In early 2023, InnQuest sent out an email to all users of its hotel property management system (PMS) roomMaster 2000 to notify them that the on premise version of the software would stop working at the end of 2024. All hotel clients would have to migrate to roomMaster Cloud or roomMaster Anywhere. One of my hotel clients changed over to roomMaster Cloud recently. There has been several issues with the process from start to finish. Below are some things to be aware of during the transition to help hotels make an informed decision.

What is roomMaster Cloud?

Let’s start at the beginning with a quick overview of what is happening.

roomMaster 2000 is an on premise hotel PMS that is ideal for medium-sized properties up to 100-150 rooms. That means that the hotels have a main computer acting as the server for roomMaster with a central database, and then additional workstations that would access that server over the local network. This allows for multiple users to be accessing the hotel database (i.e. two front desk computers and an office administrator/General Manager) but also allows housekeepers to update the status of rooms being cleaned by dialling from the in-room phone. There were many benefits to having on premise server, but the main one was the ability for the hotel to still function during a power outage as long as the computers were connected to a UPS power backup. The main downside is anyone away from the hotel did not have access without using remote desktop software to connect to the server.

That setup is familiar to anyone who worked in hotels in the late 1990s and were using Opera, Maestro, or a lot of other hotel PMS systems around the world.

roomMaster Cloud takes the server away from the hotel and makes it accessible remotely through the internet using a web browser. This is how most modern hotel PMS systems are now, in addition to the internet in general. Not only does that allow hotels to have as many users as they want connected to the hotel PMS, it allows for InnQuest to upgrade the software more easily. With the on premise version, a support tech would have to set a scheduled time to log into the hotel server and perform the software upgrade manually. With the Cloud, the support team can upgrade more easily at night automatically.

The downsides to using a cloud-based PMS are generally going to be that the system is slower (dependent on your internet connection speed) and the system will be unaccessible if the internet or power goes out completely. In a larger city, this is less of a concern, but in more remote locations, it is something to be aware of.

With the on premise version ending, hotels will have to decide whether to buy a different on premise system (Maestro and Opera being two options) or go through with the conversion to Cloud. The primary reason to go to Cloud is the hotel database will be fully intact – reservations, rates, direct billing accounts, guest profiles, etc. With a new system, there may be a lot of manual entries unless they can import the roomMaster database (which is unlikely). Manually entering the reservations would be a major chore, but doable. The biggest loss if going to a different PMS, in my opinion, is all the guest information and company history disappearing.

Differences

There are very minor differences with Cloud versus roomMaster 17 (latest on premise version). The first difference is accessing the software. At front desk workstations or other computers at the property, there will be a launcher on the desktop. This will open up roomMaster Cloud automatically through the default web browser. Nothing too different there besides the web browser.

With people not at the hotel and want to connect remotely, they will have to first access a different website, sign-in, and then it will redirect them to roomMaster Cloud where you have to sign in again. It behaves differently than expected, and a bit clumsy compared to all the other interfaces we have come to be comfortable with on the web. What appears to happen is a person accesses the first website, enters their credentials, and the system pulls up the correct location of the Cloud server to have you remotely access that computer. There is a Windows log-in screen, but you don’t have access to anything else on that server except for roomMaster (which is understandable).

After you sign-in, the look of roomMaster Cloud is going to be almost identical. There are some minor differences to the look and how things function, but instead of writing them out, it will be best to watch some of the short videos InnQuest prepared. There are 9 videos, roughly 30 mins in length in total, which covers all the differences. I compiled them into a playlist to make it easier for people to watch.

Besides the differences in the software, another difference will be the requirement of a separate keypad to be used to record credit card numbers. A regular keyboard won’t work when entering the credit cards on roomMaster. There are two keypads included with the installation, and it is critical that they be on site before migrating to the Cloud. Be sure to follow-up about the keypads being sent and ask for a tracking number.

The final annoyance has been with file exports. Sending the PDFs by email worked well for guest folios and company statements. In order to save the PDF or CSV files to a computer, a user will have to go through OwnCloud, which is a private OneDrive/Dropbox for companies. From roomMaster Cloud, the file will be exported to OwnCloud, and then 5-20 minutes later, the file is available to transfer from a folder on your personal computer. The delay is a major nuisance and there is no workaround right now. InnQuest support did tell me that they are working on integrating a new solution, but there is no timeline for that to occur.

Next Steps

Assuming you have taken the time to research the options, watched a demo of Cloud, and have decided to go through with the migration to Cloud, the next step is receiving the quote. This process is relatively straight forward (number of rooms, any interfaces required like call recording or connecting to a channel manager like SiteMinder).

The primary thing to be aware of is the contract that is sent out is not the full contract. There is a brief mention of their master services agreement which is linked to but the language is not included in the document you sign. The other thing of note is it was a bit slow communicating with the InnQuest representative. It took a few weeks from the initial email stating we wanted to proceed to a contract being sent to us.

There was also no clear guideline of what was to happen after the contract was signed. The assumption was the next steps would be communicated promptly after the contract was signed. There was no contact for three weeks with anyone. I think part of that was a closure for the Christmas holidays, but I expected something, not radio silence.

When you are contacted by an onboarding agent, there are three appointments:

1. First onboarding call to remotely access roomMaster and review the configuration
2. Tokenization of the credit cards currently in the system
3. Migrating the database to the Cloud and switching the hotel on

The first call is to answer any additional questions you may have about the migration. They also test the internet connection to make sure it meets their requirements of 30 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds. During this call, it will be important to try to nail down a schedule of when things are going to happen so you can plan. Be sure to provide the information for all the people who are going to remotely log-in (names and email addresses) so their accounts can be setup in advance.

The tokenization of the credit cards is securing the information so it can be transferred to the cloud from one database to another. It does require no one using roomMaster for 10-15 minutes while the process starts, but otherwise roomMaster remains functional. The only limitation during this process is credit cards can’t be authorized or charged. You may also have to restart the server after it’s done. When the tech was completed, the hotel wasn’t informed and received error messages from the server.

The migration of the database is the most important day in the whole process. During this time, roomMaster will not be able to be used. It’s the biggest inconvenience with switching a PMS to a different one. In the case of this hotel, it required some important preparations. I put the list into a Google Doc for everyone to review and modify for their unique situations. Depending on the size of your roomMaster database, there may be some information that won’t be accessible afterwards. This is dependent on the technician eliminating some older information that won’t affect future reservations. It will be best to clarify with the technician what is going to be accessible and what won’t be after the migration.

