New reservation system needed

[Arks]

I use Authorize.net directly, so reservations are made and deposit paid on the spot, and Authorize saves the card info at their end, so I can charge the balance due when the guests arrive, or charge a new reservation several months later to the same card, as long as the card hasn't expired. Issuing refunds is also seamless from within ResKey.
If I had it to do over again, I'd use InnPayment, which does the same as Authorize, but is cheaper. If I switched now, I'd lose all the CC data in my system now (stored in Authorize). Starting over with a new payment system would be a little complicated, so I've just stuck with Authorize.
Lots of people use PayPal, but I think Authorize has the most customers because the user experience is so seamless through the ResKey system.

 

[notAgrandma]

I'm another happy ReservationKey customer! The system is great, reliable, offers a ton of reports, looks very polished, integrates seamlessly with credit card processors and MyAllocator, and it automatically adjusts to mobile-phone format -- *not* just "mobile-friendly" (you know, like those shrunken web pages that you can't read!). This is crucial because half of my website hits are via mobile phones. Plus the owner of ResKey, John, has great customer service skills and replies promptly to emails. Prices start at $20/month.
MyAllocator pulls the reservations from all OTAs and automatically plugs them into ResKey. It's $25/month. It's worth it to me because when I was trying to manage OTA reservations manually, I had 2 accidental double-bookings which were a bad experience for me, the guests, and hurt my standings with the OTAs. I have no idea if B&B.con can be integrated with ResKey directly, but it is integrated into my system via MyAllocator.
Last few item related to B&B.con and OTAs: My listing on the OTAs has a generic description of "queen bed, private bath". I do not list all of my rooms individually on the OTAs, and only 1 room is linked to myAllocator -- the room that used to have the lowest occupancy in previous years. By doing this, my OTA listings all have an urgent call-to-action message in red font: "In high demand! Only 1 room left!" When an OTA reservation comes in, I can move those guests to any room I want that has a queen bed & private bath. Also, ResKey allows me to send custom email messages to the OTA guests vs my direct bookings. The OTA guests get an email stressing our check in/out times (OTA guests seem even more oblivious to these details than others), telling them they HAVE to contact the OTA to cancel because we can't cancel reservations made via a 3rd party site, and stating that if they wanted a specific room they needed to book direct. I consider room choice to be a benefit provided only to my direct bookings. I'm not selling my 2-person Jacuzzi suite for $99 a night. If you wanted that room, shoulda called me!.

So, my allocator is only $25/month? No commission based on sales?
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So, my allocator is only $25/month? No commission based on sales?

What doesn't make any sense is a reservation system where you need to purchase another 3rd party system to make it all work. You shouldn't have to purchase the myallocator service, that functionality should be part of whatever reservation system that you go with.
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Sorry, but I disagree. RezKey i reservation system, just as the OTAs are reservation systems. B.con does not update other calendars, why should RezKey? I do not use another system (OTA) why should I pay for the traffic cop (Allocator) who directs all the traffic from various systems (an extra John would have to charge for to integrate)? NONE of the reservation systems do what you are expecting.
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Well, I disagree with your disagreement!
It doesn't cost anything extra for a reservation system to be able to update calendars on the OTA sites. Which means you as a customer shouldn't pay anything extra either.
It all comes down to the reservation software using the API (Application programming interface) that the OTA's publish. That's just a little bit of development time for a reservation system to implement the feature. Pretty trivial, actually.

Anyway, I wouldn't use a reservation system that wouldn't update my calendars on all the other sites and I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it.

I will have to use a reservation system for a month or two while I write my own. But eventually, when I'm done, I'll have a reservation system that is 100% free for me to use.

Sorry, but I disagree. RezKey i reservation system, just as the OTAs are reservation systems. B.con does not update other calendars, why should RezKey? I do not use another system (OTA) why should I pay for the traffic cop (Allocator) who directs all the traffic from various systems (an extra John would have to charge for to integrate)? NONE of the reservation systems do what you are expecting.

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Gosh, I thought I was doing pretty well budgeting my reservation system. ResKey costs $20 a month and myAllocator is $25 a month. No hidden fees and the cost hasn't changed in 4 years. I double-checked and my December statement was $25 for myAllocator. My website hosting is free through google. I thought Resnexus & Resovations were a couple hundred a month?
For credit card processing, I use Authorize-dot-net (~$35/month, varies slightly based on # of "batches" processed per day) to capture the credit cards and feed the info to Elavon. I recently switched to Elavon after reading a recent forum on processors. It wasn't until someone else mentioned the name of my old cc processor that I realized how much I was paying in monthly fees!
All total, the expense of my website, reservation system, integrated OTA software, and cc capturing system is $80. I haven't had Elavon long enough to comment on their fees.

