RezOvation GT began as a re-creation of the very popular Munsenware GuestTracker software. It aims to be a full-featured program, providing a simple interface, and all the features necessary for daily lodging operations.

Some six years ago, when RezOvation GT was in its infancy, we researched and tried several different programs for use at our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast, and settled on RezOvation GT as the best choice. In all honesty, we were not excited about choosing it, as it was relatively untested, and had a number of significant blemishes and a very high price tag, but we considered it to be the best choice despite many shortcomings. In the ensuing years there have been many improvements, and a few miscues, but there is little doubt that RezOvation GT is now a much more mature product, and is one of the top choices available today.

Overview

Unlike most reservation systems released in the past few years, ResOvation GT is stand-alone system, installed on your local computer, rather than a web-based system. The primary advantage of a stand-alone system is that they tend to offer many more powerful features than web-based systems, especially in the area of the reports you can obtain, and also generally allow for more user choices and preferences. The primary disadvantages of most stand-alone systems are (1) the need to back-up your data yourself, and (2) they can be difficult (or impossible) to access remotely. RezOvation GT deals with the back-up issue by mirroring your data remotely (at their facility), and suggests using LogMeIn as a secure way to access the system from a remote location. There is also an online option, called RezOvation GT Online. We have not tested that version, and have heard sharp criticisms of it, so thorough testing is recommended before signing up for it.

User Interface

RezOvation is a Microsoft Gold-Certified partner, so it is no surprise that RezOvation GT is a Windows-only product. It is deeply integrated with Windows components, which means, for Windows users, it will have a familiar “look and feel” and menus and other items will usually behave as expected, providing a nice comfort level.

The Occupancy Map (or calendar view) is excellent, providing a view of all rooms over a 90-day period (or you can set a longer or shorter period), with a slider bar at the bottom, allowing you to scroll up to 90-days forward, or back through the preceding month. If you move to a date other than “Today,” you can scroll through the following 90-days. You can also jump to virtually any date using the pull-down selector.

As is common with calendar views, entries are color-coded (you can define the colors, if you wish) to show whether or not a credit card has been used to hold the reservation, and whether some or all of the amount has been paid. There are also graphical cues to show whether or not the guest has checked-in or checked-out.

Creating new reservations are straightforward and logical. If you begin with the calendar view, you can drag your cursor across the dates and room to be selected, then either press Enter, or right click and choose “Book Reservation” to enter information. If the reservation is for an existing guest, typing part of the name will bring up matching suggestions. If it is for a new guest, there is a “Create New” button next to the guest name.

When getting started, RezOvation GT allows you to import historical guest information from a spreadsheet, using a template they supply. The default template allows importing of more guest information than many competing systems, plus some custom information can be imported. RezOvation support will assist with the importing, if needed.

Rate Capabilities

Booking systems should allow for different rates for each room, seasonal rates, specials or discounts, packages, additional items to add to a reservation, and have a way of handling bookings for multiple rooms, such as a group booking. If larger properties are also to use the booking system, the group booking capability becomes even more significant, and there should also be the ability to create rates by room type.

When you first install RezOvation GT you are asked to choose whether you want to organize your property by room type or by individual rooms.

RezOvation GT allows for seasonal rates through its “Rate Seasons and Adjustments” configuration screen. This screen allows rates to be set up to two years from the date you are working on it. It works by highlighting the rooms and dates you want to set, and then click to make the adjustments. You can set minimum stay requirements, seasonal rates, individual date rates and stay requirements, and blackout dates. You can also add multiple rate types, in case you have rooms which can be set up in different ways, or rates to be used for other purposes, such as connecting with RezOvation sister company BedAndBreakfast.com’s online booking or GDS connectivity.

Setting up Specials (called Packages) and Add-on items is straightforward, for the most part. In the Packages screen, you add the rooms to which the package applies, and adjust the room rate, if necessary. Then you add the additional items to be included, and again, adjust rates, if needed. Then when a guest books a package, all the items will be added and shown on the reservation. Restrictions, such as day of the week, minimum stay, and availability dates, are also configurable. The one (significant) negative in this process is that the screen does not display the total price for the package. This is unfortunate, as the adjustments to the rates of the component rooms and additional items is often done to achieve a particular total price.

Groups can also be set up, with additional rooms and items added to the group or to the individual reservation. Group rates can be created as an additional rate type.

Guest Communications

Modern booking systems allow for a number of guest communications to be sent from within the system – usually as emails. The most common are confirmation emails, cancellation confirmations, reminder and follow-up emails, invoices, and marketing emails. We feel that all these items, with the possible exception of marketing emails (due to the common use of stand-alone email marketing programs, such as Constant Contact and others), are sufficiently important that they should be included in the booking system.

To its credit, RezOvation GT offers not only confirmation and cancellation emails, but configurable reminder and follow-up emails, as well. Assuming a guest is not booking using the RezOvation Booking Engine (more on that, below), the confirmation and cancellation emails are sent manually, but from within the program. Once configured, the reminder and follow-up emails are sent automatically.

While we do not feel that sending marketing emails, or other emails, to guests from within the property management system is particularly valuable, it can be done in RezOvation GT. All emails (like other documents, such as reports, folios, etc.) are generated through Microsoft Word, which must be installed, and you must edit the template to include your own logo, your own language, etc. RezOvation GT does work with the free office software, OpenOffice.org’s Writer (a Microsoft Word equivalent), but we found the formatting to be difficult, and not all features rendered satisfactorily.

Reports

To evaluate performance, properly report taxes, and track marketing results, reports are a key source of information for the innkeeper. Different booking systems provide for different numbers and types of reports. Of course, if the system doesn’t capture the information in the first instance, it will never be able to report on it. At a minimum, a booking system should be able to generate reports of reservations for the coming month/day/week/year, revenue for specified periods of time, occupancy (total and by room) for specific periods of time, and revenue by date (and by room). Many innkeepers also require reports of gift certificates sold or redeemed, housekeeping issues, and additional financial reports, such as taxes collected.

As mentioned above, the reports are generated in Microsoft Word, and include the RezOvation logo. If you would like the reports to show your own logo, you will need to edit the template. There is quite a large array of reports, from financial to taxes to revenue sources, gift certificates, reservations, occupancy and housekeeping. Most have several variations, and all can be customized by modifying their Word templates. Changing the template to get additional information is possible, as the data fields available to each report can be seen by clicking a “View Template Codes” link at the bottom of the “Manage Templates” screen.

We see two (minor) issues with this process. First, if you are not familiar with editing Word templates, and how this works to get information from the customer database, this can be an intimidating task. Second, the codes available differ from template to template, so sometimes the code you would like to include is not available for the report you are editing.

We think some effort should go into making all codes available to all templates. In addition, the reports can be exported to a spreadsheet (like Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org’s Calc), so you can do your own analysis on the figures, but, only by exporting them from Word. However, many innkeepers would be quite happy with the default reports.

Accounting

Most booking systems provide some way to use the revenue data in an accounting or bookkeeping system, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. In a few cases, the revenue data is directly linked to the bookkeeping product, but most booking systems export the data to a file, which can be imported into the bookkeeping software.

RezOvation GT allows for exporting the accounting data to a file to be imported into Quickbooks, using the “Export to Quickbooks” menu item. Before this can be used successfully, Quickbooks settings must be properly configured so the accounts and items in RezOvation GT can be properly mapped to entries in Quickbooks. We found the mapping process to be confusing because of terminology differences between RezOvation GT and Quickbooks, and the help screens and online information to be very limited. Once we completed the import (after manually editing the output file so that Quickbooks would accept it), we found that Quickbooks was now littered with all our guests as “Accounts” in Quickbooks, and we found that our accounts in Quickbooks were now 100% out of balance. The reason for being out of balance is that the new “Accounts” (our guests) were showing payments, that duplicate our deposits from our credit card processors. To get it in balance again would require us to manually track down every guest receipt and match it to a batch credit card deposit. Some innkeepers may be willing to do this, but we suspect that most will not.