When Going Live

After the conversion is complete, the front desk agents will be able to sign into roomMaster Cloud using their old credentials. Before ending the call with the technician, there are a few things to be mindful of:

• verify that an account with Admin level authorizations can log in, in case passwords need to be reset for anyone working that night
• verify that remote access is working
• verify that the keypads for credit card numbers is working
• verify that credit card authorizations are working (create a test reservation and run a personal card for $5)
• verify that all the extras connected to roomMaster are working (key card machines, POS, call accounting, channel managers, etc)

This should all be checked by the technician on the call, but wasn’t in my case, which lead to several follow-up calls in the next few days. Dealing with it all at once will be much better for everyone.

The only other thing to add about this whole process is the support office for InnQuest can be terribly slow. For nearly 15 years, I have been working with the InnQuest Canada support office which has been fantastic. It was a bit of a wake-up call dealing with the US office now through all this. Looking at some of the reviews for InnQuest, I don’t seem to be alone.

Other than the process to changeover to roomMaster Cloud, the hotel using it hasn’t had any challenges. All the reservation data transferred over seamlessly, city ledger accounts were accurate, and guest history was all there. It still remains a solid choice for medium-sized properties. A smaller operation or a simpler structure like a motel will like be better off with Little Hotelier or other cloud-based PMS.

If you have any other questions or concerns about this process, and whether roomMaster Cloud is right for your property, feel free to contact me. I will answer your questions to the best of my ability to make sure your process goes more smoothly than it did for me.

The post Navigating the Shift from roomMaster 17 to Cloud: Key Considerations and Cautions appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

Earlier in the year, an article titled Use SiteMinder To Save Money And Earn More Revenue was published here, projecting the savings that would happen after switching a property’s central reservation system (CRS). That article was mainly speculation on the fees associated with direct bookings and not having to pay for a service like GuestFolio for guest messaging. Around the same time the article was published, a boutique hotel was switched over to SiteMinder. Now, some more accurate numbers can be shared about the effect SiteMinder is having on that property.

Lower Fees – Big Time

In that article, the following table was shared to come up with an baseline to work with.

Followed by this table with an estimated cost for the same amount of bookings but using SiteMinder:

That projected difference works out to a savings of 44%. The actual savings in the last six months on the fees above is 61%!

But, the higher fees for the SiteMinder platform also includes Guest Experience for messaging and guidebook. This boutique hotel was using GuestFolio which was charging $400/month, plus the Sabre monthly fee on top. SiteMinder combined with Guest Experience is less than GuestFolio, creating another small savings.

Booking.com

The big surprise in savings came from Booking.com.

One of the main features of SiteMinder is Demand Plus, which creates a featured link on Google searches, TripAdvisor, and Trivago. It puts the link to the hotel at the top of the listings. If you use the free link from the Google Business profile, the link appears at the very bottom of all the options.

It was not entirely clear how much of an effect adding the link to the very top of the results would have. Turns out, it’s quite dramatic.

For this hotel, the Booking.com fees have dropped by 60% for the last six months. Those commission fees (18%) can really add up, so to have them essentially eliminated while maintaining the overall hotel revenues has been a real blessing.

The other side benefit to this is the hotel receives all the contact information for the guest and can keep encouraging them to book directly at the site, rather than through Google. The added savings should only grow. With Guest Experience on SiteMinder, every Booking.com reservation is sent a link to fill out their personal details. That helps pull more people away from Booking.com (or other OTAs) and gives the hotel the opportunity to have them book directly.

The other thing of note with Demand Plus occurred when reviewing their analytics page. It shows the impressions and conversion rate for each platform. Google was regularly in the 30% conversion range, while TripAdvisor was in the 10%’s, and Trivago had nearly nothing. This hotel is regularly one of the top 3 hotels in the city on TripAdvisor, so it was surprising to see the conversion rate be that much lower.

Combining the fees for reservations, commissions, and monthly fees, the overall costs over the last six months have been down nearly 40%, without having lost any revenues.

Switching to SiteMinder has made a lot of sense financially, and the user experience has been as expected. The only real headache was adjusting the confirmation/pre-arrival emails to look better. The email editor is in HTML, but not a WYSIWYG editor like some other platforms. Overall, I think the emails look good now, and not something that needs to be adjusted for a long time.

Fully Featured

The full set of features for SiteMinder can be found on the page devoted to it: Learn More about SiteMinder

There is currently a sale on SiteMinder, along with a free trial. To learn more about the sale, fill out the form below and more information will be sent to you. For the trial, click the button below to sign up.

Any signups through Four Sides Hospitality Consulting include assistance with the transfer from one CRS to SiteMinder, and consulting time to talk about best practices with SiteMinder.

The post Maximizing Efficiency: The SiteMinder Experience – 6 Months Later appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

SiteMinder, the world’s leading channel manager, is offering a special discount between now and the end of November, 2023.

To learn more about SiteMinder, take a look at these articles on this website:

• SiteMinder – a general overview of the product
• Use SiteMinder To Save Money And Earn More Revenue
• How to Use Turbosuite and SiteMinder to Increase Your Revenue in 2023

The Deal

Save 50% for the first 6 months when adding on Demand Plus.

This offer is only valid for new properties signing up between now and November 30th, 2023.

Demand Plus is featured in the article about saving money and earning more revenue above. It’s the add-on that allows hotels to direct bookings towards the hotel’s website and away from the OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia. Get bookings directly from Google Search results using your Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, Trivago, and even on a Facebook page. The commission-based fees are lower than Booking.com (as low as 3%) and well worth exploring.

How to Sign Up for the Deal

To take advantage of this offer, fill out the form below. The deal is only offered through the certified SiteMinder Partners, which Four Sides Hospitality Consulting is one of. The information will be passed along to a sales representative at SiteMinder to provide a demo and more information.

If you have questions or would like an initial quote, please put them in the comment box below. You will receive a response within 24 hours.

The post SiteMinder – On Sale Now appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

Introduction

There is an ongoing hospitality revolution right now. People are tending to book a more personalized space to help them tell their story while they travel. People are booking spaces of all sizes and varieties: condos, whole homes, a bedroom, a houseboat, and villas able to accommodate 40 people. You can find these spaces in all corners of the world, from the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, the remote Easter Island, to Kigali, Rwanda. The best part is there is always space for more homes and properties to jump in to be a part of the global trend, not to be excluding from it.

As more people join this revolution and start operating vacation rentals, more people are looking at sites like Airbnb first to choose their stay. Having more people look for a vacation rental does not always mean your property will be full all the time. There is constant competition within the booking sites and locally with the other hotels and accommodation providers.

