Which PMS do you use and why?

[JBloggs]

Expensive...too.

 

[toddburme]

This is the thing I have to do this month is setup Superinn on the site. This thread is making me question my decision. 5 room BnB..

This is the thing I have to do this month is setup Superinn on the site. This thread is making me question my decision. 5 room BnB.

How are you questioning your decision?
.

There is a few comments above stating that Superinn requires quite a few entries etc to do simple things. Sort of makes me think the software is not very user friendly.
"SuperInn was more tedious to use"
"SuperInn, as mentioned, simply takes too many clicks to perform basic routines."

 

[toddburme]

No we don't have online avail on any of our directories now. I never had bookings from them before anyway. As I mentioned to this bloke who was here the other day, our goal is to get them to OUR WEBSITE to book. I want them on my turf. .

I was looking at BnB's in neighboring towns etc and my perception was that if you could book it at the bbonline site was that they didn't have a website and it was off putting. Seemed "unprofessional". Obviously now I know this is wrong but that was my first impression of booking right there versus going to the website. Weird as I wonder if other people think that or not.

 

[JBloggs]

Good call Todd. Again, we want them on OUR website, so we can dazzle them! Of course some might be better off using BBONLINE as their main site. Ugh.

 

[Copperhead]

No we don't have online avail on any of our directories now. I never had bookings from them before anyway. As I mentioned to this bloke who was here the other day, our goal is to get them to OUR WEBSITE to book. I want them on my turf. .

I was looking at BnB's in neighboring towns etc and my perception was that if you could book it at the bbonline site was that they didn't have a website and it was off putting. Seemed "unprofessional". Obviously now I know this is wrong but that was my first impression of booking right there versus going to the website. Weird as I wonder if other people think that or not.
.

Some DO use bbonline as their only site! Others do not. It is very important to have everything you can everywhere you can. .. PERIOD.
If someone gets everything they need from my bbonline site and is ready to book - great!!! But I do have my website listed as well...ALL the answers are on my site, so any doubts, make that click & look around.
Regarding your decision as to which booking software to purchase, I suggest you do test bookings (except the final 'send') on sites that have those softwares. If you do not know which ones use what, contact the vendor and ask for some. The best way to find out what the guest goes through is to test it out that way. If as a guest you are pleased, and you are pleased on the management end... you have found your software. I know of no software that fulfills everyones needs and desires at the price they are willing to pay.

 

[JBloggs]

Good news y'all!!! BIG NEWS!
BBONLINE just added my rezkey to the online availability! it is not to BOOK there, but opens my rezkey page TO BOOK A ROOM!
SCORE!

 

[Copperhead]

Good news y'all!!! BIG NEWS!
BBONLINE just added my rezkey to the online availability! it is not to BOOK there, but opens my rezkey page TO BOOK A ROOM!
SCORE!.

--- but I thought you wanted them to go to YOUR site? Don't get me wrong, I am happy about this...hope more do this so our options get better!
This will work the same way Webervations does on bbonline - it brings them to MY booking page. B&B.com does the same. (the later also has book it now option but that is optional, uses their system not mine & is commission based).

 

[Morticia]

This is the thing I have to do this month is setup Superinn on the site. This thread is making me question my decision. 5 room BnB..

This is the thing I have to do this month is setup Superinn on the site. This thread is making me question my decision. 5 room BnB.

How are you questioning your decision?
.

There is a few comments above stating that Superinn requires quite a few entries etc to do simple things. Sort of makes me think the software is not very user friendly.
"SuperInn was more tedious to use"
"SuperInn, as mentioned, simply takes too many clicks to perform basic routines."
.

There is a few comments above stating that Superinn requires quite a few entries etc to do simple things. Sort of makes me think the software is not very user friendly.
"SuperInn was more tedious to use"
"SuperInn, as mentioned, simply takes too many clicks to perform basic routines."

I guess you'd need to test drive a few other systems to be sure it's what you want. I think most systems do allow a 30 day test drive. If you just need a booking engine, you don't need SuperInn. If you want/need something that does any kind of tracking/ biz reports, SuperInn works pretty well.
I have not tried any other systems, so I don't know if it's really 'tedious' or not.

 

[JBloggs]

IT IS on MY SITE. It is my reservation page.

 

[swirt]

Just make sure if you do switch, that you go in and turn off all those links for online or avail checks on those directories or they will get a broken link. Sometimes we forget we have so many irons in the fire!.

Just make sure if you do switch, that you go in and turn off all those links for online or avail checks on those directories or they will get a broken link. Sometimes we forget we have so many irons in the fire!

This is why I recommend people starting out, set up a 301 redirect from their site to their reservation system. Then make sure all the booking links you put out there to your system (even from your own site) all reference the more user-friendly url. It looks better, plus if you change your booking systems, all you have to do is update the redirect to the new location, and all of the old links on directories keep working just fine, you don't need to update them.
example: www.winecountrycabins.com/check (a nice friendly url I can even give over the phone or in an email, but watch what happens to the address in the browser after you click the link.)

 

[Breakfast Diva]

IT IS on MY SITE. It is my reservation page..

That is GREAT news! I'm getting closer and closer to switching over. Thanks for the feedback!
Do you feel Reservation Key has enough management features so that it can act as a PMS alone? Can you download guest data i.e. e-mail addresses to a separate newsletter system? Does it give you enough financial information to generate reports, i.e. gross room revenue, room tax, occupancy rates, POS etc?

 

[JBloggs]

It has many features for reporting, but I still am using my other guest mgmt system for taxes. I think it would work on its own for most people, but I got hooked on this other prgm (guestall).
"Can you download guest data i.e. e-mail addresses to a separate newsletter system? Does it give you enough financial information to generate reports, i.e. gross room revenue, room tax, occupancy rates, POS etc?"
Yes you can do these things. Anything you cannot find, ask John at Rezkey and he will see if he has it being built or can build it for you. He currently has the packages feature underway, per an innmates request. There are features I don't use and he has there which I need to sit down and check them all out. From signing up and using it I have not really gotten into all the goodies yet. I will, maybe this winter...
This is what he does, he sees what we need and then works from that, it might seem illogical to an I.T. person but to us it is something we need to use everyday, so that is great!

 

[gillumhouse]

I switched to Reservation Key - mostly on JB's recommend after I looked at it. I switched a month before my Webervations was due for renewal so I could go back if it did not work out.
Yes, it gives reports (ahem, reports I did not know it gave until I looked just now). Now I an going to have to input some more data, but I do like it. Will not go back as it is VERY affordable. A guest just used it last month to book a room for 2 nights in 2 different months. I asked if it was easy to use and did she have to enter her data each time. Easy to use and entered info once only. JB uses the take the credit card and post the charges option, I do not - so you can have it do what you want it to. It sends a letter I created to the reservation e-mail 3 days before arrival and then after departure sends a thank you for choosing us e-mail.
The only thing it does not do is allow my packages to be booked as the reservation - they are treated as add-ons - so I had to go in and separate the room rate and add each Special as an add-on with the price difference as the cost. It tells me via e-mail I have a reservation and removes the room from inventory until I confirm or reject the reservation.
I can change the rates on the reservation (as in changing the rack rate to per diem), mark as exempt, have different rates for different nights in a reservation. I like it! Even this numbnutz can use it.
Update: I can now have people reserve my packages. When they choose dates, the packages pop up at the side as options and if a package is chosen, the room rate zeros out and the package charge gets the tax added. We still have a couple bugs to work out, but I tested it this morning. ReservationsKey & I were on Skype last night working out many of the bugs while I waited for my in-coming. VERY responsive to our needs - wespecially if we can suggest how it could be done...