RezOvation’s solution for this is to use Intuit (Quickbooks’ parent company) for credit card processing, and then a direct import from RezOvation GT to Quickbooks. Then the batch deposits can (at least theoretically) be automatically matched. While Intuit’s credit card processing rates are competitive, they are not the best available. However, if matching every payment to a batch deposit is important to you, this is the best way to see that it happens correctly.

Online Booking

Modern web-based booking systems generally provide their own online booking interface, and rarely interact with other online booking systems (such as Webervations or Availability Online). By contrast, most stand-alone guest management systems will interact with third-party online booking systems, even if they provide their own online booking module as an option. A significant drawback to not interacting with other systems is that the property is precluded from taking advantage of group booking and availability opportunities, unless they pay an additional fee for a second system.

RezOvation provides the best of both worlds with their online booking options. RezOvation GT can import and export reservation information with Webervations (which was acquired by RezOvation a few years ago), or you can use the RezOvation Booking engine. We have used both successfully.

With Webervations, RezOvation appears to update availability on a regular basis, about every 30 minutes or so. The result of this is that your online availability is quite reasonably up to date, but not perfectly synchronized. With the RezOvation Booking Engine, the updates are made immediately, so the online availability is immediately updated on any change. The Booking Engine is a tremendous improvement over Webervations, having a much more polished appearance, conforms beautifully to your website, and has a logical flow for users.

There are two drawbacks to the RezOvation Booking Engine: (1) there is currently no way to sell “gift shop” items (Extras, in RezOvation GT terminology) online to a non-guest; and (2) when a visitor books a room or purchases a Gift Certificate, the CVV2 number from the credit card is not transmitted. Some credit card processors require the CVV2 number to be included with keyed charges, so this eliminates the ability to use those processors.

The RezOvation Booking Engine creates only a confirmed booking (though you can change some of the terminology of the email that is automatically sent to the guest), so some innkeepers may be disappointed if they would prefer a request for a reservation, instead.

Pricing

RezOvation GT pricing is based on the number of rooms, per month, with a 5% discount for annual prepayment. If you want to use the RezOvation Booking Engine with it, there are additional charges. For RezOvation GT, a 7 room B&B would pay $50 per month, or $570 per year. Adding the RezOvation Booking Engine would change those rates to $90 per month or $1035 per year (based on the prices on the RezOvation website at the time of this writing).

Additional Features

Technical Support from RezOvation is generally excellent. In addition to helping with setup and importing historical guest information, they are helpful and responsive when issues arise, often remotely accessing your computer to check settings and make sure configuration is correct, patching and updating problems with the software quickly, and otherwise helping to insure that everything is working as it should be. The one drawback is their support service hours, which are limited to 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Central time (RezOvation is located in Texas). Experience shows that getting help in the evenings or on weekends or holidays is more effective by raising the issue on the PAII Innkeeping forum, as some staffers are regular readers there.

RezOvation offers a “Double-down” return on investment guarantee on its Booking Engine, that you will receive at least two time return on investment in online night charges each year (we couldn’t find a definition of “night charges”). That’s still an impressive guarantee.

In addition to a seamless connection to the BedAndBreakfast.com Online Booking (for those who use it), RezOvation also provides an option for those who want GDS connectivity. Rates are competitive, with a setup fee, an annual maintenance fee, but no commission payable to RezOvation other than a $15.50 per reservation. Reservations made through third parties (like travel agents) who charge a commission, also result in commission charges.

Mobile Booking

There is an increasing need for booking capabilities specifically designed for mobile platforms. While RezOvation told us they thought their Booking Engine appeared to work reasonably on mobile devices, we think the embedded availability search is too small to use effectively with fingers on a phone, and the availability calendar is too large for small screens. If there was even an optional link to a version designed for small screens that could be used from a mobile site, it would be a huge improvement.

RezOvation GT also offers an iPhone app for managing bookings remotely. This app works nicely, but has limited abilities (for example, you can not modify a booking). When installed on an iPad it is obviously designed for the smaller iPhone screen. We would love to see (1) a real iPad version, (2) an Android version (the extremely limited mobile web access is almost unusable other than to create a “placeholder” booking), and (3) complete ability to create reservations, modify or cancel reservations, as well as the current information about check-ins, check-outs, etc.

Final Thoughts

Our experience with RezOvation GT has generally been a very positive one. RezOvation GT is far more expensive than less complete products, such as those that provide online booking only, but because it includes automated reminder and follow-up emails, it is less expensive than its close competitor, ResNexus, which provides comparable features but adds almost 50% to its base cost just for automated emails.

We’re fairly satisfied with the RezOvation Booking Engine, as well, though we would like to see a true mobile version, as that is a growing need, as well as the ability to sell “gift shop” items through online purchasing.

Shortly prior to preparing this review, we learned that RezOvation is working on a new release. We certainly look forward to seeing the new features, and we particularly hope to see improved mobile capabilities.

There is no question that, when it comes to managing guest reservations and bookings, one size does not fit all. Most systems provide an evaluation copy of the software, or a free trial account. We strongly urge anyone considering purchasing a booking system to evaluate several different products before making a decision.

Based on data from its sister company’s directory (Destination Nexus) Reservation Nexus bills itself as the most popular and most used all-in-one reservation system for US bed and breakfasts and inns. With all due respect, data from a sister company (only), and excluding data from much larger directories, makes that conclusion just a little suspicious. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that ResNexus is one of the top reservation systems, both in popularity and in features.

Because of its popularity, the apparently large set of features, and its effort to position itself as the top reservation system available, we were eager to give it a try at our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast. Since one of the claims made by ResNexus amounts to a claim that you will get more online bookings than with other systems, we decided to go ahead with a full month’s trial, rather than just a brief demo of the product. That also allowed us to more fully explore its features, and to take advantage of its advertised “Red Carpet Service.”

Overview

Like many modern reservation systems, ResNexus is a web-based system. Most of these fall short, either because they don’t attempt to be a full-fledged property management system, or because they have not implemented a full-feature set as is found on more complete systems. That is not the case with ResNexus. Virtually every feature provided by the best systems has been implemented in ResNexus, and new features continue to be added. That said, there are still occasional perplexing design choices that make you wonder what the developers were thinking, and the pricing structure leaves something to be desired.

User Interface

Most of the user interface (web pages) seems to have a logical flow, and is relatively easy to navigate, so while the comments may seem negative, it is because most of the user interaction is so good that the rough spots are particularly jarring. In evaluating the user interface, we consider the layout of the screens (here, web pages), ease of navigating the program, ease of entering or modifying guest information and reservations, the usability of “snapshot” or calendar views of bookings, and the availability of sorted and filtered lists of guests (for marketing purposes).

The “go to” page is the calendar view, which is accessed in ResNexus by clicking on the Reservations menu item. By default the calendar displays 45 days, but can be configured to show 30, 45, 60 or 90 days. To move forward or back, you click on the month (or year) you want to view.

One curious design issue arises near the end of each month. In the default (45 day) view, with about 5 days or fewer left in the month, you see the last few days of the month, the next full month, and the first few days of the following month. However, if you need to see an entry from just a few days earlier (where, for example, the date is the 28th, you see the 28th through 31st, all of next month, and the first several days of the following month, but you want to see something from the 25th of the current month), it is not as easy as you might think. If you click the current month, you get the same view you have before clicking. If you click the earlier month, you’ll see all of that month, plus the first few (perhaps 15) days of the current month, but you can not view the 25th. The solution is to change the display to show 60 days, but that is hardly a rational approach. If a 45 day view is an option, the system should work properly without changing the settings. You can also check to box marked “Show all days”, but again, this is not intuitive.