 

[Generic]

I'm another happy ReservationKey customer! The system is great, reliable, offers a ton of reports, looks very polished, integrates seamlessly with credit card processors and MyAllocator, and it automatically adjusts to mobile-phone format -- *not* just "mobile-friendly" (you know, like those shrunken web pages that you can't read!). This is crucial because half of my website hits are via mobile phones. Plus the owner of ResKey, John, has great customer service skills and replies promptly to emails. Prices start at $20/month.
MyAllocator pulls the reservations from all OTAs and automatically plugs them into ResKey. It's $25/month. It's worth it to me because when I was trying to manage OTA reservations manually, I had 2 accidental double-bookings which were a bad experience for me, the guests, and hurt my standings with the OTAs. I have no idea if B&B.con can be integrated with ResKey directly, but it is integrated into my system via MyAllocator.
Last few item related to B&B.con and OTAs: My listing on the OTAs has a generic description of "queen bed, private bath". I do not list all of my rooms individually on the OTAs, and only 1 room is linked to myAllocator -- the room that used to have the lowest occupancy in previous years. By doing this, my OTA listings all have an urgent call-to-action message in red font: "In high demand! Only 1 room left!" When an OTA reservation comes in, I can move those guests to any room I want that has a queen bed & private bath. Also, ResKey allows me to send custom email messages to the OTA guests vs my direct bookings. The OTA guests get an email stressing our check in/out times (OTA guests seem even more oblivious to these details than others), telling them they HAVE to contact the OTA to cancel because we can't cancel reservations made via a 3rd party site, and stating that if they wanted a specific room they needed to book direct. I consider room choice to be a benefit provided only to my direct bookings. I'm not selling my 2-person Jacuzzi suite for $99 a night. If you wanted that room, shoulda called me!.

So, my allocator is only $25/month? No commission based on sales?
.

Just $25 a month, no commissions. Nothing per connection. Just $25 a month flat.

 

[Momma Smurf]

I'm another happy ReservationKey customer! The system is great, reliable, offers a ton of reports, looks very polished, integrates seamlessly with credit card processors and MyAllocator, and it automatically adjusts to mobile-phone format -- *not* just "mobile-friendly" (you know, like those shrunken web pages that you can't read!). This is crucial because half of my website hits are via mobile phones. Plus the owner of ResKey, John, has great customer service skills and replies promptly to emails. Prices start at $20/month.
MyAllocator pulls the reservations from all OTAs and automatically plugs them into ResKey. It's $25/month. It's worth it to me because when I was trying to manage OTA reservations manually, I had 2 accidental double-bookings which were a bad experience for me, the guests, and hurt my standings with the OTAs. I have no idea if B&B.con can be integrated with ResKey directly, but it is integrated into my system via MyAllocator.
Last few item related to B&B.con and OTAs: My listing on the OTAs has a generic description of "queen bed, private bath". I do not list all of my rooms individually on the OTAs, and only 1 room is linked to myAllocator -- the room that used to have the lowest occupancy in previous years. By doing this, my OTA listings all have an urgent call-to-action message in red font: "In high demand! Only 1 room left!" When an OTA reservation comes in, I can move those guests to any room I want that has a queen bed & private bath. Also, ResKey allows me to send custom email messages to the OTA guests vs my direct bookings. The OTA guests get an email stressing our check in/out times (OTA guests seem even more oblivious to these details than others), telling them they HAVE to contact the OTA to cancel because we can't cancel reservations made via a 3rd party site, and stating that if they wanted a specific room they needed to book direct. I consider room choice to be a benefit provided only to my direct bookings. I'm not selling my 2-person Jacuzzi suite for $99 a night. If you wanted that room, shoulda called me!.

So, my allocator is only $25/month? No commission based on sales?
.

Just $25 a month, no commissions. Nothing per connection. Just $25 a month flat.
.

Nope. Go to to myAllocator and it's $41 a month now. Unless there's a RK discount, she says hopefully.

