Leaving Hostaway because of their booking fee?

Ability to book directly from general availability search

Status: Requested 7 Votes
Shelley S
Aug 7, 2024 5:24 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 28 posts

Is there any way possible to let guest book directly from the results when they do a general availability search? See my screenshot below = when we do just a general date search it responds with all the properties and their rate ranges that are available....BUT there is no booking option from that. A guest still has to go into EACH individual property page to look at it, then RE-REQUEST again if they want to book that unit.
That's very laborious and super old-school. I would think your system would be more advanced than that. Pretty much every hotel and small property website I go to, when you put in your dates/guests/etc and it returns the list of available rooms.....you can actually SELECT AND BOOK directly from that page the one you want. NOT have to be directed to that room page, where you then AGAIN have to fill out everything and go through the process to book it. This is an extra step, if people are just searching availability across the whole property, that might eliminate them booking. ???

Robert P
Aug 23, 2024 11:26 AM
Joined Aug, 2023 46 posts

Absolutely this is highly needed in OwnerRez.

But in addition to the search function, it should be part of the Quoting system in general. ie When a guest makes an inquiry, all available properties should have a quote created for them, and the host has the option which of those quotes to include in an email response. In addition, it should be EASY to duplicate quotes, make minor adjustments to them, and include them as well.

This is even more important as sites now begin to include a 'I'm Flexible' function in their inquiry, where guests can ask for a range of possible dates. Any good quoting system will allow the host to offer alternative options to the guest, to eliminate gaps in the booking calendar, suggest other properties, and provide good, helpful service.

Guests don't always know what they want, and often are looking for options. A good quoting system makes it easy to provide them with choices, and helps to sell our product by providing different options and price points, such as the regular rate, the premium package for the same dates, the honeymoon package, etc.

Quoting on OwnerRez (which is a good management system) really needs to get out of the stone age. (Sorry, but a fair comment.)

Shelley S
Aug 23, 2024 12:47 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 28 posts

100% agree Robert. I simply don't understand why this isn't a working function in OR.

Robert P
Aug 26, 2024 1:26 PM
Joined Aug, 2023 46 posts

100% agree Robert. I simply don't understand why this isn't a working function in OR.

I think it's because the powers that be are too focused on integrations and not on making simply good software that functions independently of the tune listing sites force them to play.

I've literally had OwnerRez support staff laugh at the idea that guests don't know what they want and that we should easily be able to provide them with options. Then they went on to tell me that the 'OwnerRez' process (which they genuinely believed was better) was to make the guest go backwards through the sale cycle and submit additional requests for various alternatives that they may want.

How can they do that when they don't know what the alternatives are, and we've done nothing to inform them of them?

Tarki
Sep 4, 2024 1:12 PM
Joined May, 2020 73 posts

I'd like to add something else related to this discussion. OR support tells me in a very casual way that "When it comes to the pricing shown on the Availability/Search widget, it will not factor in any discounts you provide."

 

This is such a fundamental and very important thing. Discounts are a very natural and important part of pricing strategy and if you don't show accurate prices to potential customers they'll be confused, they'll question our credibility and not book with us. 

 

Look at the following examples, take the first apartment for example. Per night price is shown as 332 Euros and the total for two nights is shown as 508 Euros! How is this acceptable?