How to Choose Your Hotel Room Reservation Software
Room reservation software is an extremely valuable piece of technology for your hotel, should you choose to install it. This system will help you schedule the dates and length of stay for guests, allowing them to choose their rooms at the time of booking and take payments from them. On the more advanced scale, it can even be set up to allow guests to choose extras and other add-ons. Here are a few things you will need to consider before choosing hotel reservation software.
Online Hotel Reservation System
A good hotel booking system needs to have a user-friendly interface that helps both guests and staff.
A convenient calendar front-desk view will be a huge advantage to make the reservation process simpler. The software should provide your guests with all the information that they may look for including prices, packages, room types, add-ons, inclusions, and other details, without them having to scroll through your website.
Online Payment Integration
Integrating an online payment option with your hotel reservation system would not only make it convenient for guests to make reservations, but also help you meet your booking/cancellation policy requirements. Financials collected via online bookings should also automatically be recorded in back-end financial reports. Encouraging guests to pay online encourages following the necessary social distancing norms.
Automated Communication
Automation of communication has become a necessity in the service industry. Guests expect a detailed confirmation email after booking a room. Confirmation emails should be customizable according to the hotel’s brand image and voice. For instance, you should be able to provide tips for traveling, information about local festivals and attractions, and other details. Your room reservation software should also support the scheduling and formatting of these messages.
Central Reservation System
Travelers prefer to make reservations from different sources- hotel web booking engines, online travel agents (OTAs), and the front desk. Managing these reservations can be confusing and errors such as double booking, overbooking, or forgetting to confirm the reservation of a guest can lead to bad reviews and loss in business. Having a central reservation system for hotels that is linked to a channel manager will help you manage these discrepancies efficiently. Your channel manager and hotel reservation system are integrated to give you real-time updates of room availability as well as prices of these rooms across all your booking channels.
Languages and Currencies
Your hotel booking software should allow guests to make reservations in their preferred language and currency. Guests making reservations with a particular language should also receive email or message confirmations in the same language. This simple feature can enrich the guest experience and promote bookings with your hotel from across the globe. Catering to different currencies is also very crucial. You want to target a more global audience, and a lot of your customers will be tourists. An ideal booking engine will be able to automatically set the language and currency preferences based on the IP address.
Discounts and Promotions
When thinking about increasing revenue and keeping your guests happy, a good strategy to take would be by providing exclusive promo codes or discounts. Efficient room reservation software should give you the option to create and apply promo codes. In addition to simple discounts, you should also be able to customize the discounts and promotions based on when the booking was made, if the customer is loyal, if it’s a corporate booking or travel agent booking, or even according to the season, events, early-bird or last-minute rates.
Robust Reporting System
Data plays a vital role in guiding a business’s goals. Having the right data can help you optimize business performance and give your guests a more personalized experience. Hotel reservation software integrated with a robust reporting system is a must-have to help your business make smarter choices. Information that you could gain from such an advantage include:
• Assessing performance on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis
• Keeping track of pending payments and tabs
• Predictive analytics for sales
• Budgeting
• Rate management
• Personalized guest data
Cloud-Based Services
Choosing an online hotel reservation system that is remotely available will make their jobs easier, and more productive. Furthermore, having the ability to access data remotely will also promote social distancing and keep your hotel staff and guests safe. Cloud-based hotel booking software can be accessed from anywhere at any time and from any device.
Tips for Choosing the Right Development Partner for Your Start-up
All start-ups are generated from a need to address customers issues. A unique and valuable idea is quintessential and can ensure the success of an enterprise. However, in the digital era, a successful idea needs to be backed by adequate technology.
Small, as well as big companies, are investing a considerable amount of money to provide users with an unprecedented experience. The increasing adoption of software-driven solutions has led to an increase in customer expectations.
This can pose new challenges for start-ups to manage their resources and allocate them for core competencies, as well as software development. The right Start-up Development Partner NYC can take the burden off your shoulders.
You can easily outsource the development part of the business while you save your valuable time, money, human resources, etc., to focus on core business functions.
However, choosing the right development partner is not as easy as it seems. Here are a few tips that can help streamline the process and enable you to choose the right development partner for your start-up.
Tip 1: List down your requirements
The development process can take many unexpected turns. There are so many choices, in terms of the selection of development methodologies, execution processes, and functionalities.
It is easy to lose sight of your primary requirements and choose features that may appear enticing but are not considered valuable by the customers. When it comes to technology solutions, you should begin with the end in mind.
Write down your idea, requirement, and expectation from the development project. Also, keep in mind the prospects for your business and the growth plan.
List down the functionalities that are crucial for the project now and the features that you would like to incorporate as your business evolves. Also, list down the functionalities that are preferred but not a deal-breaker. Listing down your requirement will help you understand the capabilities that you are looking for in a Start-up Development Partner NYC.
Tip 2: Learn the basics of the technical development process.
As a founder, your primary focus is your business idea and vision. You do not need to gain complete knowledge of every aspect of the technological process. That’s what your Start-up Development Partner, NYC is for.
