The Hotel Reservation System or Central Reservation System is a platform used by hotels to centrally manage and distribute room inventory, charges, and reservations centrally. It usually receives inventory from PMS and then supplies it to the hotel’s website booking engine, call center, channel managers, OTAs, GDS, and metasearch.
The reservations from these channels are sent back to the central reservation system and then synchronized to pumps for room allocation. Hotel accommodation is one of the main responsibilities of the Reservation Front Office Department. A potential guest should contact a hotel for the availability of accommodation and any related services of choice offered by the hotel.
Types of Hotel Reservation Systems
For a guest, arriving at a reservation increases the chances of a better deal for guaranteed accommodation. For a guest, when the reservation arrives, it increases the probability of a better deal for assured accommodation. As far as a hotel is concerned, reservation enables better guest experience management during the regular and peak seasons.
The reservation procedure varies according to the size of the hotel, [learn more] the brand, and the reservation system. It is an efficient and effective reservation system that increases the profitability of the hotel. Let’s take a look at which are the most popular reservation systems.
Whitney System of Reservation – It was developed in 1940 by the Whitney Paper Corporation from New York, which is why it got its name. This is a traditional manual reservation system that hotels follow in the days before the computer in hotels. This includes a slip for a residence reservation request and a Whitney slip that records the name of the guests, the type, number, and length of stay.
Bedroom Journal – Although this system has proven to be efficient, it has created a lot of paperwork that is prone to errors from time to time. The shortcomings of this are overcome by the central reservation system.
Central Reservation System – This is a computerized reservation system that reduces paperwork and handles large amounts of reservation data with ease. In this system, guest data and reservation data are stored in the storage disks of the computers so that they can be accessed at will. The computerized reservation system not only helps in making guest reservations but also helps in predicting how many accommodations can be reserved in the coming period.
The hotel reservation system of 4 star hotels and 7 star hotels is different. The central reservation system, allows hotels to distribute their rates and inventory and receive reservations. While hotels can connect their PMS for channel delivery, central reservation system companies typically can integrate with different channels and partners. It gives a wider reach to hotels at a low cost.
The reservation allows hotels to connect with a broad network of travel distributors, allowing the hotel to expand its reach to different types of sellers in many different worldwide markets. A look at their pricing and inventory allocations through all distribution channels is good for hotel revenue managers, which allows them to adapt quickly to the market as per the requirement. Get more interesting lifestyle news and articles here with our blog.