Listing Optimization

Airbnb uses a metric to track the number of clicks a listing gets from the search results, the Click Through Rate (CTR). It tracks how long a potential guests spends reading each part of the listing. It will then grade each category separately to generate an overall CTR number. The higher the number, the higher your listing will rank in the search results for your area.

This all makes sense when you consider that the properties that have better click through rates because of their pictures and information are more likely to convert those views into reservations. Hosts that maintain a higher guest rating from being good hosts will always be shown higher, so improving the click through rate will help you rank higher than them in the results.

Photos

The first and most important part about photos for the listing is that they must be taken by a professional. Photos are the very first thing that a potential guest will see when browsing the search results and one of the biggest influences in helping a guest make a decision about a space. The cameras in phones have improved quite a bit, but they still pale in comparison to a professional’s work when getting the space properly lit, composed/staged, and the best angles to highlight the best features of the property.

Not only do the photos sell the space to the guests, but Airbnb’s search engine algorithm will scan the photos to check for their quality. In addition to having quality photos, each photo needs to have a caption attached to it. This helps describe the space more fully to the potential guest and adds to the algorithm score.

The first photo is shown as a thumbnail on the search page. It should be the main selling feature of the property to help it stand out from the rest. The pool, hot tub, access to the beach, etc. Less focus on the living spaces that would be featured more with a house sale, and more emphasis on what makes the space special. The next four images appear on the listing’s homepage and should feature the next four best features of the home.

For each photo, make sure they have captions attached and make the captions unique. The different phrasing will help with the algorithm to increase the listing’s score.

Title

While most hoteliers are not spending a lot of time thinking about what to name a hotel room, a lot of care is spent with naming a vacation rental. Cascadia, The Cavell, Dos Balcones. All these names help create an image of the property in the guest’s mind before they click on the listing. It helps market the property when people start talking about their experience. They talk about staying at The Cavell, and people can search for that name in that city. It will help direct future guests your way if the property has a special name, rather than, “Search for the home near Gyro Beach.”

In addition to the name being a marketing tool, the full title adds to the algorithm score. The title can only be 50 characters and of those only 36 are visible in the search result. Keep the name short and mention something of more value to entice the guests to click. Some examples of good titles include, “Luxury 1-bdrm with home theatre and mountain view,” or “Lakefront Retreat: Sauna, Hot Tub, Fishing, Hiking.” Titles like, “Sundance Sweet,” or “Mid-Century Modern Dream Retreat” probably aren’t going to work very well.

Workshop the name and title by creating a list of 5-10 options. Do not feel married to the first idea you come up with, and take a look at the competition in the area. See what others are doing and what you could do better or differently to stand out.

Once you have the name, make sure it is mentioned in the listing and all your marketing materials on Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profiles, and more. Name recognition will start to happen and people will be searching for your property before looking for just any property to stay in.

Summary Description

The summary description is the part of the listing that really closes the sale. The title and pictures draws the guest in, and then after they click, the summary is the first thing they read. It helps build upon the initial interest from seeing the pictures and helps encourage people to keep reading to then book a stay.

The section is limited to 500 characters, which is not a lot of space to capture everything. The summary should be focused on highlighting the reasons to stay in the space and the amenities included in the building or nearby. If you have any policies that must be enforced, the summary is a good place to remind people that the space is non-smoking, pet-free, limited to a number of guests, etc.

Within the summary, it will be important to structure it so it is readable for both guests and the algorithm. Split the section into two parts. The first can be about the property’s design and location, while the second can be a bullet list of the amenities in the property or nearby. Finish the summary with a call to action to encourage people to continue reading and exploring the listing.

The Space

There are no restrictions on character limits with this section like the summary. It will be important to keep building the interest in the space in order to have people book. If you have a longer description here, the higher you will rank on Airbnb. Of course, the guests will find the information more valuable and are more likely to book at your space as well.

Since all the sections are visible in a separate scroll from the listing, it will be important to not repeat the language too much. Find different ways of describing things, and don’t copy and paste the same chunks of text into the space. Like the summary section, bullet points can be your friend and will be helpful in organizing the description.

Describe the property more thoroughly (i.e. what is located on each floor, what type of beds and mattresses, are there pull-out sofas available) and keep it readable to maintain interest. An easy way to do this is by using separate headings for each area with a short description underneath. This will help keep the reader scrolling and reading more.

Make sure you fill this section with valuable information because listings can be penalized for empty spaces.

Guest Access

The guest access section can describe how the guests will be able to access the property (i.e. a secured doorway from a condo building or a keypad on a separate suite or house). It should also include details on what the guest will have access to if the property is shared. This is especially important if the vacation rental is only a bedroom in a house, but is also important for rentals that share an amenity like a pool.

Other Things to Note

This section is for more information to supplement what has been shared previously. No need to go over the property highlights, but instead make note of anything that would be helpful for someone travelling to your property. General information about your condo/building complex that may not be appealing (i.e. a restaurant/bar that is attached and noisy at night), whether off-street parking is limited, new construction in the area, no elevators available in the building, and so forth.

The section could also include useful tips about where the garbage/recycling areas are located generally, how far away the parking area is, and other general information. The specific information can be saved for the guest guidebook (which you do have, right?)

It is also a useful area to explain the guest expectations while they are staying at the property, including duties upon leaving (throwing garbage away, stripping beds, running dishwasher, etc.) Again, the specifics will be included in the guidebook as guests are generally not going to refer to the original listing to get information once they have checked into the property.

This area does count towards points for the algorithm. At the very least, the cleaning protocols could be mentioned along (cleaned professionally, the products used) to give some peace of mind to the guests that are concerned about it. This is especially true as we all navigate the post-pandemic times and require different levels of cleaning to be done.

Interaction with Guests

This area is for showing the potential guests the steps after they make the booking request (if the instant booking feature is turned off). Do you require additional information to do a check on the guests? Will you be meeting them at the property when they arrive? What is your availability like during their stay, or will there be a different contact person available? The specifics can be provided later, but it will be important to let the guests know what to expect in case there is something they are not comfortable with.

The Neighbourhood

Quite possibly the easiest section to write about is describing the general area and the city the guests will be staying in. The Overview area allows you another opportunity to separate your property from the others by providing information about your close proximity to the special places that the guests will likely venture to. How close are you to the beach/waterfront or ski village? If you are in a city with a lot of live sporting events that people will be travelling to, is it easy to reach those stadiums and arenas? If your property is focused more on the business traveller staying for longterm, they will want to know how far away the property is from the business areas, fitness gyms, grocery stores, etc.