 

[Arks]

I'm another happy ReservationKey customer! The system is great, reliable, offers a ton of reports, looks very polished, integrates seamlessly with credit card processors and MyAllocator, and it automatically adjusts to mobile-phone format -- *not* just "mobile-friendly" (you know, like those shrunken web pages that you can't read!). This is crucial because half of my website hits are via mobile phones. Plus the owner of ResKey, John, has great customer service skills and replies promptly to emails. Prices start at $20/month.
MyAllocator pulls the reservations from all OTAs and automatically plugs them into ResKey. It's $25/month. It's worth it to me because when I was trying to manage OTA reservations manually, I had 2 accidental double-bookings which were a bad experience for me, the guests, and hurt my standings with the OTAs. I have no idea if B&B.con can be integrated with ResKey directly, but it is integrated into my system via MyAllocator.
Last few item related to B&B.con and OTAs: My listing on the OTAs has a generic description of "queen bed, private bath". I do not list all of my rooms individually on the OTAs, and only 1 room is linked to myAllocator -- the room that used to have the lowest occupancy in previous years. By doing this, my OTA listings all have an urgent call-to-action message in red font: "In high demand! Only 1 room left!" When an OTA reservation comes in, I can move those guests to any room I want that has a queen bed & private bath. Also, ResKey allows me to send custom email messages to the OTA guests vs my direct bookings. The OTA guests get an email stressing our check in/out times (OTA guests seem even more oblivious to these details than others), telling them they HAVE to contact the OTA to cancel because we can't cancel reservations made via a 3rd party site, and stating that if they wanted a specific room they needed to book direct. I consider room choice to be a benefit provided only to my direct bookings. I'm not selling my 2-person Jacuzzi suite for $99 a night. If you wanted that room, shoulda called me!.

So, my allocator is only $25/month? No commission based on sales?
.

Just $25 a month, no commissions. Nothing per connection. Just $25 a month flat.
.

Nope. Go to to myAllocator and it's $41 a month now. Unless there's a RK discount, she says hopefully.
.

Nope. Go to to myAllocator and it's $41 a month now. Unless there's a RK discount, she says hopefully.

I doubt they ever heard of RK. I'm guessing the $25 is for existing customers under the old rate for the current period, but will go up to $41 at the expiration of their current period. I'm happy to be rid of them!

 

[OnTheShore]

How are you handling your payment processing with reservation key? Do you use the option to just collect credit card numbers or do you use automatic payment? If automatic, what service are you using for that?
Right now we use Square for processing CC's but when I finish the web site and have online booking I'll need a means of handling the credit cards. I haven't seen any booking system yet that integrates with square..

We use the PayPal integration in ResKey to collect deposits; the guest also has the option to send us an e-mail to let us know that they have put a check in the mail (in which case, their reservation shows as "pending" rather than "confirmed").
We use Square for processing cards in person, and for manually sending electronic invoices where the payer can go to a secure link to enter their credit card details directly with Square (could also do the invoicing with PayPal). We try to avoid manually entering the payer's card information into Square ourselves, because the "card not present" rate is so much higher than swiped/dipped, or payer-entered (which falls somewhere in between).

 

[OnTheShore]

The only "OTA" we are using now is AirBnB, but we have in the past used VRBO, FlipKey, VacationHomeRentals, and TripAdvisor's "pay per click" program (forget what it is called). ResKey does integrate with TripAdvisor (or at least it did and probably still does, unless TA has changed their interface). For the others, we used ResKey to drive the availability calendars on the other sites using iCal links (well, at the time, VRBO/HomeAway wouldn't accept incoming iCal links, because they assumed that their calendar would be your master calendar -- grrr!). We only used the iCal links in one direction (ResKey out to the others), but ResKey can also take in availability information (but not full Reservation details) via iCal links.
For us, the pace of incoming reservations is generally slow enough that we can get away with adding reservations coming through third parties manually without too much worry about double bookings. Most of our calendar gets filled up with returning guests and others who contact us directly -- we actually don't get that many guests who make their reservations online through ResKey themselves, most of them e-mail us... (and most of our downpayments/deposits are done by checks in the mail...)

 

[Morticia]

How are you handling your payment processing with reservation key? Do you use the option to just collect credit card numbers or do you use automatic payment? If automatic, what service are you using for that?
Right now we use Square for processing CC's but when I finish the web site and have online booking I'll need a means of handling the credit cards. I haven't seen any booking system yet that integrates with square..

We use the PayPal integration in ResKey to collect deposits; the guest also has the option to send us an e-mail to let us know that they have put a check in the mail (in which case, their reservation shows as "pending" rather than "confirmed").
We use Square for processing cards in person, and for manually sending electronic invoices where the payer can go to a secure link to enter their credit card details directly with Square (could also do the invoicing with PayPal). We try to avoid manually entering the payer's card information into Square ourselves, because the "card not present" rate is so much higher than swiped/dipped, or payer-entered (which falls somewhere in between).
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Is there a fee for using the invoice system on square? Above and beyond the cost of processing the card?

 

[gillumhouse]

How are you handling your payment processing with reservation key? Do you use the option to just collect credit card numbers or do you use automatic payment? If automatic, what service are you using for that?
Right now we use Square for processing CC's but when I finish the web site and have online booking I'll need a means of handling the credit cards. I haven't seen any booking system yet that integrates with square..