The calendar nicely displays single letter day-of-the-week designations, and marks minimum stay requirements by putting the minimum number of days in red above and below the days of the month to which they apply. Color-coded marks show the status of a room, though we had trouble finding a legend to explain them. Orange “X” marks indicate blocked rooms, a green “+” is booked offline (entered by the innkeeper) and a blue “+” is an online booking. An arrow pointing down indicates a checked-in guest, pointing up it means a checked-out guest, and a $ indicates payment. A great feature is that the checkbox for the room and date is highlighted in pink if an online guest is in the process of booking that room and night. This is a great way to help avoid double bookings!

ResNexus allows you to import a spreadsheet of guest information, so you can have some historical data, though, like most such systems, the import ability is limited to names and contact info, without historical reservation data. You can create guest lists, for mailing, email, or informational purposes, though it may take some trial-and-error to get the information you want.

Rate Capabilities

Booking systems should allow for different rates for each room, seasonal rates, specials or discounts, packages, additional items to add to a reservation, and have a way of handling bookings for multiple rooms, such as a group booking. If larger properties are also to use the booking system, the group booking capability becomes even more significant, and there should also be the ability to create rates by room type.

ResNexus provides for setting up individual rooms, and most settings seem geared to that model. However, you can also set up “Classes” of rooms, so that all rooms of a particular class can be viewed together.

ResNexus also allows for adding packages (from the website, it appears that this may be only a feature of the “Auto-Pilot” version, rather than the “Classic” version) as well as upselling items (items are all designated as “Retail”). One problem we encountered was that our packages usually involve booking multiple nights in particular rooms, plus several add-on (Retail) items, with some rates adjusted so that the package price is predefined. Currently ResNexus can only do parts of this setup. We could set up a package so that all rooms could be booked, with appropriate add-ons and number of nights, but then the price is the same across all rooms, unless you use the default room rate. An alternative was to price each room individually for the package, but then we could no longer enforce a multiple night stay for the package.

Guest Communications

Modern booking systems allow for a number of guest communications to be sent from within the system – usually as emails. The most common are confirmation emails, cancellation confirmations, reminder and follow-up emails, invoices, and marketing emails. We feel that all these items, with the possible exception of marketing emails (due to the common use of stand-alone email marketing programs, such as Constant Contact and others), are sufficiently important that they should be included in the booking system.

ResNexus offers a Classic package, and, for an additional monthly fee, an Auto-Pilot package. Manual emails (which are customizable) are available with the Classic package, while automated emails are available only with Auto-Pilot.

While we understand there is some additional cost in handling the automated emails, most of the products which compete with ResNexus offer at least automated reminder and follow-up emails at a lower price than ResNexus. ResNexus (Auto-Pilot) also offers marketing emails based around birthdays and anniversaries, monthly newsletters, etc.

Reports

To evaluate performance, properly report taxes, and track marketing results, reports are a key source of information for the innkeeper. Different booking systems provide for different numbers and types of reports. Of course, if the system doesn’t capture the information in the first instance, it will never be able to report on it. At a minimum, a booking system should be able to generate reports of reservations for the coming month/day/week/year, revenue for specified periods of time, occupancy (total and by room) for specific periods of time, and revenue by date (and by room). Many innkeepers also require reports of gift certificates sold or redeemed, housekeeping issues, and additional financial reports, such as taxes collected.

ResNexus offers a large array of reports, covering most areas an innkeeper would expect or desire. Sometimes the data presented is not intuitive from the names, so exploring the reports is definitely recommended, but you are very likely to find what you are seeking. We would like to see the reports, especially the financial reports, be exportable to a spreadsheet (like Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org’s Calc), so you can do your own analysis on the figures, but many innkeepers would be quite happy with the default reports.

Accounting

Most booking systems provide some way to use the revenue data in an accounting or bookkeeping system, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. In a few cases, the revenue data is directly linked to the bookkeeping product, but most booking systems export the data to a file, which can be imported into the bookkeeping software.

ResNexus says that their financial data can be posted automatically to Quickbooks if you use Authorize.net to accept online credit card payments, and if the processor will provide the Quickbooks integration. That’s a fancy way of saying that your bank or credit card processor may provide the integration, but ResNexus doesn’t provide it from within the reservation system. There also does not appear to be a way to export the data from ResNexus to be used either in Quickbooks or in a spreadsheet.

Online Booking

Modern web-based booking systems generally provide their own online booking interface, and rarely interact with other online booking systems (such as Webervations or Availability Online). By contrast, most stand-alone guest management systems will interact with third-party online booking systems, even if they provide their own online booking module as an option. A significant drawback to not interacting with other systems is that the property is precluded from taking advantage of group booking and availability opportunities, unless they pay an additional fee for a second system.

The default setup for ResNexus is to place a booking button on your website, linking to pages on the ResNexus site, which have been colored to follow the colors of your website. While the colors are true to your site, the look and feel is quite different. Nevertheless, these pages are very useful, showing photos of each room (whether available or not, designating the occupied rooms for the date selected as “Occupied!”). While ResNexus feels that linking to booking button to their pages is the most effective way to use the system, it is possible to set up a JavaScript calendar on your page and pass the date information to ResNexus.

The online booking aspect of ResNexus creates only a confirmed booking, so some innkeepers may be disappointed if they would prefer a request for a reservation, instead.

Pricing

ResNexus pricing is based on the number of rooms, per month, with a discount for annual prepayment, and they do offer discounts for referring other customers. For the Classic edition, a 7 room B&B would pay $85 per month, or $850 per year. If you need automated reminder and thank-you emails (and the other automated marketing emails) that come with the Auto-Pilot edition, a 7 room B&B must add another $40 per month or $400 per year, for a total of $125 per month or $1250 per year (based on the prices on the ResNexus website at the time of this writing).

Additional Features

One of ResNexus’ distinctives is their Red Carpet Service. They aren’t kidding. They helped with a walkthrough of major features, they set up the look and feel of the online booking pages, they set up most of the room information and pictures, and more. This really jump-starts the transition process for an innkeeper. As time went on, they called regularly to teach, give advice, answer questions, and just to see that the system was working for us. Frankly, they spent so much time with us that we had to wonder how they will handle it if they continue to grow, as they will clearly need more well-trained staff to handle the volume of support and setup duties.

ResNexus offers a return on investment guarantee, that you will receive enough reservations between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. (your time) to pay for itself each year. That’s an impressive guarantee. While ResNexus doesn’t say this directly, the implication is that you’ll get more online reservations with ResNexus than you were getting with something else. We put the ResNexus booking button on our site, but also left another link to our old online booking engine, just as a comparison. We did receive a good number of bookings from the ResNexus button, but we received just as many from our old system during the same time. Most likely those would have used the ResNexus booking button if there had only been one choice. During the month of our test, we received more bookings than the previous year, but we also had more site visitors than the previous year. The increase in bookings was in proportion to the increase in visitors, so while we do not mean to say that the ResNexus guarantee isn’t valuable – it looks like it is very valuable – don’t expect miracles, either.

ResNexus also provides “True Seamless GDS” for those who want GDS connectivity. Rates are competitive, with a setup fee, monthly fees, but no commission payable to ResNexus other than a flat $15. Reservations made through third parties (like travel agents) who charge a commission, also result in commission charges.

Final Thoughts

Most all of our impressions of ResNexus are positive. It is a very comprehensive product, but not without a few speedbumps in the useability area. For the most part, it offers everything an innkeeper needs, and more. Our biggest stumbling block is the price. While ResNexus is far more expensive than less complete products, such as those that provide online booking only, because of adding almost 50% to the cost just for automated emails, it is also more expensive than competitive products like RezOvation GT, which provides comparable features.

If you can live without Quickbooks integration, or if your bank or credit card processor provides it, this is an excellent system, although we think it would be a better value if the reminder and thank you emails were automated and included in the Classic edition at the current price.

There is no question that, when it comes to managing guest reservations and bookings, one size does not fit all. Most systems provide an evaluation copy of the software, or a free trial account. We strongly urge anyone considering purchasing a booking system to evaluate several different products before making a decision.