The Getting Around area is self-explanatory. Describe the distance from the airport, from the major highways/interstates that guests may be driving on, and expected cab fares to/from the airport or other port that they will be arriving at. Provide information about public transportation and the closest spots to catch the bus or subway. You could also offer suggestions on different car rental companies or alternative forms of transportation like the e-scooters and bikes that are becoming more common.

For these two areas, readability will be important so use bullet points to express the different options available and subheadings to keep things organized.

Amenities

The amenities should be filled out as much as possible and be accurate. Marking something as being available at the property but then having the guest discover it is not available will lead to negative reviews. The amenities also add to the overall rank for the property.

The basic amenities that should definitely be included with any property to rank higher include:

• Internet
• Dedicated Workspace
• Essentials
• Hair Dryer
• Hangers
• Iron

Only six items and all fairly basic to have available.

Host Profile

The host profile may seem to be the least important part about a listing since it’s at the bottom, but do not underestimate its importance. There are three simple things a host much do in order to get a boost in the search rank and also help sell the listing to a potential guest:

1. Profile Photo – a professional shot (not selfie) would be preferable and a headshot only, no need for a full body shot. Be friendly and professional, avoid lazy clothing and poses.
2. Host Profile Description – write about your experiences with hosting, how long you have been a host, and your background in the hospitality field. Did you used to live in the space? Did you create any of the artwork or take the photographs? If the listing is a shared space, talk about your personality and daily schedule so people are aware of when you will be at the property and any noise they may hearing from any children or pets you have.
3. Verification of Your ID – self-explanatory. Not being verified will not lead to more bookings.

Additional Tips to Rank Higher

The above items are considered the essential steps in helping your listing rank properly and not get buried in the search results. There are a few more things you can do to be ahead of the competition, but also several other things out of your control.

The items out of your control relate to the guest’s history with Airbnb. If the guest has booked in the past, Airbnb will use their historical stays to influence the results that appear to help them rebook through the platform. That may include the types of properties they have stayed in, the amenities they generally prefer, and the location within a city/area. The guest’s history of properties viewed will also help influence the next properties viewed when they are starting to click around on the results. The other major item, which is going to be obvious, is if the person is looking at certain dates and your property is booked, it isn’t going to be shown.

There are other things within your control of the listing, but they come with some warnings and caveats.

Airbnb wants spaces to get booked. It’s going to position the listings that are more accessible and ready to be booked ahead of the others. The items within your control include:

• Having Instant Book turned on – this may make sense if you are in a very competitive market and have a listing that will not be able to accommodate a large group. With it turned on, you will not be able to review the potential guests to create a perfect match. That creates a bit of a security risk in terms of compatibility with the guests and the listing to ensure the property is safe and to make sure there won’t be any issues for the guests. If you operate a high-end property, it will be best to have this setting turned off. You will be able to cancel the bookings still with the setting turned on, but cancelling too many reservations will decrease your ranking.
• Minimum Number of Nights set to 1 – depending on the space, this may be okay for you. If it’s a bedroom/suite in your house and you are able to get down to clean it right away, this will make sense. On the other hand, if you have a property located across the city or it’s a large home that takes a lot of time to clean, it will be better to have the minimum set to an appropriate length of time.
• Same Day Last Minute Bookings – similar to the items above, this only make sense if the space is accessible to you and you are not too concerned about checking the guest’s background.
• Enable Long-Term Bookings – longterm discounts for weekly or monthly stays may make sense for the slower seasons in your market or if the time required to prepare a space is lengthy. By having a guest stay 7+ nights, you eliminate having to clean the space multiple times in a week. Cutting back on the changeovers saves time which is likely going to be worth the lower money generated. For peak seasons, one strategy would be to have higher rates and then discount from them, so it appears to the guest that they are getting a discount, but in reality they are paying the same rate as everyone else in the market.
• Self Check-In – this may not be possible for all spaces, but there is a strong preference for travellers to be able to check-in without having to meet someone. Some people like being to walk around the space and explore on their own, others will want to be shown some of the extras without having to look through a guestbook. It could be set to on and allow guests the option of being greeted at the property.
• Cancellation Policy – having a flexible cancellation policy, where guests can cancel reservations more easily for free, mainly benefits the guest, which is why the listings that offer them are put at a higher ranking. They are more risky for the hosts depending on how popular the market is. If the market tends to have a lot of last minute bookings, it may make sense for you to have it turned on. Most listings use a Strict cancellation policy, so if you choose to not offer a flexible one, it won’t hurt you.
• No Cancellations – the fewer bookings you cancel instead of the guest, the better. Always select the option about you not being comfortable with the guest to avoid being penalized in the rankings.
• Response Time – the rule of thumb is to always respond to guests no matter what, and to do it in a timely manner. Within 24 hours is acceptable, but aim for 12 hours. If you have a full-time job, you will want to spend time responding before work or lunch hour for any inquiries that happened overnight. If you aren’t able to respond within 24 hours, it may be time to consider having a co-host to be able to respond more properly.
• Be Active – the more time you spend on the site tweaking your listing descriptions, rates, calendar, responding to inquiries, the better. The more active a host is, the higher their listings will rank. Aim to sign in at least once per day.
• Update the Calendar – this is included in the above but deserves a special mention. The more you adjust the calendar, the better. Be sure to close off dates as soon as you can, and conversely open them up with cancellations. Airbnb’s Smart Pricing feature is going to help the guests more than the hosts. If it is your first year with the vacation rental, it will be a helpful guide for you, but keep in mind that the rates suggested will likely be below the market rates by a good margin. There are other products out there that will manage your rates better, including Turbosuite and Wheelhouse. If you manage multiple units, definitely consider looking into those options. They will save you a lot of time. Otherwise, there are a lot of resources online to help you with revenue management for vacation rentals.
• Be Open to Bookings – a listing that is available year-round is preferable to one only available during a summer season. Aim to have a calendar open for at least six months of the year in order to receive the highest ranking.
• Conversion Rate Matters – in order to be promoted more in the search results, your listing needs to be booked. If people are viewing your property and not booking, the listing is less likely to be promoted. If you have professional photos done, take the time to tweak your listing description, and offer competitive rates, your listing will get booked.
• Listing Links and Mentions – it is very important to market your property outside of Airbnb and the other vacation rental sites. A simple website can be done easily through Carrd.co with links back to your Airbnb listing. Social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram) are highly encouraged to showcase the property, video tours, and promote activities in the area. Another thing that should be done is creating a Google Business Profile. It’s one of the main things to help boost a listing in the Google search results if people are looking for reviews of places outside of Airbnb. The best part about it is it is completely free.
• Reviews – the final thing to mention is make sure the guests that do stay at your property leave reviews. The aim is to get as many 5 stars as possible, of course, so try to resolve as many issues as possible with guests while they are at the property and try to make sure they leave it in a positive way. Because reviews are so valuable to the listing, there is nothing wrong with trying to encourage guests to leave a review every chance you can without annoying them. For example, sending a message after checkout is common, but don’t send multiple messages asking for a review. Leave a note at check-in asking them for an honest review after their stay. Do your best to be a polite and responsible host and the guests will return the favour by leaving positive reviews. The higher the average star reviews, the better.

