Choosing the Right Reservation System: Beyond "Easy"

In the course of a week, I read a lot industry news and blogs.

This past week, I was reading a thread regarding reservation systems. Different people were commenting on the ones they like, and a reoccuring theme on one was it is, "Easy." I would never target a particular system, but I will say, "Easy is not always better."

Yes, a system should be easy to use, but the problem is, the easier systems often come with less functionality. Therefore, things backend functionality often suffers for the sake of ease of front of house use.

There are numerous systems in the market that provide both ease of booking and robust back end functionality. Pay attention the the following when checking out a system:

• Reporting-is it solid, does it do both cash and accrual accounting, and is it easy to read on screen and by day, week, month and year
• Rate Yielding- it easy to manipulate rate based on supply and demand
• OTA Connectivity (especially if you have Cabins)-does it connect to Air BB, Booking.com and Expedia
• Online booking-does it do online booking and what is the cost per online reservation
• Does it allow you to option to book by site type rather than specific site
• Does it allow you to use your credit card provider of choice, or does it force you to use their provider
• How easy is it to do group and split bookings

These are just a few of the criteria you should consider when choosing a reservation system. Most are pretty easy up front and booking a site is simple, pay attention to group and split booking functions. Some are better than others.

AOS is NOT a software developer. We look at all systems and we recommend what is best for the client. We know all systems in the market and have worked on almost all of them. Trust us when we say, "Easy is not always better."