Tips for Choosing the Right Bed and Breakfast Booking System

In this blog, we'll dive deeper to provide an overview of bed and breakfast software,reasons to invest in a B&B booking system, and the exact checklist you need to follow before selecting a hotel booking system.

An Overview of the Bed and Breakfast System

A bed and breakfast booking system is online software specifically designed for small lodging establishments, guesthouses, or inns to help them manage online reservations, check-ins, check-outs, and housekeeping processes.

This not only improves the operational efficiency of B&B owners but also streamlines the guest experience by allowing them to book directly through your website. Guests can check room availability, select dates, and make bookings directly on the website.

Regardless of whether guests book a stay through your website or third-party platforms such as OTAs, a B&B booking system is an effective tool for keeping your reservations in one place. Hence, you can devote more time to other business operations.

Why Do You Need B&B Booking Software?

Here are the top reasons why B&B booking software is pivotal for your business:

1. Save Your Time

This hotel booking system saves hours for B&B owners by managing reservations in one place, whether they come from online agencies, walk-ins, your website, or through call bookings.

Moreover, this online software comes with features such as check-ins, check-outs, invoice generation, managing guest profiles, and streamlining housekeeping processes.

Automation of routine yet repetitive tasks means that B&B owners can focus on guest interactions and strategic aspects of the business.

2. Organize Your B&B Operations

Managing your B&B business is no longer a time-consuming task.

B&B booking software streamlines your housekeeping processes by ensuring that rooms are cleaned before the next guest arrives. It also makes it easy for front desk staff to view the status of rooms.

You can assign requests to housekeeping staff regarding which rooms need immediate attention. Also, you can send tasks to them daily or weekly and even send instructions to new staff.

If you've been running a B&B business for years and doing everything on your own, then it's high time for you to invest in this software. 

It's a centralized place that stores details about guests, rooms, and bookings in one place. Thus, everything remains at the top of your mind.

3. Manage Your Guest Details

B&B booking systems provide information about your guests at a granular level. With extensive guest data (preferences, booking history), you can provide personalized guest experiences.

When you get detailed insights about your guests, you can fine-tune your services and enhance their experience. Thus, you can win the hearts of returning customers by offering services that exceed their expectations.

4. Accept Payments from Multiple Payment Methods

Our bed and breakfast booking system is integrated with a secure payment gateway that helps you manage your cash flow with ease. 

Guests can feel confident when making purchases as they would be sure that their transactions are safe and secure.

Additionally, they get the privilege of making payments in their preferred payment mode such as credit card, debit card, Stripe, PayPal, and other digital wallets.

5. Grow Your B&B Business to New Heights

Don't think of the B&B booking system as mere software; rather, it acts like a revenue-generating machine for you as you can manage prices and inventory across all OTAs. 

Thus, you can maximize your profits.

You can do more upsells, cross-sell additional services, create enticing packages, and run discounts/offers to drive more traffic to your website and hence earn more revenue.

6. Convenience to Book Anytime and Anywhere

This hotel booking system works like a 24/7 machine where guests can make hassle-free reservations anytime and anywhere.

Guests get the choice to book the room they wish to stay in, select the room type, choose the duration of stay, and make online payments.

The booking information such as room availability and other reservation details gets updated in real-time. Thus, there would be no overbooking issues.

Once a guest makes a reservation, the system sends automated emails to guests. If the guest doesn't arrive, the room is available for booking. Thus, there will be no last-minute cancellations.

7. Delight your guests

A research study states that 70% of guests prefer personalized offers throughout their stay. So, hoteliers need to personalize the guest’s experience by leveraging guest data. 

This means there is a direct relationship between guest satisfaction and personalized experiences. The more personalized experiences they get, the more satisfied they will be. 

That’s why you need to understand your guests inside out such as where they are coming from, their age, likes, and preferences. 

Investing in the B&B booking system provides nitty-gritty details about guest preferences so you can fine-tune your offerings accordingly. 

8. Save money

A B&B booking software saves your commission on each booking because you don’t have to rely on OTAs. This booking system enables B&B owners to receive direct bookings on the website. 

You can come up with attractive offers and discounts and offer them loyalty rewards so that guests are more likely to book a stay with you. 

Must Read: Hotel Loyalty Program

How to choose the right B&B booking system?

There are plenty of B&B booking systems available today, but every software differs from others depending on the features and functionalities it has. 

You might be wondering which B&B software is best for you because the one that works for small B&Bs might not perform well for large B&Bs. 