All the additional tips are optional but strongly encouraged for greater success.

If you have any questions, please contact me, and I will be more than happy to offer some suggestions. If you would like a thorough review of your listing or would like my help in creating it, consulting services are also available.

The post How to Increase Your Airbnb Revenues by Optimizing the Listing appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

Earlier this summer, trivago announced a new way for independent hotels to drive bookings through a free booking link. This link appears on the hotel profile when doing a search on the website. With trivago receiving 60 million visits per month, allowing hotels to redirect to their own websites from the site is incredibly important in capturing the guest.

We believe metasearch is well positioned in this environment, and we’ll focus on making it even easier for travellers to find great deals on our platform.

Matthias Tillman, CFO Trivago

The metasearch companies, like trivago, that compile the the various room rates across other booking sites are becoming a more important step in the booking process for the traveller. Before this year, those searches redirected the traveller to Booking.com, Expedia, and other booking sites. The hotels pay higher commissions for those reservations, but the guest also pays in the form of a worse booking experience.

With the free booking link, similar to the links that can be created on Google Business and Apple Business Connect, hotels will be able to give those guests the best booking experience from the start. It will allow guests to see all the available room types, add on dinner reservations, or explore the other options available at the property that generate more revenue for the hotel.

The completed bookings will be charged a commission depending on the partner and the campaign you choose. It is going to be a lower commission than Booking.com and Expedia, and the guest information will be yours to use with future offerings. Continue reading for more details about this.

trivago Business Studio

The starting point for the free booking link is trivago Business Studio. The Business Studio is laid out in a very clean and organized way, with only a few areas to look at.

The main page is a dashboard giving you valuable insights into how the hotel is performing through TripAdvisor.

The top of the dashboard is the conversion funnel, showing you the number of searches for hotels in your location, impressions on the property, and then the number of clicks on the property deals. That report gives you the total number, and breaks it down into the different distribution channels. With this example, you can see the SKKY Hotel, is experiencing 70% click-thru to the website for reservations.

If you use a channel manager that partners with trivago, like SiteMinder, you will be able to determine how well those reservations are converting. On SiteMinder, trivago is part of the Demand Plus area, which pushes the up to date rates out to trivago to display. On their Insights tab, it tells me that the reservations are converting around 20%, which is the same as Booking.com reservations.

The other tab on trivago Business Studio allows hotels to update all their information about the property. Unlike Booking.com that goes through an approval process for changes, trivago updates the listing instantly. There isn’t as much control over how images are displayed (i.e. changing the order or adding captions), but uploading the pictures was quick and easy. The other information that is available to change is the description for the hotel, and all the amenities at the property using checkboxes. The amenity list is not quite as extensive as Booking.com’s list.

TripAdvisor Rate Connect

The Rate Connect tab is where the hotelier will be able to determine what commission structure they would like. With SiteMinder, the structure is a pay per stay for completed reservations. In order to get access to the other options, you will have to be working with one of trivago’s connectivity providers.

Pay-per-Click: This campaign allows you to set a monthly budget and get charged when a potential guest clicks through to your website. The hotel will be charged regardless of whether the guest books or not.

Pay-Per-Booking: With this campaign, the hotelier chooses their commission structure (12%, 15%, 18%, or 25%) and allows trivago to place their property appropriately within the search results.

Pay-Per-Stay: Similar to the pay-per-booking option, without the higher commission tier. The commissions available are 10%, 15%, or 18%.

The main difference is the commission for pay-per-stay is on completed stays, while the pay-per-booking is charged regardless (i.e. the hotel is using a non-refundable rate). The other difference between them is they all use trivago’s Automated Market Selection, but the Pay-Per-Click has the option to choose any market they would like. That may be a good option for people with a higher end property wanting to show up in listings in a nearby city or wanting to offer a more convenient location for people wanting to get to the airport in a major city.

Taking control of your property on trivago Business Studio is free and necessary for the hotelier to ensure the information is updated regularly. Adding on the booking link will require a little more work, but is valuable for the longterm. Being able to send offers to the guests that have stayed at the property will generate repeat guests and longterm growth.

Learn More About:

The post Drive Direct Bookings with trivago’s Booking Link appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

I previously wrote about how effective SiteMinder, one of the world’s best channel managers for accommodation providers, is at generating revenue and saving your operation money. Combining SiteMinder with revenue management software can take those revenues to the next level. Coming available later this summer will be one of the best options available on the market turbosuite. turbosuite is working on integrating fully with SiteMinder, but is still a powerful tool to use right now for your hotel, motel, or Airbnb vacation rental.

Before getting into how turbosuite integrates with SiteMinder and what it can do today, let’s first discuss what revenue management software is.

Revenue Management Software

Everyone reading this should understand what revenue management entails when being applied to the accommodation industry. There are five basic components to it: collecting the data about the operation and market; creating segments from the data to help analyze it more thoroughly; building revenue forecasts; planning and taking action; and analyzing the process and results to determine what can be improved upon. Revenue Managers would be doing each of those areas manually or creating simple automatic rules that their PMS would follow when settings rates and restrictions.

Revenue management software simplifies each component by using artificial intelligence to power it. No longer are revenue managers loading Booking.com and copying competitor rates into an Excel spreadsheet, or poring over their PMS data to see which rates are selling when. The software does the work for them. Revenue Managers still oversee each component and analyze the results to ensure everything is working as well as it should, however. Using the tool is not completely hands off and automated.

turbosuite

There are plenty of revenue management systems available and several of them integrate with SiteMinder. They all include the same basic functionality, so what makes turbosuite different?

