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Do a Google search, and you will find hundreds of 3rd-party resellers offering to sell your services online. They all have the same problems with data synchronization. Most early 3rd party resellers websites were unable to provide an instant booking. Interested customers would find your property online, but then be unable to book a room other than filling out a form and waiting for an email for confirmation - the result being that you could potentially lose that customer. Recent 3rd-party resellers have improved their services by providing instant booking confirmation and a payment gateway online (i.e customer can book and pay for their room immediately). In order to make this possible, the property operators have to pre-allocate rooms for sale on the 3rd-party reseller website. However this method does have a few disadvantages: Firstly, the same room cannot be pre-allocated on multiple 3rd-party reseller websites (or the room could be sold twice), so the property operator could try to pre-allocate rooms at each 3rd-party reseller website such that the number of allocated rooms overlap each other (to increase availability), but during a busy day, it could be a nightmare to keep track of these rooms on all reseller websites. Secondly, if the rooms are thinly distributed by spreading out the room inventory across multiple sites (i.e. one room per site), this would reduce the market scope i.e. voiding group bookings (customers are unable to purchase more than just a few allocated rooms). Finally, it limits the operator from selling the room locally i.e. selling room to someone who walks-in from the street, without the operator quickly logging in and removing said room off the reseller site. Most operators using these 3rd-party resellers will understand the hassle when dealing with these problems i.e. including a penalty or having to find a room on the same par or better star-rating and often at a much more expensive price than the actual sold room.
Firstly the human factor, there is a significant lack of skilled operators available who are computer-literate to operate a HMS. Secondly, except for the large 4/5 star hotel chains who have direct access to airline national distribution systems (GDSs like Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, Worldspan), it is not financially affordable for small operators to join the membership, neither to own one nor able to employ IT staff to specifically maintain and support the PMS, and the list goes on. Your last option would be to join the dozen online hotel reservation sites and have more or less the same problem with data synchronization as explained above. Designed and built by experienced Hospitality professionals and IT experts, HotelDirector is a fully integrated software suite of End-to-End online property management solution for small & medium Hotels/Motels and Resorts. The suite consists of multiple modules that include front-office reservation, back-office accounting, payroll, customer contact, inventory control, daily cleaning schedule, and lots more. You can have access to all modules at once and try them all or they can be independently activated and restricted with built-in access control system. The product offers features and benefits that only can be found in web based technology like instant deployment, real-time transaction, centralised data, lower maintenance and support. From simple and intuitive GUI front-office reservation to transparent background automated data synchronization between channel managements and 3rd party reseller, HotelDirector helps operator to efficiently manage the daily operation of business effortlessly and in-timely manner. All modules are fully integrated along with various reports and charts that provide a quick glance of your business operational health in a few simple mouse clicks. It doesn't stop there: HotelDirector offers a complete integrated turn-key PMS solution with:
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These days, the landscape of Hotel Management Systems (HMS) has changed. They are no longer stand-alone products; not part of an exclusive hotel/motel chain that is restricted to its own market segment. They are about collaboration between service providers such as property operators, and service deliverers such as 3rd-party resellers. Operations must be meshed in order to successfully market the products. Modern Information Technology could provide a solution to solve this problem. However, there are still a few complications.