However, it is essential to have some basic knowledge when you are looking for a development partner. Basic tech experts will help you hold control of the conversation with your development partner. You can understand their technical decision and assess whether or not they align with your overall business vision.
In the absence of tech knowledge, the development partner can see you as naïve, and this can lead to substandard software solutions. Also, having some technical knowledge will help you in choosing the right partner for your business.
For example, if you have shortlisted two partners and they adopt different methodologies for software development. i.e., one uses agile, and the other uses RAD (Rapid Application Development). Having the basic idea of these methodologies will help you choose the one suitable for your business.
Tip 3: establish communication and ensure collaboration.
Communication and transparency are essential parts of any collaboration. Communicate with your prospective Startup Development Partner, NYC about your business vision, ideas, and your expectation with the project. Choose a partner that shares the same values and ideologies regarding the software development process.
Is the conversation pleasant?
Do they respect your opinions and views?
Do they make efforts to make the process transparent?
Do you agree on the project needs and development methodologies?
Do you agree on product features and technical support for the project? Are you clear about your roles and responsibilities regarding the project?
Before you choose a development partner it is essential to have a conversation with your development partner and ensure collaboration. These are some of the tips that can help you in choosing the right development partner for your startup.
Top Five Reasons Why Your IT Disaster Recovery Plan Should Be a Top Priority
If your business has ever suffered even a minor outage, you will know what a nightmare it can be. It can impact your operations and affect your revenues. In a competitive business landscape, data loss and service disruptions can lead to losses that may have long-term negative repercussions. Customers can be unforgiving if these kinds of issues inconvenience them too much and may move on to your competitors. To avoid such a setback to your company, you must engage in IT disaster recovery planning.
Top five reasons for having a disaster recovery plan
Here are five reasons for prioritizing IT disaster recovery planning:
1. It can enable you to withstand IT disasters
With the widespread proliferation of IT systems and the dependence of businesses on them, it is almost a guarantee that your business will face an IT disaster at some point or the other. The disaster may occur due to natural disasters like floods, cyclones, landslides, or earthquakes. It may also happen due to operational problems from hardware failure, network issues, software issues, faulty drivers, or routine infrastructure failures.
You may face targeted cyber attacks, denial of service (DoS), and distributed denial of service (DDoS). Human errors can also impact your system, such as people inadvertently changing configurations and settings or entering incorrect data. By undertaking IT disaster recovery planning, you can prevent loss of data, productivity, and services and get your business up and running in no time.
2. It can help you and your staff to stay on top of things
With prior IT disaster recovery planning, you and your staff will know what to do exactly in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. That will enable you to react fast, take charge of the situation, and take the appropriate action if the company website goes down, in case there is data loss or data theft, or the IT system fails. Each person can do their designated task efficiently, such as notifying customers, recovering data, restoring the infrastructure, and so on. By resolving these issues, you can get everything back on track as possible and keep your customers’ trust.
3. It can ensure that you have a data backup system in place
Loss of data, data theft, or the inability to access data due to staff oversight or any other reason can have a disastrous effect on your business productivity and damage your brand reputation. A data recovery plan will include a data recovery plan, and it will make a huge difference in keeping your business afloat. You will be able to access vital data, recover lost files, and not have to spend a large part of your resources in recollecting and reentering data in your IT system.
4. It can allow you to stay in business even without access to the physical facility
Natural disasters like heavy rains, cyclones, floods, landslides, and earthquakes could prevent you from accessing your physical facility. Terrorist acts, curfews, and travel restrictions are other reasons why you and your staff might not be able to go to the office as usual. That could keep you from running your equipment running and disrupt your business operations. However, when you have done IT disaster recovery planning, you can undertake remote work and forestall any disruptions in your services.
5. It can engender customer satisfaction and trust with your brand
Customers have become accustomed to continuous IT services and do not generally react well to unexpected disruptions. You may not only find yourself inundated with a flood of complaints, but you may also lose customers. Given that new customer acquisition can be difficult and expensive, the last thing you want is to endanger your existing customer base. IT disaster recovery planning will help to retain customer trust in your brand.
You need customers to know that their data will be secure no matter what kind of disaster happens and that your customer service will respond as promptly as possible to their concerns and provide them with the necessary IT support. Your disaster recovery planning will reassure them on these points, and they will continue using your services. They may even recommend your brand to other people and help your business to expand.
Five Ways Hotel Payment Solutions Improve Efficiency and Guest Experiences
The incorporation of fast payment software for hotels is imperative as far as all modern-day companies that are in the hospitality sector. Almost all holiday homes, including big hotels and small holiday apartments, will always experience the rush of tourists and other guests, whether it is a big hotel or a small one. Such a situation is because people across the world are always on the move for varied reasons, which include holiday trips, official tours, education, medical purpose, etc. More to the point, holidaying has become one of the priorities in life for many, and whenever they get a chance, they are sure to take breaks.
That said, taking a break from the hectic activities of the practical world is a must for everybody. This break will give a refreshing relief from the droning ways of the practical world. Nevertheless, the most daunting task as far as tourists or travelers are concerned is finding an appropriate place to stay. Hotels or similar holiday homes can make it easy for the tourists to find a holiday retreat, precisely in line with their requirements, by incorporating fast payment software for hotels within the web portals. Because of the heavy rush of the tourists and other visitors, the hotel staff will have a tough time arranging the visitors’ preferences. Here comes the significance of fast payment software for hotels.