There are two main differentiators that I can see:

1. All types of accommodations are analyzed

When I was looking at the different options for revenue management systems, most specialized with one type of accommodation. Hotels, motels, or vacation rentals. Revenue management functions the same for each type at its core, but the big difference is how a market is analyzed. With hotels, there are broad categories based on location (downtown, airport) and type of hotel (boutique, full-service, high-end, etc). Hotels are mainly limited to a few online travel agency sites (OTAs – i.e. Booking.com, Expedia, Trivago). Pulling together the rate information is easier for hotels because you create a competitive set of hotels that match your location, type, and usually only look at a few sites.

Analyzing the market for vacation rentals is more complicated. Instead of a competitive set of 10-15 hotels, you are finding the information for 50-100 (or more) units in your market. Your property is not only competing within the city, but may also be competing within your own building. For a quick example, in Kelowna, there is one condo tower downtown that has around 75 different units listed as a vacation rental. The downtown core may have around 300 units total (not including the hotels) and the city may have 1000 different units. Analyzing the market manually is time intensive and likely inaccurate too.

turbosuite analyzes both types of accommodations effectively. They are pulling in the data from Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb. Other revenue management systems may only be looking at Booking.com or Expedia if they focus on hotels, or only Airbnb if they focus on vacation rentals. Having all that data leads to the second point.

2. Analyze the full market, not a comp set

With turbosuite, they analyze the entire market for you. With other revenue management systems, you can be limited to having 10-15 properties that you compete with to compare against. With turbosuite, there is no limit to the properties you are compared to. It compares pricing between the hotels and the vacation rentals, matching up properties that have similar amenities to find the best rate in the market. The amenities can be as large as a pool, fitness centre, or parking included, to as detailed as having a coffee maker or internet at the property. turbosuite offers a comprehensive look at the market with daily updates to show how all your properties compare.

By analyzing the total market, turbosuite is dialled into any sudden shifts in demand. If one hotel sells out, while the others remain mainly empty, it is likely a sign of a large, hosted meeting taking place. But when hundreds of vacation rentals get booked up within a short amount of time, that is signalling a larger, city-wide event. turbosuite will notice that shift and suggest new rates to take advantage of that increase in demand. It won’t be able to determine if that event is the latest Taylor Swift concert being announced, or the city has won the rights to the Super Bowl, but it will set your rates to the appropriate amount.

With vacation rentals, the rate suggestions can also take into account the cleaning fees and adjust those to different levels. Most properties have fixed cleaning fees based on the unit and number of people. It makes sense to treat it as a separate form of revenue that can be adjusted to not only cover the cleaning costs, but also put a little more profit into the pockets.

Forecasting and Reporting

With all this data at their disposal to analyze, turbosuite can provide accurate revenue forecasts for up to a year. It uses the current demand for accommodations and combines it with the historical records to create a forecast that accommodation providers can use to build their overall revenue budgets. turbosuite will be able to determine the spikes in demand, and the dips during shoulder seasons, to be as accurate as possible.

The reports on the system are varied and useful. The revenue forecasts are part of the reporting system, but other reports will help you determine how effective turbosuite is doing for your properties. It will track the valuable metrics of room nights, revenue, and ADR, but also the properties web rankings, how visible the properties are, and the conversion rates on the various sites. Another component of the reporting system is showing you the pickup report for the revenue generated by a set period.

Putting turbosuite Into Action

Turbosuite is excellent at pulling in all the data to analyze, but how do properties change their rates?

Turbosuite makes that part incredibly easy. The main screen shows the calendar for the month with different rates – your base rate, and the ideal competitive rate. Underneath, there are codes to give you the information you need to determine whether a day needs to be acted upon or not. Opening up a day will provide even more detail about how far below/above your rate is from the competition, making manual adjustments to the rate or stay restrictions, and more. At the bottom are the magic buttons to push the new rates out to SiteMinder (or other channel manager) or revert back to the original base rates.

During the demonstration I received, this process was quick and painless. If someone wanted to, they could select the entire month and click the button to adjust the rates automatically, all at once. Of course, it is advisable to look at each day/week more carefully and understand that is happening in the market.

All of the above is just a quick overview of what turbosuite can do for your properties while using the SiteMinder channel manager. There is a lot more to be shown, so if the above is of any interest, I encourage you to reach out to turbosuite and get a demonstration of their software. It does integrate with other channel managers or property management systems, as well.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit their website: turbosuite or fill out the below form that will be sent directly to them.

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Property Type *HotelVacation RentalBoth

Number of Rooms/Units

Selected Value: 1

Round Up

More Details or Questions *

Privacy Policy

By submitting this form, you agree to allow Turbosuite to store and process your personal data. Four Sides Hospitality Consulting will not retain anything.
You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review Turbosuite's Privacy Policy.

Submit

The post How to Use Turbosuite and SiteMinder to Increase Your Revenue in 2023 appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

SiteMinder is the world’s leading channel manager that is packed with features to help hotels perform better. Some of those features includes its website builder, its ability to be integrated with 100+ property management systems (PMS) for hotels, and the ability to be connected to 200+ online travel agencies (OTAs) and other web apps to help with productivity. All of these are great for hotels to improve their overall operation. This post is going to highlight some of the other positives for SiteMinder: low transaction fees, Demand Plus, and the Insights that are available for the competition.

Low Transaction Fees

This is the one feature that will save your hotel or property the most money. If you use a competing channel manager like Sabre’s SynXis, hotels are charged a small fee for every reservation they take that goes through the channel manager. At the low end, fees are generally cheaper (maybe even free) for web bookings – reservations that are made through the hotel website. At the higher end, are fees for reservations through the GDS (travel agent booking system). In between, there are fees for bookings made through other channels, like Booking.com or Expedia. These fees cover the costs of the development of the channel manager software and integration with the PMS so reservations booked online can be entered into the PMS automatically.

The downside of these fees are they can quickly add up. Below is a sample chart of the fees based on a 33/33/33 split between web bookings, OTAs, and the GDS. To keep the math simple, let’s say there are 3,000 total reservations taken, which is a reasonable number for a 100 room hotel.

A few caveats to the above numbers, they don’t include any commissions you may be paying for the GDS bookings (usually 10%) or the commissions charged through Expedia, Booking.com, etc (around 18%). Altogether, the fees will be much higher than $22,500.

For SiteMinder, they still have a transaction fee for GDS bookings (which is charged by the GDS systems), but they waive the transaction fees for web bookings and OTAs. That produces a chart like this:

The general hotel is likely going to save a lot of money by switching over to SiteMinder. This does not include the potential savings from using SiteMinder’s new product for guest communication, GuestJoy, which is 25% the cost of the competing service, Guestfolio. And, of course, there will be opportunities to earn more through SiteMinder.

