WordPress is a strong contender for hospitality websites, and these days a hospitality website without an instant booking function is simply unthinkable. Booking systems are now vital for hospitality websites, and with so many using WordPress as their website engine, the questions has to be “How good are these WordPress themes, or booking system plug-ins?”
The concept of a booking system is pretty simple. You have units to let at a specific price for a period of time. What could be simpler than creating a database, which keeps track of your units and to apply variables such as length of stay, season, etc.?
Well, not so fast, as it is not quite that simple!
WordPress (or Joomla) Themes that include a booking functionality, and plug-ins, tend to view life in a very simplistic manner, which is not how real hospitality businesses work.
So why do these instant booking systems fail to deliver? Here are some reasons why plug-ins, or even booking systems built-in themes, do not deliver what clients really need.
1. Rates/Pricing
Most people realise that pricing is seasonal in the hospitality sector. In simple terms, prices are lower in low demand periods, and higher in high demand periods.
On the face of it, this is simple, but this is not the full picture.
Smart pricing requires other variables such as:
- Number of people – Charge extra for more people staying in a unit
- Number of nights – The longer the stay, the lower the price per night
- Discount Vouchers – Ability to handle vouchers for discounts such as advertising, returning guests, etc.
- Additional Services – Ability to up-sell or offer optional services such as cots, cleaning, meals, excursions, taxes, etc.
- Conditional Pricing – Adjust prices according to occupancy, so increasing or reducing prices when occupancy is not meeting targets.
- Portal Integration – Synchronise prices and availability with portals (see more on this below).
Consider these and you realise pricing and rates are not as simple as just availability and seasonal pricing. WordPress themes and plug-ins are not designed to cope with such complexity.
2. Portal Connectivity (Channel Management)
Most hospitality businesses such as hotels, or holiday rentals, rely heavily on working with various portals, as portals represent a significant part of their revenue streams.
Portals do not share their output with smaller platforms, including booking modules in your WordPress theme or plug-in, which means you have to rely on iCal connectivity.
iCal has limited functionality as it was meant to be used to link calendars together, and not other information such as price/rates, content, quantity, etc. This means portal pricing, communication with guests, content, etc. has to be done manually via each portal’s own system, which is time consuming and can become messy when connecting to multiple portals.
Unlike XML or proprietary connections with portals, iCal cannot synchronise content such as rates, descriptions, facilities, images, reviews, etc., which means accommodation vendors have to set up and manage contents in each portal manually.
Whilst content such as description or photos can be mostly a one-off task; rates are a dynamic process, which require constant management if vendors want to maximise occupancy and revenue. Managing rates across multiple portals can become a time consuming process, and mistakes can prove to be costly.
3. Payment Processing
Today we live in the world of instant gratification, so guests expect to be able to view availability, pricing, and make a reservation instantly. The days of contacting the vendor to find out availability and pricing are well behind us.
With the rollout of 2 factor authorisation (2FA), taking credit card details and manually charging them is coming to an end. This means booking platforms must to be able to process payments instantly with direct connections with financial institutions such as Vendor’s own Bank, PayPal, Authorise.net, Stripes, etc.
Financial institutions update and improve their security regularly in order to combat fraud, and prevent hacking. Booking systems need to respond in kind and adjust their payment gateway. This is an expensive and ongoing task, so don’t expect your Theme or plug-in to keep up.
4. Guest Management
Anyone involved in hospitality will tell you that communication with guests and housekeeping management is a time consuming task.
If your booking platform is not integrated with your partner portals, or if it is not capable of these functionalities, you will need to spend a lot of time organising these actions. This might be fine if you are running a small hotel, or your own letting property, but if you are managing multiple properties or a medium size hotel, it can become an expensive business. It is unlikely that your WordPress Theme, or plug-in, is capable of such functions.
5. Third Party Connectivity
In the complex world of hospitality, many establishments need to connect their booking system to third party application providers such as Electronic Locks, Electronic Check-in, Dynamic Price Management, Accounting Systems, etc.
Having a booking system that cannot integrate with other systems will become unsustainable for larger hotels, or multiple property rental websites. It is unlikely that the booking module included in your WordPress theme, or a plug-in, will deliver on this front.
6. Privacy & GDPR
Data privacy is no longer unique to the European Union and GDPR. Many other countries are developing their own versions of data privacy. In the USA, some States such as California have brought in their own version of privacy laws. Whilst many are broadly based on EU’s GDPR, there are variations on the theme in each country, which you are expected to comply with.
Once again, these requirements change and are refined over time, which means you have to comply with them accordingly. So beware of holding client data on your website.
Summary
Selecting a 3rd party reservation platform that integrate with WordPress will give you a better control over your pricing, connectivity with portals, and guest management; freeing you up to focus on your core business rather than spending time on suboptimal instant booking system.
Contact us to see how we can help you with your WordPress instant booking requirements.