The basics of creating and using QR codes

Sample QR code linking to our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast

One reason most articles don’t really explain how to make your own QR codes, and how to use them, is that it is a very easy process. There, no need to feel intimidated! Try it yourself if you have a smartphone or other mobile device with a camera. Just activate your Bar Code Reader app, and point your device at the QR code in this article, and see what happens (you may have to download a Barcode Reader app, if you don’t already have one).

OK, What are QR Codes, Again?

Others have described them in detail (see the two articles in the first paragraph, above), so we’ll simply say that QR codes are like a bar code. You can scan or read them with a mobile device’s camera, and they provide a link to something. You decide what the something is – that’s why most of the articles are called “15 way to use QR codes” or similar titles – the possibilities are nearly endless.

So, the way this works is that you put a QR code somewhere (on your business card, in a magazine ad, on a web site, T-shirt, billboard, anywhere in the physical world). The prospective user sees it, reads it via their mobile device, and their device opens the URL embedded in the QR code. They then experience whatever wonderful thing you have placed at that URL. Maybe it is a map, a video, a photo, a great review, or any of the other marketing ideas people have created. Or, create your own.

A Link between Virtual and Physical

Think of a QR code as a way to provide a connection to online information (the virtual) and the real world experience (the physical). If there is something you would like your guests (who are in the real world) to see, but they need to see it in the virtual world, the QR code is your pathway from the real to the virtual.

OK, a bit less esoteric. The QR code is an easy way to get people to find what you want them to see, using their mobile device.

Maybe you want to put a link to your website on your business card. Instead of just writing the URL on the card, you put a QR code (that links to the website, or to a video, or whatever) on the business card. Then the guest can scan the code and go directly to the website.

Getting Started

• First, the planning. Where would you like the guest to go? If you need ideas, read one of the first two articles for a number of suggestions. We’ll assume you have a YouTube video to which you’d like to direct a potential customer, by embedding a link on your business card.
• Copy the URL of the video (for YouTube, click the Share button beneath the video, then use the URL in the “Link to this video” box; don’t use the “Embed” link).
• Choose one of the free QR code creation sites (several are mentioned here, or just search for “QR code generator”) and go to their page for creating a QR code.
• If the QR code generator asks for the content-type of the link, select the correct content-type. For our example we’ll use URL, since we want to direct the user to the URL of our YouTube video.
• Select any other options available, such as the size of the QR code, and click on “Generate” or whatever your generator’s button says to create the code.
• You’ll now see a QR code, looking something like the illustration at the top of the this page (our example links to our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast, so it will be slightly different from a code linking elsewhere).
• The QR code you’ve created is simply an image. Download it or save it in whatever way you ordinarily steal save images. For some QR code generators, you may need to do a screen capture (use a screen capture program, or just use the Print Screen key, and paste the image into a graphic file – some cropping may be needed)
• Put the image wherever you want people to find it. In our example, we’ll add it to our business card when we send it out for printing

That’s all there is to it!

Now get out there and get QR happy!

Book At Once provides a powerful and innovative approach to their software for managing bed and breakfasts and other small lodging properties. For many, their power and innovation will be very attractive – especially in the free version. For others, it just may not be their cup of tea.

Overview

Book at Once is a German booking system, reaching out to become a worldwide provider, and particularly to reach the American, market. Book at Once has also become a vendor member of PAII, as part of its efforts to reach out to the US and international innkeeping market.

One of the most interesting aspects of their product is that it is priced according to the features you select. The basic system is free, and that could be powerful enough for some properties. If not, additional feature bundles can be added for a monthly fee per room, or Book at Once can tailor a bundle to your needs and price it according to the features selected. Pricing for the product is given in Euros per room per month (easily converted to US Dollars or other currency), on the basis of a two year contract. We were given a full system for the review, so if you were to purchase a different option, your features may be different.

The technical design of Book at Once makes it an enormously powerful system – so much so that as you use the system you are left with the feeling that it can do even more than you can see. That leaves great possibilities for future growth.

User Interface

Book At Once Dashboard

In evaluating the user interface, we consider the layout of the screens (or web pages), ease of navigating the program, ease of entering (or changing) booking or guest information, the usability of “snapshot” or calendar views of bookings, and availability of sorted and filtered guest lists (for marketing purposes).

Book at Once opens from a web page with a dashboard that opens in a new window (above). There are icons to take you directly to the Reservation Board, to make a Reservation Request, etc., or you can click on the Book at Once start button (at the lower left corner of the dashboard) to find a more complete menu of available tasks.

The simplest way to create a booking is to click the Reservation Request icon from the dashboard. The process is a bit different than other systems, as you first select dates for the booking, then search for availability. The results show room types available, rather than rooms.

We should note that the setup, which is done via a wizard, prompts you to create room types (such as Standard Room, Suite, etc.), then to create individual rooms, assigning them to room types. If you want to create separate rates for each room, you simply create each room as a room type, then each type would have only one room. This would then allow availability to show the specific rooms available.

The consequence of using rate types rather than room types is particularly significant in Book at Once. If generic rate types are used, when a reservation is created, the room is selected by the system – the user selects the rate type, and any available room in that rate type is selected by Book at Once. Again, if you want to be able to select rooms individually, we would suggest creating a rate type for each room.

Next you select the available rate type and click “Book”. While it isn’t entirely clear on first glance, if you enter a name, city, or Customer ID, Book at Once will search for an existing guest to apply to the booking. If you are creating a new guest record, click the “Continue with New Customer” button.

A new window pops up (left), asking for the name and a few bits of information about the guest, then “OK” closes that window and opens a window (below right) where the rest of the guest information can be entered. We found the information to include items not commonly used in American B&B’s, such as passport information, and we thought it was not intuitive to have the contact info (phone numbers, email, etc.) on a separate tab from the name and address fields. When the required and optional information has been added, clicking on OK returns you to the screen where the rate type was selected, and the buttons say “Book” or “Cancel”. Since we weren’t sure whether the booking was complete at this point, we clicked Book, which put us back to the dates screen, then the rate types, guest information, etc. The result was a double booking.

Once the user becomes familiar with the sequence of entering information, this will probably not be a problem. Yet it seems like an unnecessary point of confusion for the new user, or a user who is interrupted while completing the reservation.

Book At Once Reservation Board

Reservations can be most easily edited by double-clicking on the reservation from the Reservation Board. This brings up the same screens as during the creation of a new reservation, where the information can be changed. If the optional Reservation Board Deluxe module is purchased, changes to the date of a booking can be made by dragging the reservation to a new date. Similarly, rooms may be changed in the same way.
Rate Capabilities

Booking systems should allow for different rates for each room, seasonal rates, specials or discounts, packages, additional items to add to a reservation, and have a way of handling bookings for multiple rooms, such as a group booking. If larger properties are also to use the booking system, the group booking capability becomes even more significant, and there should also be the ability to create rates by room type.

As has already been discussed, Book at Once is based on rate types or room types, rather than on individual rooms with their own rates. Setting up each room as a room type and rate type may be a bit more cumbersome at the setup time, but it will pay off with the desired flexibility for those who want individual room rates and availability.

Guest Communications

Modern booking systems allow for a number of guest communications to be sent from within the system – usually as emails. The most common are confirmation emails, cancellation confirmations, reminder and follow-up emails, invoices, and marketing emails. We feel that all these items, with the possible exception of marketing emails (due to the common use of stand-alone email marketing programs, such as Constant Contact and others), are sufficiently important that they should be included in the booking system.

Book at Once does not include all these types of guest communications, but they do provide a template editor for confirmation emails and for invoices. To their credit, Book at Once includes these in the cost of the product.

Because of its international flavor, Book at Once also provides these documents in various languages, and you can create your own custom templates, as well. While there is a Reservation Confirmation button at the bottom of the screen for editing a reservation, when you click on it, it brings up a screen allowing you to select a template, and a delivery method (email, PDF or OpenOffice document – at least on our computer). Presumably you could define templates for other purposes, such as reminder or follow-up emails, cancellation emails, etc., and they could be sent merely by selecting the corresponding template.

