We at WebBookingPro are constantly looking at how to automate various processes with the aim of saving time, reducing errors, but also ultimately having a greater financial effect for you. What can be automated?
Automation before the guest’s arrival
1. Prices
Most of the facilities set a price list for the next period (season, year), but sometimes they adjust the prices during the year as well. Sometimes it can be global – eg correction of a larger period by +- absolute amount or +- percentage, but sometimes it can be on a daily basis. We do not engage in price correction strategies – for example lowering when the last rooms are left or by giving bigger discounts when the facility is empty, then raising prices as occupancy increases or some combination, but the WebBookingPro module “Revenue Manager” allows you to fully automate daily price corrections according to your price correction strategy. A strategy consists of one or more rules that can be configured based on hundreds of combinations of correction conditions. Once installed, the system performs calculations every night around 4-5 am and updates prices for the defined next period on all channels while you sleep. If you have had the practice of sometimes manually changing prices, you know the possible savings in this regard. An average hotel with 50 rooms can save up to 7 hours of work per week. Of course, there is another effect – increase in income and occupancy.
2. Preparation of offers-pre-reservation
You received an inquiry (by email, phone) and you want to send an offer to the guest. WebBookingPro allows you to save time through three tools.
2.1. A tool for creating email text suggestions to the guest
WebBookingPro has a price calculation for the period/number of persons/type of accommodation unit/service at any time. Of course, there are all the current discounts that you have defined (eg length of stay, first minute, last minute), as well as corrections defined by the Revenue Manager. Using the tool for creating reservations or pre-reservations, you have the option of creating a proposal for an email response that is defined on the basis of a template that you can always correct yourself, and on the other hand it is filled with prices, information about service and accommodation, warranty and cancellation conditions. Most often, objects have some templates so that their answers are standardized, but when creating answers manually, errors often occur – the wrong term is specified, the price is calculated incorrectly. You can change the templates yourself to 5 different languages and when creating an email response, you choose the language in which you will create the response.
2.2. Tool for creating offers
Another option is to create “offers” or “pre-bookings”. Pre-reservations are sent to the guest in the form of an email that is almost identical to the email of the real reservation, but it is clearly stated that it is a pre-reservation and that it needs to be confirmed. In the system itself, the pre-booking does not close the appointment until it is confirmed. The confirmation can be manually activated by you via the WebBookingPro system, or automatically by the guest – the guest receives a link in his email through which he can confirm the reservation according to your defined rules (eg sending credit card information, charging a part or 100% of the amount via a system credit card payments, confirmation that they will pay through a bank transaction). Upon confirmation of the pre-booking, it becomes a real booking that closes the appointment. Pre-reservations can have an expiration date and time after which they “disappear” from the system.
2.3. Booking tool with expiration option
The third option is to create real reservations with an expiration date and time, which close their appointments on all channels, but are recorded in the system as “unconfirmed” until you manually confirm them. If you do not confirm them by the specified date or expiration, they will be automatically canceled if you have selected the automatic cancellation option. The guest will receive a confirmation of cancellation if the email address was specified when creating the reservation.
3. Self-checkin
With WebBookingPro, you can automate the sending of emails to guests before arrival with, for example, information about entering the apartment, the parking lot, and the like. However, with the same email, you can send the guest an invitation to enter personal data for guest registration (eVISITOR). If the guest enters the above information, your reservation will change color in the Room Plan to yellow, thus making it easier for you to log in to eVISITOR. It is still not sent until you have confirmed that the guest has registered (Checkin) and until you have checked the data, but the data entry process is greatly shortened.
4. Billing
WebBookingPro supports many automatic credit card billing systems. You choose the system with which you have a contract, you define the amount charged to guests per reservation – for example, it can be a percentage of the reservation with a minimum amount requirement. Non-refundable reservations are always charged at 100%. In theory, you can define that you will always charge the guest 100% on the condition that they can cancel up to a certain point and that you will then make a “Refund” – an option that is OK, but there are certain costs that depend on the selected credit card billing partner.
5. Creating an account/checkout
In the case of simple facilities and simple reservations (eg no sharing of costs or combining the costs of several different reservations), the process of creating the invoice and then checking out the guests should take an average of about 30 seconds.