So, we're sharing a checklist for you to help you make an informed choice for your B&B business-

1. Understand your needs

Don’t just look at the features of the hotel booking system. Understand your business needs first. To do that, ask yourself these questions - 

• What is the goal and objective of the bed & breakfast booking system? The goals you set determine the choice of features and functionalities of the system. 

For example – if you want to acquire direct bookings on your website and reduce your OTA dependence, you need a hotel booking system packed with commission-free direct booking websites. 

While, if your focus is on improving the operational efficiency of B&Bs, then consider looking for a system that supports various features such as automatic task scheduling, and payment processing. 

• Consider the size of your property

Do you need a system that doesn’t just make reservations, it helps you manage your other operations such as housekeeping, maintenance, payments, and billing, or one that provides you with insights on how your business is performing.

• How technically proficient you’re? Are you looking for a system that has a seamless user interface and is easy to use?
• What’s your budget? Some hotel booking systems provide you services for free, while some might charge a monthly subscription free.  

Others charge a one-time fee. While many others charge a fixed rate of commission on each booking received. 

• What specific guests do you want to attract? If you’re serving an international clientele, you need a system that supports multiple languages and accepts payments in multiple currencies.

If you cater to a specific segment of travelers, let's say business class, then you need software with extensive capabilities such as mobile check-in and check-out.

• What specific payment methods do you want to offer to your guests? Before choosing a hotel booking system, assess whether the software provides multiple payment methods to guests or not.
• Is there a need for an online booking system? If you aim to increase direct bookings and reduce your OTA reliance, you need an online booking website.  

Do you have an existing website or not? If you don’t have an existing website, then you need to have a new one.  

2. How user-friendly is the software is?

The B&B booking system should have a user-friendly interface that is intuitive, and easy to use.

Here are some of the features of user-friendly software-

• Channel management

Choose B&B booking software that can be integrated with the channel manager and ensures that room availability gets updated across all channels in real-time. So, you need not worry about double bookings or under bookings.

• Streamlines your payment processes

The hotel booking system should offer multiple payment options to guests so they can book comfortably with their preferred payment method. 

• Analysis and reporting feature

Such reporting and analytics features allow B&B owners to understand your business performance at a granular level. You can even get access to guest profiles and offer hyper-personalized services to them. 

• Round-the-clock support to guests

The booking system should provide 24*7 guest support to resolve issues such as phone, email, or live chat.

• Mobile friendly

The booking software for B&Bs should be mobile-friendly meaning guests can make a reservation on any device they want such as a tablet, smartphone, or laptop. 

• Multi-lingual support

B&B management software should be multilingual, meaning guests can book a stay in their preferred language especially if you want to cater to international guests. 

• Housekeeping and other routine tasks

This functionality automates rote tasks such as housekeeping, maintenance, room cleanliness, and maintenance of tasks.  

How to take maximum advantage of your bed and breakfast booking system?

After setting up the B&B booking system, you can get the most out of it-

1. You can play with the settings of the booking system and match it to your requirements. 
2. You can attract more guests to your B&B business by creating and managing content on your website.  You can use a dedicated blog section for sharing stories and other interesting stuff about your property. To intrigue visitors, you can even offer enticing deals or promotions so that they can choose you over others. 
3. Get used to that system while never compromising on providing exceptional guest experiences.
4. You can build an e-mail list of your guest profiles and build strong relationships with them. You can tell guests about what’s happening in your property, what offers they are missing, and what benefits they can get. 
5. You can ask guests to share their experiences and leave reviews on your B&B website. It increases your credibility and enhances your property’s reputation. 
6. Make the best use of reporting and analytics features to understand the intricacies of guests and your business. 
7. Update yourself with current trends and technologies so you can get the most out of the hotel booking system. 
8. Invest in training your staff so they enhance their skills, knowledge, and abilities while using the system. 

Wrapping up

In this competitive technological landscape, B&B owners want to stand out, drive more bookings and automate their tedious daily tasks. 

The above guide shares the top reasons why investing in B&B booking software is a game changer for your hospitality business. 

Looking for online software for the Bed and Breakfast business?

At BOTSHOT, we provide a perfect stay experience for guests. We provide and manage your day-to-day operations of the business such as check-ins, check-outs, housekeeping, and payment processes.

Moreover, you can grow your B&B business by leaps and bounds by managing add-ons or upselling additional services so you can increase your business profits.

There’ll be no paperwork as everything is automated, so front desk staff can serve their guests in a better fashion. They can get rid of manual entries. 

Want to experience how the hotel booking software works?

Schedule a 14-day free trial with us