Many hotels and B&Bs choose to use online portals for their reservation solution because there is the added benefit of being part of a big network of reservation sites. This makes it more likely that you will be found by potential guests anywhere in the world.
Two major providers of booking systems are ActiveHotels and WorldRes. They use the Application Service Provider (ASP) model to process hunderds of thousands of bookings a year on behalf of hotels throughout Europe. The ASP model means that they run and update all the software used by the booking portal leaving you to focus on the important job of promoting your rooms.
These companies work with thousands of partner hotels by promoting them across their 2,000 plus reservation websites, making each hotel visible to over a million internet users a month. You can also embed their software in to your site using links or customised booking pages to enhance your own internet presence.
Both of these companies work off very similar cost models taking a % of the cost of the rooms rented. This fee can take two forms - if the booking is taken through your own site, they will take a smaller percentage than if the booking is taken through one of their partner or portal sites. A usual percentage is 5% from your own site and 10% through theirs.
There are, of course, a number of leading portals that we are all familiar with. Websites like Lastminute.com, Expedia and Laterooms have become synonymous with travel and reservations on the internet. These portals offer you a strong market presence through their brand and advanced marketing and promotions opportunities through their well developed technology.
All of these portals are potential distributors of your available rooms. Each one will have slightly different Terms and Conditions for placing your rooms on their site and varying commission schemes. However, as you get used to the way they work they will become a strong business partner helping your business to attract more bookings and create additional revenues.
It should be remembered that booking rooms online has almost become the standard way of making a hotel reservation so you really cannot afford to ignore these options.