Reports

To evaluate performance, properly report taxes, and track marketing results, reports are a key source of information for the innkeeper. Different booking systems provide for different numbers and types of reports. Of course, if the system doesn’t capture the information in the first instance, it will never be able to report on it. At a minimum, a booking system should be able to generate reports of reservations for the coming month/day/week/year, revenue for specified periods of time, occupancy (total and by room) for specific periods of time, and revenue by date (and by room). Many innkeepers also require reports of gift certificates sold or redeemed, housekeeping issues, and additional financial reports, such as taxes collected.

Book at Once offers reports based on Nationality, Revenue, Cash on Hand, Invoices, Payments and the ability to export a Customer List. The Customer List is exported as a comma separated file, suitable to be imported to a spreadsheet, with the ability to filter the search so that only specified customers are included. The other reports are created as PDF files.

Book At Once Financial Report

When we exported PDF reports we experienced mixed results. In the Revenue report (right) we saw the title of “Forecast”, with no data for Sales Tax. In the Invoices report, individual entries were for “External Tax” but there was no relation of the taxes to the invoices.

This brings up another concern about the way taxes are handled in Book at Once. Although the setup allows you to create your own taxes, which can be independent or cumulative, nowhere in the pricing, room definition or tax screens are you able to associate the tax with the product sold. The same applies for extras that may be sold as add-on items. In most American regions, there will at least be tax associated with the room, and perhaps another for additional items sold. In many cases there are additional layers of state, county and/or city taxes, which would be different for lodging than for other goods sold.

The object-oriented design of Book at Once makes it likely that it can be enhanced to provide very robust reporting, so, while the current reports are fairly superficial, we would hope that this will be an area slated for improvement.

Accounting

Most booking systems provide some way to use the revenue data in an accounting or bookkeeping system, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. In a few cases, the revenue data is directly linked to the bookkeeping product, but most booking systems export the data to a file, which can be imported into the bookkeeping software.

We were not able to locate any means of exporting financial data for import into an accounting program. It may be possible to devise a search filter on the customer list export, so that the correct data is exported there. If so, with some additional data manipulation it may be possible to import that information into an accounting program. Data can be imported (with the correct modules installed) for use in a spreadsheet.

Online Booking

Modern web-based booking systems generally provide their own online booking interface, and rarely interact with other online booking systems (such as Webervations or Availability Online). By contrast, most stand-alone guest management systems will interact with third-party online booking systems, even if they provide their own online booking module as an option. A significant drawback to not interacting with other systems is that the property is precluded from taking advantage of group booking and availability opportunities, unless they pay an additional fee for a second system.

For example, BBOnline.com shows availability (using Webervations) for all properties in a locality who use Webervations. If a property uses another system, their availability will not appear on BBOnline.com unless they purchase a subscription to Webervations, and keep it up-to-date, as well as their own booking system.

Book At Once Online Booking Widget

Like most web-based booking systems, Book at Once has its own online booking widget (in fact, when we first tested it, it had three varieties of widgets – as of this writing we were not able to verify whether or not this was still the case), that can be embedded in the property’s web pages. From the administrative pages, the system provides code that can be cut and pasted into a web page, creating a booking request widget.

We walked through the Booking Widget to get a feel for the process. Like many, the widget itself asks the date and number of nights, then pops up a new screen where additional information is requested to complete the booking.

The new screen provides a list of available room types and rates, and the user clicks the “Book” button next to the one they want. This must be confirmed twice, then personal contact information is to be supplied. Finally credit card information is requested. In the set up process, this can be made mandatory.

While a few systems allow for the submission from the web to create a request for a booking, allowing the innkeeper to decide whether they want to accept the request, most create a confirmed booking. Book at Once follows the majority, in creating a confirmed reservation.

Book at Once also offers a separate Online Booking Wizard, which can be incorporated into a web site, or even into a Facebook page. The charge for this wizard is by transaction, at 0.95 Euros per transaction.

Additional Features

Book At Once iPhone app

Book At Once is also keenly aware of the power of social media and mobile applications. Consequently, they not only have an active Facebook page and Twitter account, but they also provide a Facebook app that allows you to take reservations from your Facebook page. They also have an iPhone app that allows you to manage your bookings, and indeed your Book At Once system, from the palm of your hand. The iPhone app is available via the iTunes store for US $9.99.

Pricing

Somewhat unusual for online booking systems, Book at Once offers a free basic system. Using only the free components would leave you with online availability, but only email requests for reservations can be accepted. There are also limits on how the program works, limits on some of the pricing capabilities, invoicing capabilities, and reporting capabilities. Each of these (and a few others) can be added as individual modules, each priced on a per month, per room, basis.

Your preferences will dictate the package you would purchase. Book at Once says their Plus package is the most popular, while we feel most properties would want either the Plus or the Premium package. If a seven room B&B was to purchase the Plus package, the price would be 2.50 Euros per room per month (about $23.07 per month or $277 per year, at current exchange rates). The Premium package would be 3.50 Euros per room per month (about $32.30 per month or $388 per year).

Final Thoughts

While using Book at Once we were continuously conscious of a feeling that this should be easier to use than it seemed. We read through much of the help documentation (the Book at Once folks have done a great job of translating the program and the documentation into English – while there are occasional locations where German can be glimpsed, for the most part the entire site appears to have been translated), but still found several things that were not explained. These include items discussed above, such as applying taxes to room rates and different tax rates to add-on items, setting up individual room rates, etc., and whether or not emails can be sent automatically, or whether they can only be sent manually.

The features and prices for Book at Once are not out of line with competing products. However, we have some concern about the way some aspects of the program are currently implemented. We would like to see a smoother flow of data entry in creating a new booking, and much more robust reporting. We also think that some capabilities, like sending emails beyond the simple confirmation email should be simpler to set up and implement. Some properties may also want to see the ability to export financial data for commonly used accounting programs.

There is no question that, when it comes to managing guest reservations and bookings, one size does not fit all. Most systems provide an evaluation copy of the software, or a free trial account. We strongly urge anyone considering purchasing a booking system to evaluate several different products before making a decision.

As we have previously mentioned, one of the most frequent questions on innkeeping forums and elsewhere is which property management (or guest management) software (“PMS”) is “best.” Like most things, this is a subjective decision. What is the “best” property management software depends on your circumstances, your preferences, and your priorities.  One size most definitely does not fit all.

If you search around the property management / guest management software world a bit, you’ll quickly see that it is difficult, if not impossible, to find software reviews. Because of Scott’s experience with this type of software (although on a much larger scale), and his ownership (with his wife, Ruth) of a small, seven room bed and breakfast in Freeport, Maine, we are adding software reviews to our information on About The Inn.

About the Reviews

When reviewing these products we have obtained a demo version, or in the case of web based software, a demo account, and used the product exactly as a new user would. When we review a product we have used for our own property, we are using it with our account and our configuration, so there may be minor differences from a new user’s configuration. We attempt to use the version of the software which is most current at the time of the review.

As we use the software, we evaluate it in regard to several categories: Rate Capabilities (types of rates and how they are supported), User Interface (ease and intuitiveness of use, availability of commonly required information), Guest Communications (emails, statements or folios), Reports (financial, occupancy, tax, gift certificates, etc.), Accounting (export to accounting software), and Online Booking (appearance, update frequency, features, etc.).

Each of these areas include objective aspects (those that are simply present or absent, and subjective features (those more important to some properties and owners than to others). The view of one reviewer (or user) of either the objective or subjective aspects may be quite different, depending on the type of property, preferences of the user, and priorities of the user. Consequently, before purchasing the software you should try it for yourself, rather than relying solely on a review, even our reviews.

The Contenders

In this installment, we’ll consider three products. Two are long-established players in the online booking and property management space, and the third is a relatively recent addition.