We use the PayPal integration in ResKey to collect deposits; the guest also has the option to send us an e-mail to let us know that they have put a check in the mail (in which case, their reservation shows as "pending" rather than "confirmed").
We use Square for processing cards in person, and for manually sending electronic invoices where the payer can go to a secure link to enter their credit card details directly with Square (could also do the invoicing with PayPal). We try to avoid manually entering the payer's card information into Square ourselves, because the "card not present" rate is so much higher than swiped/dipped, or payer-entered (which falls somewhere in between).
.

Is there a fee for using the invoice system on square? Above and beyond the cost of processing the card?
.

Is there a fee for using the invoice system on square? Above and beyond the cost of processing the card?

From what I understand of it, with the guest entering the numbers and info, it is the same as card present, no fee more than the flat 2.75%.

 

[OnTheShore]

How are you handling your payment processing with reservation key? Do you use the option to just collect credit card numbers or do you use automatic payment? If automatic, what service are you using for that?
Right now we use Square for processing CC's but when I finish the web site and have online booking I'll need a means of handling the credit cards. I haven't seen any booking system yet that integrates with square..

We use the PayPal integration in ResKey to collect deposits; the guest also has the option to send us an e-mail to let us know that they have put a check in the mail (in which case, their reservation shows as "pending" rather than "confirmed").
We use Square for processing cards in person, and for manually sending electronic invoices where the payer can go to a secure link to enter their credit card details directly with Square (could also do the invoicing with PayPal). We try to avoid manually entering the payer's card information into Square ourselves, because the "card not present" rate is so much higher than swiped/dipped, or payer-entered (which falls somewhere in between).
.

Is there a fee for using the invoice system on square? Above and beyond the cost of processing the card?
.

Is there a fee for using the invoice system on square? Above and beyond the cost of processing the card?

From what I understand of it, with the guest entering the numbers and info, it is the same as card present, no fee more than the flat 2.75%.
.

The rate for invoicing was bumped last year up to 2.9% + 0.30 per transaction.

 

[SereniTea]

Is anyone familiar with availabilityonline.com booking system? or rezovation.com?

 

[MidwestBB]

Is anyone familiar with availabilityonline.com booking system? or rezovation.com?.

I had never heard of availabilityonline.com until you posted about it but I wouldn't even consider that system. It's expensive and doesn't seem to have all the features it should. I'm currently using Reservation Key but I am probably going to switch to beds24.com. Beds24.com is half the price of Reservation Key and talks to airbnb and all of the other OTA's and there is no additional charge for that. Reservation Key requires you use another service for something like another $25 or $35 a month.
Reservation Key is $25/month for our 2 rooms. Beds24 is I think $11 a month and that includes it talking to about 30 or 40 different OTAs.
While I love all of the features of Reservation Key, it lacks a lot in the quality of the interface in terms of looking super professional. I can tell the person behind it is a developer like me and not a designer. I envy people who are good designers. I spent a full day just making the calendar/search widget look professional when I shouldn't have to do that. Also, I don't much like how the reservation pages display to guests. I can fix it, but again its my time.
I started to trial (free) beds24.com and so far I really like what I see. But I didn't have enough availability to give it a decent trial. They are going to give me another free 15 day trial when I will have the available time to spend with it.

Is anyone familiar with availabilityonline.com booking system? or rezovation.com?

 

[SereniTea]

Is anyone familiar with availabilityonline.com booking system? or rezovation.com?.

I had never heard of availabilityonline.com until you posted about it but I wouldn't even consider that system. It's expensive and doesn't seem to have all the features it should. I'm currently using Reservation Key but I am probably going to switch to beds24.com. Beds24.com is half the price of Reservation Key and talks to airbnb and all of the other OTA's and there is no additional charge for that. Reservation Key requires you use another service for something like another $25 or $35 a month.
Reservation Key is $25/month for our 2 rooms. Beds24 is I think $11 a month and that includes it talking to about 30 or 40 different OTAs.
While I love all of the features of Reservation Key, it lacks a lot in the quality of the interface in terms of looking super professional. I can tell the person behind it is a developer like me and not a designer. I envy people who are good designers. I spent a full day just making the calendar/search widget look professional when I shouldn't have to do that. Also, I don't much like how the reservation pages display to guests. I can fix it, but again its my time.
I started to trial (free) beds24.com and so far I really like what I see. But I didn't have enough availability to give it a decent trial. They are going to give me another free 15 day trial when I will have the available time to spend with it.

Is anyone familiar with availabilityonline.com booking system? or rezovation.com?

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Thank you so much for the info i'm brand new to this and trying to determine the best reservation tool and Beds24 looks like a great option. Thanks so much.