Demand Plus

Last year, Google announced a change to their Business Profiles for hotels which allowed hotels to enter in their own rates and link to their website. I thought it was a great addition to the product for hotels.

What I did not realize at the time, however, was the hotel link tended to be buried underneath all the advertising services, namely Booking.com, TripAdvisor, trivago, etc. This can change with SiteMinder’s Demand Plus service.

With Demand Plus, hotels get boosted to the top of the listings. It still marks the hotel as the official site, and will show the lowest rate available on the website, not the BAR/RACK rate, which allows hotels to advertise a lower rate than Booking.com to gain some direct business. There is a minor commission fee attached to these bookings, but the major plus to these bookings is you receive the guest’s full information. No masking of email addresses, phone numbers, or credit card numbers, allowing you to take ownership of that guest experience from the time of booking through to checkout. More opportunities for room upsells, other products at the hotel to book, and to retain them as a guest in the future directly rather than a OTA service.

Each month, you will receive a statement to verify the bookings. Hotels aren’t charged for no shows or cancellations, only for stays at the hotel.

Direct Plus also offers quick analytics for reservations. It will tell you how many times it has been viewed, the clicks, reservations made, and the revenue from the Google profile, trivago, and TripAdvisor.

Insights

So far, you have seen ways that SiteMinder can help you save money and earn more bookings online, but it can also help you earn more money on all your reservations, online or at the hotel level. Insights offers different views of the hotel operation from the online bookings. A lot of this information is likely similar to the hotel’s overall reservations, but presented in a easily understood graphic manner. There are different charts for booking performance compared to the same period last year, channel mix (direct, different OTAs, GDS bookings), country mix, and room and rate type mix. The last two items offer a lot more information with a charts about ADR, average length of stay, and average lead time. That information can help determine if a certain room type should be priced higher if it is more in demand, or whether to offer rate discounts for longer stays.

The next section is a pace report, which can help track how well the hotel is performing with its reservations compared to previous years. You can filter down to a set period of time to compare to a similar period (i.e. to compare holiday weekends that may change each year) or to the same period (month vs same month a year ago).

The final two areas of the Insight section are going to be very useful.

Rate parity is going to help keep track of your rates being pushed out to the OTAs. The one benefit of a channel manager is the rates that are sent to the OTAs should be the same. There can be errors with the information, so it is useful to check. The rate for Direct Booking is currently the lowest available rate for the hotel.

Competitors rate is a monthly view of the rates pulled from Booking.com. It compares the hotel rate with the median hotel rate of a comp set that you select. You are able to select up to 10 other hotels to include within your comp set. The monthly view shows you whether your hotel is higher or lower than the median rate (arrows are for +/- 10%).

Clicking on a date, gives you a way to drill down to each day to see the competition in a easier way. It brings in the lowest rate, room type, plus has the median rate at the top for quick comparison.

This feature alone will save a lot of clicking around on Booking.com. The monthly view will help General Managers and Revenue Managers set their room rates for several months to come as well.

Summary

This is only a slice of how SiteMinder can help your hotel, motel, or vacation rental business improve the operation and save money.

Switching to SiteMinder will require some work with the setup. If you are currently using a channel manager, there will be a lot of copying and pasting of descriptions and policies. Because of the time involved with switching over, I am offering my time and expertise in SiteMinder to help you get setup more quickly and more smoothly.

Fill out the form below to get started.

The post Use SiteMinder To Save Money And Earn More Revenue appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

Apple announced yesterday Apple Business Connect, a way for business owners to control their information across Apple Maps, Wallet, Siri, Messages, and more. Business Connect allows the same amount of control as Google Business but offers more integration across all Apple devices. For hotels, it will also offer the opportunity for users to make reservations directly and see special offers for the hotel, restaurant, or other aspect of the hotel.

Get Started

It is easy to get started with Apple Business Connect. Enrolment is through the link and is connected to your Apple ID. If you do not have an Apple ID, you will be able to create one. You will be able to add additional users at a later step.

After signing in, you will be asked to locate your business on Apple Maps. Maps has been populating the business information over time. For hotels, it has been pulling the information from TripAdvisor and Yelp. If your hotel is listed on either of those sites, there should not be a problem locating the hotel.

After agreeing to the terms of service, you will be asked to verify the hotel listing. The easiest way to do this is by Apple calling the hotel and providing a code over the phone. The other option is sending Apple documents which will delay the listing being verified. The verification process is important because without it, you will not be able to upload pictures or change any other information.

The Hotel Listing

The listing for the hotel is going to be fairly basic. The logo and cover image are images that can be modified. The call and website buttons will link to the information you provide (i.e. the phone number could go to a reservations desk rather than the front desk). The Book button gives you two options, TripAdvisor or Booking.com.

This is going to be one of the main differences with the Apple Business listing compared to Google Business listings. With Google, users have the option to check availability and make a reservation directly at the hotel. Maybe that will change for Apple Business in the future.

Modifying the Listing

The listing has a few areas that are able to be changed:

• cover image and logo
• basic description (only 100 characters)
• photos
• amenities
• and other basic information (hours, address, phone number, website)

The photos have to be above a certain minimum size and have a maximum size set. Businesses are only able to upload 100 photos. The full list of size restrictions is found here, Apple Business Connect photo standards.

With the photos, businesses will be able to add a short caption and alt-text for each image. Right now, there is no way to modify the order of the images, so that is something to consider when adding the photos.

Apple is verifying every photo to make sure it is up to their quality standards and does not break any of their rules (harmful language, spammy, discriminatory language, etc).

The one area I was not able to explore was Showcases. From the Apple News release:

Showcases, a new feature in the place card, helps businesses present customers with offers and incentives, like seasonal menu items, product discounts, and more. Businesses can easily update the Showcase section of their place card through Business Connect. Showcases are available to businesses in the US beginning today, and will be available to businesses globally in coming months.

Apple News Release

Overall, I think Apple Business Connect is a quality start to offering more control over the listings that were already available on Apple Maps and other products. I am looking forward to see how Showcases can be used, and what other enhancements Apple will be making with the product in the coming years.

The post How to Start Using Apple Business Connect for Your Hotel appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

After a few subdued years due to COVID, Canadian government travel is returning back to normal levels. The federal employees and contractors are authorized to spend at higher levels than previous years, as well. For 2023, their authorized amounts for travel will likely be even higher thanks to inflation.

The above seems is common knowledge for most Canadian hoteliers and other professionals. What is not common knowledge is that federal employees and (more importantly) the travel agents that work with the Canadian government have access to a directory of hotels for Canada and around the world. This directory consists of listings created for each hotel, along with pricing information.