SuperInn, from Sark Technologies, is a well-established player in the online booking and web-based property management space.  Webervations, a sister company of BedAndBreakfast.com, is primarily an online booking product, intended to be used with a separate property management system, but a number of smaller properties also use it as a PMS. KeepMeBooked, the newest of the three, comes to the table with a very slick and usable product.

Rate Capabilities

All three of these products allow for individual room pricing. None can really be said to allow for a setup of room types (such as setting a room type of “King Room” and a price structure, then assigning several rooms to the King Room type, so they are all priced the same). All three allow for seasonal rates, and have mechanisms for discounts, packaging, specials, and add-on items. By far the easiest to use is KeepMeBooked, which allows for this setup with a few clicks in a very intuitive screen. However Webervations is the most powerful of the three in handling packaging, allowing not only upsale items (add-on sales), but packages that combine room reservations with additional items, for a package rate.

User Interface

This area looks at the ease of setting up information for the rooms, the property, policies, etc., as well as the ease of creating bookings. In this area KeepMeBooked edges out SuperInn by a slim margin, both because of its more intuitive screens, and the ease of entering reservations and other data, compared with SuperInn very dated technology and cumbersome entry process. Webervations lags far behind in this area, due to being nearly as out of date and as cumbersome to use as SuperInn, but with even less usable calendar view and even weaker guest data. In fairness, Webervations’ shortcomings are due primarily to it being intended to be used with a separate PMS.

Guest Communications

All three can send confirmation emails and most similar communications. Webervations does not create a guest folio (or statement), and while SuperInn does allow printing of a guest folio, it is difficult to navigate to that point. Of the three, only KeepMeBooked does not currently support cancellation emails. KeepMeBooked and SuperInn allow for other emails, with SuperInn supplying the most guest communications, some of which begin to compete with email marketing programs. While some systems charge extra for this capability, to their credit, SuperInn includes them in the cost of the product.

Reports

Although reporting is very important to evaluate the performance of a property, reporting is commonly the weakest part of web-based PMS systems. SuperInn provides far more in the way of reporting than the other two products. In conversations with KeepMeBooked, there are plans to expand the reporting capabilities in future releases. Webervations is by far the weakest, though the few reports it does supply are quite useful.

Accounting

In this area we consider the ability of the system to send its financial data to an accounting program, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. Some systems have a live interface, while more commonly the data is exported to a file, which can later be imported by the accounting software. As with other areas, how important this feature is to you will determine your attitude about the capabilities of the different products.

None of these systems has a “live” push of accounting data to an accounting package. None really exports the financial data in a way that can be imported by an accounting program. SuperInn requires a copy/paste of the data to create a file, and presumably it can be manipulated into an acceptable format by the user. KeepMeBooked can export financial data into a spreadsheet, which is a slight improvement over SuperInn, but it does not appear that this will be able to be imported into an accounting program without re-formatting the data. Webervations offers no such report.

Online Booking

Since all three of these programs are web-based, you would expect them all to be strong in online booking. SuperInn and Webervations both approach online booking similarly, while KeepMeBooked has a different approach. Both SuperInn and Webervations reflect their older technologies by sending the prospective guest to their website (leaving the property website) to get availability information and complete the booking. SuperInn does a better job of masking the transition by making its pages mimic the look of the property website. A web developer can do the same with Webervations, but it is a bit more difficult.

KeepMeBooked takes a different approach. It uses a small widget – a small booking tool, that is embedded in the property website, and gathers the information from the guest to complete the booking, all the while giving the appearance that the guest never leaves the property website. While the widget could stand some enhancement to allow for packages, etc., it is a very nice tool.

Other than these differences, all three handle online bookings satisfactorily, though neither SuperInn nor Webervations is particularly elegant.

Update: In the detailed reviews (pdf links below), we note that Webervations allows both confirmed reservations or, by changing the configuration, a request for a reservation. SuperInn does confirmed reservations, only. KeepMeBooked has pointed out that, when their product is configured not to require payment online, it also will act as a request for a reservation, or if configured to require online payments, a confirmed reservation is created.

Price

KeepMeBooked lowered its prices just as we were doing this review. For a seven room bed and breakfast, with online booking, the rate is $40 per month. It is less if online booking is not needed, but we feel that is such a major component that we don’t consider that alternative.

SuperInn provides hardly any information about itself on its website, and no pricing information. When we requested the demo, we inquired about pricing and were told the rate for a seven room bed and breakfast would be $60 per month.

Like KeepMeBooked, Webervations pricing is also based on ranges of numbers of rooms. For seven rooms it is $10.99 per month. Before Webervations was acquired by BedAndBreakfast.com, a newer version was being released. That version wasn’t released to all customers, so we have reviewed only the older version. The new version is priced at $29.99 per month for seven rooms.

Concluding Thoughts

If price were the only difference, Webervations would be the overwhelming favorite, as it costs only a fraction of the others. However, its features are by far the weakest of the group. If reporting were the most important consideration, SuperInn would be the favorite. However, it is the most expensive – even more expensive than similar products with larger feature sets, and its technology is dated. If a slick, user-friendly experience is the most important consideration, KeepMeBooked would be the winner. It’s price seems to be in line with similar products (though some offer more features at that price), but it is lacking in reporting and other areas.

As you can see, and as mentioned above, one size doesn’t fit all. Each product has its virtues and its shortcomings. If the shortcomings are not in an area that is important to you, perhaps you can overlook them. On the other hand, if they are important, you may want to consider something else.

In any case, most systems provide an evaluation copy of the software, or a free trial account. We strongly urge anyone considering purchasing a booking system to evaluate several different products before making a decision.

Read our full reviews of KeepMeBooked, SuperInn and Webervations (pdf files).

What is important to you in selecting online booking or guest management software? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Our B&B, Brewster House Bed & Breakfast, was recently in a position to re-evaluate its guest management software choice. You would think that the frequent evaluations (and upcoming reviews!) of various systems (we’ll call them guest management software, though some call them property management software) would make this an easy thing to do, but it never works out that way. You see, while we did a careful study of the available software before our initial purchase, every time we have to review that decision, there are new players, with new products, and the older players and products have changed, and their pricing has changed. So, while we felt we made the best choice for our property at the time, it is always worth the time to review the competition instead of blindly renewing with the same product.

1. Take the emotion out of the equation

From forum discussions and other contact we’ve had with innkeepers, it is clear that some guest management software companies give the impression of being a faceless corporate giant, while others give the impression of being the small, user-friendly company. Some make friends by giving things away, or being helpful in public forums. One may make you disinclined to buy from them, the other may make you want to help them out, but neither of these emotional reactions is a solid foundation for an important business decision.

2. Compare features that are the same

Almost all products provide a list of their features on their websites. However, there is no industry standard for naming the features, so be sure that you understand what the feature actually does. For example, if being able to export guest transactions to an accounting program (such as Quickbooks or Peachtree) is important to you, make sure you know what the company means when they say the accounting information can be exported. Many systems export a file that can be imported into the accounting software. At least one provides a real-time sync. Some, however, simply export a bunch of information to a file, and it is not necessarily in a format that can be imported into the accounting program.

3. Don’t compare features you don’t need

It is easy to get caught up in the feature “hype” of marketing messages. Think about the features carefully – are they features you will really use? If you won’t be using the guest management system for your accounting, then there is no advantage to buying a guest management system that includes its own accounting module.

4. One size doesn’t fit every property

It is a good idea to check with other innkeepers you know, to see what they use, how happy they are with the product, its features, support, customer service, etc. However, even properties that appear similar may have different requirements when it comes to their guest management software. Maybe you love to get reports from the system that allow you to “slice and dice” the data about your guests – where they come from, when they stay, how often they return, how much they spend – and your neighbor with a similar property just wants to know how many rooms they sold and how much income they had. The two of you may have very different requirements when it comes to the number and types of reports the software can provide.

