necessary) reporting features.

You only pay $50 a year? I pay $40 a month for 4 rooms.
.

No, $50 per room per year for a total of $600 per year or $50 per month for five rooms.

 

[scrambled_eggs]

I think I might switch over to rezovation because it is about the same price as superinn and they have more features. I won't be doing that though until December. Can't change systems in the middle of the busy season.

 

[swirt]

I think I might switch over to rezovation because it is about the same price as superinn and they have more features. I won't be doing that though until December. Can't change systems in the middle of the busy season..

I've been very happy I made the same switch.

 

[Hangfive]

I'll be taking a look at different options in the 3rd qtr. It sure is nice to have occupancy/revenue data at one source yr over yr. Is it pssible to upload past occupancy data from SuperINN to Rezovation?

 

[happykeeper]

We did a trial of a online program and considered switching from our current ReZ GT and decided that the cons outweighed the pros and stayed with what we have. Part of that was that REZ GT has put a little more value into the program for small inns. (less than 4 rooms I think) They also seem to be more dynamic in terms of long term growth. I have also noticed they are upgrading their training on line, which was not very good in the past.

 

[JBanczak]

I'll be taking a look at different options in the 3rd qtr. It sure is nice to have occupancy/revenue data at one source yr over yr. Is it pssible to upload past occupancy data from SuperINN to Rezovation?.

I'll be taking a look at different options in the 3rd qtr. It sure is nice to have occupancy/revenue data at one source yr over yr. Is it pssible to upload past occupancy data from SuperINN to Rezovation?

It is possible to load all customer data, and we can also load just about anything you can pull into a spreadsheet - but it really depends on what you can actually get out of another system in an organized fashion. You can email offline if you would like to get more details.

 

[swirt]

I'll be taking a look at different options in the 3rd qtr. It sure is nice to have occupancy/revenue data at one source yr over yr. Is it pssible to upload past occupancy data from SuperINN to Rezovation?.

I'll be taking a look at different options in the 3rd qtr. It sure is nice to have occupancy/revenue data at one source yr over yr. Is it pssible to upload past occupancy data from SuperINN to Rezovation?

I ran into data problems with the export from SuperINN. Because I had used carriage returns in the guest notes, it made a mess of the data that they provided me as an export. I had to spend a lot of time cleaning the data by hand. It is not an easy thing. The fault was not with Rezovation .. The fault was definitely on the export side not the import.

 

[JBanczak]

We have a project going on called the Universal Import Tool - it isn't easy though. Swirt brought up a good point on data. A lot of systems don't have data integrity - meaning they shouldn't allow a carriage return in specific fields, etc. So you may get bad data out. We are trying to build an xml tool that would simply take any spreadsheet or CSV file, we could have support point the fields to the appropriate columns, and presto - it comes in. We've actually built a first version, but it is not ready for prime time. I hope this fall it will be.
BTW - in addition to this whole credit card thing going on, we also linked Webervations to Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak, Sidestep, BB.com, etc. - so now Weber users can use it to manage this inventory seamlessly. We also just signed Travelocity to that list of distributors, and will be launching integration to them with a target date of this fall... Also will launch a full GDS link for Rezo GT within a few weeks - final testing going on. Apologize if I am sounding like a commercial, but there was a lot released last week besides the credit card stuff.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

We have a project going on called the Universal Import Tool - it isn't easy though. Swirt brought up a good point on data. A lot of systems don't have data integrity - meaning they shouldn't allow a carriage return in specific fields, etc. So you may get bad data out. We are trying to build an xml tool that would simply take any spreadsheet or CSV file, we could have support point the fields to the appropriate columns, and presto - it comes in. We've actually built a first version, but it is not ready for prime time. I hope this fall it will be.
BTW - in addition to this whole credit card thing going on, we also linked Webervations to Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak, Sidestep, BB.com, etc. - so now Weber users can use it to manage this inventory seamlessly. We also just signed Travelocity to that list of distributors, and will be launching integration to them with a target date of this fall... Also will launch a full GDS link for Rezo GT within a few weeks - final testing going on. Apologize if I am sounding like a commercial, but there was a lot released last week besides the credit card stuff..

Apologize if I am sounding like a commercial, but there was a lot released last week besides the credit card stuff.

Any time you want to post a press release or letter to all on this forum please do so. Right now I am clicking weberv for credi card info twice to get to the details. I would have appreciated knowing something about any of this via the provider. If there is a scheduled maintenance, typically we are notified via email (from everyone else we deal wtih). I have not gotten a response that is why I posted it here, as I know you are faithful to this little nitt picky group right here. "Bless their hearts"