For a lot of hotels outside of Canada, this is likely an opportunity for added exposure and more revenue, because a lot of major cities do not have many hotels listed for them. For example, Paris, France, has only seven hotels; Hong Kong, China, has 10; Berlin, Germany, has two. A lot of government workers rely on the directory to plan their business trips, but may also try to use it for personal travel as well.

Directory Information

To learn more about the directory, click through to the main page. Below will be some more links and information about getting added to the directory, how to price your hotel rates, and how the program is managed.

One important note about the program is it is renewed annually. There is a set fee to be included (it is fairly minimal in Canada) and the hotel rates have to be submitted each year within a set deadline. The deadline to be added for 2023 is September 21st, 2022.

Get Added to the Directory

In order to be added to the directory, the hotels have to be added to the Cvent Business Transient RFP platform by contacting the administrator of the Canadian directory. Hotels can do that by sending an email to: TPSGC.RHELVDGT-ACRDTMD.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

While waiting to be approved, it will be worth looking at your competition listed in the directory. Thankfully, the directory is open to the public. It is viewable at this link: Accommodation – 30 days or less. The directory will open up a listing on Lanyon, the Cvent portal. From there, you can do a search by city, filter by distance from the city centre, or pick a different outlying area (i.e. the airport or nearby city).

Clicking on a hotel will bring up its profile with a lot of details, including the rates, photo gallery, policies, and amenities of the property. The directory also allows you to compare multiple properties at once, which is a nice added feature. This will let you get an idea of how your competition is marketing themselves to these workers, and also their rates by season.

Setting Rates

Besides using the public directory to determine how your competition is pricing itself, another important area to look at is the per diem section of the directory. The City Rate Limits vary by each city, and will include a rate for hotels outside of the main cities. For Canadian cities, the directory has grouped surrounding areas into the heading for the main city (i.e. Cochrane, Okotoks, Airdrie, are included with Calgary).

The limits are only a suggestion of what will be reasonable for government travel. Any rates above the limits, may still get booked, but any rates significantly higher will likely not be booked.

Management

As mentioned previously, the directory is updated on an annual basis. If you miss the deadline date, the hotel will not be listed in the directory for the following year. After submitting the hotel information and rates through the Cvent system, the Government official will send an email to state if the hotel is approved or not, and the instructions to load the rates into the GDS for travel agents to book.

One other requirement of the program is hotels have to supply an update for the bookings they have generated through government travel. It will be important to have a separate rate code for the Government rates to track it. The reports are submitted online after each quarter and at the end of the year.

Otherwise, as long as the rates are loaded properly, and no government guests submit complaints to the program director, there will not be any ongoing management.

A small tip that can be provided after several years of entering the rates, take the time to explore the Cvent RFP platform and update your hotel information. There will be a lot of saved time from having to enter in all the policies again, updating photos, etc. You will only need to update the hotel rates, and then the RFP will be complete.

To learn more about the directory and program, please visit the official website. Again, the deadline to be added for 2023 is September 21st, 2022. Act quickly.

Learn More About Four Sides Hospitality Consulting

The post How to Capitalize on Canadian Government Travel by Getting Listed on the Accommodation Directory of Canada appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

Earlier this year, Google announced an additional feature to the Google Business Profile for hotels and other accommodations. For over a year, the Google Business Profile featured partner links for hotel reservations to sites like Booking.com and Priceline, plus a link to the website for the hotel. This added feature allows people to search for availability and have the option to book directly at the hotel.

The direct booking feature is simple to setup and even easier for potential guests to use. For properties looking to fill up available space, it is well worth exploring.

Get Started with Google Business Profiles

To get started with the direct booking feature, the hotel needs to claim their business profile on Google Search or Maps. If you have not done this for your property yet, it is something every business owner should do. The Google Business Profile allows you to take control of your profile, adding relevant business information, hours, pictures, deals, and respond to the reviews being left.

In order to claim your business profile, do a search on Google for the business and then click the “Own this business?” link in the profile. Read more about the Google Business Profile to get started.

Add Hotel Rates

After you have the profile claimed, there will be another link in the profile to get started with managing your rates above the search for availability section.

Once you click it, you will be able to view the terms and conditions for the feature. The feature is also undergoing beta testing and is limited in what it can do for right now. For example, you can only set one base rate for one room type. Once guests click through on the direct booking link, they will be able to select a different room type, change the check-in date, etc.

Hotels will also be limited to only having dates be open or closed, no option to limit to dates that only allow arrivals, departures, or minimum stay lengths, and so forth. The feature is best used for dates when there is a lot of rooms still available.

When you first start entering the rates, you will be presented with a calendar for the current month. You can set rates/availability per day by clicking the Edit button, or do a bulk edit by selecting the button at the top.

As you fill out the rates, the Rate Coverage percentage at the top will change. Google would prefer you set rates for at least 365 days. You are able to set rates for several years in advance.

The important thing to remember is the rate is meant to be for your lowest best available rate. Having a lower rate than what is available is not advised. Having a rate that is meant for one of your upperclass rooms may not work as well as you would like, because the search results will be displaying the lowest available rates at the other websites. Potential guests are unlikely to click on the link to book directly at the hotel, if other sites are displaying rates $20+ lower than yours.

The next screen will help you setup the tax rate for your property. You can have multiple tax rates, and the rate can either include or exclude them. The tax breakdown will display before guests click through to book at your website. Again, it will be important to show accurate information to prevent the guests from having any rude surprises when they actually book.

The final step will confirm your booking engine. Google will scan your website to determine the booking engine based on the outgoing links. It identified the SynXis (Sabre) link immediately for one of my client hotels. After confirming the link, Google will then prepare the correct URL to use when a guest clicks on the official website link.

Test It

Once Google has confirmed the booking link, the direct booking link will be live. Run a quick search for some available dates and then again for some dates that are not available to confirm that the link is working. If the hotel is not available for booking, no links will display. Instead, Google will display the information about when the hotel is next available to reserve.

The previous step about confirming the booking engine on the website allows Google to prepare and use the correct URL scheme when the direct booking link is clicked. It will take the guest to the booking engine with the correct check-in/out dates and number of guests. It should allow for a quicker reservation capture, rather than a guest having to re-do a search they already ran.

There is nothing to say about this feature for now. As mentioned previously, it is still in beta, and there will likely be further enhancements as the year progresses in time for the high season in 2023.

If you need further assistance with the product, take a look at this Google website or contact me and I may be able to assist you.

The post How to Get Started with Google Business Profile for Your Hotel and Best Practices appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.