5. Set your priorities

Make a list of the things you want the guest management software to be able to do. Do you want web-based software, so you don’t have to worry about backups, and can access it from anywhere? Do you want it installed on your computer so you have control over it? Should you be able to control it using your smartphone? Do you need it to send confirmation, reminder and follow-up emails to your guests? What kind of reports should you be able to get from the system? Should it smoothly interact with an accounting program? Should it provide online booking, or will you use another system for online booking?

6. Objectify your analysis

Prioritize your desired features – put them in order of importance, or assign numeric values to them, so you can decide what is most important, and what is less important. Make sure you don’t minimize a feature that may not be of great importance, but you don’t feel you can do without. In a prior article we provided a sample spreadsheet that can be used as an example of this process.

7. Try before you buy

Almost every guest management we’ve looked at (except the very high end systems that are more-or-less custom built) will allow some type of demo access. Either a limited function (or limited time) download, or a limited time online account. Take advantage of it! Get a demo, and enter a few reservations. Make changes. Cancel a reservation. Send yourself the included emails to see what the guest sees. If you can use the online booking capability with the demo, give it a test drive, too. Don’t wait to be surprised after you’ve spent your money!

Bonus tip #1

Undoubtedly, while comparing features, you’ll also be comparing prices. When you do so, be certain you’re comparing all the costs that go into the total price. If there is a purchase price and a service agreement, add them together to come up with the annual cost (or the first year cost and later years cost). If there are additional modules you have to buy separately, make sure you include them in figuring your total annual cost.

A hidden cost that isn’t always evident is the cost of not having something. For example, some online directories show availability for properties using a particular online booking system. If your new property management system has its own online booking, will you want to have a second online booking system so your availability will show up on these other sites? Other directories charge for a link to your availability page if you don’t use their online booking system. Don’t forget that cost if you’ll be using something else.

Bonus tip #2

Don’t be afraid to ask. Even the faceless corporate giants have people working for them. They can provide a wealth of information about capabilities and rates. If you have questions before you buy, or you want to see what specials they may be able to offer you, contact them and ask. Your prospective guests haven’t been shy about asking for breaks on the rates, and neither should you be. You may not be successful in getting a break, but then again, you never know.

Bearing in mind that one size definitely doesn’t fit all, our review of competing products was fruitful. We found some new products that look interesting, but that we rejected either because of lack of features or high price. We also contacted the current provider and were able to work out a satisfactory arrangement for a renewal.

This week we attended the PAII Innkeeping Conference in Austin, Texas. Our first presentation was “How to Select Guest Management Software” on Tuesday afternoon (changed from its original time on Wednesday afternoon). Since it seemed that many were not aware of the schedule change, we wanted to make the slides available for viewing here.

During the presentation we also gave access to a Google Documents spreadsheet to help in comparing different Property Management Systems, and evaluating them according to your own priorities. The slide presentation explains how to use the spreadsheet, and we’ll describe it again, below the presentation, but if you only need the link to the spreadsheet to download it for your own use, you will find the Guest Management Software Comparison spreadsheet here.

Using the Spreadsheet

The first two columns breaks the features we will consider into several categories (User Interface, Online Bookings, Reports, etc.), and identifies the features within each category. The column titled “Importance” is a numeric value you define, setting a value from 1-10 (10 being highest) of the importance of the feature to YOU. The values in the spreadsheet are samples, only. Your values may differ. Also, you can add more features (or delete irrelevant features) by adding rows between two other rows (or deleting a row). However, if you make such changes, you may need to update the formulas which automatically calculate totals in various sections.

1. Read through all the features and edit the values in the Importance column to give relative importance of each feature to you.
2. Download a demo copy of the software you are considering (or sign up for an online evaluation of a web-based system), and try it out, paying specific attention to the features listed in your spreadsheet.
3. In the column under the product you are evaluating (next to the Importance column), enter a value from 0-10 representing your impression of the quality of the product’s implementation of that feature. Repeat for each feature.
4. If you are comparing more than one system, repeat steps 2 and 3 for each product.

In the top row of each feature category, there will be an automatically-calculated total for the product in that area. In the top row of the Score column will be a total for the entire product, across all feature areas.

The result will be a number you can use to compare one product against another (higher scores are better), using your own definitions of the importance of specific features. However, do not allow the appearance of objectivity in the numbers blind you to common sense. If your impression is that one product is better than another in a specific area, but the numbers do not bear this out, re-check your Importance entries, and your evaluation entries, as changes to either or both will greatly affect the calculation.

This spreadsheet is a tool, which we hope you find useful. However, it is no substitute for common sense and testing the systems for yourself.

If you try the spreadsheet, please let us know in the comments any feedback you have.

In our previous posts on this topic we discussed a basic approach to selecting guest management software and online booking software, and considerations affecting the choice of web-based systems versus locally installed systems. As promised, we’ll discuss some of the features you may want to consider, and ways of evaluating them.

Deciding what features you need

We’ll list a variety of features, grouped by category, but you should make your own list. Some of the features we think are important may not be important to your property, or you may have others that are very important, but that we haven’t considered. Just as properties differ, so do the features they want to see in the Property Management System.

If you click on the image of a spreadsheet at right, you’ll find a spreadsheet (in Google Documents) that you may view or download, with sample comparisons of a variety of features to consider. You’ll want to open a copy of the spreadsheet, either in your browser, or download it and open a local copy, so you can follow along (and make any changes you need).

We’ve separated the features into several categories, in an effort to reduce the effort at comparison. The categories we’ve selected are Rate Capabilities (types of rates, and rate attributes that you can set),  User Interface considerations, Guest Communications (confirmations, reminders, follow-up, etc.), Reports (pre-designed reports, custom reports, occupancy, financial, etc.), Accounting (export of accounting data, interface with accounting software), and Online Booking (whether incorporated into the Property Management System, or independent, whether it can be customized to fit with the property web site, update frequency, and items that can be displayed.

Within each category there are several features listed, most of which are commonly found in different Property Management Software. If there are any you feel are important, but are not listed in the spreadsheet, just add them in your own copy of the spreadsheet. The easiest way to do that will be to copy a row, then paste the copy below the original and make changes to the new row to represent the additional feature. You may need to check the cells where the totals are created, to be sure that they are including all the cells that are to be added.

Setting Priorities

The column called “Importance”  in the Google Docs version of the spreadsheet is a number between 0 and 10, where 0 would indicate that the feature is not needed at all, and 10 would be the highest importance.

Your first step should be to read down the list of features and adjust the numbers in the Importance column that are in the same row as the feature to a number representing that feature’s importance to your property and staff. NOTE: Do not change the numbers in the Importance column that are in the same row as the category name (for example, the Rate Capabilities category row has an entry in the Importance column – 460 in the default). That number is the total of the other entries in that category. As you make changes to the individual feature Importance values, the totals will change.

Comparing Apples to Apples

The spreadsheet has two sample (fictional, of course) PMS systems: Bubba’s Booking and Wanda’s Web Service. For each Property Management System you want to compare, you’ll add two columns, just like the samples. The left column is for the rating you will give that PMS for each feature, and the right column automatically multiplies that rating by the Importance factor to compute a score. The scores are added together for each category and the total score at the top is updated.

Repeat this for each PMS. That means, if you will be testing a lot of software, you’ll be tracking a lot of information!

Evaluating the Results

If all the copying and pasting has been successful, the spreadsheet will total everything up for you. The great temptation is to look at the numbers and let them make the decisions for you. However, the numbers are only as good as the values that you enter for Importance and for the scores. In other words, if you haven’t been realistic in setting Importance values, or if you have been biased in your scoring, the numbers will reflect these things, and you’ll get the results you would expect.

Consequently, it is up to you to set the Importance values and to score the features accurately. That way you’ll get the most realistic numerical totals, and can compare them.

As a practical matter, this tool, like any other, is only as good as the data put into it. If there are big differences between products, this will reveal them. If the differences are not so significant, however, judgment calls about the scoring and Importance factors will skew the results, so use them with a grain of salt!