• The check-in must be quick. There must not be any need for the guest to wait till the reception man verifies the documents as regards the room booking and prepare various forms for the guests to sign in.
• It’s the same case with the check-out process. Guests will be eager to catch their flights or whatever transport they go back. Hence, the checkout process must be straight and swift. Hence, it will be prudent to incorporate the required procedure into the fast payment software for hotels. This arrangement will save much time for the guests.
• The guests must be able to check and find out the available accommodation options along with the price charts. This option will be handy for them to make spot decisions as regards the room and amenities. Thus, they will be able to save time and effort. The payment options must be simple, and the process must be speedy.
• There must be an adequate provision that will allow customers to pay using different payment options. These days, apart from credit and debit cards, customers will have several other digital payment options such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and several others. Hence, it will be prudent to include all these payment methods. Your clientele will be thankful to you for this facility, which in turn will increase your reputation across the different consumer segments.
• Clients will appreciate loyalty programs. You can include loyalty solutions by which they will be able to earn sure rewards. You can decide the basis for the loyalty program. It can be the number of visits to the hotel, days spent, the number of rooms booked, or anything of that sort.
• You must take care to incorporate the latest and best security feature available in the fast payment software for hotels. When there is such security protection, your clients will feel safe. Remember, these days, cybercrimes are common.
When the management incorporates this in their web portals, the customers can easily book their rooms. They can pay the bills easily, even on the go, as it will be possible to do the same by using their smartphones, laptops, or tablets. However, one thing is highly significant here. The website must be customer-centric. Customers must be able to navigate easily through the site and select their rooms and amenities. The payment process must also be simple. It will be an ardent aspiration of all tourists to involve fully in their holidaying activities during their holidays. They will be thankful to you for the incorporation of fast payment software for hotels. This software will provide an easy, speedy, and cozy way of paying hotel-related bills.
Why You Should Use DevOps Tools?
The DevOps philosophy and practices combine development and operations to ensure the efficient production of reliable goods and provide high-value services to customers. For this, it is essential to establish coordination and collaboration between siloed work areas. These typically include areas like development, IT operations, quality control, and security. You can use free or paid DevOps tools in your production methods to improve your business agility.
Why should you use DevOps tools?
You might want to consider using DevOps tools for the following reasons:
There are planning tools
There are various DevOps planning tools such as Confluence, Jira, and Hipchat that you can use to implement essential changes during the software development process. By working with these planning tools, you can get detailed information about the people who buy your products and how they might use the product. You can learn about their needs and preferences and use this feedback to improve the product and develop original ideas for new products.
There are building tools
By having access to easy-to-use and efficient building tools, you will find it more convenient to compile codes, undertake collaboration in coding work, and test simultaneously. Consider getting building tools like Docker, Chef, and Puppet. These have third-party integration support, and you can check if they are compatible with the other tools you already have.
There are tools for automated testing
DevOp tools like Capture for Jira and BitBucket enable continuous testing of software applications as you build them or introduce new features. You also get a test report to help you to make improvements. That ensures you will not be surprised with errors and bugs when you are ready to deploy them. If the applications have any issues, you can find out about those at once and find the appropriate solutions to resolve them before continuing with the next steps in the software application development work. Additionally, by automating the testing process, you can speed up things.
There are deployment tools
Consider getting deployment tools like Chef, Puppet, Jenkins, TravisCI, Jira, Hipchat, and AWS to automate and test your deployments. Such tools facilitate the entire process of releasing new versions of software and software applications in the market. They allow you to access and monitor the status of the release in real-time. Additionally, the deployment DevOps tools have scripting abilities and can maintain the code in single repositories for better developmental convenience.
There are feedback tools
You can find out what your customers think of your software products by getting feedback from them. Feedback tools like Pendo, SurveyMonkey, and Jira Service Desk make this process easier. With them, customers can provide feedback on whether they found the software products useful and easy to use or if they encountered errors and bugs while using them. They can offer ideas and suggestions to add features and make changes to improve the products. By considering their feedback and making necessary product improvements, you can ensure customer satisfaction with your brand.
Free and paid DevOps tools: Which should you use?
When using DevOps tools, you do not necessarily need tools with extensive features. Tools that can meet and improve your developmental work requirements are generally enough. You can find these in free as well as paid versions. Consider using the free DevOps tools if you are working on a limited budget. However, it is essential to check the usage guidelines first and discover if the tools are available for free for a limited time or specific build identifiers and parameters.
Ideally, use the open source tools that the developers have made available for free without any restrictions and do not have a steep learning curve. Along with being freely available, open source DevOps tools benefit from the active backing of the open source community. Various developers volunteer to regularly update and improve them and ensure they are secure to use. They may also be willing to answer your questions and concerns about the tools.
If you decide on using open source Dev Ops tools, it is advisable to learn how to use them before incorporating them into your software development process. You must understand how to follow the best practices in using them from software development to deployment.