In our previous article on selecting guest management software we talked about selecting online booking software, and how that choice can help to resolve questions about the property management software. This installment will talk more about the considerations in selecting the property management system, itself.

Since it is also possible that your consideration of online booking solutions has not narrowed the field for property managment software (perhaps because you are considering systems that “play nicely” with several online booking platforms), we will consider property management software regardless of the type of online booking software it supports. If your preferences have eliminated one or more of the options, you’ll be able to just skip along to the next section.

Online systems vs. installed systems

Speaking very broadly, property management systems for smaller properties fall into two camps: those installed on your computer, and those that exist on an internet server and are accessed via a web browser (usually Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or others).

It can be challenging to try to directly compare an online system with one installed on your PC, as there are some feature unique to one type, which the other doesn’t match well. On the other hand, there are features that should be available on either type.

Consequently, the first question to resolve is whether there is a reason to greatly prefer one type (online or installed) over the other. Stated in the negative, is there a valid reason to refuse to use one or the other?

The pros and cons are almost exactly opposite for the two types of systems. The benefits of the online systems are:

(a) they can be accessed from any location where you have an internet connection

(b) security of the data, and responsibility to backup the data, rests with the provider (not with the property owner)

(c) there is almost always a direct connection between the property management system and the online booking system, and

(d) there is rarely an up-front cost (sometimes there is a setup fee, but it is usually much less than the purchase fee of the installed software), but there are almost always significant monthly fees.

The disadvantages are:

(1) if you do not have an internet connection (for any reason at all), you can not view the bookings or availability information

(2) if the provider isn’t able to secure the system, or its backups fail, your data is lost (or worse, your guests’ data may be in the hands of a hacker), and

(3) you do not usually have a choice of online booking/availability systems.

For installed systems, the pros and cons are a mirror image of the online system. The benefits of the installed system are:

(a) you can view the bookings and availability even if your internet connection is unavailable (as long as your computer has power)

(b) you provide the security and backups for your guest data (for some innkeepers this is an advantage, while for others this would be a disadvantage), and

(c) you usually have a choice of online booking systems which will coordinate with your property management software, and

(d) there is often an up-front cost, and ongoing charges for support, but ordinarily no monthly fees (though some companies do have creative pricing strategies that bundle “free” software with monthly fees for additional products)

The disadvantages of the online system are:

(1) they can be difficult (or impossible) to access when you are away from your property (we’ll have more on how to make this work in another post)

(2) you must secure and backup the guest data, even if you aren’t comfortable with that responsibility, and

(3) many property management systems do not “play nicely” with all online booking systems.

In the past, most technical people, being comfortable with their own security and backup roles, would prefer to have an installed system. However, with the ability to access internet systems via mobile devices, including smart phones, an internet-based system becomes much more attractive. The biggest negative for those systems is the incompatibility with other online booking and/or availability systems.

This move to online systems is consistent with the push by Google, Microsoft, and others to what is known as “cloud computing” (storing documents and other data on remote servers, to make them accessible to other people and from remote locations). Like anything else, such technologies should not be blindly adopted because of their popularity, but only if they make sense for your business, considering security, convenience, guest privacy, legal restrictions, practical usage, and the way you conduct your business.

At least one installed system (RezOvation GT) performs remote backups of reservation data to its own remote server from your computer. They also seek to provide the best of both the installed and online systems, with a web-enabled version, as well as other means of providing remote access to your reservation system. This may be seen as an effort by an installed system vendor to avoid losing business to its online competition, or, as the company may say it, to offer properties more flexibility in managing reservations.

Unless you have a particular bias for — or against — either installed or online systems, you should consider the pros and cons of each, but withhold your decision until you consider the specific features (and costs) associated with particular products.

We’ll look at features and comparisons in the next installment.

I have a bit more technology background than many B&B owners. Ruth and I started a small ISP (waaaaay back in 1996, when the internet was almost all dialup), and took it national. I did all the IT, system administration, and all that geeky stuff. Later I worked for a giant software company as a hands-on technical consultant and later taught customers how to customize and use the software.

As a result of this background, I’m not overly impressed when I read articles about the important but not-very-interesting computer tasks that most people don’t do, but should, and that I do routinely. I’m talking about keeping up-to-date with your antivirus software, and backing up your systems.

Recently I have had reason to re-examine how I do both of those things, and the point was driven home even more directly by my friend, Heather Turner, in her blog (we’ve actually never met, but social media is a wonderful thing – follow Heather on Twitter as @forfeng), where she discusses both issues. Despite my efforts, I’ve recently had both bad experiences occur.

The Setup

As a tech person, I use Linux (Kubuntu, actually, which is an easy to install and manage operating system) on my laptop, but must use Windows on my desktop PC for the Property Management Software we use at the B&B. I have always kept the Windows antivirus software up-to-date, and it does automatic scans. Both the Windows PC and my Linux machines automatically back themselves up daily to a large hard drive on another Linux PC.

If your eyes glazed over just now, let’s try that once more: Better?



The Anti-Virus Tale

Having multiple computers, I sometimes browse the web on any machine that is handy. I was browsing using the Windows PC (using Firefox, with the latest security toolbar from the antivirus company), when I came upon a site selling area rugs (we needed one for the B&B). Suddenly windows would pop-up saying I had a virus and asking me to click to scan (this was NOT from my antivirus software, but was a scam to get the user to click to install a virus).

It turned out that it was a very new virus, implanted by browsing, and the daily updates from the antivirus software hadn’t caught up with it yet.

I closed the browser and ran an antivirus scan – found something and corrected it. Opened up the browser and the same thing happened, but on every page I went to. I uninstalled Firefox, rebooted, and re-installed Firefox. Same problem. This was a really pesky virus!

After doing some research online (with my other computer!), I found some people who had dealt with this. I tried all the solutions I could find, including removing certain values from the Windows registry. No matter what I did, the popups were still there.

Finally, and regretfully, I restored the entire Windows operating system, formatting the hard drive. Thank goodness for my backups!

Of course that meant upgrading Windows to the latest versions and security patches, then re-installing my software (I made a list first!). The only thing that didn’t install correctly from my backups was the database for our Property Management Software, but the vendor helped us get that restored, and we only lost a tiny bit of data. I still have a couple of things that aren’t quite right, but basically it was all working properly within a couple of days.

The Backup Tale

Things went along well for a few months, all the machines humming along, and backups working as they should. Then yesterday I awoke to find that my backup wouldn’t start. It turned out the PC that holds the backups wasn’t connected to the network. It appeared to have rebooted during a power blip (I should note that in Maine we have these (usually brief) power failures with great frequency – a reason to have a Power Backup (I have one, but it had burned out, and the replacement hasn’t arrived yet!).

No matter what I did, using both Linux and Windows tools to recover the hard drive with the backup, nothing worked. The good news was that the machines that are backed up to that one were undamaged. The bad: I had also used the backup PC to store some files so that other PC’s could access them – these were gone, too, and without a backup!

The Moral of the Stories

As Heather says in her blog:

I recommend a three pronged approach as well. Back up online, through a good site like Mozy, back up to a large external hard drive and also back up to thumb drives. I don’t recommend backing up to CD, the jury is still out on whether information degrades on CDs after a few years, but I would rather not take a chance (plus they scratch).

My backups saved the day for the virus problem. The backups have saved the day for other computers whose disks failed, or where data was inadvertantly deleted. However, the backup was not protected by a backup. That didn’t matter for the data being backed up there, as I still had the originals. Where it did matter was for the files that I was storing on the backup server – they were not backed up. If I had backed them up to a thumb drive or online (or both, to be safe in case of a problem locally), I would still have my files. As it is, I have no choice but to try to re-create what I can, and make do without those files.

So, am I disappointed by losing the data? You betcha! But it also provides a good lesson, and a good incentive, to start backing up the data more effectively, and an opportunity to share this lesson so maybe others can avoid having this problem!

Do you have a story where a backup or antivirus saved your bacon? Or would have? Please post it in the comments!